Investigating the role of two types of understanding in relationship well-being: Understanding is more important than knowledge

Understanding is at the heart of intimate relationships. It is unclear, however, whether understanding-partners' subjective feeling that they understand each other-or knowledge-partners' accurate knowledge of each other-is more important for relationship well-being. The present article pits these two types of understanding against each other and investigates their effects on relationship well-being. In a prospective study among 199 newlywed couples, partners' self-reported and perceived understanding and their knowledge in different domains were assessed. Understanding was independent of knowledge. Self-reported and perceived understanding predicted relationship well-being but neither type of knowledge did. Thus, subjectively feeling that one understands and is understood by one's partner appears to be more important to relationship well-being than actually knowing and being known by one's partner. © 2009 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc

Trajectories of traumatic stress reactions in children exposed to intimate partner violence.

Background: Understanding different longitudinal patterns of traumatic stress reactions in children exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) can promote early identification of at-risk children. Objective: Our study aims to explore trajectories of traumatic stress reactions following childhood IPV exposure, and their relation with pa

The Misprediction of emotions in Track Athletics.: Is experience the teacher of all things?

People commonly overestimate the intensity of their emotions toward future events. In other words, they display an impact bias. This research addresses the question whether people learn from their experiences and correct for the impact bias. We hypothesize that athletes display an impact bias and, counterintuitively, that increased experience with an event increases this impact bias. A field study in the context of competitive track athletics supported our hypotheses by showing that athletes clearly overestimated their emotions toward the outcome of a track event and that this impact bias was more pronounced for negative events than for positive events. Moreover, with increased athletic experience this impact bias became larger. This effect could not be explained by athletes’ forecasted emotions, but it could be explained by the emotions they actually felt following the race. The more experience athletes had with athletics, the less they felt negative emotions after unsuccessful goal attainment. These findings are discussed in relation to possible underlying emotion regulation processes

Meeting your match: How attractiveness similarity affects approach behavior in mixed-sex dyads

Item does not contain fulltextThis experimental study investigated approach behavior toward opposite-sex others of similar versus dissimilar physical attractiveness. Furthermore, it tested the moderating effects of sex. Single participants interacted with confederates of high and low attractiveness. Observers rated their behavior in terms of relational investment (i.e., behavioral efforts related to the improvement of interaction fluency, communication of positive interpersonal affect, and positive self-presentation). As expected, men displayed more relational investment behavior if their own physical attractiveness was similar to that of the confederate. For women, no effects of attractiveness similarity on relational investment behavior were found. Results are discussed in the light of positive assortative mating, preferences for physically attractive mates, and sex differences in attraction-related interpersonal behaviors.13 p

Living together apart: Perceived concealment as signal of exclusion in marital relationships

This article examines how perceiving concealment in close relationships influences marital well-being. It suggests that the perception of concealment from a partner signals separateness from one's partner and contributes to feelings of perceived partner exclusion. These feelings of exclusion, in turn, should negatively affect relational quality. These predictions are tested in a prospective study among 199 newlywed couples. Results suggest that perceiving concealment reduced marital adjustment and trust and increased conflict over time. Importantly, change in perceived partner exclusion mediated these effects. This article demonstrates that the perception of concealment (a) has deleterious effects on relational well-being in the long run and (b) is harmful in part because it elicits feelings of exclusion. © 2009 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc

Lying Behavior, Family Functioning and Adjustment in Early Adolescence

Item does not contain fulltextCommunication between children and parents has been the subject of several studies, examining the effects of, for example, disclosure and secrecy on adolescents' social relationships and adjustment. Less attention has paid to adolescent deception. We developed and tested a new instrument on lying behavior in a sample of 671 parent-adolescent couples. Analyses on the psychometric properties showed that this instrument had one principal component, and high internal consistency, item-total correlations and inter-item correlations. Lying was moderately associated with other indicators of parent-child communication, the quality of the parent-child relationship, and with parenting practices. In addition, frequent lying was moderately related to behavioral problems and emotional problems.10 p

Are intense negative emotions a risk for complex divorces? An examination of the role of emotions in divorced parents and co-parenting concerns

In this study, we examined whether regular divorces can be distinguished from complex divorces by measuring the intensity of negative emotions that divorced parents report when thinking about their ex-partner. We recruited two groups of parents: n = 136 in a regular divorce, and n = 191 in a complex divorce. Based on the existing literature, we predicted that parents in complex divorces experience more intense negative emotions than parents in regular divorces; especially emotions that motivate emotional distancing (contempt, disgust, anger, hatred, and rage) and emotions that impair self-regulation (fear, shame, guilt, and sadness). We also predicted that these emotions would hamper co-parenting, particularly in complex divorces. The results provided support for our predictions, except for fear and sadness. We found that parents in a complex divorce reported more co-parenting concerns than parents in a regular divorce. In contrast to our expectations, the relation between negative emotions and coparenting concerns was stronger among parents in a regular divorce than in a complex divorce. These findings underline the importance of emotions in the divorce trajectory and suggest that especially the intensity of emotional distancing emotions may serve as a screening tool to identify parents at risk for a complex divorce

Mentaal welbevinden van de jeugd: lessen uit de coronacrisis: Een nieuw overzicht van de onderzoeksliteratuur

Dit rapport biedt een overzicht van onderzoeken naar de belangrijkste gevolgen van de coronacrisis en daaraan gerelateerde maatregelen op het mentaal welbevinden van kinderen, jongeren en jongvolwassenen in Nederland. Doel is ook om de bevindingen uit alle beschikbare onderzoeken door jongeren en onderzoekers gezamenlijk te laten duiden. We kijken in dit rapport naar verschillende aspecten van mentaal welbevinden. Zoals kwaliteit van leven, depressie, angst en psychosomatische klachten, waaronder stress. Ook kijken we naar wat er tijdens de coronacrisis gebeurde in de sociale omgeving van jongeren. Bijvoorbeeld in het gezin, onder leeftijdsgenoten, hun vrijetijdsbesteding, op school en werk. Daarnaast beschouwen we hoe het toekomstperspectief van jongeren zich heeft ontwikkeld tijdens de coronacrisis en hoe jongeren zelf aankijken tegen het coronabelei

Tracking Mental Wellbeing of Dutch Adolescents During the First Year of the COVID-19 Lockdown: A Longitudinal Study

Purpose: Adolescents might be susceptible to the effects of the COVID-19 lockdown. We assessed changes in mental wellbeing throughout the first year of the pandemic and compared these with prepandemic levels. Methods: This five-wave prospective study among Dutch adolescents aged 12–17 years used data collected before the pandemic (n = 224) (T0), in May (T1), July (T2), and October 2020 (T3), and in February 2021 (T4). Generalized estimating equations were used to assess the association between stringency of the lockdown with mental wellbeing. Results: Adolescents had a lower life satisfaction during the first full lockdown (T1) [adjusted β: −0.36, 95% confidence interval (CI): −0.58 to −0.13], during the partial lockdown (T3) (adjusted β: −0.37, 95% CI: −0.63 to −0.12), and during the second full lockdown (T4) (adjusted β: −0.79, 95% CI: −1.07 to −0.52) compared to before the pandemic (T0). Adolescents reported more internalizing symptoms during only the second full lockdown (T4) (adjusted β: 2.58, 95% CI: 0.41–4.75). During the pandemic [at T1 (adjusted β: 0.29, 95% CI: 0.20–0.38), T2 (adjusted β: 0.36, 95% CI: 0.26–0.46), T3 (adjusted β: 0.33, 95% CI: 0.22–0.45), and T4 (adjusted β: 0.20, 95% CI: 0.07–0.34)], adolescents reported a better psychosomatic health, partly attributable to less trouble falling asleep (p < .01). Discussion: The COVID-19 lockdown measures have had both a negative and positive impact on mental wellbeing of Dutch adolescents. However, mental wellbeing was most impacted during the second full lockdown compared to before the pandemic

Defining and Measuring Resilience in Children with a Chronic Disease: a Scoping Review

UNLABELLED: More than 25% of all children grow up with a chronic disease. They are at higher risk for developmental and psychosocial problems. However, children who function resiliently manage to adapt positively to these challenges. We aim to systematically review how resilience is defined and measured in children with a chronic disease. A search of PubMed, Cochrane, Embase, and PsycINFO was performed on December 9, 2022, using resilience, disease, and child/adolescent as search terms. Two reviewers independently screened articles for inclusion according to predefined criteria. Extraction domains included study characteristics, definition, and instruments assessing resilience outcomes, and resilience factors. Fifty-five out of 8766 articles were identified as relevant. In general, resilience was characterized as positive adaptation to adversity. The included studies assessed resilience by the outcomes of positive adaptation, or by resilience factors, or both. We categorized the assessed resilience outcomes into three groups: personal traits, psychosocial functioning, and disease-related outcomes. Moreover, myriad of resilience factors were measured, which were grouped into internal resilience factors (cognitive, social, and emotional competence factors), disease-related factors, and external factors (caregiver factors, social factors, and contextual factors). Our scoping review provides insight into the definitions and instruments used to measure resilience in children with a chronic disease. More knowledge is needed on which resilience factors are related to positive adaptation in specific illness-related challenges, which underlying mechanisms are responsible for this positive adaptation, and how these underlying mechanisms interact with one another. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42844-023-00092-2