Autonomy-restrictive socialization of anger: Associations with school-aged children's physiology, trait anxiety, state distress, and relationship closeness

Exploring Attachment Differences Across the Contexts of Sports and Academics: A Qualitative Exploration of Child and Parent Experiences

This study aimed to explore the nature of contextual differences in child-parent attachment relationships and examine how these experiences relate to children's psychological outcomes. A theoretically informed qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with 15 participants across four groups of Taiwanese youths and parents, representing different contextual attachment combinations. Data were analyzed using a hybrid thematic analysis approach, integrating both inductive and deductive methods. The findings revealed two key characteristics of secure attachment across contexts: (1) parental timely and sensitive responsiveness enhances children's openness to share personal thoughts, and (2) parental empathic and genuine concern fosters children's empathy. Conversely, insecure attachment across contexts was marked by (1) inappropriate parental responses reducing children's willingness to share their inner feelings, and (2) parental lack of empathy frustrating children and discouraging communication. In addition, parental beliefs about children's achievement behaviors (e.g., expectation primarily centered on academic achievement and viewing athletic achievement as an alternative pathway to higher education) and parenting practices (e.g., performance- vs. mastery-oriented achievement goals, conditional negative regard, and psychological control through invalidating feelings and demeaning the child) significantly influenced children's psychological outcomes, particularly in terms of basic psychological needs satisfaction and frustration (autonomy and competence) across academic and sports domains. These findings advance our theoretical understanding of contextual attachment dynamics and provide practical insights for fostering optimal parenting strategies, particularly in academic and sport-related contexts.

Does school climate affect student well-being? Anxiety in school situations as a predictor of stress in high-school students

BACKGROUND

When the school climate is not ideal and coping skills for school situations are not strengthened in adolescents, school anxiety and stress may be manifested, potentially harming development and mental health during adulthood. This study aimed to analyze the predictive ability of school anxiety on elevated levels of stress in high-school students.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This cross-sectional predictive study was conducted with 1588 students aged 12-18 (M = 14.82; SD = 1.86) years in 2023. The School Anxiety Inventory (SAI) and the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21) were administered to the participants. An inferential data analysis method was applied. Specifically, binary logistic regression was used for data analysis. The influence of school anxiety on stress was examined using the odds ratio statistic.

RESULTS

The total score on school anxiety (OR = 1.02), the situational factors: anxiety about aggression (OR = 1.03), anxiety regarding social evaluation (OR = 1.02), anxiety about failure and school punishment (OR = 1.03), and anxiety about school evaluation (OR = 1.04), as well as the response systems: cognitive (OR = 1.04), behavioral (OR = 1.08), and psychophysiological (OR = 1.04), positively and significantly (P = 0.000) influenced the high scores on stress.

CONCLUSION

The results demonstrate the need to detect school anxiety in adolescents at an early state to intervene in both anxiety-provoking situations and responses and in the resulting high stress. Similarly, schools should promote mental health work and self-regulation to prepare students for adult life.

Operationalizing intimacy and identity aspects of personality functioning in relation to personality disorder in adolescents

According to dimensional models of personality pathology, deficits in interpersonal (intimacy and empathy) and self (identity and self-direction) function (Criterion A) are core to all personality disorders. These aspects of personality functioning (Criterion A) have seldom been evaluated for how they might relate to one another in the context of personality pathology in adolescents. Moreover, the use of performance-based measures to evaluate aspects of Criterion A function remains an untapped resource. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate relations between two features of Criterion A, maladaptive intimacy and maladaptive (or diffused) identity, in adolescence. For intimacy, we leverage a performance-based approach to studying intimacy, operationalized in a developmentally relevant way (perceived parental closeness). For identity, we rely on a validated self-report measure of identity diffusion. We examined the relationship between these features with each other and their relations with borderline features. Additionally, we explored whether identity diffusion mediated the expected relationship between perceived parental closeness and borderline features. We hypothesized that greater distance in perceived parental closeness would be associated with higher levels of borderline features, as well as higher levels of identity diffusion, and that identity diffusion would account for the relationship between intimacy and personality pathology. The sample included 131 inpatient adolescents (M age = 15.35, 70.2% female). Results indicated that intimacy, operationalized as perceived parental closeness, with both mothers and fathers was significantly associated with levels of identity diffusion and borderline features. In addition, greater feelings of closeness with parents were associated with lower severity of borderline features via healthier identity function. Implications of the results, limitations, and future directions are discussed.

Multidimensional Discrimination Distress, Controlling Parenting, and Parent-Adolescent Attachment Relationships: Racial/Ethnic Differences

Parents have multifaceted identities, across dimensions like race/ethnicity, gender, and class, which shape their experience of discrimination. However, little is known about how distress from such multidimensional discrimination influences parenting behavior and parent-adolescent relationships. We tested associations between mothers' multidimensional discrimination distress and parental control (overcontrol and conditional regard) and daughters' attachment, among 82 African American (AA), Hispanic/Latina (HL), and non-Hispanic White (NHW) mother-adolescent daughter dyads in the United States. Additionally, we examined whether these associations vary by race/ethnicity. Mothers reported their distress due to multidimensional discrimination and adolescents reported mothers' overcontrol, mothers' conditional regard, and adolescents' attachment to mothers. Across racial/ethnic groups, more multidimensional discrimination distress was associated with more maternal overcontrol. Additionally, racial/ethnic groups differed in associations between discrimination, maternal conditional regard, and adolescent attachment, such that AA mothers were buffered from the deleterious effects of discrimination on conditional regard and adolescent attachment. HL mothers were buffered from effects on adolescent attachment and conditional regard for anger expression, but not fear expression. Findings suggest that stigmatized racial/ethnic groups may rely on adaptive cultural practices to parent effectively in the face of multidimensional discrimination distress, but these resources may not be available to NHW mothers.

Parental conditional regard: A meta-analysis

INTRODUCTION

Parental conditional regard involves parents giving or withdrawing affection and approval, depending on children's and adolescents' compliance with parental expectations, to shape behaviors and traits. Research grounded in self-determination theory suggests parental conditional regard harms psychological development. Using self-determination theory as a theoretical foundation for investigating outcomes associated with parental conditional regard, the present study consolidated meta-analytic associations between parental conditional regard and four theoretically important individual difference correlates: introjected self-regulation, contingent self-esteem, depressive symptoms, and relatedness.

METHODS

Following PRISMA guidelines, a systematic literature search was conducted using the PsycINFO, ProQuest, and EBSCO databases for English-language, peer-reviewed published studies and unpublished studies. Eligible studies reported an association between parental conditional regard and the four theoretically derived correlates or another correlate of interest in pre-adolescent children, adolescents, or young adults. The results were based on a random-effects model for meta-analyses and the Q statistic for moderator analyses.

RESULTS

Across 31 samples in total, greater parental conditional regard was significantly associated with more introjected regulation (r = .33), contingent self-esteem (r = .29), and level of depressive symptoms (r = .22); and less relatedness (r = -.24). Moderator results for parental conditional regard type found parental conditional regard's association with introjected regulation was significantly stronger for studies measuring giving regard (parental conditional positive regard) than withdrawing regard (parental conditional negative regard). The association of parental conditional regard with depressive symptoms was significantly stronger for studies measuring parental conditional negative regard than parental conditional positive regard.

CONCLUSIONS

The meta-analytic results provide theoretical and empirical support for the connections between self-determination and the impact of parental conditional regard.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of the association between parenting and child autonomic nervous system activity

Parental socialization may influence the development of children's autonomic nervous system (ANS), a key stress-response system. However, to date no quantitative synthesis of the literature linking parenting and child ANS physiology has been conducted. To address this gap, we conducted a pre-registered meta-analysis. A systematic review of the literature identified 103 studies (n = 13,044 participants) with available effect sizes describing the association between parenting and either parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) or sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity in children. The overall analysis revealed non-significant associations between parenting and child ANS physiology on average. However, moderation analyses revealed a positive association between more positive parenting and higher resting PNS activity that was stronger when a study was experimental rather than correlational, and when the sample included children with a clinical condition. In conclusion, well-controlled experimental studies show that positive parenting is associated with the development of higher resting PNS activity, an effect that may be stronger among children who are at elevated developmental risk.

Identifying Profiles of Anxiety in Late Childhood and Exploring Their Relationship with School-Based Distress

Failure in dealing with anxiety-provoking situations and stressors in the school setting may have negative consequences not only on children’s performance, but also on their well-being in the future. This research aimed to examine the relationship of forms of anxiety (anticipatory anxiety, school-based performance anxiety, and generalized anxiety) with sources (teacher interactions, academic stress, peer interactions, and academic self-concept) and manifestations (emotional, behavioral, and physiological) of school-based distress. Specifically, our objectives were to examine the correlations between anxiety and school-based distress and, using a person-centered approach, to verify whether different anxiety profiles differed in their levels of distress. The Visual Analogue Scale for Anxiety-Revised (VAA-R) and the School Situation Survey (SSS) were administered to 756 Spanish students (M_age = 9.6, SD = 1.12); 50.3% were girls. Pearson’s correlation coefficients revealed a positive and significant association between each form of anxiety and each source and manifestation of distress. The latent profile analysis identified three anxiety profiles: High Anxiety, High School-based performance Anxiety, and Low Anxiety. The High Anxiety profile scored significantly higher in all sources and manifestations of distress than the Low Anxiety profile. The High Anxiety profile showed significantly higher scores in peer interactions and emotional and behavioral manifestations of distress than the group High School-based performance Anxiety. Suggestions for intervention strategies according to the risk profile are discussed.