Individualism, collectivism and conformity in nine countries: Relations with parenting and child adjustment.

This study investigated how individualism, collectivism and conformity are associated with parenting and child adjustment in 1297 families with 10-year-old children from 13 cultural groups in nine countries. With multilevel models disaggregating between- and within-culture effects, we examined between- and within-culture associations between maternal and paternal cultural values, parenting dimensions and children's adjustment. Mothers from cultures endorsing higher collectivism and fathers from cultures endorsing lower individualism engage more frequently in warm parenting behaviours. Mothers and fathers with higher-than-average collectivism in their culture reported higher parent warmth and expectations for children's family obligations. Mothers with higher-than-average collectivism in their cultures more frequently reported warm parenting and fewer externalising problems in children, whereas mothers with higher-than-average individualism in their culture reported more child adjustment problems. Mothers with higher-than-average conformity values in their culture reported more father-displays of warmth and greater mother-reported expectations for children's family obligations. Fathers with higher-than-average individualism in their culture reported setting more rules and soliciting more knowledge about their children's whereabouts. Fathers who endorsed higher-than-average conformity in their culture displayed more warmth and expectations for children's family obligations and granted them more autonomy. Being connected to an interdependent, cohesive group appears to relate to parenting and children's adjustment.

Adolescents' relationships with parents and romantic partners in eight countries.

INTRODUCTION: Creating romantic relationships characterized by high-quality, satisfaction, few conflicts, and reasoning strategies to handle conflicts is an important developmental task for adolescents connected to the relational models they receive from their parents. This study examines how parent-adolescent conflicts, attachment, positive parenting, and communication are related to adolescents' romantic relationship quality, satisfaction, conflicts, and management. METHOD: We interviewed 311 adolescents at two time points (females = 52%, ages 15 and 17) in eight countries (China, Colombia, Italy, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States). Generalized and linear mixed models were run considering the participants' nesting within countries. RESULTS: Adolescents with negative conflicts with their parents reported low romantic relationship quality and satisfaction and high conflicts with their romantic partners. Adolescents experiencing an anxious attachment to their parents reported low romantic relationship quality, while adolescents with positive parenting showed high romantic relationship satisfaction. However, no association between parent-adolescent relationships and conflict management skills involving reasoning with the partner was found. No associations of parent-adolescent communication with romantic relationship dimensions emerged, nor was there any effect of the country on romantic relationship quality or satisfaction. CONCLUSION: These results stress the relevance of parent-adolescent conflicts and attachment as factors connected to how adolescents experience romantic relationships.

A Retrospective Study on Adoptive Parenthood in the First Year after the Adoption: The Role of Parents' Attachment and Empathy on Communicative Openness.

Communicative openness (CO) defines the willingness of parents and children to explore the significance of adoption. Especially in the first year of adoption, CO could be challenging for adoptive parents, who are influenced by personal characteristics. Using a retrospective assessment, we investigated parents' communicative experiences in the first year of adoption and whether these are affected by romantic attachment and empathy. In the study, 290 adoptive parents (females = 73%, mean age 50 years) filled (a) an ad hoc questionnaire for CO, (b) Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised (ECR-R) for attachment, and the (c) Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) for empathy. During the first year, most parents reported difficulties in controlling their emotions and understanding their children's emotions. Parents with an avoidant attachment and personal distress in empathy were more likely to feel fatigued in sharing and controlling personal feelings and understanding their children's feelings. Open adoption-related communication is a complex and challenging process for adoptive parents, which can be facilitated or not by individual characteristics such as avoidant attachment and personal distress in emotional situations. These results could help develop psychological interventions targeting adoptive parents during the first year after the child enters the family system.

Sensitivity and Attachment in an Italian Sample of Hikikomori Adolescents and Young Adults.

Hikikomori is a severe form of social withdrawal increasing among the young Italian population. Hikikomori has been connected to psychological problems and high environmental sensitivity. Nevertheless, only a few studies have been carried out in the Italian context, and they did not analyze several aspects strictly related to the hikikomori phenomenon, such as the role of attachment and sensitivity. We aimed to investigate the relationship between attachment, sensitivity, and psychological problems in a sample of Italian hikikomori. Our sample comprised 72 Italian adolescents and young adults (49 males and 23 females), meanly aged 22.5 years, recruited through online forums and clinical centers for the hikikomori phenomenon. Our participants fulfilled the Highly Sensitive Person Scale (HSPS), the Attachment Style Questionnaire (ASQ), and the Hopkins Symptom Checklist (SCL-90-R). The results showed high psychological issues (i.e., depression and anxiety), environmental sensitivity, and insecure attachment orientations. Moreover, we discovered a significant relationship between attachment dimensions, environmental sensitivity, and psychopathology. Our study sheds light on a novel research path and could help both the researchers and the clinicians who work with people suffering from social withdrawal.

The Relationship between Attachment, Dyadic Adjustment, and Sexuality: A Comparison between Infertile Men and Women.

Infertility impacts several life dimensions. Among them, sexuality is particularly affected; yet studies have mainly focused on infertile women. We aimed to explore infertile men's and women's experiences in sexual satisfaction, internal control, and anxiety, and the relationship between attachment, dyadic adjustment, and sexuality. The sample consisted of 129 infertile people (47.3% females, 52.7% males, Mage = 39 years) who fulfilled an ad hoc questionnaire, the Multidimensional Sexuality Questionnaire (MSQ), the Experiences in Close Relationship-Revised (ECR-R), and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS). We found a significant effect of type of infertility and infertility factors on sexual anxiety only in infertile men. As regards infertile women, dyadic adjustment predicted sexual satisfaction, anxious attachment decreased sexual internal control, and avoidant attachment reduced sexual anxiety. As regards infertile men, high dyadic adjustment increased sexual satisfaction and a high avoidant attachment predicted high levels of sexual internal control. There was no relationship between attachment, dyadic adjustment, and sexual anxiety for infertile men. From the results, it emerges how important is to consider both dyadic adjustment and attachment in studying how infertility impacts women's and men's lives.

Parenting Stress, Maternal Self-Efficacy and Confidence in Caretaking in a Sample of Mothers with Newborns (0-1 Month).

A mother's responses to her newborn and her confidence in the child's caretaking depend on her attachment security, general parental stress, and perceived self-efficacy. However, few studies have analyzed maternal confidence in caretaking and how it is influenced by some mothers' characteristics. We aimed to examine the association between maternal adult attachment and confidence in a child's caretaking and to understand whether this relationship was mediated by parenting stress and maternal self-efficacy. The sample consisted of 96 mothers with a mean age of 33 years with newborn children aged between 3 and 30 days. The instruments used were the Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised (ECR-R), the Mother and Baby Scale (MABS), the Parenting Stress Index Short Form (PSI-SF), and the Maternal Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (MEQ). The results showed a positive association between attachment avoidance and lack of confidence in caretaking, and this association was mediated by parenting stress. Conversely, attachment anxiety appeared not to influence confidence in caretaking, and maternal self-efficacy did not appear to mediate the relationship between attachment and confidence in the caretaking of infants. Our results could guide new research in studying confidence in caretaking and enable healthcare professionals to recognize at-risk situations early from the first month after childbirth.

Romantic Attachment, Internalized Homonegativity, and Same-Sex Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration Among Lesbian Women in Italy.

Same-Sex Intimate Partner Violence (SSIPV) among lesbian women has been underestimated until few decades ago. While the association between romantic attachment and SSIPV has been widely demonstrated, mechanisms that mediate this association and the complex relationships between romantic attachment, SSIPV, and SSIPV-specific risk factors have not been adequately investigated to date. The current study assessed the influence of romantic attachment on SSIPV perpetration among lesbian women, exploring the mediating role of internalized homonegativity within this association. Three hundred and twenty-five Italian lesbian women with a mean age of 30 years were recruited and completed the following self-report measures: the Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised (ECR-R), the Measure of Internalized Sexual Stigma, and the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale Short Form. The results showed a positive association between attachment anxiety, and general and psychological SSIPV perpetration. Similarly, attachment avoidance was positively related with general, psychological, and physical SSIPV perpetration. The association between romantic attachment, and general and psychological SSIPV was partially mediated by internalized homonegativity. These findings have theoretical implications and provide valuable information to implement services and interventions tailored for SSIPV, to date scarce and not effective.

Anxiety in Attachment and Sexual Relationships in Adolescence: A Moderated Mediation Model.

Adolescence is characterized by several transformations, such as identity construction, progressive estrangement from parents, relational interest in peers, and body changes that also involve sexuality issues. In this process, attachment patterns play a fundamental role in relationships, and when these are dysfunctional, they can result in internalizing and externalizing problems. Often, females show their relational difficulties through internalizing expressions and males through externalizing expressions. Additionally, given the sexual progress involved in this life moment, psychological symptomatology may influence adolescents' perception of sex and performance. Our purpose is to study the mediating role of internalizing and externalizing symptomatology in the relationship between attachment patterns and sexual and psychological dimensions. In addition, we investigated the moderating effect of the sex assigned at birth on this mediation model. n = 493 adolescents (38.3% males; Mage = 16.51; SD = 1.17) participated in the study. The results show a significant mediation effect of internalizing symptomatology on the relationship between attachment and sexual anxiety. Additionally, this effect is moderated significantly by assigned-at-birth sex. These results confirm that in adolescence, attachment patterns can influence adolescents' perception of sex. The connection between these two psychological dimensions is influenced by symptomatologic expression. Further investigations are needed.

Talking about the Birth Family since the Beginning: The Communicative Openness in the New Adoptive Family.

Communicative openness within the adoptive family changes over time and helps the child explore his/her history. We aimed to evaluate whether adoptive families communicate about specific adoption-related themes from the beginning of their lives as a family. We created an instrument to track the communication process during the first year of adoption, involving a sample of 537 internationally adopted children (313 males, 224 females, mean age of adoption: 4.9 years) at two time points: six (T1) and twelve (T2) months after adoption. Our results suggest that in the first year of placement, children express memories about the past but tend to not speak about their birth families. We discovered a significant difference (Wald test = 4.889; p = 0.027) in communication about the biological family between the two points. The presence of adoptive parents who speak about it impacts the child's questions about the past (exp (B) = 2.452, p = 0.006) and whether the child speaks about his/her biological family (exp (B) = 2.373; p = 0.017). Then, in the first year of adoption, the presence of an adoptive parent who communicates openly helps the child to ask questions and share his/her thoughts.