Parent x child socialization: implications for the development of depressive symptoms.

A Parent x Child model of socialization was applied to the development of depressive symptoms. It was expected that when parents used intrusive support frequently, children engaging in negative self-evaluative processes would be more vulnerable to depressive symptoms than children engaging in positive self-evaluative processes. Children in the 5th through 7th grades took part in a 2-wave longitudinal study over 6 months. Parents' use of intrusive support was assessed using reports from children (N = 806) and mothers (N = 74). Children's self-evaluative processes and depressive symptoms were assessed using reports from children. The results suggest that both parents and children contribute to the development of depressive symptoms. When parental intrusive support was high, children engaging in negative self-evaluative processes experienced more depressive symptoms over time than did children engaging in positive self-evaluative processes.

Maternal intrusive support in the academic context: transactional socialization processes.

Although transactional models of socialization have received support, there has been little investigation of the processes involved. The goal of this research was to move in this direction in the context of the socialization of achievement. Mothers and their elementary school children (N = 166) took part in an 18-month longitudinal study including a 2-week daily checklist. The results suggested that children's low achievement elicits intrusive support from mothers through 2 mechanisms. Mothers worried over their children's performance, and this was associated with heightened intrusive support. Children's low achievement manifested itself in uncertainty, which was linked to heightened intrusive support. The achievement of children whose mothers frequently used intrusive support improved over time but did not exceed that of children whose mothers infrequently used intrusive support. Day-to-day analyses suggested that although intrusive support promotes success, it also fosters failure for low-achieving children.

Conceptions of ability as stable and self-evaluative processes: a longitudinal examination.

It has generally been taken for granted that conceiving of ability as stable leads to negative self-evaluative processes, particularly in the face of failure. Yet, a close examination of the empirical findings suggests that the picture may be more complex. In this research, a three-wave longitudinal design spanning 12 months was employed. Older elementary school children (N = 932) indicated their conceptions of academic and social ability as stable to external forces and to internal forces. They also provided information about the importance they place on academic and social competence, their knowledge about academic and social performance, their preference for academic challenge, their perceptions of academic and social competence, and their attributions for academic and social performance. Children's grades in school and their acceptance by peers were obtained as indicators of performance. Over time, conceiving of ability as stable to external forces, particularly in the academic domain, appeared to heighten the importance placed on competence, performance knowledge, preference for challenge, perceptions of competence, and self-enhancing attributions. In contrast, conceptions of ability as stable to internal forces, particularly in the academic domain, appeared to be fostered by placing little importance on competence, a lack of performance knowledge, avoidance of challenge, negative perceptions of competence, self-deprecating attributions, and poor performance.

The psychological trade-offs of goal investment.

The primary goal of this research was to investigate the possibility that being very invested in goals has psychological trade-offs. Self-report methods were used in a concurrent study with college students (Study 1) and a longitudinal study with elementary school children (Study 2). The results of both studies provided support for the hypothesis that high goal investment has psychological trade-offs. Such investment was associated with positive emotions as well as with worrying, both concurrently and longitudinally. In addition, evidence for mediational mechanisms was provided: Perceptions of accomplishment accounted for the relation between goal investment and positive emotions; the link between goal investment and worrying was mediated by predictions that failure would be upsetting. The implications of these findings for distinguishing between depressive and anxiety symptoms are discussed.

The role of maternal control in the development of sex differences in child self-evaluative factors.

The major goal of the present research was to examine the role of parental control in the development of sex differences in 2 pivotal self-evaluative factors in children: taking responsibility for failure and possessing strong standards. Parents were expected to use control with and without autonomy granting in specific domains differentially with girls and boys on a daily basis, and this was expected to foster sex differences in children's self-evaluative factors. Ninety-one mothers of elementary school children completed a daily checklist for 10 to 21 days. The checklist assessed mothers' everyday use of control and autonomy granting in 5 specific domains (helping, monitoring, decision making, praising, and disciplining). Children completed self-report measures assessing their tendency to take responsibility for failure and the strength of their standards. As anticipated, mothers were more likely to employ control without autonomy granting with girls than with boys, but were more likely to employ control with autonomy granting with boys than with girls. Significantly, this pattern of gender socialization partially mediated the tendency of girls to take greater responsibility for failure than boys. Although there were no sex differences in the strength of children's standards, the pattern of gender socialization was associated with the strength of children's standards as well.

Distinguishing multiple dimensions of conceptions of ability: implications for self-evaluation.

Three separate lines of research have suggested that conceptions of ability may play a key role in the development of self-evaluation. Each line has focused on a different dimension of conceptions of ability: conceptions of ability as uncontrollable, conceptions of ability as constant, and conceptions of ability as capacity. Unfortunately, there has been little attention to the convergences and divergences among the 3 dimensions. The present study examined this issue in 236 second- through fifth-grade children. Children indicated the extent to which they conceived of ability as uncontrollable, as constant, and as capacity. Two forms of self-evaluation (performance following failure and the extent to which self-perceptions of competence converge with external indicators of competence) were investigated. In addition, cognitive competence was assessed. The near-zero correlations, 3-factor solution yielded by confirmatory factor analysis, variability in age-related differences, differential links to cognitive competence, and diverse forms of self-evaluation among the 3 dimensions suggested that the 3 are relatively distinct, and that they may play different roles in the development of self-evaluation. Moreover, the 3 dimensions appear to interact with one another to influence self-evaluation.

Attitude strength and resistance processes.

This study examined whether multiple indicators of attitude strength form general dimensions that foster differential pathways to resistance. Ego involvement, certainty, personal importance, knowledge, and extremity were assessed. Resistance processes and outcomes were measured in a selective judgment paradigm. Intentions to act on attitudes and information-seeking proclivities were also assessed. Factor analysis of the strength measures revealed 2 factors. Both fostered intentions to act but were associated with differential resistance processes and outcomes. Heightened levels of the factor representing Commitment to one's position were associated with increased selective elaboration, selective judgment, and attitude polarization. Embeddedness, the linkage of the attitude to one's self-concept, value system, and knowledge structure, was associated with decreased selective elaboration and increased information seeking and selective memory.

Meeting goals and confronting conflict: children's changing perceptions of social comparison.

It was proposed that previously observed grade-related changes in children's social comparison behavior could be explained by the changing goals and meanings children assign to this behavior. Specifically, it was suggested that, as children progress through the school system, they become increasingly aware of the negative and positive aspects of social comparison and adjust their behavior in response to this awareness, as well as to increasingly salient self-evaluation goals. To examine these propositions, 106 elementary school children were observed in their classrooms and interviewed once a year for 3 years. Consistent with previous research, overt forms of social comparison were most frequent among younger children, whereas subtle forms of social comparison were most frequent among older children. Furthermore, with increasing grade children were likely to view overt forms of social comparison negatively and subtle forms as useful in meeting self-evaluation goals. Additional analyses revealed little association between perceptions of social comparison and actual social comparison behavior, except that perceiving subtle social comparison as useful for self-evaluative goals predicted engagement in such behavior 2 years later.

The role of gender-related processes in the development of sex differences in self-evaluation and depression.

This paper examines gender socialization processes during childhood that may contribute to a higher incidence of depression or depressive symptoms in females than in males. It is argued that because of the actions of socialization agents and the impact of gender stereotypes on a child's construction of gender identity, girls may exhibit higher levels of self-evaluative concerns that increase vulnerability to depression. Indeed, a review of the literature on sex differences in self-evaluation suggests that girls may be more susceptible than boys to self-evaluative concerns, particularly as reflected in lower expectations for future success, more maladaptive causal attributions for success or failure outcomes, and negative behavioral and evaluative reactions to failure. Moreover, an examination of the literature on sex differences in depressive symptoms leads to questions about previous conclusions that girls do not exhibit higher levels of depressive symptoms prior to adolescence. Finally, we present some recent original data that support the contention that sex differences in vulnerability to depression may be evident prior to adolescence.