Parental bonding and identity style as correlates of self-esteem among adult adoptees and nonadoptees

Adult adoptees (n equals 100) and non-adoptees (n equals 100) were compared with regard to selfesteem, identity processing style, and parental bonding. While some differences were found with regard to self-esteem, maternal care, and maternal overprotection, these differences were qualified by reunion status such that only reunited adoptees differed significantly from nonadoptees. Moreover, hierarchical regression analyses indicated that parental bonding and identity processing style were more important than adoptive status per se in predicting self esteem. Implications for practitioners who work with adoptees are discussed

Rudd Chair Annual Report 2017

2017 report from the Rudd Family Foundation Chair in Psychology

Personal identity processes from adolescence through the late 20s : age trends, functionality, and depressive symptoms

Personal identity formation constitutes a crucial developmental task during the teens and 20s. Using a recently developed five-dimensional identity model, this cross-sectional study (N = 5834) investigated age trends from ages 14 to 30 for different commitment and exploration processes. As expected, results indicated that, despite some fluctuations over time, commitment processes tended to increase in a linear fashion. Exploration in breadth and exploration in depth were characterized by quadratic trends, with the highest levels occurring in emerging adulthood. Further, the functionality of these identity processes, and especially of exploration, changed over time. Exploration in breadth and exploration in depth were strongly related to commitment processes especially in adolescence and emerging adulthood, but these exploration processes became increasingly associated with ruminative exploration and depressive symptoms in the late 20s. Theoretical implications and suggestions for future research are outlined

Rudd Chair Annual Report 2015

2015 report from the Rudd Family Foundation Chair in Psychology

Rudd Chair Annual Report, 2013

2013 report from the Rudd Family Foundation Chair in Psychology. Includes information on community partnerships, goals reached, communications, teaching, mentoring, and service

Rudd Chair Annual Report, 2012

2012 Annual Report of the Rudd Family Foundation Chair in Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Reports on community partnerships, goals reached, teaching, mentoring, and service. Mentions work being conducted by graduate students and postdocs mentored through the Rudd Program, including three clinical doctoral students at UMass: Quade French, Holly Grant- Marsney, and Danila Musante

Five types of personality continuity in childhood and adolescence.

This study examines 5 types of personality continuity - structural, mean-level, individual-level, differential, and ipsative - in a representative population (N=498) and a twin and sibling sample (N=548) of children and adolescents. Parents described their children on 2 successive occasions with a 36-month interval using the Hierarchical Personality Inventory for Children (I. Mervielde & F. De Fruyt, 1999). There was evidence for structural continuity in the 2 samples, and personality was shown to be largely differentially stable. A large percentage had a stable trait profile indicative of ipsative stability, and mean-level personality changes were generally small in magnitude. Continuity findings were explained mainly by genetic and nonshared environmental factors. Copyright 2006 by the American Psychological Association