Shared parenting agreements after marital separation: the roles of empathy and narcissism.

The identification of psychological and interpersonal factors that predict cooperation and agreement between ex-spouses is important to understanding, and eventually promoting, healthy postdivorce adjustment of parents and their children. By drawing on object relations theory, the authors identified differences between 16 ex-couples who were able to negotiate and maintain a cooperative parenting plan after separation ("agreed ex-couples") and 16 ex-couples who disagree about parenting arrangements ("disagreed ex-couples") but were similar in age, educational background, age of their children, and time since separation. As expected, disagreed ex-couples were more narcissistic, more interpersonally vulnerable, less able to take another's perspective, less concerned about the feelings and needs of others, more self-oriented, and less child-oriented and more self-important in their parenting attitudes than agreed ex-couples. Our findings also supported a process mediational model of "child-centeredness" that attempts to elucidate the pathways through which these variables are interrelated. This model suggests that ex-couples' empathy is associated directly with child-oriented but not self-important parenting attitudes, whereas self-orientation is associated directly with self-important but not child-oriented attitudes. A self-servicing orientation on the part of ex-couples does, however, relate to child-oriented parenting attitudes indirectly through self-important parenting attitudes.

The relationship between self-efficacy and depression in adolescents.

This study examined the self-efficacy status of depressed versus nondepressed adolescents. As predicted, self-efficacy was negatively correlated with depression. A three-way interaction of Sex x Age x Level of Depression suggested separate analyses for males and females. Regression analysis revealed age-related changes in the dependence of depression scores on general, academic, physical and social self-efficacy status. It was concluded that self-efficacy has an important relationship with adolescent depression. The implications of these findings are discussed.

The prevalence of depression in high school students.

In response to the need expressed in the literature on adolescent depression, recent studies have examined the incidence of affective disorders. However, there continues to be a paucity of research on the prevalence of depressive symptomatology in nonpatient adolescents. The Canadian literature is especially lacking in this area. The present study examined the prevalence of depression in a sample of 366 Canadian high school students. Consistent with similar research in the United Kingdom and the United States, 31.4% of the sample were midly to clinically depressed as measured by the Beck Depression Inventory. Significant sex differences were found; these are discussed in the context of age and level of depression. The need for further research on adolescent depression is emphasized.

The Millon Adolescent Personality Inventory profiles of depressed adolescents.

The evidence indicates that adolescent depression may be more difficult to recognize than its adult counterpart, although the reasons for this difficulty remain unclear. The research in this area is in part impeded by the lack of adolescent-specific measures of personality functioning. In this study the personality styles, expressed concerns, and behavioral tendencies of depressed adolescents were investigated by means of the Millon Adolescent Personality Inventory (MAPI), a relatively new personality inventory designed specifically for this age group. Three hundred sixty-six high school students completed the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the MAPI, resulting in 332 valid and reliable MAPI profiles. The data were reduced to two factors, accounting for 65.1% of the total variance, by means of a principal components analysis. The two factors were interpreted as two dimensions of personality functioning associated with depression in adolescents. The first dimension suggested a socially withdrawn, overtly recognizable depression, whereas the second presents acting-out tendencies that may overshadow depressive symptomatology. The findings are integrated with the theoretical positions represented in the literature. Theoretical and practical implications for the use of the MAPI with depressed adolescents are discussed.