Positive Youth Development: Parental Warmth, Values, and Prosocial Behavior in 11 Cultural Groups

The current cross-cultural study aimed to extend research on parenting and children\u27s prosocial behavior by examining relations among parental warmth, values related to family obligations (i.e., children\u27s support to and respect for their parents, siblings, and extended family), and prosocial behavior during the transition to adolescence (from ages 9 to 12). Mothers, fathers, and their children (N = 1107 families) from 8 countries including 11 cultural groups (Colombia; Rome and Naples, Italy; Jordan; Kenya; the Philippines; Sweden; Thailand; and African Americans, European Americans, and Latin Americans in the United States) provided data over 3 years in 3 waves (M-age of child in wave 1 = 9.34 years, SD = 0.75; 50.5% female). Overall, across all 11 cultural groups, multivariate change score analysis revealed positive associations among the change rates of parental warmth, values related to family obligations, and prosocial behavior during late childhood (from age 9 to 10) and early-adolescence (from age 10 to 12). In most cultural groups, more parental warmth at ages 9 and 10 predicted steeper mean-level increases in prosocial behavior in subsequent years. The findings highlight the prominent role of positive family context, characterized by warm relationships and shared prosocial values, in fostering children\u27s positive development in the transition to adolescence. The practical implications of these findings are discussed

Maternal and paternal psychological control and adolescents’ negative adjustment: a dyadic longitudinal study in three countries

Psychological Control (PC) interferes with autonomy-related processes in adolescence and has a negative impact on adolescents’ development related to internalizing and externalizing problems. Several scholars suggested that PC can be used differently by mothers and fathers. However, these differences are still understudied and mainly grounded on maternal and/or adolescents’ perspectives, leading to potentially incomplete inferences on the effects of PC. The present study extends previous research on PC in two directions. First, we tested the dyadic and cumulative effects of maternal and paternal PC on adolescents’ antisocial behaviors and anxious-depressive symptoms. Secondly, we explored the cross-cultural generalizability of these associations in three countries: Italy, Colombia, and USA. Participants included 376 families with data from three consecutive years (T1, adolescents’ age=13.70). Mothers’ and fathers’ reports of PC and youth’s reports of antisocial and internalizing behaviors were assessed. Using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) we found that maternal PC predicted adolescents’ reported antisocial behaviors whereas paternal PC predicted lower anxious-depressed symptoms. Comparisons across countries evidenced the cross-cultural invariance of the longitudinal APIM across Italy, Colombia, and USA. The practical implications of these results are discussed

Cross-national evidences of a school-based universal program for promoting prosocial behaviors in peer interactions: Main theoretical communalities and local uniqueness

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of prosocial behavior against aggression in a school-based universal intervention adapted in two different (non-Western) countries, Colombia and Chile. Using a randomized pretest-posttest design (and controlling for participants’ gender and parents’ level of education), current results highlighted different effects of a similar program in both sites. First, the school-based universal program designed for promoting prosocial behaviors in the peer context obtained a positive cross-national effect on prosocial behavior rated by three informants (i.e., self, peer, and teacher reports). In Colombia this effect was moderated by the initial level of prosociality of the participants and their level of education. Mediational two waves model corroborated that the improvement on prosocial behaviors in both countries (moderated in the case of Colombia) predicted significantly lower level of physical aggression. Characteristics of the implementation considering different cultural and historical backgrounds were discussed

Positive Youth Development: Parental Warmth, Values, and Prosocial Behavior in 11 Cultural Groups

The current cross-cultural study aimed to extend research on parenting and children’s prosocial behavior by examining relations among parental warmth, values related to family obligations (i.e., children’s support to and respect for their parents, siblings, and extended family), and prosocial behavior during the transition to adolescence (from ages 9 to 12). Mothers, fathers, and their children (N = 1107 families) from 8 countries including 11 cultural groups (Colombia; Rome and Naples, Italy; Jordan; Kenya; the Philippines; Sweden; Thailand; and African Americans, European Americans, and Latin Americans in the United States) provided data over 3 years in 3 waves (Mage of child in wave 1 = 9.34 years, SD = 0.75; 50.5% female). Overall, across all 11 cultural groups, multivariate change score analysis revealed positive associations among the change rates of parental warmth, values related to family obligations, and prosocial behavior during late childhood (from age 9 to 10) and early-adolescence (from age 10 to 12). In most cultural groups, more parental warmth at ages 9 and 10 predicted steeper mean-level increases in prosocial behavior in subsequent years. The findings highlight the prominent role of positive family context, characterized by warm relationships and shared prosocial values, in fostering children’s positive development in the transition to adolescence. The practical implications of these findings are discussed

Mother's personality, parenting and child's externalizing behavior problems

The first study, titled “Maternal irritability and aggressive behavior in family context “, aims to extend actual knowledge on the relation between mother Irritability trait and mother aggressive discipline toward her child. It examined the construct validity of the reduced version of Irritability Scale (Caprara et al., 1985) on 200 mother-child dyads from two family Italian context: Rome and Naples. The first part of the study 1 presents the construct of irritability trait and its relation with aggressive behaviors, it continues by reviewing the main theoretical models for the development of aggressive behavior [Frustration-Aggression Theory (Dollard et al., 1939); Cognitive Neo-Association Theory (Berkowitz, 1989); Social Learning Theory (Bandura, 1971)] and it concludes with a review of studies (experimental, correlational and in familiar contexts) on the relationship between irritability, aggressive behaviors and harsh parenting measures. The empirical part of the study, first analyzes the internal validity of Irritability Scale (Caprara et al., 1985) in family contexts: it confirms mono-factorial structure and reveals partial invariance between samples. Then, adopting a multi-informant approach, the study confirms construct validity, showing positive associations among maternal irritability and mother’s physical aggression, verbal aggression, and hostility-rejection. The second study, titled “Trait and state variance of mother’s irritability and mother’s harsh parenting in two italian samples”, is a longitudinal study that aims to estimate the effects of situation and trait on irritability and to examine the relation between mother’s irritability and her harsh parenting over time (four time-points). The first part of the study 2 presents the Latent State-Trait Theory (Steyer, Ferring, & Schmitt, 1992; Steyer, Schmitt, & Eid, 1999), on which is based the study. The empirical part of the study, preliminarily analyzes the factor structure of the Irritability Scale in both Italian sample (i.e., Naples and Rome) and at each wave: the results confirm mono-factorial structure of the scale. Then, it analyzes latent state-trait of irritability: the results indicate that each single indicator contained more trait than situation influence. Finally, it examines a conditional latent-state model: the results reveal that mother trait irritability component had a statistically significant effect in predicting later harsh parenting, above and beyond the effects of the occasion-specific situation. The third study, titled “Mother personality and child temperament as predictors of externalizing behavior problem trajectory from age 12 to age 14”, is a longitudinal study that explorer the joint contribution of parents’ personality characteristics (irritability) and children’s temperament (inhibitory control) to the development of children’s externalizing problems. The first part of the study 3 presents the ecological theoretical models of child development (e.g., Belsky, 1984; Bronfenbrenner, 1986), on which is based the study and examines the relationship between the child's externalizing behaviors, temperament of the child and mother's personality. The empirical part of the study identifies, using multilevel modeling (MLM), trajectory of adolescents’ externalizing behavior problems, including mother’s irritability and inhibitory control as predictors. The results indicate that higher levels of mothers' irritability predicted higher levels of externalizing behaviors over time and the inhibitory control moderates this relation

Personality correlates of problematic tendencies and links to relational competences in adolescence

During the transition from early to mid- adolescence some adolescents’ personality characteristics may represent risk factors for their later adjustment or promoting factors for their positive development (Caspi & Roberts, 1990; Tackett, 2006). In particular, in the last years, research has found specific association among some personality profiles and negative behavior or with positive interpersonal experiences (e.g., Asendorpf & Van Aken, 1999; De Clerq et al, 2012, Yu et al, 2014; Xie et al, 2016) According to those studies, our contribution was aimed to examine: a) preadolescents’ personality profiles based on the Big Five personality traits model (McCrae & Costa, 1999); b) the role of personality profiles in predicting problematic behaviors (i.e. externalizing problems), and relational competence (i.e. prosocial behavior, PB, and Quality of Friendship, QoF) three years later; c) the moderating role of gender in the association between personality profiles and indicators of (mal)adjustment. Participants were 331 boys and 284 girls Italian preadolescents (age M = 12.5) from Genzano Longitudinal Study. They were examined at age 12 (T1) and three years later (T2). Latent Profile Analysis on personality traits at T1 suggested four different personality profiles: (a) Resilient (high on all traits); (b) Moderate (average on all traits); (c) Vulnerable (low on all traits); and (d) Undercontrolled (low on Conscientiousness and Emotional Stability, high on Extraversion). Multiple group path analysis suggested that Vulnerable profile predicted at T2 lower PB in boys and girls, and higher externalizing problems and QoF only in girls; Undercontrolled profile predicted higher externalizing problems and lower PB in boys and girls, and better QoF in boys. Our findings suggested that adolescents’ personality profiles may affect adolescents’ proneness to positive or negative interpersonal behavior, and the quality of their relations with peer over time. Furthermore, those longitudinal associations may be partially different for boys and girls