Parental Psychological Control and Children's Prosocial Behavior: The Mediating Role of Social Anxiety and the Moderating Role of Socioeconomic Status

Parental control and adolescent social anxiety: A focus on emotional regulation strategies and socioeconomic influences in China

An individual's social adaptation, which is influenced by both internalizing and externalizing factors, depends on social anxiety. We proposed that the connection between parental psychological control and social anxiety among middle school students was mediated by negative emotion response-focused strategies and moderated by socioeconomic status (SES). We collected data from 1343 Chinese students from 12 to 16 years old (M = 13.3, SD = 0.96) by applying the questionnaire of parental psychological control scale, social anxiety scale and negative emotion response-focused strategies scale. The findings demonstrated that parental psychological control, including father and mother psychological control, was positively associated with social anxiety and that the relationship between parental psychological control and children's social anxiety was mediated by negative emotion response-focused strategies. Meanwhile, SES played a moderating role in the relationship between children's negative emotion response-focused strategies and social anxiety. The findings also suggest that we should pay more attention to the psychological status and social interaction of children with lower SES.

Longitudinal associations between parental psychological control and adolescents' intergroup attitudes to prosocial behaviors towards ethnic outgroups

INTRODUCTION

While a substantial body of existing literature has examined the negative effects of parental psychological control on adolescents' prosocial behaviors, there is a noticeable gap in whether parental psychological control affects prosocial behaviors towards ethnic outgroup members. This three-wave longitudinal study investigated whether similar relations can be observed between parental psychological control and prosocial behaviors targeted at ethnic outgroup persons, and whether these relations are mediated by adolescents' intergroup attitudes.

METHODS

Participants were 412 European American adolescents (42% girls; Mage = 15.63 years at Time 1) and their primary caregivers (52% mothers) residing in the United States. They completed online questionnaires. Parents completed a measure of parental psychological control at Time 1. Adolescents completed measures of intergroup attitudes, public, and altruistic outgroup prosocial behavior at all three time points (T1, T2, T3), each approximately 8 months apart. The retention rate was 38.1% (N = 157; 44% girls) at Time 3.

RESULTS

Path analyses revealed a direct negative link between parental psychological control and altruistic prosocial behavior towards ethnic outgroup persons but a direct positive association to public prosocial behavior towards outgroup persons. Importantly, parental psychological control was indirectly related to adolescents' prosocial behavior towards ethnic outgroup persons, via its effect on their intergroup attitudes.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings underscore how parental psychological control and adolescents' intergroup attitudes contribute to shaping prosocial behaviors towards ethnic outgroups.

The Reciprocal Relations between Parental Psychological Control and Social Anxiety and the Mediating Role of Self-Concept Clarity Among Chinese Early Adolescents

Although parental psychological control has been well-documented as a significant predictor of social anxiety among adolescents, few studies examine how changes in parental psychological control and adolescent social anxiety are reciprocally related at the within-person level, especially in Chinese culture. This longitudinal study examined reciprocal relations between parental psychological control and social anxiety, and the potential mediating role of self-concept clarity, by disentangling between- and within-person effects. A total of 4731 students (44.9% girls; Mage = 10.91 years, SD = 0.72) participated in a four-wave longitudinal study with 6-month intervals. Results from random intercept cross-lagged panel modeling indicated that parental psychological control directly predicted social anxiety, and vice versa. Parental psychological control indirectly predicted social anxiety via self-concept clarity, and social anxiety also indirectly predicted parental psychological control via self-concept clarity. These findings reveal a vicious cycle of mutual influence between parental psychological control and adolescent social anxiety in Chinese youth, and highlight the crucial role of self-concept clarity in the interplay between parenting and adolescent social functioning.

Anxiety in young people: Analysis from a machine learning model

The study addresses the detection of anxiety symptoms in young people using artificial intelligence models. Questionnaires such as the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale (GAD-7) are used to collect data, with a focus on early detection of anxiety. Three machine learning models are employed: Support Vector Machine (SVM), K Nearest Neighbors (KNN), and Random Forest (RF), with cross-validation to assess their effectiveness. Results show that the RF model is the most efficient, with an accuracy of 91 %, surpassing previous studies. Significant predictors of anxiety are identified, such as parental education level, alcohol consumption, and social security affiliation. A relationship is observed between anxiety and personal and family history of mental illness, as well as with characteristics external to the model, such as family and personal history of depression. The analysis of the results highlights the importance of considering not only clinical but also social and family aspects in mental health interventions. It is suggested that the sample size be expanded in future studies to improve the robustness of the model. In summary, the study demonstrates the usefulness of artificial intelligence in the early detection of anxiety in young people and highlights the relevance of addressing multidimensional factors in the assessment and treatment of this condition.

Creating A child-friendly social environment for fewer conduct problems and more prosocial behaviors among children: A LASSO regression approach

BACKGROUND

Creating a child-friendly social environment is an important component of promoting child-friendly city development. This study aims to explore the key indicators of friendly family, school and community social environments from the perspective of children's conduct problems and prosocial behaviors.

METHOD

The sample included grade 3-5 students from one public elementary school in the urban areas and another public elementary school in the rural areas of a Chinese city pursuing a child-friendly philosophy. A total of 418 participants were included in this study. Data on conduct problems, prosocial behaviors and the social environment were collected. To effectively select important variables and eliminate estimation bias, this study used LASSO regression to identify key indicators predicting children's conduct problems and prosocial behavior, followed by linear regression coefficient estimation and significance testing.

RESULTS

Creating a friendly family environment (ensuring family members' assistance with academic problems) and school environment (reducing cheating, fighting, and unfriendly teacher language) was associated with reduced conduct problems in children. Creating a positive family atmosphere (enhancing children's trust in family members), school environment (increasing parents' awareness of school affairs, reinforcing students' prosocial behavior, increasing extracurricular activity programs, and encouraging student engagement in academics) and community environment (respecting all children in the community) was associated with improving children's prosocial behavior.

CONCLUSIONS

This study transforms the multidimensional, complex child-friendly social environment evaluation indicator system into concise and specific measurement indicators, which can provide theoretical and practical implications for government decision-making in child-friendly city development through empirical research.