Your browser doesn't support javascript.
loading
Show: 20 | 50 | 100
Results 1 - 20 de 24
Filter
1.
Int J Psychol ; 2024 May 30.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38816895

ABSTRACT

Parental self-efficacy (PSE) is a pivotal determinant of change in children's adjustment. However, not only has previous research shown that PSE plays a protective role for children's rule-breaking (RB) behaviours (i.e., parent-driven process), but RB also can reduce parents' PSE over-time (i.e., child-driven process). This study examined the bidirectional longitudinal associations between PSE and RB behaviours by disentangling maternal from paternal influences and between- from within-person effects. In the present seven-wave longitudinal study involving 200 Italian children (T1: Mage = 9.80, SD = 0.65; 50.5% girls), their mothers (N = 200) and fathers (N = 190), two random-intercept cross-lagged panel models (one for mothers and one for fathers) were used to explore whether: (a) stable parts of PSE and RB were related to each other, (b) higher levels of PSE were associated with lower levels of RB at a given time point, and (c) higher levels of PSE at a given time point were associated with future lower levels of RB. Results provided evidence both for a parent- and a child-driven process between mothers' PSE and children's RB behaviours. However, these results were not replicated for fathers. Implications are discussed.

2.
PLoS One ; 18(11): e0293911, 2023.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37967059

ABSTRACT

Parental self-efficacy (PSE) captures parents' beliefs in their ability to perform the parenting role successfully and to handle pivotal issues of specific developmental periods. Although previous studies have shown that, across the transition to adolescence, parents show decreasing levels of PSE while adolescents exhibit increasing engagement in rule-breaking (RB) behaviors, there is a paucity of studies investigating whether and how changes in PSE are related to late adolescents' RB behaviors across development. The present study examined the developmental trends of PSE among Italian mothers and fathers over seven waves (representing children's transition from late childhood to late adolescence; approximately from 9 to 18 years old) as well as the longitudinal associations between PSE and RB behaviors during late adolescence. Data were drawn from seven waves of the Parenting Across Cultures (PAC) project, a large-scale longitudinal, cross-cultural study, and included 200 Italian children (MAgeAtTime1 = 9.80, SD = 0.65; 50.5% girls) and their parents (200 mothers; 190 fathers). PSE was measured across all seven time-points (from T1 to T7), while adolescents' RB behaviors were measured at the first and last assessment (T1 and T7). Results of univariate latent growth models showed a cubic trend of mothers' PSE, which revealed a decreasing pattern characterized initially by a slight decline, followed by a rebound before continuously decreasing. By contrast, fathers' PSE followed a linear decrease over time. Finally, our findings evidenced that only the slope of mothers' PSE negatively predicted adolescents' RB behaviors at T7, implying that mothers who maintained higher levels of PSE over time had children who later engaged in lower RB behaviors. The study implications are discussed.


Subject(s)
Adolescent Behavior , Self Efficacy , Female , Humans , Child , Adolescent , Male , Parents , Mothers , Parenting , Parent-Child Relations , Longitudinal Studies
3.
Pers Individ Dif ; 2132023 Oct.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38854875

ABSTRACT

Emotionality and self-regulation are crucial for positive development, especially during early adolescence when youths experience normative increases in behavioral problems and declines in prosociality. Using Latent Profile Analysis (LPA-a person-oriented technique to identify patterns of functioning within individuals), we identified youths' profiles based on dimensions of mother-reported negative emotionality (NE; anger/frustration, sadness/depressive mood), and Effortful Control (EC; attentional, activation and inhibitory control) and examined concurrent associations with self- and mother-reported aggressive and prosocial behaviors. We included a cross-national sample of 530 youths (M age =11.43; 49% males) from Colombia (17%), Italy (36%), and United States (47%). We identified four profiles: Adjusted (38%; low NE; high EC)-lowest aggression, highest prosociality; Average (34%; average NE and EC)-average aggression and prosociality; Emotional-regulated (20%; high NE; average EC)-average aggression and high prosociality; and Emotional-dysregulated (8%; high NE; low EC)-highest aggression, low prosociality. We highlight associations of different emotion-regulation patterns with specific behavioral responses in early adolescence.

4.
Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol ; 50(10): 1313-1326, 2022 10.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-35870036

ABSTRACT

This study examined gender-specific longitudinal pathways from harsh parenting through rumination to anxiety and depression symptoms among early adolescents from three countries and six subgroups. Participants were 567 mothers, 428 fathers, and 566 children (T1: Mage = 10.89; 50% girls) from Medellín, Colombia (n = 100); Naples, Italy (n = 95); Rome, Italy (n = 99); Durham, North Carolina, United States (Black n = 92, Latinx n = 80, and White n = 100). Parent reported maternal and paternal harsh parenting were measured at T1. Adolescent reported rumination was measured at T2 (Mage = 12.58) and anxiety and depression symptoms were measured at T1 and T3 (Mage = 13.71). Rumination mediated the pathway from maternal harsh discipline to girls' anxiety and depression symptoms, controlling for baseline anxiety and depression symptoms. The more harsh discipline mothers used, the more their daughters ruminated, which in turn was associated with increased anxiety and depression symptoms. Exploratory moderated mediation analyses indicated that the strength of the mediational pathway from maternal harsh discipline through girls' rumination to anxiety and depression symptoms decreased as the normativeness of harsh parenting increased. Mediational pathways for boys and for paternal harsh discipline were not significant. Our findings expand knowledge on specific contexts in which rumination is a mechanism for understanding pathways to anxiety and depression symptoms.


Subject(s)
Depression , Parenting , Child , Adolescent , Male , Female , Humans , Anxiety , Mothers , Anxiety Disorders
5.
Front Psychol ; 13: 805740, 2022.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-35282221

ABSTRACT

The negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals' psychosocial functioning was widely attested during the last year. However, the extent to which individual differences are associated with adaptive and maladaptive outcomes during quarantine in Italy remains largely unexplored. Using a person-oriented approach, the present study explored the association of personality profiles, based on three broad individual dispositions (i.e., positivity, irritability, and hostile rumination) and two self-efficacy beliefs in the emotional area (i.e., expressing positive emotions and regulating anger emotion), with adaptive and maladaptive outcomes during the first Italian lockdown (March-June 2020). In doing so, we focused also on how different age groups (i.e., young adults and adults) differently faced the pandemic. The study was conducted through an online survey from May to June 2020 and included 1341 participants living in Italy, divided into two groups: 737 young adults aged 18-35 and 604 adults aged 36-60 years old. Latent Profile Analysis identified three personality profiles: resilient, vulnerable, and moderate. A subsequent path analysis model showed that the resilient profile was positively associated with prosocial behavior as an indicator of adaptive outcome, and negatively associated with three maladaptive outcomes: interpersonal aggression, depressive symptoms, and anxiety problems. Contrarily, the vulnerable profile resulted negatively associated with prosocial behavior and positively associated with the three maladaptive outcomes. Finally, regarding age group differences, young adults belonging to the vulnerable profile showed a greater association especially with interpersonal aggression, depression, and anxiety problems, as compared to adults belonging to the same profile. Overall, the results of the present study highlighted the importance to analyze individual functioning during an isolation period by using a person-oriented approach. Findings evidenced the existence of three different profiles (i.e., Resilient, Vulnerable, and Moderate) and subsequent path analysis revealed, especially for the vulnerable profile and young adults, a greater maladaptive consequence of the quarantine. The practical implications will be discussed.

6.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-35206436

ABSTRACT

This study examines associations between parents' rejection and control, adolescents' self-efficacy in their regulation of negative emotions, and maladjustment. Path analyses were employed to test (a) whether adolescents' dysregulation and self-efficacy regarding anger/sadness regulation mediate the relationship between parental rejection/control and adolescent maladjustment; (b) whether adolescent adjustment mediates the association between parental rejection/control and dysregulation and self-efficacy regarding anger/sadness regulation. Participants included 103 Italian adolescents (Time 1: M age = 15.57; 53% male), their mothers (n = 103), and their fathers (n = 79). Follow up data were assessed one year later (Time 2). At Time 1, adolescent reports of the frequency of mothers' and fathers' rejection and control were examined. At Time 2, adolescent-reports of their beliefs about self-efficacy in regulating anger and sadness, as well as anger and sadness dysregulation, were assessed by two methods: questionnaire and mobile ecological momentary assessment. At Time 2, mothers', fathers', and adolescents' reports of adolescents' aggressive behaviors and depressive problems were also assessed. Maternal rejection was associated with higher one year later aggressive problems, which in turn were associated with higher dysregulation of sadness, and lower self-efficacy in dealing with both anger and sadness. In addition, maternal rejection was associated with higher depressive symptoms one year later, which in turn were associated with lower self-efficacy in dealing with sadness and higher dysregulation of both anger and sadness. Finally, maternal control was associated with higher depressive symptoms, whereas paternal control was associated with lower depressive symptoms.


Subject(s)
Adolescent Behavior , Emotional Regulation , Adolescent , Adolescent Behavior/psychology , Emotional Adjustment , Female , Humans , Male , Mothers/psychology , Parenting/psychology , Self Efficacy
7.
Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry ; 31(6): 947-957, 2022 Jun.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-33547952

ABSTRACT

This longitudinal study examined the unique and joint effects of early adolescent temperament and parenting in predicting the development of adolescent internalizing symptoms in a cross-cultural sample. Participants were 544 early adolescents (T1: Mage = 12.58; 49.5% female) and their mothers (n = 530) from Medellín, Colombia (n = 88), Naples, Italy (n = 90), Rome, Italy (n = 100) and Durham, North Carolina, United States (African Americans n = 92, European Americans n = 97, and Latinx n = 77). Early adolescent negative emotionality (i.e., anger and sadness experience), self-regulation (i.e., effortful control), and parent monitoring and psychological control were measured at T1. Adolescent internalizing symptoms were measured at three time points. Latent Growth Curve Modeling (LGCM) without covariates or predictors indicated a slight linear increase in internalizing symptoms from ages 13-16 years across nearly all cultural groups. Multi-group LGCMs demonstrated several paths were consistently invariant across groups when examining how well temperament and parenting predicted intercept and slope factors. Higher initial levels of internalizing symptoms were significantly predicted by higher adolescent negative emotionality and parental psychological control as well as lower adolescent effortful control and parental monitoring measured one year earlier. Overall, adolescent effortful control appeared to protect against the emergence of internalizing symptoms in all cultures, but this effect faded over time. This study advances knowledge of the normative development of internalizing symptoms during adolescence across cultures while highlighting the predictive value of early adolescent temperament and parenting.


Subject(s)
Parenting , Temperament , Adolescent , Child , Female , Humans , Longitudinal Studies , Male , Mothers/psychology , Parent-Child Relations , Parenting/psychology , United States
8.
Ric Psicol ; 45(1): 1-15, 2022 May 09.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37073333

ABSTRACT

Previous studies support the relevance of students' perception of positive and negative school climate to learning processes and adolescents' adjustment. School climate is affected by both the interactions that are established within the classroom, and by the teachers' behaviors. This study has the overall objective of investigating the relationship between the perception of positive and negative school climate and students' (mal)adjustment during adolescence. Participants were 105 Italian adolescents (52.5% boys, mean age = 15.56, SD = .77) who responded for 15 consecutive days (ecological momentary assessment) to questions related to their perception of positive and negative school climate (Time 1). After one year (Time 2), students' academic performance reported by mothers and fathers and adolescents' self-reported propensity to engage in risk behaviors were examined. Four hierarchical regression models were implemented considering the mean and the instability levels (RMSSD) of the perception of positive and negative school climate as independent variables and, respectively, academic performance and risk behaviors as dependent variables. Results suggest that a higher perception of positive school climate and its instability predict higher academic performance one year later, while a higher perception of negative school climate and its instability predict higher risk behaviors. This study provides an innovative perspective to reflect on the relationship between students' perceptions of school climate and adolescents' (mal)adjustment.

9.
J Youth Dev ; 16(2-3): 379-401, 2021.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-34888590

ABSTRACT

The current cross-cultural study aimed to extend research on parenting and children's prosocial behavior by examining relations among parental warmth, values related to family obligations (i.e., children's support to and respect for their parents, siblings, and extended family), and prosocial behavior during the transition to adolescence (from ages 9 to 12). Mothers, fathers, and their children (N = 1107 families) from 8 countries including 11 cultural groups (Colombia; Rome and Naples, Italy; Jordan; Kenya; the Philippines; Sweden; Thailand; and African Americans, European Americans, and Latin Americans in the United States) provided data over 3 years in 3 waves (Mage of child in wave 1 = 9.34 years, SD = 0.75; 50.5% female). Overall, across all 11 cultural groups, multivariate change score analysis revealed positive associations among the change rates of parental warmth, values related to family obligations, and prosocial behavior during late childhood (from age 9 to 10) and early-adolescence (from age 10 to 12). In most cultural groups, more parental warmth at ages 9 and 10 predicted steeper mean-level increases in prosocial behavior in subsequent years. The findings highlight the prominent role of positive family context, characterized by warm relationships and shared prosocial values, in fostering children's positive development in the transition to adolescence. The practical implications of these findings are discussed.

10.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-34948780

ABSTRACT

Despite several empirical studies on the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic that have highlighted its detrimental effect on individuals' mental health, the identification of psychological factors that may moderate its impact on individuals' behavior and well-being remains partly unexplored. The present study was conceived to examine the mediation role of regulatory emotional self-efficacy in the relationship between positivity and anxiety, depression, and perceived self-efficacy in complying with the containment measures to contrast the COVID-19 spread. Furthermore, the moderation role of age was tested. A sample of 1258 participants (64.2% women; Mage = 42.09, SD = 13.62) enrolled from the Italian general population answered an online survey aimed at investigating the role of individual differences in facing the COVID-19 pandemic. We opted for a snowball recruiting procedure to find participants. The online survey was disseminated through email invitation and using social media platforms (i.e., Facebook, Instagram). A multi-group path analysis model was performed using Mplus 8.4 to explore the hypothesized relations among variables. The following criteria were employed to evaluate the goodness of fit: χ2 likelihood ratio statistic, CFI and TLI > 0.95, RMSEA < 0.06 and SRMR < 0.08. The findings corroborated the protective role of both positivity and regulatory emotional self-efficacy in reducing individuals' anxiety and depressive symptoms, as well as in fostering individuals' capabilities in complying with the containment measures imposed by the government to reduce the risk of illness and to contain the spread of the virus COVID-19. Specifically, regulatory emotional self-efficacy beliefs partially mediated the relations between positivity and anxiety and depressive symptoms and fully mediated the effect of positivity on perceived self-efficacy beliefs in complying with the containment measures. These paths were equal across ages. The results of the present study appear relevant to implementing psychological interventions aimed to reduce the deleterious effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health through the promotion of individuals' optimistic orientation and emotion regulation.


Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Pandemics , Adult , Anxiety/epidemiology , Depression/epidemiology , Depression/prevention & control , Emotions , Female , Humans , Male , SARS-CoV-2 , Self Efficacy
11.
PLoS One ; 16(5): e0251437, 2021.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-33989323

ABSTRACT

Psychological Control (PC) interferes with autonomy-related processes in adolescence and has a negative impact on adolescents' development related to internalizing and externalizing problems. Several scholars suggested that PC can be used differently by mothers and fathers. However, these differences are still understudied and mainly grounded on maternal and/or adolescents' perspectives, leading to potentially incomplete inferences on the effects of PC. The present study extends previous research on PC in two directions. First, we tested the dyadic and cumulative effects of maternal and paternal PC on adolescents' antisocial behaviors and anxious-depressive symptoms. Secondly, we explored the cross-cultural generalizability of these associations in three countries: Italy, Colombia, and USA. Participants included 376 families with data from three consecutive years (T1, adolescents' age = 13.70). Mothers' and fathers' reports of PC and youth's reports of antisocial and internalizing behaviors were assessed. Using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) we found that maternal PC predicted adolescents' reported antisocial behaviors whereas paternal PC predicted lower anxious-depressed symptoms. Comparisons across countries evidenced the cross-cultural invariance of the longitudinal APIM across Italy, Colombia, and USA. The practical implications of these results are discussed.


Subject(s)
Adolescent Behavior , Parenting , Adolescent , Antisocial Personality Disorder/epidemiology , Anxiety/epidemiology , Colombia/epidemiology , Depression/epidemiology , Fathers , Female , Humans , Italy/epidemiology , Longitudinal Studies , Male , Mothers , Parent-Child Relations , United States/epidemiology
12.
J Fam Psychol ; 35(6): 789-800, 2021 Sep.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-33793275

ABSTRACT

Psychological Control (PC) refers to the control parents exert over their offspring through strategies that limit the psychological and emotional experience of children and adolescents. Although the topic of PC has been largely investigated in the literature, very little is known on the potential differences/similarities in the use of specific psychologically controlling strategies by mothers and fathers. Hence, in the present study, we considered the contribution of both parents to analyze the direct and mutual relations in the use of PC over time by disentangling the role of mothers and fathers at the between- and within-person level. Participants were 147 parents of Italian adolescents (mean age = 13.54 at Time 1) who reported on their use of two different PC dimensions: Relationship-Oriented PC (R-OPC) and Verbal Constraint (VC). Results from a Random-Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Model showed that at the between-person level, mothers' and fathers' use of R-OPC (and VC) was positively correlated over time. At the within-person level, significant cross-lagged effects showed that one parent's higher than usual levels of R-OPC and VC positively predicted the other parent's higher than usual use of PC at the next time point, showing how parental variations in PC are related to their partner's variations over time. For VC, significant cross-lagged effects were found only for fathers. Furthermore, differences were found when comparing the classical cross-lagged panel models to the Random-Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Models. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).


Subject(s)
Fathers , Mothers , Adolescent , Emotions , Female , Humans , Italy , Male , Parents
13.
Parent Sci Pract ; 21(1): 24-46, 2021.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-33732095

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: This article examined two-wave longitudinal paths among maternal self-efficacy, maternal warmth, and early adolescents' prosocial behavior. DESIGN: Participants were 194 Italian mother/child dyads from 9-13 years at the first assessment and 12-15 years at the second assessment. Using a two-wave longitudinal design, the present study tested cross-lagged paths among maternal self-efficacy, warmth, and early adolescents' prosocial behavior controlling for the stability of these variables and their concurrent associations. RESULTS: Maternal warmth mediated the link between maternal self-efficacy and adolescents' prosocial behavior, and bi-directional effects between maternal self-efficacy and maternal warmth were found. CONCLUSIONS: These findings support a parent-driven model in the promotion of prosocial behaviors across early adolescence and a general need to consider simultaneously parental cognitions (maternal self-efficacy) and actions (maternal warmth) in explaining adolescents' prosocial behaviors. Implications for parenting program interventions are discussed.

14.
Psykhe (Santiago) ; 30(2): 1-11, 2021 Dec.
Article in Spanish | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37131845

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the present study was to analyze the effect of perceptions of neighborhood danger on positive parenting and whether it is mediated by the mothers' perceived self-efficacy in managing negative emotions, comparing two countries: Colombia and Italy. Participants were 434 mothers and children between ages of 8 and 10 years old (108 dyads from Medellin, Colombia and 109 dyads from Rome, Italy). selected by convenience, non-probabilistically and proportionally to the social stratum of each city. Mothers and children answered the neighborhood violence perception scale, mothers also answered the emotional self-efficacy scale and children the Acceptance-Rejection/Control questionnaire. The multigroup analysis found that mothers' self-efficacy in managing negative emotions behaved differently in Colombia compared to Italy. In Colombia, mothers' perceived self-efficacy in managing negative emotions mediated the link between the effect of perceived neighborhood violence and the quality of mother-child relationship. In Italy, mothers' self-efficacy in managing negative emotions did not mediate this link. Perceived self-efficacy in managing negative emotions of Colombian mothers indirectly explains the adverse effect of perceived neighborhood danger on positive parenting. With mothers from Rome-Italy, there is no significant relationship between perceived self-efficacy for the management of negative emotions and positive parenting.

15.
Dev Psychol ; 56(3): 458-474, 2020 Mar.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-32077717

ABSTRACT

The present study examines parents' self-efficacy about anger regulation and irritability as predictors of harsh parenting and adolescent children's irritability (i.e., mediators), which in turn were examined as predictors of adolescents' externalizing and internalizing problems. Mothers, fathers, and adolescents (N = 1,298 families) from 12 cultural groups in 9 countries (China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and United States) were interviewed when children were about 13 years old and again 1 and 2 years later. Models were examined separately for mothers and fathers. Overall, cross-cultural similarities emerged in the associations of both mothers' and fathers' irritability, as well as of mothers' self-efficacy about anger regulation, with subsequent maternal harsh parenting and adolescent irritability, and in the associations of the latter variables with adolescents' internalizing and externalizing problems. The findings suggest that processes linking mothers' and fathers' emotion socialization and emotionality in diverse cultures to adolescent problem behaviors are somewhat similar. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).


Subject(s)
Adolescent Behavior/ethnology , Anger , Cross-Cultural Comparison , Irritable Mood , Parent-Child Relations/ethnology , Parenting/ethnology , Parents , Problem Behavior , Adolescent , Adult , Female , Humans , Longitudinal Studies , Male
16.
PLoS One ; 15(1): e0227756, 2020.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-31940400

ABSTRACT

Multidimensional Perceived Self-Efficacy Scale for Children has been developed as an important tool to measure Self-Efficacy in school contexts. The present study assesses the measurement invariance of the MSPSE across two samples of Italian and Colombian adolescents using Multi-sample Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Participants were Italian (N = 564) and Colombian (N = 645) students attending the 7th grade (age 12-13) drawn from a residential community near Rome and three Colombian cities: Medellin, Manizales and Santa Marta. Findings from gender invariance provide high support for full and partial invariance among Colombian and Italian adolescents respectively. Cross-national comparison showed partial scalar invariance between Italy and Colombia, with Italian students perceiving themselves as more efficacious on Academic, Social and Self-Regulatory dimensions. MSPSE's structural validity has been confirmed, along with its three-factor-structure across gender, for the Italian and Colombian samples. The findings support the invariance and the validity of this scale to measure Self-Efficacy in school contexts from a cross-cultural perspective.


Subject(s)
Adolescent Behavior/psychology , Cross-Cultural Comparison , Psychometrics/instrumentation , Self Efficacy , Students/psychology , Adolescent , Child , Colombia , Factor Analysis, Statistical , Female , Humans , Italy , Male
17.
Int J Psychol ; 55 Suppl 1: 48-59, 2020 Jan.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-31232475

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of prosocial behaviour against aggression in a school-based universal intervention adapted in two different (non-Western) countries, Colombia and Chile. Using a randomised pretest-post-test design (and controlling for participants' gender and parents' level of education), current results highlighted different effects of a similar programme in both sites. First, the school-based universal programme designed for promoting prosocial behaviours in the peer context obtained a positive cross-national effect on prosocial behaviour rated by three informants (i.e. self, peer and teacher reports). In Colombia, this effect was moderated by the initial level of prosociality of the participants and their level of education. Mediational two-wave model corroborated that the improvement on prosocial behaviours in both countries (moderated in the case of Colombia) predicted significantly lower level of physical aggression. Characteristics of the implementation considering different cultural and historical backgrounds were discussed.


Subject(s)
Schools/standards , Social Behavior , Child , Female , Humans , Longitudinal Studies , Male
18.
J Youth Adolesc ; 48(11): 2207-2221, 2019 Nov.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-31302795

ABSTRACT

Nearly half of adolescents experience depressive or aggressive symptoms that impair their functioning at some point in adolescence. Experiencing intense difficult emotions and difficulties regulating such emotions may lead to these depressive and aggressive symptoms. However, existing work largely investigates how adolescent emotions at a single time point predict adolescent depressive or aggressive symptoms months or years later. New investigations are needed to capture the dynamic, changing nature of adolescents' daily experiences of emotions and symptoms of mental distress. Such investigations would further understanding of how emotions affect mental health in adolescents' everyday lives. Answering this call, the present study investigated how emotion dysregulation moderated and mediated daily associations between sadness and depressive symptoms and between anger and aggression utilizing ecological momentary assessment in a community sample of 103 Italian adolescents (Mage = 16.77, SD = 0.78, range: 15-18 years old; 47% female). The results revealed that if an adolescent experienced higher-than-usual sadness or anger on a particular day, then they also experienced higher than usual depressive or aggressive symptoms, respectively. Emotion dysregulation mediated and moderated these associations. Adolescents with higher anger had greater difficulties regulating their anger, which led to higher aggressive symptoms (a mediating effect). If adolescents' sadness was higher than usual on a given day, their depressive symptoms were more severe than usual if they also had higher than usual difficulties regulating sadness (a moderating effect). These findings contribute to our understanding of how emotions impact mental distress on a daily basis for adolescents, emphasize the importance of examining specific adolescent emotions, and shed new light on how emotional regulatory capacities influence emotions and mental health in adolescents' everyday lives.


Subject(s)
Adolescent Behavior/psychology , Aggression/psychology , Depression/psychology , Emotional Regulation , Adolescent , Anger , Emotions , Female , Humans , Italy , Male , Psychology, Adolescent
19.
PLoS One ; 14(1): e0209493, 2019.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-30625161

ABSTRACT

According to Belsky's process model of parenting, parents' personality represents the most important factor influencing parenting and child development. While an extensive literature has empirically corroborated the role of irritability traits in predicting aggressive behaviors in laboratory-based studies, only a few studies have examined the role of irritability in predicting aggressive behaviors within family contexts. The present study addressed this gap by examining the longitudinal association between maternal irritability and harsh parenting. Referencing latent state-trait theory (LST), first we estimated the amount of variance in mothers' irritability due to trait and state components, and, next, we examined the relation between mothers' irritability (both at trait- and state- levels) and harsh parenting over time. A sample of 204 mothers from Naples and Rome provided data over 5 years in four waves. Mothers averaged 40.30 years (SD = 5.33) at Time 1 and 44.01 years (SD = 5.43) at Time 4. Their children (50% girls) were 9.45 years (SD = 0.74) at Time 1 and 13.18 years (SD = 0.66) at Time 4. Results of LST analysis showed that, on average, 39% of variability in irritability was due to trait-like factors and only 12% to state-like factors. A multitrait-multistate model revealed that the irritability trait associated with mother's lack of control predicted her harsh parenting 1-year later, while controlling for the rank-order stability of harsh parenting.


Subject(s)
Irritable Mood , Maternal Behavior , Parent-Child Relations , Parenting/psychology , Adolescent , Adolescent Behavior , Adolescent Development , Adult , Aggression , Child , Child Behavior , Child Development , Female , Humans , Italy , Longitudinal Studies , Male , Middle Aged , Models, Psychological , Mothers , Personality
SELECTION OF CITATIONS
SEARCH DETAIL
...