Effects of social exclusion and maternal rejection on Children's high-caloric food consumption.

Research has shown that the quality of interpersonal relationships plays an important role in influencing childhood obesity-risk behavior. However, studies conducted so far have focused mostly on self-report data. But they rarely control for the effect of experimentally-induced social rejection or perceived maternal rejection. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of the quality of the maternal relationships as well as experimentally-induced social rejection on children's motivation to consume high-caloric food. Eighty children (8-12 years of age) and their mothers participated in an experimental study. Participants were randomly assigned to a social inclusion (acceptance) or exclusion (rejection) condition in a computer-based ball-toss game (Cyberball). After completing the Cyberball game, children were presented with high-caloric food and were evaluated on the amount of the food they consumed. Participants also completed a self-report questionnaire assessing their perceptions of their mothers' acceptance-rejection. Further, mothers' Body Mass Index (BMI) was measured, and a semi-structured interview was conducted to assess the tendency of mothers to regulate their child's stress with food. Results showed that the consumption of high-caloric food was directly influenced by the children's perceptions of maternal acceptance-rejection, and by the experience of brief, experimentally-induced social exclusion (rejection). Additionally, children's consumption of high-caloric food was related to their mothers' use of food to help regulate children's distress, and by the children's own BMI. The results document the importance of affective-relational experiences in the development of childhood obesity. The results also highlight the apparent fact that regardless of individual and family characteristics, the experience of even short-term social rejection can activate obesity-risk behaviors which deplete children's self-regulatory mechanisms, thereby resulting in more consumption of high-caloric food.

Psychological maladjustment mediates the link between remembrances of parental rejection in childhood and loneliness in adulthood: A cross-cultural comparative study.

Drawing stimulus from interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory, this multicultural study examined relations between men's versus women's remembrances of maternal and paternal acceptance-rejection in childhood and their current level of loneliness, as mediated by adults' self-reported psychological maladjustment. Adults (N = 899) from five nations (Iraq, Italy, the Netherlands, Pakistan, and the United States) responded to the Adult version of the Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire-short form for mothers and fathers, the Adult version of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire-short form, and the Interpersonal Acceptance-Rejection Loneliness Scale. Adults' remembrances of maternal and paternal rejection in childhood significantly and independently predicted feelings of loneliness but remembered paternal rejection was more strongly related to these feelings than were remembrances of maternal rejection. Psychological maladjustment fully mediated the effect of remembered maternal rejection but only partially mediated the effect of remembered paternal rejection on loneliness. There were no significant differences in these results across the five countries or genders. Overall, the results suggest that adults' remembrances of parental rejection in childhood-along with the theoretically expected development of psychological maladjustment-are likely to be associated panculturally with the experience of loneliness in adulthood.

Relations among Parental Acceptance-Rejection and Forgiveness and Vengeance: A Comparison between Pakistani Madrassa and Public School Students.

This study investigated relations among adolescents' perceptions of parental acceptance and rejection, psychological (mal)adjustment, forgiveness, and vengeance in the predominantly Muslim country of Pakistan. Participants included adolescent males (Mage = 17, SD = 1.4, range = 15-19) from madrassas (educational institutions for Islamic instruction; n = 355) and public schools (n = 355). They responded to short forms of the maternal and paternal Adult Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaires (PARQ), the Adult Personality Assessment Questionnaire (PAQ), the Heartland Forgiveness Scale (HFS), the Vengeance Scale (VS-10), and a Personal Information Form (PIF). Findings revealed that both the madrassa students and the public school students perceived their mothers (but not their fathers) to be warm and loving. The adolescents also reported fair psychological adjustment, and on average, were forgiving and non-vengeful. However, madrassa students reported perceiving their parents-especially their mothers-as more loving and accepting than did public school students. Additionally, madrassa students reported better psychological adjustment, a greater tendency to be forgiving, and a lesser tendency to be vengeful than did public school students. Maternal and paternal rejection were positively correlated with psychological maladjustment and vengeance, whereas maternal and paternal acceptance were associated with psychological adjustment and forgiveness among both groups of students. Psychological adjustment was a significant mediator of the relation between parental acceptance and the disposition toward forgiveness for both groups. Psychological maladjustment was not a significant mediator between paternal rejection and vengeance among madrassa students, but not public school students. Implications of the findings and future research directions are discussed.

Memories of Parental Acceptance and Rejection Predict Forgiveness and Vengeance in the Muslim World: Introduction and Overview.

The studies in this special issue on forgiveness and vengeance in the Muslim world explore three hypotheses drawn from interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory (IPARTheory): (1) Adults' memories of maternal and paternal acceptance in childhood are associated with the disposition toward forgiveness, as mediated by psychological adjustment. (2) Adults' memories of maternal and paternal rejection in childhood are associated with the disposition toward vengeance, as mediated by psychological maladjustment. (3) There are no significant gender differences in relations between adults' (men's and women's) memories of parental acceptance-rejection in childhood and adults' disposition toward forgiveness or vengeance, as mediated by psychological (mal)adjustment. Results of most studies reported here conclude that memories of parental (maternal and paternal) acceptance in childhood are significantly related to men's and women's disposition toward forgiveness and vengeance as mediated by psychological (mal)adjustment. However, gender and cultural differences also sometimes appear as significant contributors.

A Coordinated Data Analysis of Four Studies Exploring Age Differences in Social Interactions and Loneliness During a Global Pandemic.

OBJECTIVES: Examining loneliness and social isolation during population-wide historical events may shed light on important theoretical questions about age differences, including whether these differences hold across different regions and the timecourse of the unfolding event. We used a systematic, preregistered approach of coordinated data analysis (CDA) of four studies (total N = 1,307; total observations = 18,492) that varied in design (intensive repeated-measures and cross-sectional), region, timing, and timescale during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. METHOD: We harmonized our datasets to a common period within 2020-2021 and created a common set of variables. We used a combination of ordinary least squares regression and multilevel modeling to address the extent to which there was within- and between-person variation in the associations between social isolation and loneliness, and whether these associations varied as a function of age. RESULTS: Within- and between-person effects of social interactions were negatively associated with loneliness in one study; in follow-up sensitivity analyses, these patterns held across early and later pandemic periods. Across all datasets, there was no evidence of age differences in the within-person or between-person associations of social interactions and loneliness. DISCUSSION: Applying the CDA methodological framework allowed us to detect common and divergent patterns of social interactions and loneliness across samples, ages, regions, periods, and study designs.

Perceived Parental Undifferentiated Rejection and Children's Personality Dispositions: A Meta-Analysis of Multicultural Studies.

Prior multicultural meta-analyses have shown that three of the four individual expressions of parental rejection (viz., coldness/lack of affection, hostility/aggression, and indifference/neglect) tend to be significantly associated with all seven of the personality dispositions most central to interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory (IPARTheory). These dispositions include hostility/aggression, dependence, negative self-esteem, negative self-adequacy, emotional instability, emotional unresponsiveness, and negative worldview. However, it was unknown whether the fourth expression of rejection (i.e. undifferentiated rejection) tends to be associated transculturally, as predicted by the theory, with this cluster of dispositions among children. Thus, this meta-analysis investigated 1) the extent to which children's perceptions of maternal and paternal undifferentiated rejection were related to these personality dispositions, and 2) the extent to which these relations varied by gender of parent. To address these questions, we performed a meta-analysis on 16 studies involving 12,538 children in 14 countries. Results showed significant associations between all seven personality dispositions and both maternal and paternal undifferentiated rejection. The results also showed significantly stronger relations between maternal than paternal undifferentiated rejection on five of the seven indices of children's personality.

Direct and Indirect Effects of Remembered Parental Rejection on Media Use among Young Adults.

Problematic media use has become commonplace in recent years, especially among adolescents and young adults. This study examined the association between problematic media use and parent-child relationship quality as mediated by social intimacy with best friends. Data from 228 university students between the ages of 19 through 26 years (Mage = 22.90) were collected. Measures used were the mother and father versions of the Adult Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire (PARQ, short form), the Usage Subscale of the Media and Technology Usage and Attitude Scale, and the Miller Social Intimacy Scale. Results showed significant associations for both men and women among all the variables. This indicated that the more parental (maternal and paternal) rejection the young adults experienced in childhood the lower was their social intimacy with best friends, but the greater was their self-reported media and technology usage. Findings from hierarchical multiple regression analyses confirmed that remembered parental (both maternal and paternal) rejection had a strong direct effect on media and technology usage among both men and women. But the analyses also showed a significant indirect effect of low social intimacy with best friends on media and technology usage. The findings have implications for parents, teachers, educators, mental health professionals and policy makers.

Effects of Parental Acceptance-Rejection on Children's Internalizing and Externalizing Behaviors: A Longitudinal, Multicultural Study.

Background: Grounded in interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory, this study assessed children's (N=1,315) perceptions of maternal and paternal acceptance-rejection in nine countries (China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States) as predictors of children's externalizing and internalizing behaviors across ages 7-14 years. Methods: Parenting behaviors were measured using children's reports on the Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire. Child externalizing and internalizing behaviors were measured using mother, father, and child reports on the Achenbach System of Empirically-Based Assessment. Results: Using a multilevel modeling framework, we found that in cultures where both maternal and paternal indifference/neglect scores were higher than average-compared to other cultures -children's internalizing problems were more persistent. At the within-culture level, all four forms of maternal and paternal rejection (i.e., coldness/lack of affection, hostility/aggression, indifference/neglect, and undifferentiated rejection) were independently associated with both externalizing and internalizing problems across ages 7-14 even after controlling for child gender, parent education, and each of the four forms of parental rejection. Conclusions: Results demonstrate that the effects of perceived parental acceptance-rejection are panculturally similar.