Latent profile analysis of adolescent temperament: Relations to happiness and health in adulthood.

INTRODUCTION: This study provides long-term evidence that profiles of temperament during adolescence are associated with happiness and health over two decades later. METHODS: Data are based on the ongoing Fullerton Longitudinal Study, a community-based sample in the United States. At 14 and 16 years, adolescents (N = 111; 52% male, 90% Euro-American) and their mothers (N = 105) completed the Dimensions of Temperament Survey-Revised, a scale designed specifically to assess adolescents' temperament across a set of attributes. When adolescents reached age 38 years in 2017, they completed scales measuring comprehensive happiness and global health. RESULTS: Latent profile analysis (LPA), a person-centered approach, was conducted for adolescents' and for mothers' temperament ratings separately. Distinct two-profile solutions, labeled more regulated and less regulated, emerged for each informant. These were comparable in features across informants. Only the adolescents' self-rated profiles, controlling for sex and family SES, revealed a conceptually meaningful and statistically significant relation to the distal outcomes of health and happiness two decades later. CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents with temperament profiles characterized as more regulated, in contrast to less regulated, reported being happier and healthier upon entering middle adulthood. Implications for intervention are presented.

Positive family relationships across 30 years: Predicting adult health and happiness.

In this prospective study, we examined the link between positive family relationships during childhood and adolescence and health and happiness three decades later in middle adulthood. We also investigated the stability of positive family relationships into adulthood as one possible pathway underlying this long-term association. Data were from the Fullerton Longitudinal Study (FLS) an ongoing investigation in the United States initiated in 1979 when children were aged 1 year with the most recent data collected in 2017. A cross-informant methodology was employed in which mothers and children independently completed the Positive Family Relationships (PFR) scale annually when children were of ages 9-17 years. When study children reached age 38, they reported on their current PFR, global health, and comprehensive happiness. Structural equation models revealed that children's perceptions of the family during childhood and adolescence predicted both their health and happiness at age 38. Mothers' perspectives of PFR predicted greater adult children's health, but did not predict their happiness. Associations were independent of family socioeconomic status, gender, intelligence, and extraversion. Moreover, while controlling for behavior problems (proxy for health) and happiness at age 17, both children's and mothers' early PFR related to PFR at 38 years, which in turn, predicted increased health and happiness at age 38, thus providing evidence for a pathway underlying this long-term connection. Our prospective findings revealed that families in which members get along well and support each other during the childhood and adolescent years furnish a foundation for positive family relationships in adulthood, which are associated with greater health and happiness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Observed parent-adolescent coalitions and family hostilities during family discussions: Associations with marital aggression.

This study investigated bidirectional associations between observed parent-youth coalitions-wherein one parent and a child align themselves against the other parent-and family hostilities as they evolved in real-time during triadic family conflict discussions. Participants were 102 families with an adolescent child (50% girls, Mage  = 15.3 years, SD = 0.8). Using time-lagged, multilevel models, we tested immediate, temporal influences from hostility (within marital and mother-youth and father-youth relationships) to parent-youth coalitions and vice versa. Guided by sensitization theories, we also investigated whether a history of marital aggression moderated these links. Results indicated multiple concurrent links supporting the interconnectedness of cross generational coalitions and angry, critical exchanges within multiple family relationships. Moreover, time-linked effects demonstrated that hostility within both the marital and parent-adolescent domains preceded subsequent coalitions, and also that coalitions preceded hostility, particularly in the parent-adolescent domain. Findings further demonstrated that marital aggression moderates temporal associations between fathers' marital hostility and father-youth coalitions. These patterns highlight the dynamic links between hostilities and coalitions, how such patterns spill over across family subsystems, and how these two insidious influences in parents' interactions with their adolescent youth may mutually reinforce each other. This study informs intervention efforts by identifying patterns and sequences of family hostilities surrounding parent-youth coalitions during adolescence.

En este estudio se investigaron las asociaciones bidireccionales entre las alianzas observadas entre padres y adolescentes -en las cuales un padre y un hijo se alinean contra el otro padre- y las hostilidades familiares a medida que se desarrollaban en tiempo real durante discusiones triádicas por conflictos familiares. Los participantes fueron 102 familias con un hijo adolescente (el 50% niñas, edad promedio = 15.3 años, desviación típica = 0.8). Utilizando modelos multinivel con tiempo de retardo, evaluamos las influencias inmediatas y temporales de la hostilidad (dentro de las relaciones conyugales y de las relaciones entre madre y adolescente y padre y adolescente) en las alianzas entre padres y adolescentes y viceversa. Guiados por las teorías de sensibilización, también investigamos si los antecedentes de agresión conyugal moderaron estas asociaciones. Los resultados indicaron varias asociaciones simultáneas que respaldaron la interconexión de las alianzas intergeneracionales y los intercambios agresivos y críticos dentro de las relaciones de varias familias. Además, los efectos asociados con el tiempo demostraron que la hostilidad dentro del área conyugal y de padres y adolescentes precedió a alianzas posteriores, y también que las alianzas precedieron a la hostilidad, particularmente en el área de padres y adolescentes. Los resultados también demostraron que la agresión conyugal modera las asociaciones temporales entre la hostilidad conyugal de los padres y las alianzas entre los padres y los jóvenes. Estos patrones destacan las asociaciones dinámicas entre las hostilidades y las alianzas, las maneras en la que dichos patrones se desbordan entre los subsistemas familiares, y cómo estas dos influencias insidiosas en las interacciones de los padres con sus hijos adolescentes pueden reforzarse mutuamente. Este estudio sirve como base para los esfuerzos de intervención, ya que identifica los patrones y las secuencias de las hostilidades familiares que rodean a las alianzas entre los padres y los adolescentes durante la adolescencia.

Perspective-Taking and Empathy Mitigate Family-of-Origin Risk for Electronic Aggression Perpetration Toward Dating Partners: A Brief Report.

Electronic dating aggression among emerging adults is prevalent and has adverse consequences, yet factors that increase or decrease the risk for perpetrating electronic aggression against a romantic partner are understudied. This investigation advances the literature in two novel ways. First, based on intergenerational transmission of violence theories, we tested the link between family-of-origin aggression (FOA) history and electronic aggression toward romantic partners, using a diverse sample of emerging adults. Second, we examined whether perspective-taking and empathy each moderated the association between FOA and electronic dating aggression and explored the moderating role of gender. Participants included 359 undergraduate students (50% female; 42% White) from an urban university. Results indicated that greater FOA during childhood was associated with perpetrating greater electronic aggression against romantic partners. Furthermore, significant interactions indicated that perspective-taking and empathy separately buffered these associations. Youth from aggressive families did not exhibit increased electronic dating perpetration when they had higher perspective-taking or empathy. Males were especially sensitive to the protective effects of perspective-taking. Findings highlight potential points of intervention (i.e., cognitive and affective empathy training) to decrease electronic aggression in romantic relationships and break intergenerational cycles of aggression.

Deviant Peers and Adolescent Risky Behaviors: The Protective Effect of Nonverbal Display of Parental Warmth.

This study examines whether nonverbal displays of parents' warmth during an in-lab conflict discussion mitigate the links between affiliation with deviant peers and risky behaviors. A sample of 107 youth and their parents participated in a study spanning from mid-adolescence (T1) to late adolescence (T2). At T1, family members discussed a contentious issue, which was coded for parents' nonverbal warmth. At T1 and T2, youth reported on their friends' and their own risky behaviors. Fathers' warmth moderated each prospective association between deviant peers and risky behaviors. Mothers' warmth did not emerge as a significant moderator. Girls, in particular, benefitted from fathers' warmth as a buffer in the trajectory from T1 risky behaviors to T2 risky behaviors and deviant peers.

How discrimination and perspective-taking influence adolescents' attitudes about justice.

Little is known about factors influencing adolescents' justice attitudes. This online study investigates perspective-taking and experiences with discrimination for their associations with adolescents' beliefs about how justice is best served. Participants included 179 ethnically/racially diverse high school students (Mage = 16.67 years; SD = 1.02). Higher perspective-taking was associated with less punitive and more restorative attitudes. Youth reporting more personal and ethnic/racial discrimination experiences endorsed more restorative justice attitudes. Perspective-taking also moderated the associations between reports of family, personal, and religious discrimination and punitive justice attitudes: adolescents reporting higher discrimination showed a stronger inverse relationship between perspective-taking and punitive attitudes. Findings have implications for school and community programs aiming to implement restorative policies, and for adolescents' civic participation.

Intergenerational Transmission of Aggression: Physiological Regulatory Processes.

Children who grow up in aggressive households are at risk of having problems with physiological regulation, but researchers have not investigated physiology as a mechanism in the intergenerational transmission of aggression. In this article, we posit that physiological regulation, particularly during stressful interpersonal interactions, may shed light on sensitivity to conflict, It can also inform our understanding of associations between childhood exposure to aggression in families of origin and aggression against partners in adolescence or adulthood. In support of this model, we highlight findings showing that childhood exposure to family aggression relates to physiological regulation across the life span, and that reactions to physiological stress concurrently relate to aggression against intimate partners. Emerging evidence from research on biological processes during stressful interpersonal interactions raises questions about what is adaptive for individuals from aggressive families, particularly as past family experiences intersect with the challenges of new relationships.

Substance use, aggression perpetration, and victimization: temporal co-occurrence in college males and females.

Many studies have documented associations of substance use with aggression perpetration and aggression victimization; however, little is known about the co-occurrence of these problem behaviors within the same day in college students. The present study investigated whether substance use and aggression increase the likelihood of each other and whether attitudes justifying aggression strengthen those associations. College student participants (N = 378, 32% males) self-selected into an online study in which they reported on 2 days of alcohol/drug use and on aggression perpetration and victimization (including physical, psychological and electronic aggression, and sexual coercion) with friends and dating partners. Using regression to test for nonequivalence of predictor and outcome variables, we found bidirectional effects for males only. Males' substance use was associated with an increased likelihood on the same day of aggression perpetration and of aggression victimization; males' aggression perpetration and aggression victimization were associated with an increased likelihood of substance use on the same day. Females did not show significant contingencies between substance use and aggression in either direction. Males' attitudes justifying male-to-female aggression were associated with their aggression perpetration and victimization and their justification of female-to-male aggression strengthened the link between substance use and aggression perpetration. With interpersonal aggression and substance use being significant problems on college campuses, many colleges offer separate preventive intervention programs aimed at these public health challenges; this study suggests possible benefits of an integrated approach that addresses connections between alcohol/drug use and aggression.

Correlates and characteristics of adolescents' encoded emotional arousal during family conflict.

Associations between adolescents' range of fundamental frequency, cortisol output, and self-reported emotional experience were examined during problem discussions with parents. Participants are a community-based sample of 56 boys and girls in a longitudinal study on conflict exposure. Results reveal that higher aggregate levels of range of fundamental frequency are associated with higher cortisol output and higher levels of self-reported negative emotions for boys and girls. Additionally, greater cortisol output is significantly associated with a slower time-to-peak of range of fundamental frequency for girls and with significantly less variability in range of fundamental frequency for boys. Implications of results for emotional development in adolescents, measurement, and modeling are discussed.

College students' electronic victimization in friendships and dating relationships: anticipated distress and associations with risky behaviors.

This study investigated college students' reports of electronic victimization in friendships and dating relationships. We examined 22 items representing four categories of electronic victimization: hostility, humiliation, exclusion, and intrusiveness. Nearly all participants (92%) reported some electronic victimization in the past year, with males reporting more victimization and females anticipating more distress. Both females and males anticipated more distress from electronic victimization in dating relationships than friendships. More actual experience with electronic victimization related to lower anticipated distress. Electronic victimization was associated with females' alcohol use, even after controlling for other victimization experiences. Discussion focuses on the contextualized nature of electronic victimization, and on the importance of understanding what makes electronic victimization highly distressing for some individuals.

Earthquakes and Children: The Role of Psychologists with Families and Communities.

The 2008 Sichuan Province earthquake and 2005 Pakistan earthquake are examples of natural disasters that took an unimaginable toll on children. In such disaster management contexts, family members as well as health care and school personnel are the first-line responders and are natural sources of continued social support as children recover. Although psychologists have increasingly sophisticated understandings of post-disaster reactions and strategies for helping children and adolescents cope with trauma, models for responding to mass catastrophes are limited, particularly in geographically remote communities and in regions where mental health services are stigmatizing. With children's well-being subsequent to earthquakes inextricably linked to family and community, psychologists can make important contributions in three spheres: (a) coordinating and activating collaborations within children's existing social contexts to develop post-earthquake interventions; (b) designing prevention and preparedness programs focused on the emotional needs of children in earthquake-prone communities; and (c) conducting research on interventions and recovery with particular attention to developmental stage, socio-cultural-economic contexts, and the similarities versus differences across various types of disasters.

Youth exposed to violence: stability, co-occurrence, and context.

With considerable literature establishing how separate types of violence disrupt the lives of children, there is emerging interest in examining violence across multiple interpersonal domains. This article examines four commonly occurring and frequently researched domains of violence exposure: marital physical aggression, mother-to-youth aggression, father-to-youth aggression, and community violence. A community-based sample of 103 parents and youth provided three waves of data at annual intervals beginning when the youth were aged 9-10. We explored stability of exposure, co-occurrence across different types of violence exposure, and associations with co-occurring risk factors. Approximately 30-45% of youth reported intermittent exposure over the 3 years. In addition to overlap among types of violence exposure within the family, we found overlap between parent-to-youth aggression and community violence, an association that was exacerbated in families where fathers reported high levels of global distress symptoms. Mother-to-youth, father-to-youth, and community violence related to youth behavior problems beyond the contextual risk factors of low income, stressful life events, and parents' global distress symptoms. These results highlight the importance of examining violence longitudinally, across multiple types, and with attention to contextual factors.

Family context and young children's responses to earthquake.

BACKGROUND: Family context can affect children's vulnerability to various stresses, but little is known regarding the role of family variables on children's reactions to natural disaster. This prospective study examined the influence of predisaster observed parenting behaviors and postdisaster parental stress on young children's distress following an earthquake. METHODS: Participants were 117 two-parent families with a child age 4-5 at the initial assessment. The families experienced different degrees of impact from the earthquake. Pre-earthquake family context comprised observations of parents' positive and negative behaviors during a parent-child play task. Eight months after the earthquake, mothers reported symptoms of parental stress and children's distress. RESULTS: Earthquake impact and children's distress symptoms were moderately correlated (r = .44), but certain pre-earthquake parental behaviors moderated the relationship. The dose-response association between earthquake impact and children's symptoms did not hold for families in which fathers showed high levels of negative behaviors with daughters, or mothers showed low levels of positive behaviors with sons. In addition, results consistent with full mediation for boys (and partial mediation for girls) indicated that 86% of the total effect of earthquake impact on boys' distress (and 29% on girls' distress) occurred through the mediator of reported parental stress. CONCLUSIONS: These findings demonstrate that young children's responses to an abrupt, negative environmental event, such as an earthquake, are influenced in part by the nature of the parent-child relationship prior to the event as well as by the responses parents exhibit following the event.

Ethical issues in couple and family research.

Federal regulations, ethical standards, and state laws governing ethics do not adequately address important issues in couple and family research. Including multiple family members, particularly dependent minors, in research requires the special application of fundamental ethical issues, such as confidentiality, privacy, and informed consent. The sensitive, commingled nature of couple and family information necessitates clear policies about data ownership and disclosure. Researchers need to have respect for the family as a unit and to evaluate benefits versus harms for the family as well as for individuals. This article highlights areas of potential concern and ambiguity related to abuse reporting and Certificates of Confidentiality and also addresses ethical issues with observational data, intervention studies, longitudinal designs, and computer-assisted research.