Happiness and social determinants across age cohorts in Taiwan.

The purpose of this study was to examine happiness and social determinants across age cohorts in Taiwan. The data were obtained from the 2011 Taiwan Social Change Survey (aged 18 +, n = 2,199). The social determinants of happiness included socioeconomic status and social connection. Happiness was not different across the age groups. Receiving less family support, less formal support, more social trust and more control over life were significant for the younger group. Being married and having more social participation were significant for the middle-aged. Receiving less family support and having a higher economic status were significant for the older group.

Remembered parenting styles and adjustment in middle and late adulthood.

BACKGROUND: Authoritative parenting is the parenting style often associated with positive outcomes for children and adolescents. This study considers whether remembered parenting styles in childhood predict multiple dimensions of functioning in adulthood. METHODS: We used the 1995 National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States data set (N = 2,232) to assess the association between parenting behaviors remembered from childhood-classified as authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent, and uninvolved-and psychological well-being, depressive symptoms, and substance abuse, in a subsample of mid- and later-life adults. Differences in outcomes by sex, race, and childhood socioeconomic status were also examined across parenting styles. RESULTS: Adults who remembered authoritative compared with authoritarian and uninvolved parents reported greater psychological well-being and fewer depressive symptoms, and those with uninvolved parents noted greater substance abuse. No outcome differences were found between remembered authoritative and indulgent parenting styles. A few sex and race interactions were identified: Authoritative parenting (compared with uninvolved) was more strongly associated with men's psychological well-being than women's, and authoritative parenting (compared with authoritarian) predicted reduced depressive symptoms for Whites more than non-Whites. CONCLUSIONS: There is some support that remembered parenting styles continue to be related to functioning across the lifespan. There is also evidence of resiliency, flexibility, and malleability in human development.

Women in the middle: generational position and grandmothers' adjustment to raising grandchildren.

This study compared the adjustment of two groups of grandmothers who were providing primary care for grandchildren in split-generation households: 25 grandmothers in the oldest generation of their families (G1), and 22 grandmothers who had living parents or in-laws (G2). It was hypothesized that because of potential demands on them as middle-generation women, G2 grandmothers would report greater burden and depression in their caregiving roles than G1 grandmothers. After controlling for numerous factors that are associated with generational position, the hypothesis was confirmed. In addition to being in the middle generation, having grandchildren with problems predicted elevated depression and burden. Grandmothers who were educated beyond high school also reported greater role burden.

Is it prudent to administer all items for each Child Behavior Checklist cross-informant syndrome? Evaluating the psychometric properties of the Youth Self-Report dimensions with confirmatory factor analysis and item response theory.

Through surveying of children in 10 nations with parent, teacher, and Youth Self-Report (YSR) forms of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), cross-informant syndromes (CISs) were derived and cross-validated by sample-dependent methodology. Generalizing CBCL syndromes and norms to nations excluded from its normative sample is problematic. This study used confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) to test factor model fit for CISs on the YSR responses of 625 Jamaican children ages 11 to 18 years. Item response theory (IRT), a sample-independent methodology, was used to estimate the psychometric properties of individual items on each dimension. CFAs indicated poor to moderate model-to-data fit. Across all syndromes, IRT analyses revealed that more than 3/4 of the cross-informant items yielded little information. Eliminating such items could be cost effective in terms of administration time yet improve the measures discrimination across syndrome severity levels.