The intergenerational transmission of fear of failure

The intergenerational transmission of fear of failure was examined in two studies with undergraduates and their parents. Parent-undergraduate concordance in fear of failure was documented for mothers and fathers, controlling for parents' and undergraduate's impression management and self-deceptive enhancement response tendencies. Love withdrawal was validated as a mediator of parent-undergraduate concordance in fear of failure for mothers but not for fathers. Mothers' and fathers' fear of failure was also a positive predictor of undergraduate's adoption of performance-avoidance goals in the classroom, and undergraduate's fear of failure was shown to mediate this relationship. Fathers' fear of failure was also a negative predictor of undergraduate's mastery goal adoption, and this relationship was likewise mediated by undergraduate's fear of failure. The results are discussed in terms of the reorienting of positive, appetitive achievement motivation toward negative, aversive achievement motivation.     

Angels in the nursery: The intergenerational transmission of benevolent parental influences

Fraiberg and her colleagues (1975) introduced the metaphor “ghosts in the nursery” to describe the ways in which parents, by reenacting with their small children scenes from the parents' own unremembered early relational experiences of helplessness and fear, transmit child maltreatment from one generation to the next. In this article we propose that angels in the nursery—care‐receiving experiences characterized by intense shared affect between parent and child in which the child feels nearly perfectly understood, accepted, and loved—provide the child with a core sense of security and self‐worth that can be drawn upon when the child becomes a parent to interrupt the cycle of maltreatment. We argue that uncovering angels as growth‐promoting forces in the lives of traumatized parents is as vital to the work of psychotherapy as is the interpretation and exorcizing of ghosts. Using clinical case material, we demonstrate the ways in which early benevolent experiences with caregivers can protect against even overwhelming trauma, and examine the reemergence of these benevolent figures in consciousness as an instrument of therapeutic change. Finally, we examine implications of the concept of “angels in the nursery” for research and clinical intervention.     

Linked lives: the intergenerational transmission of antisocial behavior

There is a strong assumption of intergenerational continuity in behavior patterns, including antisocial behavior. Using a 3-generation, prospective study design, we examine the level of behavioral continuity between Generation 2 (G2) and Generation 3 (G3), and the role of economic disadvantage and parenting behaviors as mediating links. We estimate separate models for G2 fathers and G2 mothers. Data are drawn from the Rochester Youth Development Study, a longitudinal study begun in 1988 during G2's early adolescence (n = 1,000), which has collected prospective data on G2, their parents (G1), and now their G3 children. Results show that intergenerational continuity in antisocial behavior is evident, albeit somewhat modest. Parenting styles and financial stress do play a mediating role, although their effects vary by G2's gender. In general, adolescent delinquency plays a larger role in linking the generations for G2 fathers, whereas parenting behaviors and financial stress play a larger role for G2 mothers.     

Multiculturalism and group status: The role of ethnic identification,group essentialism and protestant ethic

The present research, which was conducted among ethnic minority (N = 109) and majority (N = 649) adolescents in the Netherlands, examined the endorsement of multiculturalism in relation to ethnic ingroup identification, perceived group essentialism and protestant ethic ideology. The results revealed that ethnic minorities were more in favour of multiculturalism than Dutch participants. Furthermore, ethnic identification, group essentialism and protestant ethic were independently related to multiculturalism. However, these relations were all moderated by ethnic group status. High ethnic identification, essentialist beliefs about minority groups, and protestant ethic were related to lower endorsement of multiculturalism among the majority group. In contrast, high ethnic identification and essentialist beliefs about one's own ethnic minority group were related to stronger endorsement of multiculturalism among the minority groups, but not protestant ethic. Perceived essentialism of the majority group showed no effects. It is concluded that social psychology is able to make a valuable contribution to issues related to the management of cultural diversity. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The intergenerational transmission of authoritarianism: The mediating role of parental goal promotion

This study examined the intergenerational transmission of adolescent authoritarian submission (Right-Wing Authoritarianism or RWA) and authoritarian dominance (Social Dominance Orientation or SDO). It was hypothesized that the type of goals that parents promote (i.e., conservation versus openness to change and extrinsic versus intrinsic goal promotion) would mediate any direct association between parents’ and adolescents’ authoritarian attitudes. This hypothesis was examined in a sample of middle adolescents and their parents. First, a significant parent–child concordance was found for RWA and SDO. Second, whereas parental RWA predicted parental promotion of conservation goals (rather than openness to change goals) as well as the promotion of extrinsic goals (rather than intrinsic goals), parental SDO predicted parental promotion of extrinsic goals only. Third, process analyses showed that, whereas parental conservation goal promotion mediates the relationship between parent and child RWA, parental extrinsic goal promotion mediates the relationship between parent and child SDO.     

The intergenerational transmission of empathy-related responding in adolescence: the role of maternal support

This study proposed and tested an integrated model of the intergenerational transmission of empathy-related responding in adolescence. This model included maternal support as a mediator of the intergenerational transmission of empathy and examined friendship quality as an outcome of adolescent empathy. In a sample of middle adolescents and their mothers (N = 177), maternal support significantly predicted the empathy dimensions perspective taking and sympathy and mediated the mother-child concordance of perspective taking but not sympathy. Adolescent empathy (and perspective taking in particular) predicted adolescent friendship quality and served as an intervening variable in the relation between maternal support and friendship quality. Implications of the present study for research on the socialization of empathy-related responding and social adjustment in general are outlined.     

The intergenerational transmission of need for closure underlies the transmission of authoritarianism and anti-immigrant prejudice

Previous research has identified need for closure (NFC) as an important motivational-cognitive basis of authoritarianism and prejudice. However, to date, the role of NFC in the intergenerational similarity in authoritarianism and prejudice has remained unclear. In a sample of 169 parent–child dyads, we investigated the similarity between parents and children in NFC and tested whether this intergenerational similarity may account for the intergenerational similarity in authoritarianism and anti-immigrant prejudice. Our results revealed that parental levels of NFC were indeed concordant with the levels of NFC in their children. Even more importantly, parental NFC was indirectly related to child authoritarianism and prejudice in two ways. The first pathway proceeded through the direct relationships between parental and children’s levels of authoritarianism and prejudice. The second pathway, however, bypassed parental levels of authoritarianism and prejudice and proceeded through the intergenerational similarity in NFC. Our findings thus indicate that a significant portion of children’s levels of authoritarianism and anti-immigrant prejudice can be explained by parent–child similarity in motivated cognition. Implications for developmental theories of prejudice acquisition are discussed.     

The intergenerational transmission of social dominance: A three‐generation study

This study examined the transmission of social dominance orientation (SDO) from parents and grandparents to children. It was predicted that parents as well as grandparents would pass their social dominance attitudes to children. Children's levels of SDO would thus be the highest when parental and grandparental attitudes are high; the lowest when parental and grandparental attitudes are low; and intermediate when parental and grandparental attitudes are incongruent. These hypotheses were examined in a sample of 93 families including children (in early adulthood), one of their parents, and one of their grandparents. Results yielded support for the predictions. These findings' implications are discussed in terms of their potential to explain previous inconsistent results on the transmission of social attitudes to children. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Displacement trauma: complex states of personal,collective and intergenerational fragmentation and their intergenerational transmission

Originally presented at the Journal’s one day conference entitled ‘Displacement: Contemporary Traumatic Experience’ held in London in November 2019, this paper expands on the author’s theory of the implicit psychological organizing gestalt, an associated pattern of psychic functions which operate in an integrated way to simultaneously structure and organize our experience of self-cohesion and self-continuity. The gestalt, which implicitly links the formation of psychic skin, body image, cultural skin and both personal and cultural identity with place, functions as an emergent non-conscious permanent presence or background ‘constant’. It develops over time and emerges out of embodied emotional experiencing with the total environment – both human and non-human. The author argues that it is the rupture of this gestalt and the disorganizing consequences of its loss which underlies the experience of displacement trauma. If disruptions in the formation of the gestalt and/or its later rupture remain unrecognized and unrepresented then the absence creates a void which can be intergenerationally transmitted. Case material is presented which describes this and which highlights the ways in which the gestalt can contribute to our understanding of collective displacement anxiety, cultural trauma and cultural complexes.     

The mediating influence of interpersonal problems on the intergenerational transmission of relationship aggression

Intergenerational patterns of relationship aggression have received considerable theoretical attention and empirical support. A developmental account of such effects suggests that childhood exposure to family violence leads to interpersonal problems that are subsequently manifested in aggressive dating relationships. The current study tested this hypothesis using structural equation modeling with data from a sample of female college students (N= 207). The theoretical model of interest, in which interpersonal problems with dominance, intrusiveness, and vindictiveness fully mediate the link between violence in the family of origin and participation in physically aggressive dating relationships, provided a very good fit to the data. This mediational model was preferable to alternative models that (a) included both direct and indirect influences of family‐of‐origin violence, (b) reversed the direction of effects by modeling interpersonal problems with dominance as a result of intimate partner aggression; and (c) modeled interpersonal problems with submissiveness as mediating intergenerational violence patterns. The findings implicate interpersonal problems with dominance as an important mediating factor in the developmental pathway linking family‐of‐origin violence to intimate partner violence in adulthood for young adult women.     

The intergenerational transmission of relationship instability: A focus on emerging adult on-off relationships

This study extends prior research on the intergenerational transmission of relationship instability by examining parents' history of on-off relationships as a predictor of emerging adults' own cycling (i.e., breaking up and renewing with the same romantic partner). Data were collected at a large mid-western university from 702 emerging adults (18–25 years old). Multinomial logistic regression was used to predict the likelihood that participants had cycled in a past or current relationship. Results show that parental cycling increased the likelihood of offspring cycling in a past or current relationship relative to never cycling, and greater uncertainty about the future of the relationship was a mechanism through which such transmission occurred. Findings from this study demonstrate that parental relationship instability can even be consequential for the transient relationships within emerging adulthood, making family history a productive area to explore for practitioners working with cyclical partners and/or emerging adults.     

Measuring racial essentialism in the genomic era: The genetic essentialism scale for race (GESR)

Current Psychology - Racial essentialism is the belief that races are biologically distinct groups with defining core “essences,” a notion associated with increased social distance and...     

The strategic value of essentialism

Social essentialism—the belief that individuals contain an underlying essence determined by the social categories they belong to—has generally been regarded as a harmful cognitive process that results in prejudice and other forms of injustice at the group level. Trait essentialism, also termed a fixed mindset—the belief that people's trait levels are determined and relatively unchangeable—has been construed as a parallel impediment to self‐improvement at the individual level. However, each of these domains contains findings that do not fit this narrative, suggesting that such essentialized thinking is not always detrimental at either the group or individual level and that its effects may instead depend on motivation and context. Incorporating advances in research on moral judgment and identity allow for a reconciliation of the variable effects of social and trait essentialism. In some instances, essentialism can be a strategy for reducing blame over uncontrollable aspects of individuals and groups and for identity formation.     

经济态度和行为的代际传递现象及机制

经济态度和行为存在从父母向孩子的代际传递现象, 经济态度代际传递的研究内容较为广泛, 包括金钱态度、风险态度、互惠态度和消费态度, 经济行为代际传递的研究主要集中在消费行为、捐赠行为和储蓄行为三个方面。除了遗传路径, 其代际传递有两条社会化路径: 孩子对父母的观察学习和亲子互动, 其中亲子互动包含亲子沟通和财务教养两个层面, 亲子沟通强调语言层面的互动, 而财务教养强调行为层面的互动, 但是财务教养的研究仅停留在表面, 缺乏深入的剖析。未来需要加强中国文化和现实背景下的代际传递现象研究, 并深入探讨其机制。     

The intergenerational transmission of implicit and explicit attitudes toward smoking: Predicting adolescent smoking initiation

This study examined the intergenerational transmission of implicit and explicit attitudes toward smoking, as well as the role of these attitudes in adolescents’ smoking initiation. There was evidence of intergenerational transmission of implicit attitudes. Mothers who had more positive implicit attitudes had children with more positive implicit attitudes. In turn, these positive implicit attitudes of adolescents predicted their smoking initiation 18-months later. Moreover, these effects were obtained above and beyond the effects of explicit attitudes. These findings provide the first evidence that the intergenerational transmission of implicit cognition may play a role in the intergenerational transmission of an addictive behavior.     

The intergenerational transmission of social exclusion and its detection in early childhood education

In this paper we analyse the relationship between the self-confidence manifested by 3-6 year old in the internal working model (evaluated by interview) and their adaptation to nursery environment observed by their teacher, along with the relationship between these variables and the social-economic disadvantage encountered by the families of the children. The study was carried out with 128 children (64 from families in deprived circumstances and 64 in the contrast group). The results show that children from families with serious problems of exclusion exhibit adaptation deficiencies in all of the assessed factors: competence and empathy, passiveness/isolation and antisocial behavior; in the interview, they also show less frequency of the secure model, and higher frequency in the destructured and avoidant models than in the contrast group. These differences can be interpreted as the origin of the exclusion and destructurisation that characterises the families in question.