Perceptions of problem behavior in adolescents' families: perceiver, target, and family effects

Validation of the sixth version of the Addiction Severity Index (ASI-6) for patients in a clinical population of Colombia

Introduction: The Addiction Severity Index (ASI-6) is recommended for identifying the needs of addicted patients and assessing the effectiveness of a program. Objective: To develop a version of the ASI-6 suitable for Colombia and trans-linguistically and trans-culturally equivalent to the original. Additionally, this study also sought to assess the reliability and construct validity of the resulting version. Materials and methods: The study included Colombian adults with harmful substance use or dependence syndrome who were being treated at drug addiction centers. The original English version underwent a cultural adaptation process. The scale was translated and back-translated to assess its equivalence. Reliability was assessed in terms of internal consistency and interrater and test-retest reliability. The convergent aspect of the construct validity was assessed via the correlation of the instrument with other scales measuring similar underlying constructs. Results: We found an adequate internal consistency for the subscales of the ASI-6 for its Cronbach´s alpha coefficient was above 0.7 with the exception of the social problems subscale (α=0.66). In addition, interrater and test-retest reliability was high, since their intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was above 0.7 for all the subscales. Construct validity was demonstrated by a Spearman correlation coefficient ranging from 0.53 to 0.88 between the ASI-6 subscales and other similar scales. Conclusion: The version of the ASI-6 adapted to the Colombian context was found to have good reliability and validity, thus it can be introduced into clinical practice. However, additional studies are needed to evaluate its responsiveness and structural validity.

Parents' Perceived Similarity to Their Children, and Parents' Perspective Taking Efforts: Associations of Cross-Informant Discrepancies with Adolescent Problem Behavior

The main goal of this study is to provide empirical evidence for a theoretical mechanism underlying cross-informant discrepancies (CID), which occur between reports of different informants (e.g., children/adolescents and parents) of children's/adolescents' problem behavior. Studies comprehensively corroborate the existence of CID. However, an explanation of CID is rudimentary and inconsistent. Respective research often suffers from methodological problems and is often atheoretical. Addressing these critics, this study uses polynomial regression and is based on research on mind perception and anchoring-and-adjustment theory. It was assumed that higher CID are associated with parents' perceived similarity to their children, whereas lower CID are related to parents' perspective-taking efforts. Analyses were based on N = 168 parent-child dyads (children's mean age: 12.50 years). Reports on problem behavior displayed substantial mean differences and medium-sized correlations. Polynomial regressions on CID partly supported the influence of parents' perceived similarity and perspective taking efforts on CID. Results are discussed in the context of a possible theoretical fundament for CID.

Autonomy-Supportive Parenting and Autonomy-Supportive Sibling Interactions

Autonomy-supportive parenting yields manifold benefits. To gain more insight into the family-level dynamics involved in autonomy-supportive parenting, the present study addressed three issues. First, on the basis of self-determination theory, we examined whether mothers’ satisfaction of the psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness related to autonomy-supportive parenting. Second, we investigated maternal autonomy support as an intervening variable in the mother–child similarity in psychological need satisfaction. Third, we examined associations between autonomy-supportive parenting and autonomy-supportive sibling interactions. Participants were 154 mothers ( M age = 39.45, SD = 3.96) and their two elementary school-age children ( M age = 8.54, SD = 0.89 and M age = 10.38, SD = 0.87). Although mothers’ psychological need satisfaction related only to maternal autonomy support in the younger siblings, autonomy-supportive parenting related to psychological need satisfaction in both siblings and to an autonomy-supportive interaction style between siblings. We discuss the importance of maternal autonomy support for family-level dynamics.

A Review and Critique of Partner Effect Research in Small Groups

The purpose of this review is to discuss the ways in which partner effects are examined in group contexts. We focus on social influence, as it is a common theme in group research from cognate fields such as communication, psychology, family studies, social psychology, and business. We elaborate on different conceptions of partner effects in our discussion of the social relations model (SRM), the actor–partner interdependence model (APIM), and the group actor–partner interdependence model (GAPIM), and provide a comprehensive review of the studies that have utilized these models to study groups. Following that, we discuss the ways in which partner effects research can improve our theoretical and empirical understanding of group processes.

The longitudinal consistency of mother-child reporting discrepancies of parental monitoring and their ability to predict child delinquent behaviors two years later

This study examined the longitudinal consistency of mother-child reporting discrepancies of parental monitoring and whether these discrepancies predict children's delinquent behaviors 2 years later. Participants included 335 mother/female-caregiver and child (46% boys, >90% African American; age range 9-16 years [M = 12.11, SD = 1.60]) dyads living in moderate-to-high violence areas. Mother-child discrepancies were internally consistent within multiple assessment points and across measures through a 2-year follow-up assessment. Further, mothers who at baseline consistently reported higher levels of parental monitoring relative to their child had children who reported greater levels of delinquent behaviors 2 years later, relative to mother-child dyads that did not evidence consistent discrepancies. This finding could not be accounted for by baseline levels of the child's delinquency, maternal and child emotional distress, or child demographic characteristics. This finding was not replicated when relying on the individual reports of parental monitoring to predict child delinquency, suggesting that mother-child reporting discrepancies provided information distinct from the absolute frequency of reports. Findings suggest that mother-child discrepancies in reports of parental monitoring can be employed as new individual differences measurements in developmental psychopathology research.