I became adult when … Pathways of identity resolution and adulthood transition in Italian freshmen’s narratives

Defining and consolidating identity in order to acquire fulfilling adult roles may be more difficult than in the past for a significant proportion of youth cohorts, especially for youth in ‘post-industrial’ countries. This study was focused on the intersection between processes and contents of both identity and adulthood through the narrative approach in the Italian context. Participants were 105 Italian freshmen aged 18–21, attending the first year university. We adopted a narrative approach based on autobiographical memories. Findings confirm the relationship between identity resolution processes and adulthood reaching in Italian freshmen and they identify five student’s profiles (Resolved or closed keepers, Travelers, Uninvolved, On the way, Big babies). Suggestions for future research and limitations are discussed.     

Self-compassion and responses to negative social feedback: The role of fronto-amygdala circuit connectivity

ABSTRACT

Self-compassion has been shown to have significant relationships with psychological health and well-being. Despite the increasing growth of research on the topic, no studies to date have investigated how self-compassion relates to neural responses to threats to the self. To investigate whether self-compassion relates to threat-regulatory mechanisms at the neural level of analysis, we conducted a functional MRI study in a sample of college-aged students. We hypothesized that self-compassion would relate to greater negative connectivity between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) and amygdala during a social feedback task. Interestingly, we found a negative correlation between self-compassion and VMPFC-amygdala functional connectivity as predicted; however, this seemed to be due to low levels of self-compassion relating to greater positive connectivity in this circuit (rather than high levels of self-compassion relating to more negative connectivity). We also found significant relationships with multiple subcomponents of self-compassion (Common Humanity, Self-Judgment). These results shed light on how self-compassion might affect neural responses to threat and informs our understanding of the basic psychological regulatory mechanisms linking a lack of self-compassion with poor mental health.     

The Parenting and Family Adjustment Scales (PAFAS): an Indonesian Validation Study

Understanding parenting risk and protective factors can help clinicians and researchers to develop effective family interventions. To have knowledge of these risk and protective factors, validated assessment tools are required. Validation studies for parenting measures with Indonesian parents are lacking, despite the need for access to parenting interventions among Indonesian families. This study aimed to validate the Parenting and Family Adjustment Scales (PAFAS), a brief parenting and family adjustment measure developed in Australia that has been validated with Panamanian and Chinese parents. A sample of 210 Indonesian parents with children aged 2–12 years old completed the Indonesian version of the PAFAS and Child Adjustment and Parent Efficacy Scale (CAPES). Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) were used for analyses. CFA resulted a four-factor PAFAS Parenting scale (15 items) and three-factor PAFAS Family adjustment scale (8 items). SEM analyses with PAFAS and CAPES revealed a good fit of the model of relationships between parent, family and child constructs to the data. The internal consistencies of PAFAS were good or acceptable, with the exception of Parental consistency. Overall, PAFAS had satisfactory psychometric properties. It is a promising measure that can potentially be used to study parenting risk and protective factors among Indonesian families. Item improvement and further validation with more diverse samples are suggested.     

Perceptual experience shapes our ability to categorize faces by national origin: A new other-race effect

People are better at recognizing own-race than other-race faces. This other-race effect has been argued to be the result of perceptual expertise, whereby face-specific perceptual mechanisms are tuned through experience. We designed new tasks to determine whether other-race effects extend to categorizing faces by national origin. We began by selecting sets of face stimuli for these tasks that are typical in appearance for each of six nations (three Caucasian, three Asian) according to people from those nations (Study 1). Caucasian and Asian participants then categorized these faces by national origin (Study 2). Own-race faces were categorized more accurately than other-race faces. In contrast, Asian American participants, with more extensive other-race experience than the first Asian group, categorized other-race faces better than own-race faces, demonstrating a reversal of the other-race effect. Therefore, other-race effects extend to the ability to categorize faces by national origin, but only if participants have greater perceptual experience with own-race, than other-race faces. Study 3 ruled out non-perceptual accounts by showing that Caucasian and Asian faces were sorted more accurately by own-race than other-race participants, even in a sorting task without any explicit labelling required. Together, our results demonstrate a new other-race effect in sensitivity to national origin of faces that is linked to perceptual expertise.     

Associations between Race and Eating Disorder Symptom Trajectories in Black and White Girls

Epidemiological research suggests racial differences in the presentation of eating disorder symptoms. However, no studies have examined associations between race and eating disorder symptom trajectories across youth and adolescence, which is necessary to inform culturally sensitive prevention programs. The purpose of the current study was to examine the trajectories of eating disorder symptoms from childhood to young adulthood and to examine whether race was associated with trajectory group membership. Data were drawn from 2,305 Black and White girls who participated in a community-based longitudinal cohort study (Pittsburgh Girls Study) examining the development of psychopathology. The child and adult versions of the Eating Attitudes Test assessed self-reported eating disorder symptoms at six time points between ages 9 and 21 years. Growth mixture modeling was used to examine developmental trajectories of dieting, bulimia/food preoccupation, and total eating disorder symptom scores. Given potential confounds with race and disordered eating, financial strain (i.e., receiving public assistance) and weight were included as covariates. Four to six distinct developmental patterns were found across eating disorder symptoms, including none, increasing, decreasing, or increasing-decreasing trajectories. Black girls had a greater likelihood of being in the decreasing trajectories for dieting, bulimia/food preoccupation, and total eating disorder symptom scores. White girls were more likely to follow increasing trajectories of dieting and total eating disorder symptom scores compared to Black girls. These results highlight the importance of examining the influence of racial background on eating disorder symptoms and the potential need for differences in the timing and focus of prevention interventions in these groups.     

Associations Between the Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank and Measures of Personality and Psychopathology

The Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank (RISB; Rotter, Lah, & Rafferty, 1992) is a sentence completion test intended to detect psychological maladjustment. To investigate the construct validity of the measure, we investigated what aspects of personality and psychopathology are correlated with the RISB and also tested the incremental validity of the RISB in a combined sample of clinical (n = 72) and undergraduate participants (n = 69). Interrater reliability of the RISB was good (intraclass correlation > .80). The RISB overall adjustment score discriminated between clinical and undergraduate participants, and high scores on the RISB were associated with higher negative affect, more anxiety and depression, irrational thinking, and interpersonal problems. The incremental validity of the RISB was modest, but it did explain variance in satisfaction with life and personality disorder symptoms above and beyond an extracted measure of general psychological distress. Our findings support the construct validity of the RISB.     

Extracurricular Participation and Course Performance in the Middle Grades: A Study of Low-Income,Urban Youth

The transition to middle/junior high school is associated with declines in students’ academic performance, especially among low‐income, urban youth. Developmental psychologists posit such declines are due to a poor fit between the needs of early adolescents—industry, identity, and autonomy—and the environment of their new schools. Extracurricular participation during these years may act as a buffer for youth, providing a setting for development outside the classroom. The current study examines participation within and across activity settings among low‐income, urban youth in New York City over this transition. Using the Adolescent Pathways Project data, this study explores how such participation relates to course performance. We find that a large percentage of youth are minimally or uninvolved in extracurricular activities during these years; that participation varies within youth across time; and that the association between participation and course performance varies by activity setting. Youth who participate frequently in community or athletic settings or have high participation in two or more settings are found to have higher GPAs in the year in which they participate and youth who participate frequently in the religious setting are found to have lower GPAs. High participation in more than two settings may be detrimental.