Adolescent Filial Piety as a Moderator between Perceived Maternal Control and Mother–Adolescent Relationship Quality in Hong Kong

This study examined the perceived parental styles of maternal warmth and control, as well as adolescent filial piety, in relation to parent–child relationship quality, in 308 Hong Kong Chinese adolescents. The three mother–child relationship qualities measured were perceived maternal support, conflicts, and relationship depth. Adolescents' attitudes toward filial piety explained unique variance in all three of these parent–child relational qualities, over the constructs of maternal warmth and control. In addition, the interaction of filial piety with maternal control explained unique variance in perceived maternal support and mother–child conflicts, but not relationship depth. Results established the potential unique importance of adolescent filial piety and confirmed our hypothesis that the more adolescents emphasize filial piety, the more parental control exerts a positive effect on mother–child relationship quality in Hong Kong families.     

Differential associations and concordance across measures of parent emotion socialization: The role of parent and adolescent emotion dysregulation

Although parent ratings, adolescent ratings, and observations are all utilized to measure parent emotion socialization during adolescence, there is a lack of research examining measurement differences and concordance. Thus, the present study compared three measures of parent supportive and nonsupportive emotion socialization and examined whether parent and adolescent emotion dysregulation differentially related to these measures or moderated concordance across measures. Participants were a community sample of 92 adolescent-parent dyads. Adolescents were 13–17 years-old (M = 15.5, SD = 1.1), 41 were female and 51 were male; 87% of parents identified as mothers. Observed emotion socialization was coded during a parent-adolescent conflict discussion task. The adolescent and parent also rated the parent's supportive and nonsupportive reactions to the adolescent's negative emotions; they each also rated their own emotion dysregulation. Due to data collection timing, COVID-19 family stress was also assessed and explored as a covariate in analyses. Bivariate correlations indicated that there were weak and non-significant correlations across emotion socialization measures. Multilevel models indicated that measures of parent emotion socialization were differentially associated with adolescent emotion dysregulation, with adolescent emotion dysregulation relating significantly to adolescent ratings, but not observations or parent ratings, of parent emotion socialization. In addition, multiple regressions indicated that there was less concordance across measures when parents were higher in emotion dysregulation. Results suggest that measurement may influence researchers’ conclusions about how youth adjustment relates to parent emotion socialization. Additionally, there may be even lower agreement across measures of parent emotion socialization when parents have emotional challenges.     

Parents’ and friends’ responses to discrete negative emotions: Associations with adolescent emotional experiences

Emotion socialization (ES) impacts a range of youth socioemotional outcomes. However, research often examines parent socialization of negative emotions more broadly. Research examining multiple socializers demonstrates that variety in ES messages may promote flexibility in youth socio-emotional adjustment. The current study examined how parents’ and friends’ supportive socialization of discrete negative emotions (anger, sadness, worry) related to adolescents’ emotional experiences. Eighty-seven adolescents (50 girls; 13–15 years old, M age = 14.23 years) reported on parent and friend supportive ES in 8^th grade. Sixty-four of these adolescents reported their own emotional experiences in 9^th and/or 10^th grade. Parents’ supportive ES was higher than friends’ for sadness and worry. Divergence between parent and friend ES of sadness related to lower increases in anger over time. There were effects of convergence in ES of anger, as matches between parent and friend ES were related to less experience of all three negative emotions. There were unique effects of parent and friend ES of worry. Parent ES of worry related to adolescents’ balance of anger and sadness, whereas friend ES of worry related to decreased sadness over time. These findings suggest that ES and its relations with adolescent emotional experience varied by discrete emotions, as each carries a different meaning and function. Future research should examine processes connecting discrete emotional experiences within interactions and across time.     

The Role of Heritage Language Development in the Ethnic Identity and Family Relationships of Adolescents from Immigrant Backgrounds

The influence of immigrant-background adolescents' heritage language (HL) proficiency and use of the language on parent–adolescent relationships and ethnic identity was investigated in a sample of 414 adolescents from Latin American and Asian backgrounds. HL proficiency, but not language use, was positively associated with the quality of parent–adolescent relationships. Although HL proficiency and language use were both associated with ethnic identity, when taken together, only HL proficiency was a reliable predictor. These findings indicate that it is the development of proficiency in the HL that influences adolescents' successful adjustment, rather than their choice of languages. It is therefore important to support HL development in order to help immigrant-background students to better cope with the stresses of adolescence.     

Adolescent Females' Security with Parents Predicts the Quality of Peer Interaction.

This study examined the association between security with parents and the quality of interactions between adolescent best friends. Thirty-six girls and their best friends, between the ages of 15 and 18 years, were recruited to participate in the study. They were videotaped while discussing unresolved problems each adolescent had experienced in her life. Security with parents and peers, self-esteem, and locus of control were assessed with questionnaires. There were three main findings. Girls high in security with respect to their parents had higher positive interaction scores in the videotaped task, higher self-esteem, higher internality scores, and less feelings of unknown or powerful others control than those low in security. Dyads in which both girls were high in security with respect to their parents had higher total positive interaction scores than those dyads in which at least one girl was low in security. Best friends were significantly concordant with respect to security with parents and peers as well as their positive interaction scores during their own task and their friend's task. Findings are discussed with respect to attachment theory.     

The Structure of Parent–Child Dyadic Synchrony in Toddlerhood and Children's Communication Competence and Self-control

The aim of the present investigation was to examine parent–child synchrony and its link to children's communicative competence and self-control. Data were collected from 80 families with toddler age children (41 girls, 39 boys) during a laboratory assessment. Five components of parent–child dyadic synchrony were assessed during a semi-structured parent–child play activity at 18 months. Assessments of children's communicative competence and self-control were obtained at 36 months. Results indicated that parent–child synchrony, shared positive affect, and mutual compliance were highly intercorrelated components of dyadic synchrony. Moreover, children from highly synchronous parent–child dyads displayed more communicative competence and more self-controlled behavior. Mother–child mutual compliance and father–child shared positive affect were particularly significant contributors to children's self control. The associations between synchrony and child developmental adjustment remained significant after controlling for individual child and parent behavior. Developmental implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Continuity,stability, and concordance of socioemotional functioning in mothers and their sibling children

This within‐family longitudinal study accomplishes a novel multivariate assessment of socioemotional parenting cognitions and practices in mothers and their sibling children's socioemotional behaviors. Mothers participated with their 20‐month‐old firstborns and again, an average of 3 years later, with their 20‐month‐old secondborns (55 families, 165 participants). Continuity and stability in maternal cognitions and practices between the two times, and similarities, differences, and correspondences in siblings’ behaviors, are assessed and compared. Maternal socioemotional parenting cognitions were continuous in mean level and stable in individual differences across siblings; maternal socioemotional practices were continuous in mean level but unstable in individual differences. Firstborns were more sociable and emotionally available to mothers than secondborns; first‐ and secondborns’ socioemotional behaviors were largely unrelated. This study contributes to understanding socioemotional domains of parenting and child development, birth order effects, and the shared and non‐shared contexts of siblings’ environments within the family.     

Can You See the Real Me? Activation and Expression of the "True Self" on the Internet

Those who feel better able to express their "true selves" in Internet rather than face-to-face interaction settings are more likely to form close relationships with people met on the Internet (McKenna, Green, & Gleason, this issue). Building on these correlational findings from survey data, we conducted three laboratory experiments to directly test the hypothesized causal role of differential self-expression in Internet relationship formation. Experiments 1 and 2, using a reaction time task, found that for university undergraduates, the true-self concept is more accessible in memory during Internet interactions, and the actual self more accessible during face-to-face interactions. Experiment 3 confirmed that people randomly assigned to interact over the Internet (vs. face to face) were better able to express their true-self qualities to their partners.     

The conversational skills of school-aged children

Differences associated with age and with language background were assessed in performance on a task thin taps conversational skill, a ‘TV talk show’ interview task administered to 98 second through fifth graders, including many nonnative speakers of English. Surprisingly, holistic ratings of the childrenapos;s skills as conversationalists were not related at all to gender, and only moderately to age or status as a native speaker of English. A set of 29 specific interactive and language behaviors were analyzed, to determine which of these were related to holistic ratings of conversational skill. Variables reflected strategies for eliciting information and for maintaining topic, indicators of disfluency, ami indicators of how the adult was contributing to the conversation. Children who had received higher ratings on conversational skill produced more topic continuations, a higher proportion of more sophisticated noncontingent responses, and fewer simple yes/no topic initiations and continuations. Age, gender, and language status related only minimally to the specific interactive or language behaviors associated with success as a conversationalist, although children from homes where English was spoken did tend to receive higher holistic ratings of conversational skill.     

Parental socialization of positive affect,adolescent positive affect regulation,and adolescent girls’ depression in India

An emerging body of research shows that parental socialization of positive affect (PA) is implicated in youth functioning, although most evidence comes from Western countries. In this study, focusing on adolescent girls in India, we examined associations among reports of parents’ responses to adolescent PA, adolescent PA regulation, and adolescent depression. A total of 238 adolescent girls (13–18 years) and one of their parents (54% mothers) were recruited. Participants completed questionnaires at the beginning of the school year (time 1) and five months later (time 2). At the bivariate level, parents’ dampening and adolescent girls’ dampening responses were each associated concurrently with adolescent depression at time 1. However, there were no significant direct associations between time 1 parents’ dampening or enhancing responses and time 2 adolescent girls’ depression (after controlling for time 1 depression). Using half‐longitudinal models, a significant indirect effect was found from parental dampening of PA to increased adolescent depression via adolescent girls’ own increased dampening. No indirect effect was found from parental enhancing to adolescent depression via adolescent girls’ increased positive rumination. These findings are the first to demonstrate the relevance of PA socialization for girls in a non‐Western culture.     

Trajectory of quality of mother-child interactions: Prospective links with child socioemotional functioning

Research shows that the quality of mother-child interactions is a robust antecedent of child socioemotional functioning. Yet, relatively little is known about the evolution of this relational quality over time, and even less about how changes in relational quality may bear on child adjustment. This study aimed to describe the trajectory of quality of mother-child interactions between ages 2 and 7 and to investigate associations between individual differences in this trajectory and child socioemotional functioning at age 8. In a sample of 233 mother-child dyads primarily comprised of White French-Canadian mothers, the quality of interactions was assessed during 10-min play sequences when children were aged 2, 4, and 7 years. Child internalizing, externalizing, and prosocial behaviors were reported by a subsample of 171 teachers at age 8. The results showed that on average, quality of mother-child interactions decreased over time. In terms of individual differences, children who experienced a slower decrease in the quality of interactions with their mother from 2 to 7 years showed less internalizing behavior at age 8, over and above initial quality at 2 years. Children involved in higher quality interactions with their mother at 2 years showed more prosocial and less externalizing behavior at age 8, independent of the subsequent decrease in the quality of those interactions. The findings suggest that initial levels and subsequent changes in the quality of mother-child interactions are two distinct indicators of their relationship with potentially different implications for child adjustment.     

The Semantically Reciprocating Robot: Adult Influences on Children's Early Conversational Skills

Two-year-old children's conversational replies were observed in two social contexts: (a) with a partner who consistently responded to each of their utterances by semantically reciprocating and commenting briefly on their topic; or (b) with a partner who also consistently replied to each of their utterances but did not semantically reciprocate their topic. Children were significantly more likely to reply to a partner who maintained their topic. Given that a child replied, the verbal responses in the semantic reciprocation group were also more likely to have a topic-comment structure characteristic of more advanced conversational skills. These experimental data confirm previous correlational evidence suggesting that children are sensitive to semantic reciprocation during the early stages of verbal communicative development, and they support recent arguments suggesting that the adult's use of expansions scaffolds the child's tendency to use predicative, topic-comment replies…and perhaps advances the child's understanding of the adult partner as an attentional/intentional mental agent.     

Attachment and Joint Problem-Solving Experiences During the Preschool Period

This study examined how attachment quality, measured during the preschool period using the Waters & Deane Q-Sor. (1985). affects preschoolers' collaborative problem-solving interactions. We compared collaborative styles of 19 securely- and 18 insecurely-attached three and four year olds during a grocery planning task with mother and then a strange female adult who was also the mother of a preschool child. Results indicated that securely-attached preschoolers were more likely to show task-relevant and metacognitive behavior in both contexts and performed better with the stranger than did their insecure peers. The collaborative style of mothers of secure children was more in synchrony with secure children's level of participation in the task than with that of insecure children who were less focused on goal-directed task activities. Strangers were generally less structuring than mothers particularly with insecure children. Interestingly, the security status of the stranger's own child did not influence her collaborative style with an unfamiliar preschooler. Results are discussed with reference to concepts from both attachment and Vygotskian theories.     

Japanese Children's Reasoning about Conflicts with Parents

Ninety-five Japanese children (aged 6–12) were interviewed using hypothetical stories to examine their reasoning about parent–child conflicts. Participants were most likely to reject parental authority and to support child's discretion in conflict situations where the parent interfered in the child's personal choice and gave the child commands that violated moral and conventional principles. However, participants were most likely to accept parental authority when the child's wish conflicted with the parent's moral concern. Participants' reasoning was more varied when the child's wish went against the parent's conventional demand. Consistent with their cultural values, participants considered harmonious relationships in evaluating conventional and personal conflicts, but not moral conflicts. Age differences were observed in the endorsement of personal choice. Results suggest that children do not simply act upon their cultural values but also show resistance to parental authority for reasons beyond meeting selfish needs and form differentiated judgments about parent–child conflicts.     

Characteristics of the Social Support Networks of Maltreated Youth: Exploring the Effects of Maltreatment Experience and Foster Placement

Little is known about the social support networks of maltreated youth or how youth in foster care may compare with those who remain with their parent(s). Social network characteristics and perceived social support were examined between (1) maltreated and comparison youth, (2) maltreated youth who remained with their biological parent, those with a foster parent, or a those with a kin caregiver, and (3) youth in stable placements and those who have changed placements. Data came from a sample of 454 adolescents (241 boys, 9–13 years old at enrollment) who took part in a longitudinal study of child maltreatment. Participants completed three assessments approximately 1 year apart. Results showed that on average, maltreated adolescents named significantly fewer people in their network than comparison adolescents. At Time 2, comparison adolescents reported more same‐aged friends. In the maltreatment group, youth with a foster parent reported significantly more older friends than maltreated youth with a kin caregiver. Fewer maltreated youth named a biological parent on the social support questionnaire at all three time points. More youth in kinship care described their caregiver as supportive than those in foster care. These findings indicate that despite heterogeneous placement histories, social support networks among maltreated youth were very similar.     

Validation of the CoRE Questionnaire for a Medical Journal Peer Review

If a peer review instrument asks concrete questions (defined as items that can only generate disagreement if reviewers have different degrees of expertise), then questionnaires could become more meaningful in terms of resolving subjectivity thus leading to more reviewer agreement. A concrete item questionnaire with well-chosen questions can also help resolve disagreement when reviewers have the same level of expertise. We have recently created the core-item reviewer evaluation (CoRE) questionnaire for which decision-threshold score levels have been created, but which have not been validated. This prospective validation of these thresholds for the CoRE questionnaire demonstrated strong agreement between reviewer recommendations and their reported score levels when tested prospectively at Clinical Medicine and Research. We conclude that using the CoRE questionnaire will help reduce peer reviewer disagreement. More importantly, when reviewer expertise varies, editors can more easily detect this and decide which opinion reflects the greater expertise.     

Period prevalence and types of psychosocial risk factors in pregnant women in an urban Swedish community

During a three-year period a total population of pregnant women attending antenatal clinics in Linköping, Sweden was screened for being at psychosocial risk. The prevalence of different psychosocial risk factors was compared with the corresponding prevalence in women referred to and accepting or declining to take part in a specialised training programme at a parent–baby clinic. In general, the present study showed that there was a constant proportion of about 4–5% of pregnant women with psychosocial risk factors. Psychiatric problems and social problems of relevance for pregnancies/parenthood were about equally frequent (i.e. 44 and 45%), while drug-addiction problems were at 11%. Only one in three women with risk factors were eventually referred to the parent–baby clinic, and every second woman referred finally took part in the programme. With the knowledge that an early intervention in families with psychosocial risk factors may alleviate some adverse or disadvantageous developments in children, it is a challenge to identify and to motivate these women to enrol in various support and training programmes. There are still too few pregnant women at risk who are ready to accept the further support that they may need, and the rationale for their reluctance must be better known.     

Parenting and Children's Distress Reactivity during Toddlerhood: An Examination of Direction of Effects

During early childhood, harsh and emotionally negative parent–child exchanges are expected to increase children's risk for developing later conduct problems. The present study examined longitudinal associations between the quality of parenting responses and children's distress reactivity during children's second year of life. Forty-seven mother–child dyads completed observational assessments of children's distress reactivity and mothers' harsh and supportive parenting when children were 12 and 24 months of age. Results indicated that mothers' contingent harsh parenting responses to children's non-compliance when children were 12 months of age predicted increases in children's observed distress from 12 to 24 months, but children's level of distress at 12 months did not predict change in harsh parenting responses over the same time period. In contrast, supportive parenting contingent responses did not predict declines in children's distress reactivity, although children's distress reactivity predicted declines in mothers' supportive parenting responses from 12 to 24 months. Results are discussed in terms of the implications of the quality of parent–child interactions as a point of entry onto developmental pathways of risk.     

The contribution of mother-father-child interactions to children's emotion narratives

Parents' sensitivity during interactions with their children has been associated with children's emotion narratives elicited using story completion tasks, but almost all of this research focused on mothers and was based on a dyadic, parent-child focus. The goal of the present study was to expand this research by studying triadic, mother-father-child interactions and their associations with children's narratives. Seventy-one families with their 4.5-year-old children were observed in the Lausanne Trilogue Play (LTP) procedure to assess Family Cooperation, and children were administered the MacArthur Story-Stem Battery (MSSB) to assess Coherence, Parental Representations, and Engagement with the task. Regression analyses indicated that controlling for children's Narrative Competence and Effortful Control, children who were part of more cooperative family interactions produced narratives that were more coherent, and they were more engaged during the task. No associations were found with children's representations of parents. Directions for future studies as well as clinical implications are discussed.     

Early Life Stress: Effects on the Regulation of Anxiety Expression in Children and Adolescents

This study examined children's (N = 79; 9–10 years) and adolescents’ (N = 82; 15–16 years) ability to regulate their emotion expressions of anxiety as they completed a modified version of the Trier Social Stress Test for Children (TSST‐C). Approximately half in each age group were internationally adopted from institutional care (N = 79) and half were non‐adopted, age‐matched peers (N = 82). Institutional care was viewed as a form of early life stress. Coders who were reliable and blind to group status watched videos of the session to assess anxiety expressions using the Child and Adolescent Stress and Emotion Scale developed for this study. Children exhibited more expressions of anxiety than adolescents, and youth adopted from institutions showed more expressions of anxiety than their non‐adopted counterparts. The role of early life stress on observed anxiety expressions remained significant after controlling for differences in age, physiological stress responses measured through salivary cortisol reactivity, and self‐reports of stress during the TSST‐C. This suggests possible deficits in the regulation of expressive behavior for youth with early life stress histories, which cannot be explained by experiencing the task as more stressful.