Becoming Financially Self-Sufficient: Developing a Need-Supportive and Need-Thwarting Scale for Financial Parenting of Emerging Adults.

The shift in the parent-child relationship during the transition to adulthood presumes that emerging adults progress toward financial self-sufficiency. Research indicates that financial parenting contributes to success in this transition, and these effects extend beyond the financial domain. Nevertheless, there is a lack of theory-based tools to measure relevant financial parenting aspects. By applying the six dimensions of interpersonal behaviors outlined in the Self-Determination Theory (SDT), the current study develops a scale targeting the interpersonal style of financial parenting. To validate the scale, it also tests seven preregistered hypotheses predicting internal structure and associations with relevant external variables in a sample of 600 emerging adults (Mage =24.94, SDage = 3.03, range 19-29 years; 52.3% women). The sample, diverse occupational status characteristics, was recruited from an online survey panel using the controlled quota sampling strategy. While study results provide modest evidence for a hypothesized six-factor structure and advocate instead for a more parsimonious two-dimensional one, results provide evidence for the new scale's convergent, discriminant, criterion, and incremental validity. This is the first study that brings SDT into family financial socialization research and opens a new line of research on family financial socialization, achievement of financial self-sufficiency, and emerging adults' wellbeing.

How does School Experience Relate to Adolescent Identity Formation Over Time? Cross-Lagged Associations between School Engagement, School Burnout and Identity Processing Styles.

The existing research findings still do not provide a clear understanding of the links between adolescent school experience and their identity formation. To address this gap, we analyzed the dynamic links between adolescent school experiences and identity formation by exploring the cross-lagged associations between school engagement, school burnout and identity processing styles (information-oriented, normative and diffuse-avoidant) over a 2-year period during middle-to-late adolescence. The sample of this school-based study included 916 adolescents (51.4% females) in the 9th to 12th grades from diverse socio-economic and family backgrounds. The results from the cross-lagged analyses with three time points revealed that (a) school engagement positively predicted information-oriented identity processing over a 2-year period; (b) school burnout positively predicted the reliance on normative and diffuse-avoidant identity styles across the three measurements; (c) the effects were stable over the three time points and across different gender, grade, and socio-economic status groups. The unidirectional effects identified in our study support the general prediction that active engagement in learning at school can serve as a resource for adolescent identity formation, while school burnout, in contrast, can hinder the formation of adolescent identity. This points to the importance of taking developmental identity-related needs of adolescents into account when planning the school curriculum.

Profiles of Achievement Motivation and Performance in Middle School: Links to Student Background and Perceived Classroom Climate.

Achievement motivation and performance at school are reciprocally related, however, empirical studies report a large variability of findings and, in some cases, weaker than expected associations between these constructs. To further our understanding of the motivation-performance link, we examined typical patterns of motivation and performance and their correlates, in two cohorts of 8th-grade students (N 1 = 998, N 2 = 441). As expected, we identified both concordant and discordant patterns of achievement motivation and performance. In two subgroups, specifically, those characterized by low motivation and low performance (34% of the sample) and those characterized by high motivation and high performance (18% of the sample), the levels of motivation were highly concordant with scores on math and reading tests. In contrast, the other two profiles-weak motivation with elevated performance (38% of all sample) and high motivation with low performance (9% of the sample) had divergent patterns of motivation and performance. The subgroups also differed on student socio-economic background, special educational needs, gender, as well as perceptions of classroom climate. Overall, our findings reveal context-dependent patterns of the relationship between aspects of achievement motivation and performance.

Parental Teaching of Reading and Spelling Across the Transition From Kindergarten to Grade 1.

We investigated the longitudinal links between parental teaching of reading and spelling and children's word reading and spelling skills. Data of 244 Lithuanian parent-child dyads were analyzed, who were followed across three time points: end of kindergarten (T1; M age = 6.88; 116 girls), beginning of Grade 1 (T2), and end of Grade 1 (T3). The children's word reading and spelling skills were tested, and the parents answered questionnaires on the frequency with which they taught their children reading and spelling. Overall, the results showed that the parents were responsive to their children's skill levels across the domains of reading and spelling and across time (i.e., the transition from kindergarten to Grade 1 and across Grade 1). However, differences between the domains of reading and spelling were also observed. In particular, in the domain of reading and across the transition from kindergarten to Grade 1, the parents responded to their children's skill levels by increasing the time spent teaching children with poor word reading skills, and decreasing the teaching time for the children with good word reading skills. In contrast, as spelling skills may require more time to develop, parents maintained similar frequencies of teaching spelling across the transition to Grade 1 for all children, and only parents of good spellers taught less spelling at the end of Grade 1 than parents of children with poor and average word spelling skills.

[Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: possibilities of early diagnostics]. / Ankstyvosios vaiku aktyvumo ir demesio sutrikimo diagnostikos galimybes.

The present study aimed at analyzing the possibilities of early diagnostics of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in toddlers and preschool children. Parents and caregivers from children day care centers provided information about 863 children (mean age, 47.18 months; 410 girls and 453 boys). The methods used in the study were as follows: Child Behavior Checklist/1(1/2)-5 (CBCL), Caregiver-Teacher Report Form (C-TRF), and clinical questionnaire for evaluation of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms. The study consisted of two stages: 1) screening of the emotional and behavioral problems of children based on parental and caregiver-teachers' reports; 2) clinical interview with parents of children at risk for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder as measured by empirical ratings of attention hyperactivity symptoms. Results revealed that according to parental ratings, attention and hyperactivity problems are related to children's age. According to caregiver-teachers' ratings, boys were rated as having more problems of attention and hyperactivity than girls. Based on the results from the first stage, children at risk for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder were analyzed further. Case study analysis showed attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms in these children to be a part of overall pattern characterized by behavioral, emotional, and other problems. The quantitative as well as qualitative analysis provides the evidence for a high comorbidity of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and other emotional and behavioral problems in early childhood. Study showed that comprehensive clinical assessment is necessary for early diagnostics of ADHD.

The relations among empathy, occupational commitment, and emotional exhaustion of nurses.

The objective of this study was to determine whether empathy and occupational commitment significantly contribute to the emotional exhaustion of nurses. The sample group was 158 nurses from two regional Lithuanian hospitals, who completed self-report measures. A questionnaire consisted of 10 items reflecting empathy appearing on Davis (1983) Individual Reactivity Index, 4 occupational commitment items from Miller et al. (1988), and 7 emotional exhaustion items from the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach, Jackson, 1981). Correlation analyses and structural equation modeling were employed to interpret the results. The results showed that nurses' occupational commitment plays an important role in the degree of emotional exhaustion they experience. Nurses having more empathy are more likely to develop higher occupational commitment. In addition, it was found that higher levels of empathy and occupational commitment of nurses are associated with lower emotional exhaustion. Nurses who stayed in the profession longer developed stronger occupational commitment. Therefore, the conclusion was made that differences in emotional exhaustion among nurses may be explained directly by occupational commitment and indirectly by empathy and nursing experience.