Spencer's phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory (PVEST): Charting its origin and impact.

This article examines the origin and scholarly impact of Dr. Margaret Beale Spencer's phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory (PVEST). We expound on her early foundational work replicating the Clark and Clark (1950) doll study and research during the period of "Atlanta's missing and murdered children." As a conceptual template, we anchor the theoretical contribution as introducing phenomenology and "net vulnerability" as factors that inform "emerging identities." Highlighted research focuses on synergistic themes associated with identity intersectionality, pubertal development, and education as a context for net vulnerability. We end with suggestions for future directions for PVEST. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The Three Teachings of East Asia (TTEA) Inventory: Developing and Validating a Measure of the Interrelated Ideologies of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism.

Objectives: Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism have influenced societies and shaped cultures as they have spread across the span of history and ultimately across the world. However, to date, the interrelated nature of their impacts has yet to be examined largely due to the lack of a measure that comprehensively assesses their various tenets. Building on a conceptual integration of foundational texts on each ideology as well as on recent measure development work (much of which is unpublished), the current studies developed a comprehensive measure of these ideologies (the Three Teachings of East Asia Inventory; TTEA) and validated it across four languages. Methods: A combined sample of 2,091 online respondents (Study 1: 322 Chinese respondents, Study 2: 400 Japanese respondents, Study 3: 362 Taiwanese respondents, Study 4: 688 White Americans and 319 Asian Americans) completed 25-35 min online survey in their preferred language: English, Traditional Mandarin, Simplified Mandarin, or Japanese. Results: Exploratory Factor Analyses within a 122-item pool identified 18 stable dimensions across all samples. Measurement invariance analyses identified the final 61-items of the TTEA inventory (demonstrating reasonable invariance across all languages), confirming 18 individual tenet subscales that organize into four higher-order composites: Buddhism, Taoism, Restrictive Confucianism, and Empowering Confucianism. A shorter 36-item version of the TTEA inventory was also developed. The TTEA scales demonstrated (1) acceptable internal consistency, (2) discriminant validity, and (3) incremental predictive validity for current life satisfaction and vitality. Conclusions: The TTEA inventory offers one of the first comprehensive, multilingual measures that will allow cross-cultural researchers to examine the influence of three related Eastern ideologies on societies across the world.

It's better to give than to receive: Psychological need satisfaction mediating links between wasta (favouritism) and individuals' psychological distress.

Wasta (i.e. the distribution of favours among family, friends and tribe; favouritism; nepotism) permeates numerous Middle Eastern cultures, representing a method of strengthening social ties and showing loyalty/generosity, but also representing one of the largest sources of corruption in Middle East. The current study investigated links between wasta and psychological distress in a survey of 1088 educators from Saudi Arabia. Drawing from the self-determination theory (SDT) conceptual framework, Structural Equation Modeling analyses suggested that benefitting from wasta was linked to higher levels of psychological distress and those links were explained in part (i.e. mediated) by lower levels of autonomy, competency and relatedness. In contrast, providing wasta was associated with higher levels of need satisfaction and correspondingly lower levels of distress. Implications are discussed in terms of the SDT, discrimination and helping behaviour literatures.

A Within-Group Analysis of African American Mothers' Authoritarian Attitudes, Limit-Setting and Children's Self-Regulation.

Research suggests that higher levels of authoritarian parenting exist in African American (AA) families than in European American (EA) families, and that authoritarian attitudes may be associated with more positive outcomes in AA families than EA families. However, less is known about authoritarian attitudes and children's development within AA families. This within-group study of 50 African American mothers and their 3-year-old children examined associations between maternal authoritarian attitudes, observed maternal limit-setting strategies, and children's self-regulation during a limit-setting interaction. The findings indicate that while AA families may hold more authoritarian attitudes than EA families, the direction of effect of authoritarian attitudes on children's outcomes appears to be the same in both ethnic groups. In this sample, when examining AA authoritarian attitudes relative to those of other AA mothers, less or lower authoritarian attitudes were associated with authoritative limit-setting behavior (firm limits within the context of overall warmth and responsiveness) and better children's self-regulation.

Testing satisfaction of basic psychological needs as a mediator of the relationship between socioeconomic status and physical and mental health.

This research applied self-determination theory to examine the degree to which satisfaction of basic psychological needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence explained the association between socioeconomic status and physical and mental health outcomes, while controlling for age, exercise, and smoking status. This was a survey research study with 513 full-time employees in professions representative of a hierarchal organization. The results of the structural equation model verify that psychological need satisfaction mediates the inverse association between socioeconomic status and physical and mental health. Self-determination theory contributes to understanding the psychosocial roots of the uneven distribution of health across the socioeconomic gradient.

A pilot randomized trial teaching mindfulness-based stress reduction to traumatized youth in foster care.

This article presents a pilot project implementing a mindfulness-based stress reduction program among traumatized youth in foster and kinship care over 10 weeks. Forty-two youth participated in this randomized controlled trial that used a mixed-methods (quantitative, qualitative, and physiologic) evaluation. Youth self-report measuring mental health problems, mindfulness, and stress were lower than anticipated, and the relatively short time-frame to teach these skills to traumatized youth may not have been sufficient to capture significant changes in stress as measured by electrocardiograms. Main themes from qualitative data included expressed competence in managing ongoing stress, enhanced self-awareness, and new strategies to manage stress. We share our experiences and recommendations for future research and practice, including focusing efforts on younger youth, and using community-based participatory research principles to promote engagement and co-learning. CLINICALTRIALS.GOV: Protocol Registration System ID NCT01708291.

The relationship between helplessness and the child's asthma symptoms: the role of social support.

OBJECTIVE: Objectives of this study were to survey parents and children independently regarding feelings of helplessness specific to asthma and to examine the relationship between helplessness and the child's symptom-free days. METHODS: Parent-child dyads (children 7-12 years) from Rochester, NY were enrolled (November 2011-August 2012) from general pediatric clinics, pulmonary clinics, an Emergency Department, and area youth and asthma programs. Assessments included demographics, symptoms, ratings of helplessness related to asthma and parent social support. A multivariate linear regression was conducted to examine the relationship between feelings of helplessness and symptoms-free days: post hoc analysis assessed the moderating role of social support. RESULTS: Overall, 107 parent-child dyads enrolled (participation rate: 72%); 104 were included in analysis. Most children were male (58%), 7-9 years (58%) and White (46%). The child's feelings of helplessness scores were positively correlated with symptom-free days indicating less feelings of helplessness as symptom-free days increased (rs = 0.273, p = 0.01). In a stratified analysis, among parents who reported minimal social support (<1 sources of support), child's helplessness scores were positively correlated with symptom-free days (rs = 0.335, p = 0.02). Conversely, among parents reporting >2 supports, no relationship was found (rs = 0.195, p = 0.15). CONCLUSIONS: This study found less feelings of helplessness among children with asthma as symptom-free days increased. Social support appears to moderate this relationship; however further studies to confirm these findings are needed.

Opportunities and challenges to the development of healthy children and youth living in diverse communities.

The field of developmental psychopathology has seen growth in research focusing on interdisciplinarity and normative developmental processes, including context-linked coping and adaptations. However, there continues to be an uncomfortable and unarticulated perspective to view others as having culture and "the self" as representing the standard. A call for explicit cultural considerations in research is needed to augment the impact of these new and other significant conceptual contributions noted. Sociopolitical influences on social contexts relevant to the different trajectories associated with youths' opportunities and challenges are presented. We focus on macrolevel factors that frame contexts in which individual development occurs. A federal and educational policy is used to illustrate how unexamined cultural traditions and patterns embedded in research and policy impact development. These examples provide insight in presenting issues of vulnerability, particularly for youth, and afford opportunities to present advances and challenges paralleled in the developmental psychopathology field.

School- and community-based associations to hypermasculine attitudes in African American adolescent males.

This study examined the role of hypermasculinity as a form of reactive coping among urban African American adolescent males (ages 12-17) and assessed the extent to which hypermasculinity is influenced by youth appraisals of how adults in their school and community perceive them. Two research questions were addressed: (a) Do adolescent males who report negative community and school experiences use hypermasculine attitudes as a coping response? (b) Do the effects of perceived negative school and community experiences persist, if they are present at all? Participants in the study were 241 African American adolescent males who attended public schools in a large southeastern city. Associating youth-reported questionnaires on perceived teacher expectations and perceptions of community challenges from one wave of data on hypermasculine attitudes within the same year and 2 years later, the results indicate that hypermasculinity attitudes stem from negative perceptions in the community and school contexts. Also, hypermasculinity attitudes were associated with these negatively perceived experiences across time. When examined longitudinally, negative experiences in the community had a stronger relation to hypermasculinity than similar experiences at school.

Effect of African- and European-American maternal attitudes and limit-setting strategies on children's self-regulation.

The effect of maternal attitudes and limit-setting strategies on children's self-regulation (measured as committed compliance) was compared in 151 African-American (AA) and 108 European-American (EA) mothers and their 3-year-old children. There were no ethnic differences in children's compliance, however ethnicity moderated the relationship between maternal authoritarian attitudes and children's compliance. Higher authoritarian attitudes predicted less children's compliance in the EA sample, but greater compliance in the AA sample. Observational limit-setting data revealed that in both ethnic groups, maternal authoritarian attitudes influenced children's self-regulation through maternal use of lower-power (gentle) verbal strategies, fewer physical strategies, and judicious use of higher-power verbal strategies. The findings indicate that the meaning and purpose of authoritarian attitudes varies across these mothers' socio-cultural contexts.

Tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke among pregnant women in the Dominican Republic: an exploratory look into attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, and practices.

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this study is to assess the attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, and practices regarding tobacco use and exposure among pregnant women in the Dominican Republic. METHODS: The survey was conducted in two public health hospitals in Santiago, Dominican Republic, and was administered to a convenience sample of 192 women during prenatal care visits. Analyses examined pregnant women's tobacco use, secondhand smoke exposure (SHS), knowledge about risks of smoking and benefits of quitting, and attitudes toward women's tobacco use. All data were collected between April and August 2009. RESULTS: Respondents' age ranged from 18 to 41 years, with a mean age of 25 years (SD = 4.59), a high literacy level (82%), low educational levels (48% less than high school education), and a high unemployment rate (65%). Levels of ever having experimented with cigarettes were 14%, and 5% had ever been a regular smoker. Among all respondents, 3% of women reported being current smokers. When respondents were asked if they would try smoking next year, 7% responded yes, maybe, or don't know. Rates of self-reported SHS among pregnant women were 16%, and 14% reported their young children being exposed to secondhand smoke. More than half of the pregnant women in this study allowed smoking in their home (76%). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides a preliminary understanding of tobacco use and exposure among pregnant women and its potential impact on the Dominican Republic's public health efforts that include improving maternal and child health.

Mothers' and fathers' racial socialization in African American families: implications for youth.

Mothers' and fathers' cultural socialization and bias preparation with older (M=13.9 years) and younger (M=10.31 years) siblings were studied in 162 two-parent, African American families. Analyses examined whether parental warmth and offspring age and gender were linked to parental practices and whether parents' warmth, spouses' racial socialization, or youth age or gender moderated links between racial socialization and youth outcomes. Parental warmth was linked to parents' socialization. Mothers engaged in more socialization with older offspring, and fathers more with sons. Mothers' cultural socialization was positively related to youth ethnic identity and fathers' was negatively related to youth depression symptoms. Youth exhibited a lower locus of control when mothers were high but fathers were low in racial socialization.

Psychosocial development in racially and ethnically diverse youth: conceptual and methodological challenges in the 21st century.

As the US population becomes more diverse in the 21st century, researchers face many conceptual and methodological challenges in working with diverse populations. We discuss these issues for racially and ethnically diverse youth, using Spencer's phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory (PVEST) as a guiding framework. We present a brief historical background and discuss recurring conceptual flaws in research on diverse youth, presenting PVEST as a corrective to these flaws. We highlight the interaction of race, culture, socioeconomic status, and various contexts of development with identity formation and other salient developmental processes. Challenges in research design and interpretation of data are also covered with regard to both assessment of contexts and developmental processes. We draw upon examples from neighborhood assessments, ethnic identity development, and attachment research to illustrate conceptual and methodological challenges, and we discuss strategies to address these challenges. The policy implications of our analysis are also considered.

The association of physical maturation with family hassles among African American adolescent males.

This research examined associations between physical maturation and adolescent-perceived family hassles within a sample of urban African American families who resided in high-risk communities. The purpose of the study was to examine the relations between physical maturation and youths' perceptions of their family context and the associated daily stresses experienced. The participants were 251 parent-son dyads who were interviewed separately. The combination of quantitative and qualitative results extends the literature on physical development and urban African American populations by indicating that parents are most aware of pubertal changes during early puberty. The findings suggested that adolescent-perceived hassles are indications of parental monitoring and more adaptive parenting strategies are needed for high-risk neighborhoods.

Identity processes and the positive youth development of African Americans: an explanatory framework.

This chapter presents Spencer's phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory, or PVEST (1995), as a conceptual framework for examining positive youth development. Contextual factors affecting racial and gender identity of African American youth are discussed, with the focus on the influence of schools and religious institutions.