The adaptation and well-being of adolescent immigrants in Greek schools: A multilevel, longitudinal study of risks and resources

This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.This study examined growth patterns in adaptation of immigrant youth from a risk and resilience perspective. Students from first- and second-generation immigrant families living in Greece and their nonimmigrant classmates (N= 1,057) were assessed over the first 3 years of secondary school (ages 13–15). Three-level hierarchical linear models were used to disentangle individual and classroom-level effects on initial level and change in academic achievement, conduct, peer popularity, and psychological well-being. At the individual level, adaptation was more related to self-efficacy and parental school involvement (resources) than immigrant status and social adversity (risks). Only for academic achievement did risks explain variance when resources were controlled. Parental school involvement moderated the effect of immigrant status for initial level and growth in achievement. For all students, achievement and conduct worsened over time. At the classroom level, socioeconomic and ethnic composition of the classroom moderated the effects of self-efficacy and immigrant status on academic achievement and peer popularity, respectively. Second-generation immigrants were more popular than first-generation immigrants, but showed a larger decrease over time in school achievement. Results support a developmental, differentiated, and contextualized approach to the study of immigrant youth adaptation.Peer Reviewe

Changing dynamics in problematic personality: A multiwave longitudinal study of the relationship between shyness and aggressiveness from childhood to early adulthood

This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.The present longitudinal study investigated cascade effects linking the longitudinal trajectories of shyness and aggressiveness between age 4 and 23 and individual differences in this longitudinal relationship. Results demonstrated that there were cascade effects from shyness to adjacent measures of aggressiveness at three moments in time, and that the dynamics of these relationships changed over time. Children who were shy at age 6 became less aggressive at age 7 and the same effect was found between age 8 and age 10. From adolescence to early adulthood, the direction of the relationship changed and shy adolescents at age 17 became increasingly aggressive 5 years later. Interindividual differences were found in the latter cascade effect in that shyness at age 17 only predicted an increase in aggressiveness at age 23 for adolescents receiving low levels of support from their parents and for adolescents spending little time in part-time work. Together, findings suggest the importance of examining the development of normal variations in personality and personality disorders from a developmental perspective and taking into account person–environment interactions.Peer Reviewe

Person-oriented approaches within a multi-level perspective

I propose that empirical psychology should study individual characteristics at both the person and the population level because both exclusively person-oriented analyses and exclusively population-oriented analyses are seriously limited. Multi-level regression models are well suited for this task because they simultaneously estimate within-person and be-tween-person parameters, and do not require many assessments within persons, but can nevertheless easily model complex within-person relations. I illustrate application of such models with a three-level model of the intraindividual change of relationship-specific interpersonal conflict during an important life transition

Prospective associations between loneliness and emotional intelligence

Loneliness has been linked cross-sectionally to emotional skill deficits (e.g., Zysberg, 2012), but missing from the literature is a longitudinal examination of these relationships. The present study fills that gap by examining the prospective relationships between loneliness and emotional functioning in young adolescents in England. One hundred and ninety-six adolescents aged 11-13 years (90 females) took part in the study and completed the youth version of the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT-YV) and the peer-related subscale of the Loneliness and Aloneness Scale for Children and Adolescents (LACA) at two time points, which were 10 months apart. Prospective associations were obtained for male and female adolescents separately using cross-lagged statistical techniques. Our results showed prospective links between understanding and managing emotions and loneliness for both females and males. Perceiving and using emotions were prospectively linked to loneliness in males only. Possible explanations and directions for future research are discussed