The Intersection of Emotional and Sociocognitive Competencies with Civic Engagement in Middle Childhood and Adolescence.

Civic developmental theory anticipates connections between normative developmental competencies and civic engagement, but little previous research has directly studied such links. The current study sought to contribute to civic development theory by examining associations between emotional and sociocognitive competencies (empathy, emotion regulation, prosocial moral reasoning, future-orientation) and civic engagement (volunteering, informal helping, political behaviors and beliefs, environmental behaviors, social responsibility values, civic skills). Data came from a geographically and racially diverse sample of 2467 youth (Mage = 13.4, Range: 8-20 years, 56% female). The results indicated that empathy and future-orientation significantly predicted nearly all forms of civic engagement, whereas emotion regulation and prosocial moral reasoning were uniquely associated with specific forms of civic engagement. Exploratory multi-group models indicated that empathy and emotion regulation were more strongly associated with civic engagement among younger youth and prosocial moral reasoning and future-orientation were more strongly related to civic engagement among older youth. The findings help to advance developmental theory of youth civic engagement.

Associations Between Food-Related Parenting Behaviors and Adolescents' Engagement in Unhealthy Eating Behaviors.

Food-related parenting behaviors have the potential to impact youth eating behaviors and nutrition knowledge. The present study examined associations between parental behaviors specific to eating (i.e., rules, solicitation, and the creation of a health-focused home environment) and specific unhealthy eating behaviors prevalent during adolescence. Additional analyses examined whether such associations were explained by adolescent nutrition knowledge. A total of 145 adolescents ( M = 14.48, SD = 1.75 years) and their mothers ( M = 43.52, SD = 6.76 years) completed questionnaires as part of a larger study investigating parent-adolescent communication. Mothers' food-related parenting behaviors were not directly associated with adolescents' engagement in unhealthy eating behaviors. However, more parental rules were associated with greater adolescent nutrition knowledge. In addition, mothers' creation of a health-focused home environment was indirectly associated with less fast food consumption through greater adolescent nutrition knowledge. Implications and future directions are discussed.

A Social Domain Approach to Informant Discrepancies in Parental Solicitation and Family Rules.

An extensive body of research has explored the effects of parental monitoring on adolescent outcomes, but studies consistently find substantial discrepancies between parent and adolescent reports of different monitoring behaviors. Little research has examined whether parents and adolescents are more or less discrepant when reporting on parents' rules or solicitation for different adolescent problem and health risk behaviors and few studies have explored potential explanatory variables to explicate individual variability in parent-adolescent discrepant reporting. To address this gap in the literature, the current study examined discrepancies in mother-adolescent reports of family rules and solicitation across five distinct adolescent behaviors: personal behaviors and four different risk behaviors (alcohol-related, cyber, over- and under-eating). Participants were 143 mother-adolescent dyads (Adolescent M age  = 14.42, SD = 1.73, range = 12-18, 81 % white, 60 % female). Mean-level discrepancies between maternal and adolescent reports significantly differed by category of adolescent behavior and also varied as a function of reported parental monitoring behavior (rules vs. solicitation). Discrepancies in mother-adolescent reports of behavior-specific rules and solicitation were positively associated with discrepancies in mother and adolescent judgments of the harmfulness of the activities. The results demonstrate that discrepancies in mother-adolescent reports of family process differ by category of adolescent behavior and may be undergirded by differences in mother and adolescent informational assumptions about the potential harm involved with different activities.