Still worried? Parental control and academic competence as antecedents of middle school students' post-transition worries.

This study examined whether parental psychological control reported by children before the transition to middle school, in the second semester of the fourth grade, is associated with children's worries after the transition to middle school, in the first semester of the fifth grade. We also evaluated the mediating role of children's post-transition perceived academic competence and the moderating role of physical transition (changing schools) on these relations. 370 Romanian early adolescents participated at both time points, with 30% of them having changed schools. Path analysis showed that the relation between children's perceptions of dependency-oriented psychological control and post-transition worries was mediated by academic competence and moderated by physical transition. Educational and counseling implications are discussed.

Anxiety, academic achievement, and academic self-concept: Meta-analytic syntheses of their relations across developmental periods.

This systematic review examined how anxiety symptoms and anxiety disorders relate to academic achievement, school dropout, and academic self-concept. Studies with children or adult samples were included in seven meta-analyses (ks for number of samples ranged from 5 to 156; N's for participants ranged from 780 to 37, 203). Results revealed significant but very small effect sizes for the relations between anxiety and overall academic achievement (r = -.06), language achievement (r = -.07), and math achievement (r = -.09), and a nonsignificant effect size for science achievement (r = -.01). Participants with greater anxiety were also significantly more likely to not complete high school (r = .11). They also had a poorer overall academic self-concept (r = -.25) and mathematics self-concept (r = -.30). Few methodological moderators (e.g., study design, age) were significant. Results show that anxiety does not strongly hinder academic achievement, but it is an important correlate of dropout and academic self-concept, which in turn could contribute to poorer life outcomes. Interventions and preventive programs need to consider ways to ameliorate the relations of anxiety with academic outcomes, especially school continuation and academic self-concept. Future studies should identify risk factors that may amplify these relations.

Parent-Child Attachment Security and Depressive Symptoms in Early Adolescence: The Mediating Roles of Gratitude and Forgiveness.

Although greater parent-child attachment security is linked with children's lower levels of depressive symptoms, little research has evaluated potential explanatory mechanisms. We investigated whether dispositional gratitude and interpersonal forgiveness explain the relation between attachment security with parents and early adolescents' depressive symptoms. Early adolescents (N = 105; M age = 12.3 years; 51% girls) completed questionnaires assessing their attachment security to mother and father figures, depressive symptoms, and dispositional gratitude, and an interview assessing interpersonal forgiveness. Results revealed that greater attachment security to mothers and fathers was associated with fewer depressive symptoms and greater levels of dispositional gratitude and interpersonal forgiveness. Further, dispositional gratitude and interpersonal forgiveness were negatively associated with depressive symptoms. Dispositional gratitude emerged as a mediator between attachment security with each parent and depressive symptoms. Our findings suggest that greater parent-child security may promote early adolescents' appreciation of positive events, which in turn may relate to fewer depressive symptoms.

Attachment figures in a middle childhood Romanian sample: Does parental migration for employment matter?

This study assessed how children's choices of attachment figures are related to the quality of the parent-child relationship and parental economic migration in a Romanian sample. Two hundred and twenty-two children (n girls =130) 10-13 years of age completed the Attachment Figure Interview and a parental migration interview, and reported their attachment security with mother and father. Approximately 35.6% (n = 79) of children had mothers with a migration history and 48.7% (n = 104) of children had fathers with a migration history. Mothers, and to some extent fathers, serve as primary attachment figures. Grandparents, peers, siblings and relatives serve as secondary attachment figures in some situations. Further, children are less likely to choose mothers as primary attachment figures and show lower attachment security when their mothers rather than their fathers have a history of migration. Overall, this study provides empirical grounds to conceptualize parental migration as an attachment disruption.

The Security Scale as a measure of attachment: meta-analytic evidence of validity.

This meta-analysis evaluated the psychometric properties of the Security Scale (SS; k = 57 studies), a measure specifically designed to assess attachment in middle childhood, using several criteria: stability over time, associations with other attachment measures, relations with caregiver sensitivity, and associations with theoretically driven outcomes. The SS demonstrated moderate stability and meaningful associations with other attachment measures and caregiver sensitivity. Furthermore, the SS showed significant associations with developmental correlates of attachment: school adaptation, emotional and peer social competence, self-esteem, and behavioral problem. Some effect sizes varied as a function of socioeconomic status (SES; peer social competence and maladjustment) and publication status (emotional competence, peer social competence, and self-esteem). The association between the SS and our constructs of interest were, for the most part, independent of geographical location and child gender or age. Overall, findings suggest that the SS is a robust measure of attachment in middle childhood and early adolescence.

Middle Childhood Attachment Strategies: validation of an observational measure.

The purpose of this study was to assess behavioral manifestations of attachment in middle childhood, and to evaluate their relations with key theoretical correlates. The sample consisted of 87 children (aged 10-12 years) and their mothers. Dyads participated in an 8-min videotaped discussion of a conflict in their relationships, later scored with the Middle Childhood Attachment Strategies Coding System (MCAS) for key features of all child attachment patterns described in previous literature (secure, ambivalent, avoidant, disorganized-disoriented, caregiving/role-confused, hostile/punitive). To assess validity, relations among MCAS dimensions and other measures of attachment, parenting, and psychological adjustment were evaluated. Results provide preliminary evidence for the psychometric properties of the MCAS in that its behaviorally assessed patterns were associated with theoretically relevant constructs, including maternal warmth/acceptance and psychological control, and children's social competence, depression, and behavioral problems. The MCAS opens new grounds for expanding our understanding of attachment and its outcomes in middle childhood.

Disorganized attachment in young adulthood as a partial mediator of relations between severity of childhood abuse and dissociation.

Disorganized attachment has been proposed as a mediating mechanism in the relation between childhood abuse and dissociation. However, support for mediation has been mixed when interview or self-report measures of attachment have been used. In the current work, relations among severity of abuse, attachment disorganization, and dissociation were assessed in young adulthood using both interview and interaction-based measures of attachment. A total of 112 low-income young adults were assessed for socioeconomic stresses, abusive experiences in childhood, and attachment disorganization at age 20. Attachment disorganization was assessed with the Adult Attachment Interview, coded independently for Unresolved states of mind and for Hostile-Helpless states of mind. Attachment disorganization was also measured using a newly validated assessment of young adult-parent interaction during a conflict discussion. Mediation analyses revealed that the link between childhood abuse and dissociation was partially explained by disturbances in young adult-parent interaction. Narrative disturbances on the Adult Attachment Interview were related to abuse and to dissociation but did not mediate the link between the two. Results are discussed in relation to the role of parent-child communication processes in pathways to dissociation.

Mother-child emotion communication and childhood anxiety symptoms.

This study examined whether several aspects of emotion communication in mother-child dyads relate to child anxiety symptoms. Mother and child behaviours related to emotion communication were coded based on videotaped mother-child interactions in a sample of 87 ten- to twelve-year olds, and children reported on their anxiety symptoms. Mothers of more anxious children were less supportive in that they engaged more in psychologically controlling behaviours designed to manipulate the child's emotional state, exhibited less warmth and interest in the child, and were less elaborative during conversations about an emotionally negative event. Further, more anxious children showed greater affect intensity and lower congruency of emotions and behaviours, and were less engaged in the conversation. Examining the role of child gender did not change the results significantly. Mother and child emotion communication behaviours each explained significant variance in child anxiety. The results showed that how mothers and children approached emotion-related conversations is important for child anxiety, and highlighted the need to consider mother and child behaviours related to emotion communication in assessment and interventions with anxious children.

Parent-Child Attachment and Emotion Regulation.

Given the centrality of both parent-child attachment and emotion regulation in children's development and adjustment, it is important to evaluate the relations between these constructs. This article discusses conceptual and empirical links between attachment and emotion regulation in middle childhood, highlights progress and challenges in the literature, and outlines future inquiries. Studies have established that securely attached children internalize effective emotion regulation strategies within the attachment relationship and are able to successfully employ adaptive emotion regulation strategies outside the attachment relationship, when the attachment figure is not present. There are not enough studies to conclude yet that the insecure attachment patterns (ambivalent, avoidant, and disorganized) may relate differentially with emotion regulation processes. Studies investigating whether there are unique links between the four attachment patterns and the various emotion regulation processes will advance the field considerably. Studies evaluating the associations between attachment and emotion regulation will benefit from a multimethod approach in measuring these constructs. Embedding the relation between parent-child attachment and emotion regulation within broader developmental models will further advance the research on this topic.

Disorganized behavior in adolescent-parent interaction: relations to attachment state of mind, partner abuse, and psychopathology.

Disoriented, punitive, and caregiving/role-confused attachment behaviors are associated with psychopathology in childhood, but have not been assessed in adolescence. A total of 120 low-income late adolescents (aged 18-23 years) and parents were assessed in a conflict-resolution paradigm. Their interactions were coded with the Goal-Corrected Partnership in Adolescence Coding Scales. Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that the three disorganized constructs (punitive, caregiving, and disoriented interaction) were best represented as distinct factors and were separable from a fourth factor for collaboration. The four factors were then assessed in relation to measures of attachment disorganization, partner abuse, and psychopathology. Results indicate that forms of disorganized behavior first described in early childhood can also be reliably assessed in adolescence and are associated with maladaptive outcomes across multiple domains.

A meta-analytic review of the relations between anxiety and empathy.

Although theory suggests that empathy may signal a risk for anxiety (Tone & Tully, 2014), the relation between these constructs remains unclear due to the lack of a quantitative synthesis of empirical findings. We addressed this question by conducting three meta-analyses assessing anxiety and general, cognitive, and affective empathy (k's = 70-102 samples; N's = 19,410-25,102 participants). Results suggest that anxiety has a small and significant association with general empathy (r = .08). The relation of clinical anxiety with cognitive empathy was significant but very weak (r = -.03), and small for affective empathy (r = .16). Geographic region and the type of cognitive (e.g., perspective taking, fantasy) and affective empathy (e.g., affective resonance, empathic concern) emerged as moderators. Results suggest that anxiety has a weaker association with general empathy but a stronger association with affective empathy in participants from predominantly collectivistic geographic regions. Further, greater anxiety was weakly associated with less perspective-taking and greater fantasy, and anxiety had a more modest association with empathic concern than other types of affective empathy. Targeting affective empathy (e.g., promoting coping strategies when faced with others' distress) in interventions for anxiety may be beneficial.

Pathways to anxiety: contributions of attachment history, temperament, peer competence, and ability to manage intense emotions.

This longitudinal study tested whether associations between early attachment history and temperament and later anxiety symptoms are direct, or are indirect and explained by children's competencies in regulating emotions and relating to peers. Attachment patterns (secure, avoidant, preoccupied, disorganized) were assessed at 15 and 36 months, and temperament (negative emotionality-NE, Shyness) was assessed at 54 months. Peer competence (PC) and the ability to manage intense emotions were assessed at early school age, and anxiety symptoms in preadolescence. Both attachment history and temperament predicted anxiety. PC mediated the relations of security and disorganization with anxiety, and the ability to manage intense emotions mediated the relation between security and anxiety. PC also mediated the relations of NE and shyness with anxiety, and the ability to manage intense emotions mediated the relation of NE with anxiety. The findings highlight specific mechanisms that may contribute to the development of anxiety.

Mental Health among Young Adults during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Two-Wave Longitudinal Investigation.

This study aimed to assess changes in COVID-19 related factors (i.e. risk perception, knowledge about the virus, preventive behaviors and perceived efficacy) and mental health (i.e. psychological distress and positive mental health), in a sample of Romanian young adults attending college, assessed immediately after the national COVID-19 lockdown ended (Time 1) and six months after the end of the lockdown (Time 2). We also evaluated the longitudinal relations between COVID-19 related factors and mental health. The sample consisted of 289 undergraduate students (89.3% female, Mage = 20.74, SD = 1.06), who completed questionnaires assessing mental health and COVID-19-related factors via two online surveys, six months apart. The results showed that perceived efficacy and preventive behaviors, as well as positive mental health, but not psychological distress, decreased significantly over the six months period. Risk perception and perceived efficacy of preventive behaviors at Time 1 were positively related with the number of preventive behaviors measured six months later. Risk perception at Time 1 and fear of COVID-19 at Time 2 predicted the mental health indicators at Time 2. Public-health strategies should find the right balance in cultivating proper levels of risk perception that would be most beneficial for prevention of COVID-19 spread and mental health problems due to pandemic.

Parental emotion socialization: Relations with adjustment, security, and maternal depression in early adolescence.

How parents approach and teach their children about emotions are key determinants of children's healthy adjustment (Denham, 2019). Parental emotion socialization has been mostly studied in parents of young children. Our study identified emotion socialization (ES) strategies used by parents of early adolescents (Study 1) and then examined the relations of ES strategies with early adolescent adjustment, parent-child attachment, and maternal depression (Study 2). Study 1 included 171 parents of 9- to 14-year-old children who completed an open-ended questionnaire about their reactions to their children's negative emotions, which was content coded for ES strategies. We found that parents do use the 6 traditional ES strategies (problem solving, emotion focused/comforting, encouragement, minimizing, punitive, and distress) with early adolescents, while also using 3 approaches not identified in studies of parents of younger children (self-regulation, parent seeking information, parent explaining). We also found that some ES strategies are context and gender specific. Study 2 included 218 mother and child dyads (children aged 9- to 14- years). Mothers completed the Revised Coping with Children's Negative Emotions Scale, adapted to include items assessing the 3 new strategies, and measures of child adjustment, attachment, and maternal depression. The ES strategies loaded on 3 factors: Collaborative Coping, Negative Reactions to Child's Distress, and Low Expectation for Child's Self-Regulation. Negative Reactions to Child's Distress showed associations with children's internalizing, externalizing, and prosocial behavior, and child attachment, while Collaborative Coping was related to prosocial behavior. Our results point to the importance of investigating additional ES strategies in early adolescence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Mother-child relationships, family context, and child characteristics as predictors of anxiety symptoms in middle childhood.

The goal of the study was to examine several factors that may explain the development of anxiety symptoms in middle childhood. Using data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care (n = 1,364 families), we examined mother-child relationships, other aspects of family context, and child characteristics as predictors of anxiety in preadolescence. Latent growth curve analyses revealed that children who were more anxious at the beginning of middle childhood had been more behaviorally inhibited as preschoolers, and in middle childhood lived in families who experienced more negative life events and had mothers who were more anxious. Children who became more anxious across middle childhood were less behaviorally inhibited as preschoolers and in middle childhood perceived less security in their attachments to their mothers, experienced more negative life events, and had mothers who were more anxious. The findings illustrate the need to include a broad set of risk factors in etiological models of anxiety. In addition, the evidence for cumulative effects suggests several possible points of intervention with anxious children and their parents.

Multi-method assessment of mother-child attachment: links to parenting and child depressive symptoms in middle childhood.

This study included two different methods to assess mother-child attachment, questionnaires, and a doll play story stem interview, so their overlap could be evaluated. In addition, we investigated how attachment is related to parenting and child depression. The sample was comprised of 10- to 12-year-olds (N = 87) and their mothers. Children completed questionnaires (assessing security, avoidance, and ambivalence), and were administered a doll play interview to assess attachment patterns (security, avoidance, ambivalence, and disorganization). Two aspects of parenting (warmth/ engagement and psychological control) were assessed with child reports and observer ratings of maternal behavior. We also obtained child reports of depressive symptoms. Questionnaire and interview measures of attachment security were related to one another, and each showed predictable associations with parenting and child depression. By contrast, results were less consistent for the ambivalent and avoidant insecure attachment patterns, although disorganized attachment showed some associations with parenting and child adjustment.

Emerging child competencies and personality pathology: toward a Developmental Cascade model of BPD.

The guiding principle of this synthesis is to organize research on predictors of BPD features within a developmentally specific framework (e.g. infancy, preschool, middle childhood, adolescence). In addition, studies are prioritized that have longitudinal and observational components. On the basis of current literature, a Developmental Cascade Model of BPD is offered in which specific difficulties during one developmental period contribute to specific difficulties in a succeeding period, resulting in increasingly broad areas of dysregulation over time. Furthermore, to address specificity, we contrast trajectories toward BPD with trajectories toward antisocial behavior, noting shared and divergent predictors. The review highlights the importance of locating research findings in relation to the competencies and challenges of particular developmental periods when modelling developmental trajectories toward BPD.

Parent-child attachment and internalizing symptoms in childhood and adolescence: a review of empirical findings and future directions.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the theory and evidence for the links of parent-child attachment with internalizing problems in childhood and adolescence. We address three key questions: (a) how consistent is the evidence that attachment security or insecurity is linked to internalizing symptoms, anxiety, and depression? (b) How consistent is the evidence that specific forms of insecurity are more strongly related to internalizing symptoms, anxiety, and depression than are other forms of insecurity? (c) Are associations with internalizing symptoms, anxiety, and depression consistent for mother-child and father-child attachment? The current findings are consistent with the hypothesis that insecure attachment is associated with the development of internalizing problems. The links between specific insecure attachment patterns and internalizing problems are difficult to evaluate. Father-child and mother-child attachments have a comparable impact, although there are relatively few studies of father-child attachment. No moderators consistently affect these relations. We also propose two models of how attachment insecurity may combine with other factors to lead to anxiety or depression.

Mother-child attachment patterns and different types of anxiety symptoms: is there specificity of relations?

The purpose of this study was to test Manassis' proposal (Child-parent relations: Attachment and anxiety disorders, 255-272, 2001) that attachment patterns (secure, ambivalent, avoidant, and disorganized) may relate to different types of anxiety symptoms, and that behavioral inhibition may moderate these relations. Using a story stem interview to assess attachment and children's reports of anxiety symptoms, we found some support for these hypotheses in a sample of 10-12 years olds. Security was related to lower levels of all types of anxieties, except separation anxiety. Ambivalence was positively related to separation anxiety, although this relation was stronger for boys. Although avoidance was not related to anxiety, disorganization was positively related to somatic symptoms, social phobia, and school phobia. Behavioral inhibition moderated the relations of security with social phobia, and of disorganization with school phobia. The findings suggest that it is important to consider specificity between attachment patterns and various types of anxiety symptoms and to recognize that these relations may be altered by other risk factors.

Developmental Pathways to BPD-Related Features in Adolescence: Infancy to Age 15.

The self-damaging behaviors central to borderline personality disorder (BPD) become prominent in adolescence. Current developmental theories cite both early family processes and childhood dysregulation as contributors to BPD, but longitudinal data from infancy are rare. Using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development database (SECCYD; N = 1,364), we examined path models to evaluate parent and child contributors from infancy/preschool, middle childhood, and adolescence to adolescent BPD-related features. In addition, person-centered latent class analyses (LCA) investigated whether adolescent BPD-related features were more strongly predicted by particular patterns of maladaptive parenting. Path modeling identified unique influences of maternal insensitivity and maternal depression on BPD-related features, first, through social-emotional dysregulation in middle childhood, and second, through continuity from infancy in maternal insensitivity and depression. LCA results indicated that early withdrawn parenting was particularly predictive of BPD-related features in adolescence. Results suggest multiple points of intervention to alter pathways toward adolescent borderline psychopathology.