Where,O death,is thy sting? The meaning-providing function of beliefs in literal immortality

Terror management theory suggests that humans invest in cultural worldviews that allay mortality-related anxiety by promising death transcendence. Many religious individuals adhere to belief in literal immortality – believing that one will live on after death. Across two studies (n?=?1137), we explored the terror management function of such beliefs by exploring whether these beliefs are associated with lower death anxiety and greater meaning among individuals of varying religiousness. In both Study 1 (n?=?236) and Study 2 (n?=?901), belief in literal immortality was related to lower death anxiety only among intrinsically religious participants. Moreover, meaning in life mediated the relationship between belief in literal immortality and death anxiety. Study 2 clarified that this mediational relationship was only present for intrinsically religious individuals. We discuss the importance of particular religious beliefs in the provision of meaning in order to manage existential concerns.     

Child Characteristics,Parent Education and Depressive Symptoms,and Marital Conflict Predicting Trajectories of Parenting Behavior from Childhood Through Early Adolescence in Taiwan

The study examined how child and parent characteristics, and contextual sources of stress, such as marital conflict predict initial status and trajectories of parent involvement, support, and harsh control, over a 4‐year period in families in Taiwan (n = 4,754). Based on Belsky's (1984) ecological model of parenting, three domains predicting parenting were tested, child characteristics (age cohort and gender), father and mother characteristics (education and depressive symptoms), and contextual sources of stress (marital conflict). The study followed two cohorts of children; the younger cohort was followed from first to fourth grade and the older cohort from fourth to seventh grade. Initially, fourth graders reported more parental involvement, support, and harsh control than first graders. However, involvement, support, and harsh control decreased across the 4 years for the older cohort as they transitioned to early adolescence. In the first year, girls reported more parental involvement and support and less harsh control than boys. Across the 4 years, involvement and support increased, and harsh control decreased for boys; whereas involvement stayed the same, support slightly decreased, and harsh control slightly increased for girls. Children whose parents were more educated reported more parent involvement, support, and harsh control in the first year. Children whose fathers were chronically depressed and whose parents were experiencing marital conflict reported decreasing parent involvement and support over the years.     

Parental involvement,adolescents' self‐determined learning and academic achievement in Urban China

Self‐determined learning is essential to academic success. The motivational resources development model argues that parents promote academic success in their children indirectly by nurturing self‐determined learner. In this study, applying a structural equation modelling and using data collected from 8th graders in Zhuhai, China (n = 1009) in 2012, we aim to answer 2 research questions: (a) What forms of parental involvement are highly correlated with self‐determined learning and (b) Can self‐determined learning fully mediate the relationship between parental involvement and students' academic performance? We find that parental leisure involvement is positively and significantly associated with the development of self‐determined learning, which in turn is significantly and positively correlated with academic achievement. Parental provision of structure or parental academic assistance is not significantly associated with students' self‐regulation and students' academic achievement.     

The Moro reaction: More than a reflex,a ritualized behavior of nonverbal communication

ObjectiveTo propose a phylogenetic significance to the Moro reflex which remains unexplained since its publication in 1918 because both hands are free at the end of the gesture.MethodAmong the 75 videos of healthy term newborns we have filmed in a research project on antenatal education to parenthood, we describe a sequence that clearly showed the successive movements of the Moro reflex and we report the occurrence of this reflex in the videos that were recorded from Time 0 of birth defined as the moment that lies between the birth of the thorax and the pelvis of the infant.ResultsThe selected sequence showed the following succession of the newborn’s actions: quick extension-adduction of both arms, the orientation of the body, head and eyes towards a human person, and full extension-abduction of both arms with spreading of the fingers, crying and a distressed face. There were 13 Moro reflexes between 2 and 14 s from Time 0 of birth. We found a significant association between the occurrence of the Moro reflex and the placement of the newborn at birth in supine position on the mother’s abdomen (p = 0.002).DiscussionThe quick extension-adduction of both arms which started the sequence may be considered as a startle reflex controlled by the neural fear system and the arm extension-adduction which followed as a Moro reflex. The characteristics of all Moro reflexes were those of ritualization: amplitude, duration, stereotype of the gestures. This evolutionary process turns a physiological behavior, grasping in this case, to a non-verbal communicative behavior whose meaning is a request to be picked up in the arms. The gestures associated with the Moro reflex: crying and orientation of the body, head, and eyes towards a human person, are gestures of intention to communicate which support our hypothesis. The neural mechanism of the Moro reaction probably involves both the fear and the separation-distress systems.ConclusionThis paper proposes for the first time a phylogenetic significance to the Moro reflex: a ritualized behavior of nonverbal communication. Professionals should avoid stimulating the newborns’ fear system by unnecessarily triggering Moro reflexes. Antenatal education should teach parents to respond to the Moro reflexes of their newborn infant by picking her up in their arms with mother talk.     

The importance of parental verbal and embodied mentalizing in shaping parental experiences of stress and coparenting

Parental mentalizing—recognizing that children are separate psychological entities, who have their own thoughts, wishes, and intentions that motivate their behaviors—is traditionally considered a verbal, linguistic capacity. This paper aimed to examine the relation between parental verbal mentalizing (parental reflective function; PRF) and its nonverbal form—parental embodied mentalizing (PEM)—and how both constructs contribute to parents’ subjective experience of parenting, namely parental stress and coparental alliance. 68 mothers and their three-months-old babies were observed to assess PEM, interviewed to code PRF, and completed self-reports of coparental alliance and parental stress. PEM was found to be positively correlated with PRF. Mediation analyses revealed that higher PEM, but not PRF, was associated with lower parental stress, mediated by positive reports of coparental alliance. The findings support adopting a multifaceted approach when studying parental mentalizing, both in terms of assessing parental mentalizing beyond its verbal expressions to include also embodied aspects, as well as investigating its impact beyond infant development to include the familial context within it operates. Conceptual, empirical and clinical implications are discussed.     

Sensory processing sensitivity and its relation to parental bonding, anxiety, and depression

Sensory processing sensitivity is a recently proposed construct referring to a tendency to process a variety of information more strongly and deeply than others. Although some research has found links between sensory processing sensitivity and psychological difficulties, highly sensitive people may not necessarily be predisposed to negative affect, but may be more sensitive to poor parenting. Two hundred thirteen college students were given a measure of sensory processing sensitivity (the HSPS), the parental bonding scale (measuring parental care and over-protection), the trait anxiety scale, and the Beck depression inventory. Sensory processing sensitivity predicted both anxiety and depression above and beyond parental factors, indicating that it may be an independent risk factor. An interaction was found between sensory processing sensitivity and parental care when measuring depression. Highly sensitive people may be particularly sensitive to uncaring parents. Results indicate that sensory processing sensitivity may be a temperamental disposition that interacts meaningfully with environmental factors.     

家庭文化资本对幼儿数学学习的影响

本研究对来自上海市的590个中、大班幼儿家庭进行问卷调查,旨在了解家庭文化资本对幼儿数学学习的影响。结果表明：作为家庭客体化文化资本的家庭文化环境和作为家庭身体化文化资本的幼儿家长数学教导信念对幼儿的家庭数学学习经验有直接的影响作用;作为家庭制度化文化资本的家庭教育背景则通过家庭文化环境和幼儿家长的数学教导信念对幼儿家庭数学学习经验有间接的影响作用。     

The association of parenting style and child age with parental limit setting and adolescent MySpace behavior

Parent and teen MySpace user pairs completed online surveys administered in June (N = 266) and September 2006 (N = 341) to assess relationships between parenting styles and limit setting and monitoring of online behaviors, the prevalence of Internet dangers and pre-teen and teen MySpace behaviors. Cross-comparison measures of MySpace usage, parenting style, limit setting/monitoring, MySpace problems, and media perceptions were used. Parenting styles were strongly related to adolescent MySpace experiences, behaviors, and attitudes, with some age differences. Parents with older children were more likely to have Neglectful or Indulgent parenting styles and less likely to set limits on online behavior. The extent of sexual solicitation, pornography, and cyberbullying was relatively low as compared with studies asserting a high incidence of Internet-related problems. Parents' high estimates of online dangers were not matched by their low rates of setting limits and monitoring teens. Theoretical and practical perspectives of the results are offered to enhance social networking experiences for parents and their children.     

Trajectories of Parenting Processes and Adolescent Substance Use: Reciprocal Effects

Drawing on transactional theories of child development, we assessed bidirectional links between trajectories of adolescent substance use and parenting processes from early through mid adolescence. Hierarchical generalized models estimated trajectories for 3,317 adolescents from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, exploring both between- and within-individual effects. Between individuals, adolescents reporting more regular family activities and greater father and mother knowledge of friends and teachers experienced lower levels of substance use through mid adolescence. Similarly, adolescents with more frequent substance use reported lower family activities, father knowledge, and mother knowledge, though these differences dissipated over time. More conservative within-individual differences indicated a prospective protective effect of family activities, with increases in adolescent participation in family activities predicting later declines in substance use. Results support the central importance of engagement in regular family activities, and suggest the need for further exploration of transactional processes between parents and children in the development of risk behaviors.