Longitudinal links between expressive flexibility and friendship quality in adolescence:The moderating effect of social anxiety

IntroductionExpressive flexibility, or the ability to both up- and down-regulate emotional expressions in social interactions, is thought as an indicator and a consequence of healthy interpersonal relationships. The present longitudinal study examined bidirectional associations between expressive flexibility and friendship quality in early adolescence. Since prior research found inconsistent results regarding the adaptiveness of expressive flexibility, which indicated the necessity to consider individual variability in the process, we further tested the potential moderating effect of social anxiety in the links from expressive flexibility to friendship quality. MethodsParticipants from two junior high schools in eastern China (N = 274; 50.4% female; M-age = 13.56) were surveyed at three time points with 6-month intervals. Expressive flexibility, friendship quality, and social anxiety were all assessed via self-reported scales. ResultsAccording to the cross-lagged model results, friendship quality significantly predicted increased expressive flexibility over time. Conversely, the longitudinal association from expressive flexibility to friendship quality was not significant, but the interaction between expressive flexibility and social anxiety significantly predicted later friendship quality. Further analyses via the Johnson-Neyman technique revealed that expressive flexibility only positively predicted friendship quality for adolescents with lower levels of social anxiety. ConclusionOur results suggest that expressive flexibility is not always socially adaptive, so practical interventions that aim to improve youths' social adjustment via expressive flexibility training might need to consider the role of individual characteristics

Siblings versus parents and friends:Longitudinal linkages to adolescent externalizing problems

Background: It is well documented that friends’ externalizing problems and negative parent–child interactions predict externalizing problems in adolescence, but relatively little is known about the role of siblings. This four-wave, multi-informant study investigated linkages of siblings’ externalizing problems and sibling–adolescent negative interactions on adolescents’ externalizing problems, while examining and controlling for similar linkages with friends and parents. Methods: Questionnaire data on externalizing problems and negative interactions were annually collected from 497 Dutch adolescents (M = 13.03 years, SD = 0.52, at baseline), as well as their siblings, mothers, fathers, and friends. Results: Cross-lagged panel analyses revealed modest unique longitudinal paths from sibling externalizing problems to adolescent externalizing problems, for male and female adolescents, and for same-sex and mixed-sex sibling dyads, but only from older to younger siblings. Moreover, these paths were above and beyond significant paths from mother–adolescent negative interaction and friend externalizing problems to adolescent externalizing problems, 1 year later. No cross-lagged paths existed between sibling–adolescent negative interaction and adolescent externalizing problems. Conclusions: Taken together, it appears that especially older sibling externalizing problems may be a unique social risk factor for adolescent externalizing problems, equal in strength to significant parents’ and friends’ risk factors

Disclosures of maternal HIV infection to seronegative children: A literature review

Mothers living with HIV/AIDS face the challenge of disclosing their illness to their uninfected children. This literature review devotes specific attention to rates and predictors of maternal disclosure, justifications for (non)disclosure, how mothers plan and execute disclosures, and postdisclosure adjustment in families. Although no research has conclusively shown that maternal disclosures are detrimental to children’s wellbeing, findings on adjustment may differ depending on child age and whether mothers or children are the informants in research. Suggestions for further studies include the implications of mothers ’ specific communication strategies; age-related differences in, and adjustment to, disclosures; differentiating between short- and long-term functioning; and the further development of structured interventions to aid mothers and their families in both the pre- and postdisclosure period. KEY WORDS: coping with parental illness • disclosure • family communication • maternal HIV/AIDS In 2003, women represented approximately one-fifth of all new AIDS diagnoses (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2005). Women constitute one of the fastest growing groups in this epidemic, and a dispro-portionate number of them are poor, urban, and identify as a member of an ethnic minority group (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Taking your place or matching your face: two paths to empathic embarrassment

Empathic responding may be elicited by different processes, depending on the available situational and affective cues. We investigated two such processes, perspective-taking and nonverbal mimicry. In Study 1, participants watched an embarrassed or unembarrassed confederate dancing to music while either remaining objective or engaging in perspective-taking. Both manipulations affected empathic embarrassment. Study 2 further examined the effects of targets' embarrassment displays and observers' prior experience with the situation upon spontaneous perspective-taking, expressive mimicry, and empathic embarrassment. Embarrassment displays increased mimicry, but also spontaneous perspective-taking and subsequent empathy. Prior experience moderated the effects of embarrassment displays on perspective-taking and empathy. Path analyses demonstrated that embarrassment displays exerted indirect effects on empathic embarrassment through both perspective-taking and mimicry. The results suggest that available affective and situational cues can activate different routes to empathy, and highlight the value of simultaneously investigating target- and observer-based sources of influence