Sleep Facilitates Coping: Moderated Mediation of Daily Sleep,Ethnic/Racial Discrimination,Stress Responses,and Adolescent Well-Being

Using a daily diary design and actigraphy sleep data across 2 weeks among 256 ethnic/racial minority adolescents (M_age = 14.72; 40% Asian, 22% Black, 38% Latinx; 2,607 days), this study investigated how previous-night sleep (duration, quality) moderated the same-day associations between ethnic/racial discrimination and stress responses (rumination, problem solving, family/peer support seeking) to predict daily well-being (mood, somatic symptoms, life satisfaction). On days when adolescents experienced greater discrimination, if they slept longer and better the previous night, adolescents engaged in greater active coping (problem solving, peer support seeking), and subsequently had better well-being. Adolescents also ruminated less when they slept longer the previous night regardless of discrimination. Findings highlight the role of sleep in helping adolescents navigate discrimination by facilitating coping processes.     

Interparental conflict and child adjustment: testing the mediational role of appraisals in the cognitive-contextual framework

Children's appraisals of interparental conflict consistently have been associated with adjustment problems, but the processes that give rise to this association are not well understood. This paper proposes that appraisals of threat and self-blame mediate the association between children's reports of interparental conflict and internalizing problems, and tests this mediational hypothesis in two samples of children, one drawn from the community (317 ten- to fourteen-year-olds) and the other from battered women's shelters (145 ten- to twelve-year-olds). Results indicate that perceived threat mediates the association between interparental conflict and internalizing problems for boys and girls in both samples, and self-blame mediates this association for boys in both samples and girls in the shelter sample. Perceived threat and self-blame do not mediate links with externalizing problems, and there is no evidence of a moderating effect of appraisals on the association between conflict and child adjustment. Implications for understanding the mechanism by which exposure to interparental conflict could lead to child maladjustment are discussed.     

A prospective investigation of appraisals as mediators of the link between interparental conflict and child adjustment

This longitudinal study tested the role of children's appraisals of threat and self-blame as mediators of the association between interparental conflict and child adjustment in a sample of 298 Welsh children ages 11 to 12 years. Exposure to higher levels of interparental conflict at Time 1 predicted greater perceived threat and self-blame at Time 2, after accounting for the effects of Time 1 adjustment and appraisals on later appraisals. Perceived threat in turn was associated with increased internalizing problems at Tune 2, and self-blame was associated with higher externalizing problems. The pattern of results was largely consistent for child and parent reports of conflict and for boys and girls, though some gender differences were found in associations between appraisals and adjustment.     

A moment of autonomy support brightens adolescents' mood: Autonomy support,psychological control and adolescent affect in everyday life

This experience sampling study examined whether autonomy-supportive and psychologically controlling interactions with parents are intertwined with adolescents' momentary affect. For 7 days (in 2020), 143 adolescents (M_age = 15.82; SD_age = 1.75; 64% girls; 95% European, 1% African, 3% unknown) reported 5 or 6 times a day how they felt and how interactions with parents were experienced. Preregistered dynamic structural equation models on 1439 (including 532 adjacent) parent–adolescent interactions revealed significant within-family associations: Adolescents experienced more positive affect during and following autonomy-supportive interactions, and vice versa. Adolescents felt more negative affect during and 3 h before psychologically controlling interactions. Between-family associations showed significant linkages between parenting and affect. These findings show that a moment of autonomy support can alter adolescents' everyday well-being.     

Attachment style and loneliness in adolescence

Possible associations between parent-child interactions and adolescent well-being have been explored from a number of theoretical perspectives. In the present study, attachment theory was used as a general theoretical framework to study these associations with attention being concentrated on one particular aspect of adolescent well-being, i.e., loneliness and attitudes towards being alone. Measures of adolescent attachment style (based on ratings of both normal family scenes and stressful separation situations) and a multidimensional measure of loneliness were administered to two samples of Belgian (Dutch-speaking) adolescents aged 15 to 18 (n=200 and n=357, respectively). Subjects were classified into four attachment groups: Secure, Dependent, Anxious-Ambivalent and Avoidant. Results indicated that Securely attached adolescents experienced lower levels of parent-related loneliness and this effect extended to loneliness in the relationships with peers. Aversion to being alone was experienced more strongly among Dependently attached adolescents. Finally, adolescents who evidenced Avoidant or Anxious-Ambivalent attachment felt more positive about being on their own. Implications of these findings for attachment theory are discussed and problems associated with the four-category model of attachment as used in the present study are outlined.     

Belief in a just world, justice concerns, and well-being at Portuguese schools

This article investigates the meaning of the belief in a just world (BJW) for justice cognition at school and for subjective well-being. We hypothesized that BJW should serve as a resource helping to maintain positive well-being and to assimilate experienced injustice. The results of two studies with Portuguese school students (7th–12th grade) and one with university students were consistent with our hypotheses. The more the students endorsed the BJW, the more they evaluated their school grades and their teachers’ and their peers’ behavior towards them as just and the more they were satisfied with life in general. Moreover, the more students felt fairly treated by their teachers, the less they felt distressed at school. Life satisfaction varied however independently of school-specific justice cognitions. This pattern of results persisted when controlled for achievement (grades) as well as for personality dispositions such as self-efficacy, self-esteem, and general trust. The implications of these results for further studies on adolescent development are discussed.     

Gender differences in adolescents' daily interpersonal events and well-being

This study examined daily interpersonal events with parents and friends and daily well-being among 589 ninth-grade students (mean age = 14.9 years) from Mexican, Chinese, and European backgrounds. Associations were examined using a daily diary methodology whereby adolescents reported on positive and negative interpersonal experiences and mood each day for 2 weeks. Analyses using hierarchical linear modeling revealed bidirectional associations between adolescents' daily social interactions and mood. Findings indicated gender differences in adolescents' reactivity to daily interpersonal events as well as in the strength of daily mood as a predictor of interpersonal events. Furthermore, the ratio of positive to negative events experienced daily was consequential for adolescents' daily mood. Findings have practical implications for adolescents' everyday functioning and potential long-term adjustment.     

Daily Ethnic/Racial Context in Peer Groups: Frequency,Structure, and Implications for Adolescent Outcomes

Ethnic/racial context in peer groups is poorly understood. Using daily data from 178 ethnically/racially diverse adolescents (M_age = 14.53) over 2 weeks, this study investigated peer processes related to ethnicity/race (peer ethnic/racial processes) in everyday life. On average, peer ethnic/racial processes occurred about 1 to 4 days over the 2 weeks. On days when adolescents reported more negative peer ethnic/racial processes (indicated by ethnic/racial teasing, discrimination, victimization, and partially by preparation for bias), they also reported lower school engagement. On days when adolescents reported more positive peer ethnic/racial processes (indicated by cultural socialization, support against discrimination, and partially by preparation for bias), they exhibited more prosocial behaviors and greater ethnic/racial identity private regard. Similar associations emerged at the between-person level.     

Experiences of psychological and physical aggression in adolescent romantic relationships: Links to psychological distress

ObjectiveThis research examined links between adolescents’ experiences of psychological and physical relationship aggression and their psychological distress. Experiences of psychological and physical aggression were expected to correlate positively with symptoms of psychological distress, but experiences of psychological aggression were expected to partially account for the association between experiences of physical aggression and psychological distress. In addition, psychological aggression was hypothesized to be perceived as more unpleasant and less playful than physical aggression.MethodParticipants were 125 high school students. Relationship aggression was assessed over an 8-week period using two methods: (1) a retrospective method based on a single assessment at the end of the 8-week period, and (2) a cumulative method based on multiple assessments conducted during the 8-week period. Adolescents’ appraisals of the aggression were also measured, as were their reports of symptoms of psychological distress.ResultsAdolescents’ experiences of psychological and physical relationship aggression correlated positively, but inconsistently, with their symptoms of psychological distress. In analyses considering both forms of aggression simultaneously, psychological aggression was related to adolescents’ distress, but physical aggression was not. This finding emerged across both methods of assessing for relationship aggression. Psychological aggression was more likely than physical aggression to be rated as unpleasant, and less likely to be attributed to the partner “playing around.”ConclusionsThe study of adolescent relationship aggression will benefit by expanding the focus of aggression to include psychological aggression as well as physical aggression, and by examining adolescents’ appraisals of the aggression they experience.Practice implicationsThe findings highlight the importance of a broad view of aggression in adolescent relationships. Psychological aggression appears to be at least as important to adolescent well-being as physical aggression in dating relationships. In addition, it may be useful to consider how adolescents’ interpret the intent of the aggression that they experience.     

Longitudinal Trajectories of Family Functioning Among Recent Immigrant Adolescents and Parents: Links With Adolescent and Parent Cultural Stress,Emotional Well-Being,and Behavioral Health

This study examined longitudinal effects of adolescent and parent cultural stress on adolescent and parent emotional well-being and health behaviors via trajectories of adolescent and parent family functioning. Recent immigrant Latino adolescents (M_age = 14.51) and parents (M_age = 41.09; N = 302) completed measures of these constructs. Latent growth modeling indicated that adolescent and parent family functioning remained stable over time. Early levels of family functioning predicted adolescent and parent outcomes. Baseline adolescent cultural stress predicted lower positive adolescent and parent family functioning. Latent class growth analyses produced a two-class solution for family functioning. Adolescents and parents in the low family functioning class reported low family functioning over time. Adolescents and parents in the high family functioning class experienced increases in family functioning.     

Family Conflict,Mood, and Adolescents' Daily School Problems: Moderating Roles of Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms

Using daily diary data, this study examined cross‐day associations between family conflict and school problems and tested mediating effects of daily negative mood and moderating effects of psychological symptoms. For 2 weeks, parents and adolescents (N = 106; M_age = 15.4) reported daily conflict; adolescents reported daily negative mood and school problems. Results indicated bidirectional, multiday spillover between parent–adolescent conflict and school problems with daily negative mood statistically accounting for spillover both within and across days. Externalizing symptoms strengthened links between father–adolescent conflict and school problems, whereas depressive and anxious symptoms strengthened links between parent–adolescent conflict and daily negative mood. By demonstrating cross‐domain transmission of daily problems, these findings highlight the salience of everyday events as possible intervention targets.     

Kinship Support and Maternal and Adolescent Well-Being in Economically Disadvantaged African-American Families

This study tested a conceptual model developed to explain the link between kinship support and the psychological well-being of economically disadvantaged African-American adolescents. The relation of kinship support with maternal and adolescent well-being and mothers' child-rearing practices was assessed in 51 African-American families whose incomes placed them at or below the poverty threshold. Findings revealed that kinship social support to mothers/female guardians was positively associated with adolescent psychological well-being, maternal well-being, and more adequate maternal parenting practices (acceptance, firm control and monitoring of behavior, autonomy granting). Maternal well-being and more adequate maternal parenting practices were positively related to adolescent well-being. Evidence of the mediational role of maternal well-being and parenting practices was revealed. When the effects of maternal well-being and maternal parenting practices were controlled, significant relations between kinship support and adolescent well-being were no longer apparent.     

Age and Gender as Determinants of Stress Exposure, Generation, and Reactions in Youngsters: A Transactional Perspective

The present study used a contextual and transactional approach to examine age and gender differences in the experience and consequences of life stress in clinic-referred preadolescents and adolescents. Eighty-eight youngsters and their parents completed the Child Episodic Life Stress Interview, a detailed semistructured interview assessing the occurrence of stressful events in multiple life domains. Interviews were coded using a contextual threat rating method to determine event stressfulness and dependence. Youngsters also completed the Children's Depression Inventory and the Revised Child Manifest Anxiety Scale to assess self-reported symptoms of depression and anxiety. Consistent with predictions, age- and gender-related patterns of life stress varied across the type and context of stressors. Most notably, adolescent girls experienced the highest levels of interpersonal stress, especially stress and conflict that they generated within parent-child and peer relationships. Preadolescent girls experienced the highest levels of independent stress and conflict in the family context. Adolescent boys experienced the highest levels of noninterpersonal stress associated with self-generated events. Girls demonstrated particular vulnerability to depressive responses to dependent stress. The results build on and extend previous theory and research on age and gender differences in close relationships and stress, and illustrate the value of more refined conceptual models and more sophisticated methodologies in child life stress research.     

A Contextual-Moderator Analysis of Emotional Autonomy and Adjustment in Adolescence

This study investigated the relation between emotional autonomy, as measured by Steinberg and Silverberg's Emotional Autonomy Scale (EA), and adolescent adjustment as moderated by several individual, familial, and cultural contexts. Subjects were 96 adolescents (10–18 years old) and their mothers and teachers. Results indicate that when the affective nature of the parent-adolescent relationship is positive (e.g., maternal warmth is high or intensity of parent-adolescent conflict is low), positive adolescent adjustment is more likely when adolescents report less emotional autonomy. On the other hand, when the family environment is more stressful, emotional autonomy is positively associated with adolescent adjustment. Findings suggest that higher scores on the EA scale index emotional detachment from parents and that such detachment is detrimental in supportive familial environments but adaptive in less supportive familial environments. That emotional detachment from parents appears to serve a protective function in certain stressful situations is viewed as analogous to the adoption of an avoidant attachment strategy during infancy.     

Childhood maltreatment,psychopathology and well-being: The mediator role of global self-esteem,attachment difficulties and substance use

Childhood maltreatment is known to be associated with a broad variety of psychopathology and deteriorated well-being in adolescent populations. In the present nationwide study, we aimed to explore global self-esteem, attachment difficulties and substance use as possible mediators of these associations in a high-risk adolescent population. We included 400 adolescents (aged 12–20 years) living in residential youth care in Norway (response rate 67%). The participants completed a semistructured psychiatric interview (Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment (CAPA)), a study-specific questionnaire, a revised version of the Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents (SPPA) and the Questionnaire for Measuring Health-related Quality of Life in Children and Adolescents (KINDL-R). Information was also provided by the adolescent’s primary contact at the institution. Two models were tested using structural equation modelling; one assessed the association between childhood maltreatment and psychopathology, and one assessed the association between childhood maltreatment and well-being. Childhood maltreatment, psychopathology, well-being, global self-esteem and attachment difficulties were treated as latent variables, and substance use was added as an observed variable. The results of this study showed that global self-esteem was a mediator of paths in both models, whereas attachment difficulties and substance use were not. Preventing decline in health and well-being in high-risk adolescents is a main goal, and this study suggests that improving self-esteem, in addition to providing psychiatric health services, could be an important tool for achieving this goal.     

Stress, coping, and adjustment in female adolescent incest victims

Although previous literature on incest has dealt extensively with the nature, parameters, and effects of such abuse, it has not focused on the role of coping in the psychological adjustment of victims. Forty-five female adolescent incest victims in treatment completed questionnaires regarding their current adjustment, characteristics of their molest, their perceptions of the stressful aspects of the molestations, how they appraised the molestations, and how they coped with the fact that it occurred. The majority of the girls in this study had been sexually abused by a father figure (82%). The coping strategies of wishful thinking and tension reduction, the lack of maternal support at the time of reporting, and appraisals of threat and "holding self back" accounted for 70% of the variance in self-reported distress. The coping strategies of detachment, seeking social support and appraisal of hold self back accounted for 38% of the variance in adolescent's global psychopathology as rated by their therapists. In light of these findings, the implications of the need to address appraisals and coping efforts in research and therapy with incest victims was emphasized.     

Symptomatology in adolescents following initial disclosure of sexual abuse: The roles of crisis support, appraisals and coping

ObjectiveThe present study examined possible explanations for symptom development and variability in sexually abused adolescents. A theoretical model of sexual abuse, in which appraisal, coping and crisis support play prominent roles, was tested in a clinical group of 100 sexually abused adolescents.MethodParticipants, aged 12–18 years, completed questionnaires regarding severity of abuse, negative appraisals, crisis support, coping strategies, and trauma-related stress symptoms.ResultsSince severity of abuse had no influence on the association between appraisals and symptoms it was eliminated from our model. Structural equation modeling analyses showed a significant interrelationship between the examined concepts. Adolescents who appraised the abuse as more threatening showed more internalizing and externalizing trauma symptoms. Moreover, more negative appraisals were associated with more avoidance as well as with more active coping strategies. Direct crisis support was associated with less negative appraisals and with the use of more active coping strategies.ConclusionsThe study showed that especially the buffering role of crisis support and the role of negative appraisals explained symptom development and variety in sexually abused adolescents.Practice implicationsAdaptation to sexual abuse includes the ways in which adolescents perceive the event as threatening and harmful, how they cope with the abusive experience, and how they receive direct support from their family. Clinicians, therefore, need to expand the focus of their assessments beyond age- and trauma-specific symptoms, to age- and trauma-specific appraisals, coping, and social support. The assessment of these factors should take place as soon as possible after the disclosure of the abuse. Individualized treatment plans and clinical interventions need to be based on these personal and environmental variables, rather than reliance on the influence of abuse-related characteristics, such as the severity or type of abuse.     

Dynamic Changes in Peer Victimization and Adjustment Across Middle School: Does Friends’ Victimization Alleviate Distress?

Although some adolescents are chronically bullied throughout middle school, others may only experience peer victimization temporarily. This study examined the effects of time-invariant (average level) and time-varying (year-to-year) victimization experiences across middle school on adolescents’ depressive symptoms, somatic complaints, and self-blame. A key question was whether friends’ victimization buffered students from their victimization-related distress. The diverse sample (n = 5,991) was surveyed four times between sixth and eighth grade (M_age at sixth grade = 11.54 years). Three-level multilevel models revealed both time-invariant and time-varying effects of victimization on adjustment, but these maladaptive associations were attenuated when adolescents’ friends experienced more victimization across middle school. The results suggest that even temporarily victimized youth may have unmet mental health needs, and sharing social plight with friends can protect victims.     

Single parents, extended households, and the control of adolescents

This paper uses a representative national sample of adolescents to study the interrelationships among family structure, patterns of family decision making, and deviant behavior among adolescents. Mother-only households are shown to be associated with particular patterns of family decision making and adolescent deviance, even when family income and parental education are controlled. In contrast to adolescents in households with 2 natural parents, youth in mother-only households are perceived as more likely to make decisions without direct parental input and more likely to exhibit deviant behavior. The presence of an additional adult in a mother-only household, especially for males, is associated with increased parental control and a reduction in various forms of adolescent deviance. Finally, patterns of family decision making and family structure both make independent contributions to adolescent deviance, and the impact of family structure on deviance of adolescent males is hardly affected by controlling for patterns of family decision making.     

Economic Inequality is Associated with Long-Term Harm on Adolescent Well-Being in China

Economic inequality has been found to be detrimental to psychological well-being. However, previous studies were mostly based on cross-sectional data, drew exclusively on adults, and confined to Western developed countries. To address these shortcomings, the current study investigated the longitudinal association of income inequality with adolescent psychological well-being in a non-Western developing economy (i.e., China). We used the China Family Panel Studies data set with a representative sample of 3,042 adolescents (M_age = 12.59) from 20 provinces in China. Analyses showed that adolescents in more unequal provinces had lower happiness and more psychological distress. The associations between economic inequality and well-being varied across adolescents from different socioeconomic strata.