The differential relations of maternal and paternal support and control to adolescent social competence, self-worth, and sympathy

The goal of this study was to examine how the parenting dimensions of both mothers and fathers independently and together predict adolescent outcomes in three domains: sympathy, self-worth, and social competence. One-hundred eight adolescents completed self report measures on their perceived relationship with parents, sympathy, social competence, and self-worth. Perceived maternal support and rigid control were the most consistent predictors of adolescent adjustment. High levels of perceived maternal support and low levels of maternal rigid control were related to adolescents’ reports of sympathy, social competence, and self-worth. In contrast, support and control from fathers was generally unrelated to adolescent adjustment. The one exception was in predicting sympathy, where father support interacted with maternal support in predicting sympathy. When perceived support from fathers was high, maternal support was unrelated to sympathy. In contrast, when perceived support from fathers was low, perceived maternal support was a statistically signifi cant predictor of sympathy

159 Mother-Child Discourse Surrounding a Child’s Past Behavior at 30 Months: Links to Emotional Understanding and Early Conscience Development at 36 Months

Recent research supports the idea that both the content and style of mother-child discourse is important in shaping a child’s early moral understanding. This study was designed to further this research by examining how the clarity, elaborativeness, and emotional content of conversations about the past related to a child’s sociomoral development. Sixty-three mother-child dyads took part in the study. When the child was 30 months, each mother was asked to discuss with her child two past events, one in which her child behaved well and one in which her child misbehaved. These conversations were transcribed and coded for emotional content and for maternal narrative style. At 36 months, children completed measures of early conscience development and emotional understanding. Mother’s use of clear, elaborative discourse and emotion-laden discourse in the conversations about child’s past behavior at 30 months were related to a child’s early conscience development and emotional understanding 6 months later

The Differential Relations of Parent and Peer Attachment to Adolescent Adjustment

Whether or not close emotional relationships with parents and peers serve similar functions for adolescent adjustment is an issue of increasing interest. The present study was designed to examine the relations between parent and peer attachment and adolescent adjustment. Eighty-nine adolescents (M age = 16.1 years, SD = 1.8 years) completed self-report measures of parent and peer attachment, sympathy, academic efficacy, aggression, anxiety, and depression. Adolescents were divided into four groups on the basis of their parent and peer attachment scores: those high on both, those low on both, those high on peer but low on parent attachment, and those high on parent but low on peer attachment. Discriminant function analyses revealed that the groups differed only along one dimension, suggesting that parent and peer attachment served similar functions in terms of the adjustment indices measured. Adolescents high on both peer and parent attachment were the best adjusted (i.e., least aggressive and depressed, most sympathetic) and those low on both were the least well adjusted. Furthermore, those high on peer but low on parent attachment were better adjusted than those high on parent but low on peer attachment, suggesting that peer attachment may be relatively more influential on adolescent adjustment than parent attachment

Pathways to Self-Esteem in Late Adolescence: The Role of Parent and Peer Attachment, Empathy, and Social Behaviors

The goal of this study was to examine both the direct and indirect relations of parent and peer attachment with self-esteem and to examine the potential mediating roles of empathy and social behavior. 246 college students (Mage = 18.6 years, s.d. = 1.61) completed self-report measures of parent and peer attachment, empathy, social behavior, and self-esteem. Structural equation modeling revealed that parental attachment had mostly direct effects on self-esteem. Among females, the links between peer attachment and self-esteem, however, were entirely mediated by empathy and prosocial behavior. The findings from this study suggest that although close supportive relationships with parents and peers are related to adolescent self-esteem, these links are complex

Why are Girls Less Physically Aggressive than Boys? Personality and Parenting Mediators of Physical Aggression

The primary goal of the present analysis was to determine whether the commonly observed gender difference in physical aggression could be accounted for by gender differences in selected personality and social contextual factors. Eighty-nine adolescents (M age = 16.0; 52% female; 53% European-Americans, 38% Latinos) completed self-report measures, including sympathy (empathic concern and perspective taking) and parental involvement (support and monitoring). Mediation analyses revealed that relatively high levels of both empathic concern and parental monitoring accounted for relatively low levels of physical aggression. In addition, sympathy (for males) and parental involvement (males and females) were negatively related to physical aggression. Discussion focused on theoretical and practical implications of these findings

Attachment Security and Child\u27s Empathy: The Mediating Role of Emotion Regulation

The current study examined the influence of multiple factors on individual differ- ences in empathy; namely, attachment, negative emotionality, and emotion regulation. A total of 63 mothers completed the Attachment Q-set and questionnaires about their children’s empathy, negative emotionality, and emotion regulation when children were 3 years old. Prosocial behavior was observed during a baby-cry procedure. Results of path analyses indicated that a model with attachment predicting empathy through the mediation of emotion regulation was the best fit for the data. Specifically, more-secure children were rated higher in emotion regulation and, consequently, higher in empathy. Furthermore, the optimal model was used to test empathy as a predictor of observed prosocial behavior. Here, children higher in empathy were observed to behave more prosocially. Overall, the results support the notion that more-secure children are more empathic because they are better emotion regulators

Parents' valuing diversity and White children's prosociality toward White and Black peers

Although scholars are increasingly building empirical evidence that helps us understand racism, they have conducted surprisingly little research on White children's prosocial behavior toward historically marginalized people. 190 White, non-Hispanic children (M = 7.09 years, 54.2% boys) participated in the study. We examined whether both parents' reported values for racial diversity in their children's friendships and parents' and teachers' reports of children's cross-race friendships were related to children's sharing behaviors toward Black or White peers. We found that parents' valuing of diversity was positively related to older, but not younger, children's sharing behavior toward Black peers but not White peers. Further, for children of all age, parental diversity values were positively related to teachers' and parents' report of children's cross-race friendships. Our findings indicate that interventions to improve White children's positive behavior toward Black peers should include a focus on contexts that promote equity (i.e., parents' values and friendships)