Acculturation, parent-adolescent conflict, and adolescent adjustment in Mexican American families

We tested an acculturation model in a community sample of Mexican American families (146 mothers, 137 fathers, and 146 adolescents) that proposed that differences between parents and adolescents in acculturation would be associated with parent-adolescent conflict and adolescent adjustment problems. Contrary to hypotheses, we found that families who exhibited an acculturation gap were not more likely to report parent-adolescent conflict or adolescent adjustment problems. In fact, familial conflict and adolescent sexual experience were associated with high levels of acculturation among adolescents and their parents. Pending replication, these findings suggest that both parent and children acculturation may independently predict familial processes and youth outcomes, irrespective of an acculturation gap. Future research should consider other factors aside from acculturation differences that might account for parent-adolescent conflict and adolescent adjustment in Mexican American families.     

Individual differences in core affect variability and their relationship to personality and psychological adjustment

How people's feelings change across time can be represented as trajectories in a core affect space defined by the dimensions of valence and activation. In this article, the authors analyzed individual differences in within-person affective variability defined as characteristics of core affect trajectories, introducing new ways to conceptualize affective variability. In 2 studies, participants provided multiple reports across time describing how they were feeling in terms of core affect. From these data, characteristics of participants' core affect trajectories were derived. Across both studies, core affect variability was negatively related to average valence, self-esteem, and agreeableness, and it was positively related to neuroticism and depression. Moreover, spin, a measure of how much people experienced qualitatively different feelings within the core affect space, was related more consistently to trait measures of adjustment and personality than other measures of within-person variability, including widely used measures of within-person single-dimension standard deviations.     

Attachment styles,personality, and Dutch emigrants' intercultural adjustment

The present study examines the relationship of adult attachment styles with personality and psychological and sociocultural adjustment. A sample of 847 first‐generation Dutch emigrants filled out measures for attachment styles, the Big Five, and indicators of psychological and sociocultural adjustment. Positive relationships were found between Secure attachment on the one hand and psychological and sociocultural adjustment on the other. Ambivalent attachment was strongly negatively associated with psychological adjustment. Dismissive attachment was mildly negatively related to sociocultural adjustment. Significant relations were found between attachment styles and the Big Five dimensions, particularly Extraversion and Emotional Stability. The attachment scales were able to explain variance in sociocultural adjustment beyond that explained by the Big Five dimensions. Intercultural adjustment is discussed from a transactional view of personality. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An integrated model of social psychological and personality psychological perspectives on personality and wellbeing

This article uses multi-rater data from 458 triads (students, mother, father, total N = 1374) to examine the relationship of personality ratings with wellbeing ratings, using a multi-method approach to separate accurate perceptions (shared across raters) from biased perceptions of the self (rater-specific variance). The social-psychological perspective predicts effects of halo bias in self-ratings on wellbeing, whereas the personality-psychological perspective predicts effects of personality traits on wellbeing. Results are more consistent with the personality perspective in that neuroticism (negative), extraversion, agreeableness, and to a lesser extent conscientiousness predicted wellbeing, whereas positive illusions about the self were only weakly and not significantly related to wellbeing. These results cast doubt on the hypothesis that self-enhancement is beneficial for wellbeing.     

Acculturation attitudes and sociocultural adjustment of sojourner youth in Israel

Among 300 Jewish sojourner youth (age range: 15-18 years) from the Russian Federation, the authors investigated associations of acculturation attitudes, measures of sociocultural adjustment, and length of the encounter with the host society, Israel. All the youth were participating in a 1-3-year program of high school studies in Israel. In the light of J. W. Berry's (1997) acculturation model, the authors examined the assumptions that the participants' adjustment to Israeli society would require readiness to abandon some of their previous identity and to adopt elements of a new identity characteristic of the host society. Lower degrees of separation and higher degrees of integration were positively linked with measures of sociocultural adjustment. The adjustment scores tended to decrease over time spent in Israel.     

Interactionism, idiographics, and the social psychological invasion of personality

The present paper discusses three recent developments in the field of Personality: (1) an infusion of social psychologists, (2) a proliferation of interactionist models, (3) the development of methodological strategies combining nomothetic and idiographic approaches. Advantages and disadvantages of these developments are discussed, and three problems associated with them are addressed: (1) an overemphasis on phenomenology, (2) an overemphasis on idiosyncracy, and (3) an unsatisfactory level of theory development. It is concluded that the present developments have had a stimulating effect on the field but they need to be integrated with the traditional personological goals of: (1) developing taxonomy of individuals (as well as a taxonomy of interactions) and (2) developing a more satisfactory theory of the whole organism within which to embed our minitheories. We recommend that such a theory attempt to incorporate the insights of the social learning and social cognition approaches with the recent and exciting developments in evolutionary theory.     

Multicultural personality dispositions and psychological well-being

The authors investigated the empirical relationship between K. I. van der Zee and J. P. van Oudenhoven's (2000, 2001) multicultural personality dispositions and C. D. Ryff's (1989b) dimensions of psychological well-being. The present sample included 270 students from one primarily graduate university and one primarily undergraduate university in the northeast region of the United States. Factor analysis indicated that a three-dimensional model of the multicultural personality was the best fit structure for the sample. Correlations between multicultural personality scores and psychological well-being scores were generally positive and in the predicted directions. However, the academic setting of the participants appeared to influence the pattern of relationships. The authors identified the multicultural personality as a promising construct for research across diverse psychology specialties.     

Illness representations,coping and psychological adjustment to Parkinson's disease

The present study reports an application of the common sense model (CSM) of illness representations to the prediction of psychological distress in people with Parkinson's disease (PD). The study sought to (i) examine cross-sectional and prospective associations between illness representations, coping and psychological distress, and (ii) test the hypothesis that coping would mediate any relationships between illness representations and psychological distress. Patients with PD (n = 58) completed the Illness Perception Questionnaire-Revised, the Medical Coping Modes Questionnaire and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Patients (n = 57) were followed-up at 6 months. Illness representations explained large amounts of variance in time 1 anxiety (R ² = 0.42) and depression (R ² = 0.44) as well as additional variance in time 2 anxiety (ΔR ² = 0.12) and depression (ΔR ² = 0.09) after controlling for baseline scores. In addition, avoidance mediated the effect of emotional representations on time 1 anxiety, and acceptance-resignation mediated the effects of both consequences and emotional representations on time 1 depression. The present study therefore provides partial support for the mediational model outlined in the CSM, as significant mediation effects were found only in the cross-sectional analyses.     

Perfectionism, academic motivation, and psychological adjustment: an integrative model

The purpose of this article was to propose and test an integrative model on the role of perfectionism, academic motivation, and psychological adjustment difficulties in undergraduate students. The model posits that self-oriented perfectionism facilitates self-determined academic motivation, whereas socially prescribed perfectionism enhances non-self-determined academic motivation. In turn, self-determined and non-self-determined academic motivations, respectively, lead to lower and higher levels of psychological adjustment difficulties. Results from two studies using structural equation modeling analyses provided support for the model.     

Quality of life in patients with alcohol dependence disorder with personality disorders: relation to psychological adjustment and craving

The purpose of this study is to determine the self-perceived quality of life of abstinent patients with alcohol dependence disorder during the first month of treatment, and how the presence of personality disorders, psychological adjustment, and the level of craving affect this perception. For this purpose, a sample was used comprising 65 participants with mean age of 43.26 years, of whom 70.8% were male and 29.2% female, with a mean duration of addiction to alcohol consumption of 11.83 years. The results show that quality of life is not related to the duration of abstinence or the course of the addiction. Moreover, the patients who present a personality disorder perceive poorer quality of life in areas such as health status, mood, and social relations. Self-perception of quality of life is affected by psychological adjustment and beliefs about craving. These data should be taken into account when considering quality of life as a measurement of the effectiveness of a treatment for drug addicts with personality disorders.     

Assertiveness, social support, and psychological adjustment following spinal cord injury.

Tested predictions that assertiveness and social support would be significantly predictive of psychological adjustment. Furthermore, it was anticipated that assertiveness and certain types of social relationships would differentially interact to predict adjustment, since positive and negative effects of both variables have been noted in prior research. Trained raters interviewed 156 persons receiving either in-patient or out-patient care for cord injuries and administered measures of assertiveness, social support, depression and psychosocial impairment. Persons who reported a keen sense of responsibility for the welfare of another reported more depression and impairment. Persons reporting higher levels of support facilitating social integration and reassuring personal worth were less depressed. Several significant interactions between assertiveness and different social support relationships revealed beneficial and deleterious effects on depressive behavior and impairment secondary to the disability. Results are discussed as they advance theoretical understanding of the effects of assertiveness and social support. Implications for discriminate cue learning in assertion training for persons with physical disability are proposed.     

Unmitigated agency, social support, and psychological adjustment in men with cancer

Unmitigated agency (UA), a gender-linked characteristic, has been associated with poorer cancer adjustment. Support from one's social network typically predicts adjustment but may be poorly matched to UA. The influence of UA on the utility of social support on adjustment over time is examined. Men with cancer (N=55) were assessed initially and 6 months later on three indicators of adjustment. Multilevel modeling analyses varied by adjustment indicator. UA was associated with increased cancer-related psychosocial symptoms but not depressive symptoms or cancer-related thought intrusion. Social support predicted fewer depressive symptoms and less cancer-related thought intrusion. However, a cross-level interaction revealed that the utility of social support on cancer-related thought intrusion was weaker for men with greater levels of UA. Men with cancer likely respond differently to changes in social support depending on their endorsement of UA.     

Interpersonal problems,personality pathology,and social adjustment after cognitive therapy for depression

The authors examined the level and structure of the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems-Circumplex version (IIP-C; L. M. Horowitz, L. E. Alden, J. S. Wiggins, & A. L. Pincus, 2000) before and after 20 sessions of acute-phase cognitive therapy for depression (N = 118), as well as associations with the Schedule for Nonadaptive and Adaptive Personality (L. A. Clark, 1993b) and the Social Adjustment Scale--Self-Report version (M. M. Weissman & S. Bothwell, 1976). Interpersonal problems had a 3-factor structure (Interpersonal Distress, Love, and Dominance), with the latter 2 factors approximating a circumplex, both before and after therapy. Interpersonal Distress decreased and social adjustment increased with therapy, but the Love and Dominance dimensions were relatively stable, similar to personality constructs. Social adjustment related negatively to Interpersonal Distress but not to Love or Dominance. Personality pathology related broadly to Interpersonal Distress and discriminantly to Love and Dominance. These findings support the reliability and validity of the IIP-C and are discussed in the context of personality theory and measurement.     

Social support,coping, and psychological adjustment among caregivers of head-injured patients

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to test a mediational model of risk and protective factors associated with the psychological adjustment of caregivers of head-injured patients. Forty-three caregivers of patients who had suffered a head injury participated in the study. Findings strongly supported hypotheses. Caregiver burden was associated with poorer psychological adjustment. Social support and a higher percentage of approach coping strategies relative to overall coping strategies were associated with better psychological adjustment. As predicted, caregiver burden showed a direct relationship to psychological adjustment, while social support showed an indirect relationship to adjustment mediated by percentage approach coping.     

Acculturation, enculturation, and Asian American college students' mental health and attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help

In the present study, we tested a theoretically and empirically derived partially indirect effects acculturation and enculturation model of Asian American college students' mental health and attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help. Latent variable path analysis with 296 self-identified Asian American college students supported the partially indirect effects model and demonstrated the ways in which behavioral acculturation, behavioral enculturation, values acculturation, values enculturation, and acculturation gap family conflict related to mental health and attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help directly and indirectly through acculturative stress. We also tested a generational status moderator hypothesis to determine whether differences in model-implied relationships emerged across U.S.- (n = 185) and foreign-born (n = 107) participants. Consistent with this hypothesis, statistically significant differences in structural coefficients emerged across generational status. Limitations, future directions for research, and counseling implications are discussed.     

Links between parental psychological violence, other family disturbances, and children's adjustment

In a sample of 143 parent-child dyads from two-parent and separated families, this investigation documented the links between parental psychological violence and separation or divorce, severity of parental conflict, triangulation of the child in this conflict, and polarized parent-child alliances. The unique and combined contributions of all these variables to children's behavior problems were also assessed. Participants were parents, mostly mothers, and their 10-12-year-old child. They were recruited through schools, community organizations, and newspapers. Questionnaires were administered at home. Findings suggest that separated families undergo more relational disturbances than two-parent families (more severe conflicts, more triangulation, stronger parent-child alliances), but the amount of parental psychological violence was similar in both groups. Psychological violence was associated with the severity of parental conflict, especially in two-parent families. Triangulation of the child in parental conflict was another correlate of psychological violence. Once all variables were controlled for, psychological violence remained the only significant correlate of children's externalized behavior problems. These findings raise the importance of preventing psychological violence toward children, especially in families plagued with severe parental conflicts.