A Longitudinal Analysis of the Role of Biopsychosocial Factors in Predicting Body Change Strategies Among Adolescent Boys

In this study we examined the role of biopsychosocial factors on adolescent boys' body modification strategies over an 8-month period. Participants were 434 adolescent boys aged between 11 and 16 years. The majority of respondents were from Anglo-Australian backgrounds (83%); the others were from Asian and European non-English-speaking backgrounds. The results indicated a consistent relationship between perceived encouragement to engage in body change strategies and increases in adolescents' body modification strategies, including muscle gain, weight gain, and weight loss. In addition, poor parent relations, being younger, and higher scores on the pubertal development scale predicted increased use of food supplements. However, the stability of the body modification strategies and the examined variables over the 8-month period were low. Further studies are needed to examine the stability of adolescent self-perceptions over both longer and shorter periods. Moreover, researchers need to include other factors that may be more relevant for adolescent boys (e.g., involvement in sports).     

Intergenerational studies of parenting and the transfer of risk from parent to child

This review describes a recent approach to studying the intergenerational processes that place families and children at risk for a broad variety of social, behavioral, and health problems. Intergenerational studies typically involve two (or more) generations of participants, observed over time. These projects are utilized to study the origins and early determinants of parenting behavior and of other environmental, health, and social conditions that place young offspring at risk for continuing behavioral, cognitive, and health problems. Convergent findings, across a broad range of research populations in several countries, suggest that problematic parenting develops in part through learning the behavior modeled by one's own parents. In addition, problematic parenting seems to be an extension of an individual's early style of aggressive and problematic social behavior. Parents with a history of childhood aggression, in particular, tend to have continuing social, behavioral, and health difficulties, as do their offspring. Conversely, parental involvement, cognitive stimulation, warmth, and nurturance appear to have important protective effects for offspring. Finally, educational achievement appears to be a powerful buffer against problematic parenting and a wide variety of difficult family circumstances, protecting families against the transfer of risk between generations.     

The pitch of “real” and “rhetorical” questions directed by a father to his daughter: A longitudinal case study

A longitudinal study of a father and his daughter examined pitch-variation of “real” and “rhetorical” questions. Although the father asked “real” and “rhetorical” questions from the start of the recordings, he did not distinguish them through differential pitch height until the baby was 15 months old.     

The two roads of passionate goal pursuit: links with appraisal,coping, and academic achievement

Background and Objectives: In this research, we tested the role of cognitive appraisals in explaining why harmonious and obsessive passion dimensions are related to distinct forms of coping and explored if performance was impacted by these appraisal and coping processes. Design: Undergraduate students (N = 489) participated in a longitudinal study and completed three surveys throughout the course of an academic year. Methods: Participants completed assessments of both passion dimensions (Time 1), reported how they were appraising and coping with the mid-year examination period (Time 2), and provided consent to obtain their final grade in Introductory Psychology (Time 3). The hypothesized model was tested using structural equation modeling. Results: Harmonious and obsessive passion dimensions were linked with approach and avoidant coping responses, respectively. Cognitive appraisals, particularly appraisals of challenge and uncontrollability, played an indirect role in these relationships. In addition, both appraisals and coping responses had an indirect effect in the relationship between passion dimensions and final grade. Conclusions: These results identify cognitive appraisal as a reason why passion dimensions are linked with distinct coping tendencies and demonstrate the role of appraisal and coping processes in the journey to passionate goal attainment.     

Predicting positive mental health in internally displaced persons in Indonesia: the roles of economic improvement and exposure to violent conflict

Positive mental health, rather than just the absence of mental illness, is rarely investigated among the internally displaced persons (IDPs) affected by violent conflict in low-income countries. The purpose of this study was to investigate a model that could explain the interrelationship between factors contributing to positive mental health in displaced populations. In a longitudinal study we examine poverty, exposure to traumatic events and the change of material well-being after one year. We collected data in two consecutive years (2005 and 2006) from a community-based sample of IDPs in Ambon, Indonesia, through face-to-face structured interviews with consenting adults. Participants of this study were IDPs lived in Ambon during the violent conflict period. We interviewed 471 IDPs in the first year and reinterviewed 399 (85%) of the same subjects in the second year. The IDPs possessed good sense of coherence and subjective well-being. Our final model, which was generated by the use of structural equation modeling, fits the data well (χ² = 52.51, df = 45, p = .21, CFI = .99, RMSEA = .019). Exposure to violent conflict had a negative impact on IDPs’ mental health initially and better economic conditions improved it (r = ?.30 and .29 respectively). Mental health status one year previously was a strong predictor of future mental health, followed by individual economic growth in the past year (r = .43 and .29 respectively). On a group level the IDPs were resilient and adaptive to survive in adverse living conditions after devastating violent conflict, and the economic improvement contributed to it.     

Coping with type 1 diabetes through emerging adulthood: Longitudinal associations with perceived control and haemoglobin A1c

Objective: This study, which is part of a larger longitudinal study focusing on the biopsychosocial functioning of emerging adults with type 1 diabetes, examined how perceived personal control, coping and HbA_1c relate to one another over time.

Design and main outcome measures: Emerging adults with type 1 diabetes (18–30 years old) participated in a two-wave longitudinal study spanning five years (N = 164 at Time 1). At both times, patients completed questionnaires on perceived control and coping (i.e. diabetes integration, avoidant coping and passive resignation). HbA_1c values were obtained from treating clinicians. We investigated the directionality of effects using cross-lagged path analysis.

Results: Higher HbA_1c values predicted relative decreases in diabetes integration and increases in avoidant coping five years later. Feeling less in control over diabetes predicted the use of passive coping over time. Passive coping predicted a relative decrease in perceived control five years later.

Conclusion: These findings indicate that tackling poor glycaemic control is not only important to avoid medical complications but also to prevent patients from resorting to more avoidant coping strategies. Furthermore, given the longitudinal interplay between perceived control and passive coping, it is important that intervention efforts include both cognitive and behavioural components to be effective.     

社会支持、主动反刍与创伤后应激障碍的关系:来自地震后青少年的追踪研究

以追踪研究的方式,在汶川地震后3.5年、4.5年和5.5年三个时间点,采用社会支持问卷、反刍问卷和创伤后应激障碍量表对汶川地震后245名中学生进行调查。通过建立交叉滞后模型,考察社会支持、主动反刍与创伤后应激障碍(PTSD)的相互作用关系。结果发现,震后3.5年至5.5年间,社会支持与主动反刍之间的跨时间点预测作用不显著,PTSD对社会支持的跨时间点预测作用不显著,但对主动反刍具有显著的跨时间点正向预测作用。震后3.5年至4.5年间,社会支持对PTSD的跨时间点负向预测作用、主动反刍对PTSD的跨时间点正向预测作用均显著,但是这些作用在震后4.5年至5.5年间变得不再显著。     

Happiness begets children? Evidence for a bi-directional link between well-being and number of children

The purpose of the current research was to examine the association between different facets of well-being and parenthood status. Specifically, using two longitudinal data sets, the present research explored whether individuals who possess high cognitive (Studies 1 & 2), emotional, and psychological well-being (Study 2) are more likely to subsequently become parents compared to their less happy counterparts. The results of both studies demonstrated that well-being at Time 1 positively predicted number of children at Time 2, controlling for a number of relevant variables (e.g. income, age). Additional analyses revealed that the relationship between cognitive well-being and subsequently having children was particularly strong for people who did not have any children previously. Potential mechanisms explaining how and why well-being may influence parenthood are discussed.     

Against all odds – is a more differentiated view of personality development in emerging adulthood needed? The case of young apprentices

Personality development in emerging adults who do not attend college after high school has been largely overlooked so far. In this study, we investigated personality development in emerging German adults (N_T1 = 1,886, M_ageT1 = 18.01 years, 29% female) undergoing vocational education and training (VET). The trainees were assessed at the start of VET, 1.5 years later, and another 1.5 years after that, just before graduation. Longitudinal latent change score analyses were applied. Bivariate analyses investigated life satisfaction and job strain as social and work‐related aspects that are potentially reciprocally related to personality development. Mean‐level personality changes included increases in neuroticism and decreases in agreeableness and conscientiousness in the first interval. In the second interval, neuroticism decreased and conscientiousness increased. Simultaneously, trainees reported a gradual decrease in extraversion and openness across the 3‐year time span. Personality, especially agreeableness and conscientiousness, emerged as a stronger predictor of changes in job strain and life satisfaction than vice versa. For example, more agreeable and more conscientious trainees subsequently showed increases in life satisfaction. Trainees reporting higher job strain subsequently showed decreases in agreeableness. Trajectories of personality development partly support the maturity principle that has been established in many college student samples.