Gender role attitudes and well-being of German and refugee adolescents-same or different?

BACKGROUND: Assumed differences in gender role attitudes (GRAs) of German adolescents and refugee adolescents from the Middle East are often discussed, but rarely investigated. Presumed differences in GRAs across cultures and genders are assumed to be involved in emerging gender differences in well-being and mental health symptoms. Overall, appropriate measurements for investigating GRAs of adolescents with different cultural backgrounds are scarce. METHODS: Hence, the present study exemplarily investigates (1) the measurement invariance (MI) of a German translation of the Social Role Questionnaire (SRQ) for German (n = 114) and German-speaking Middle Eastern refugee adolescents from Syria, Afghanistan, or Iraq (n = 115), using a Multiple Indicator Multiple Cause (MIMIC) model to account for age and gender. Moreover, (2) differences between GRAs of both groups, (3) relationships of GRAs with different facets of affective well-being, as well as (4) differences in these relationships between German and refugee adolescents are examined by extending the MIMIC-model to a full structural equation model (SEM). RESULTS: Results indicate (1) that scalar MI for the SRQ can be assumed. Furthermore, (2) German adolescents show less traditional gender-linked GRAs than refugee adolescents, but no further differences in GRAs. Furthermore, no differences between the relationships of GRAs with well-being and mental health symptoms were found between the groups (4). Also, (3) GRAs showed no relation with any of the outcomes, but gender and age predicted mental health symptoms. CONCLUSION: The findings show that the SRQ is a useful measurement for investigating the GRAs of adolescents living in Germany and could be used in further cross-cultural research.

Longitudinal Associations Between Parenting and Child Behaviour Problems and the Moderating Effect of Child Callous Unemotional Traits in Foster and Biological Families.

The goals of the current study were to examine (i) differences in parenting between foster and biological parents, (ii) the longitudinal associations with children's internalising and externalising problems and iii) the potential moderation of these by children's callous-unemotional traits (CU traits). Data from 86 foster children (M = 4.44 years, male = 48%) and 148 biological children (M = 3.69 years, male = 49%) with their families were analysed in a longitudinal study with three measurement times. Parenting behaviour did not significantly differ between the foster and biological family groups. Significant longitudinal cross-lagged effects were found for parental warmth and support and children's externalising problems. CU traits moderated the relationship between warmth and support and externalising problems of children. Findings suggest that parenting behaviours and child psychopathology do influence each other over time reciprocally and to a similar extent in both groups. However, there was also evidence for greater temporal stability of psychopathological symptoms and reduced responsivity to parental warmth in children with higher CU traits.

Caregiving quality modulates neuroendocrine and immunological markers in young children in foster care who have experienced early adversity.

BACKGROUND: Early adversity is believed to alter the body's stress-response systems, putting children at increased risk for somatic and mental health problems. However, it remains unclear whether such alterations normalize under improved caregiving experiences. Thus, the goal of the present study was to investigate (a) whether children in foster care show endocrine and immunological alterations relative to children living with their biological families, (b) whether these alterations change over time spent with the foster family, and (c) whether the alterations are modulated by current caregiving experiences. METHODS: A total of 94 children in foster care and 157 biological children, aged two to seven years, took part in a longitudinal study with three assessments conducted over a 12-month study period. At the initial assessment, children lived for an average of 18 months with their current foster families. Children's cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and progesterone concentrations and cortisol/DHEA ratios were measured in scalp hair and children's secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA) levels in saliva. Caregiving quality was assessed based on caregiver-reports and observational measures of caregiver-child interactions. RESULTS: Children in foster care had lower cortisol/DHEA ratios and higher progesterone concentrations than biological children, while no group differences were found for cortisol, DHEA or sIgA. Time spent with the current foster family did not significantly influence the child's endocrine or immunological markers. Importantly, caregiving quality modulated cortisol/DHEA ratios and sIgA concentrations: children in foster care of lower caregiving quality had lower cortisol/DHEA ratios than children in foster care of higher caregiving quality and showed decreasing, rather than increasing, sIgA concentrations across the study period. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that caregiving quality in the foster family may have an important modulating effect on selected indicators of the child's stress response and could thereby mitigate the possible consequences of early childhood adversity.

Stress reactivity in salivary cortisol and electrocardiogram in adolescents: Investigating sleep disturbances and insomnia.

This study examined the role of sleep disturbances and insomnia in the context of stress reactivity in adolescence. One-hundred and thirty-five 11-18 year olds (Mage  = 14.2 years, SD = 1.9, 52% female) completed the Trier Social Stress Test for Children. Salivary cortisol and subjective stress ratings were collected at six time points, and heart rate as well as heart rate variability were measured pre-, during and post-stress induction. Additionally, sleep disturbances and insomnia diagnosis were assessed by a self-report questionnaire and a sleep interview. Robust mixed models investigated if adolescents with compared with adolescents without (a) sleep disturbances and (b) insomnia differ regarding cortisol, heart rate, heart rate variability and psychological stress reactivity considering gender effects. The results indicated that boys with high sleep disturbances showed higher cortisol activity compared with boys with low sleep disturbances, B = 0.88, p < 0.05. Moreover, in boys with insomnia, heart rate and alpha 1 significantly differ less than in boys without insomnia. These findings support the notion of sex differences regarding the association between poor sleep and increased activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, and a less adaptable autonomic nervous system in boys in response to an experimental social stress task.

How Anxious are German Preschool Children?

The experience of fear is universal and is among the earliest of all forms of psychopathology, if excessively present. To prevent negative developmental outcomes due to early-onset excessive fears in children, it is important to systematically assess these experiences as early as possible. Using the preschool anxiety scale (PAS), we aimed to assess the frequency and structure of anxiety symptoms of 489 preschool-aged children raised in their biological family and 88 raised in foster care (as a high-risk sample) in Germany. While these young children displayed the same types of anxiety most commonly as young children in other countries, the overall occurrence seems to be reported less often by parents in Germany compared to parents from other countries. Anxiety symptoms clustered into five correlated factors (generalized anxiety, social anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), physical injury fear and separation anxiety). Young children in foster care exhibited more OCD and significantly less social anxiety symptoms indicating early repetitive and social disturbances in children in foster care.

The German Version of the Emotion Awareness Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents: Associations with Emotion Regulation and Psychosocial Adjustment.

Emotional awareness is an important variable for children's and adolescents' social and emotional development. The aim of this study was to examine the psychometric properties (e.g., factor structure, internal consistencies) of scores on the German translation of the Emotion Awareness Questionnaire (EAQ; Rieffe, Oosterveld, Miers, Meerum Terwogt, & Ly, 2008 ). Furthermore, to examine the concurrent validity, associations of the six subscales (Differentiating Emotions, Verbal Sharing of Emotions, Not Hiding Emotions, Bodily Unawareness, Attending to Others' Emotions, Analyses of Emotions) with emotion regulation, internalizing and externalizing problems, and prosocial behavior were investigated. Questionnaire data of 1,018 adolescents aged between 11 and 18 were analyzed. The proposed six-factor structure was replicated and internal consistencies were satisfactory. Meaningful associations of the six EAQ subscales with emotion regulation and psychosocial adjustment were found, proving the concurrent validity of this questionnaire. In general, higher emotional awareness was associated with more functional emotion regulation and prosocial behavior, and less dysfunctional emotion regulation and internalizing and externalizing problems. Significant gender differences were detected and are discussed. Overall, the findings suggest that the German EAQ is a useful instrument to assess children's and adolescents' emotional awareness.

[Demographic characteristics of foster families in Germany]. / Demografische Eigenschaften von Pflegefamilien in Deutschland.

Demographic characteristics of foster families in Germany Abstract. Objective: Demographic characteristics like the level of education, job position or the distribution of age in families have a significant impact on the development of children. Therefore, in the current study, we examined the commonalities and differences of foster family samples, recruited for research, with the general population. Method: The data at hand are part of the "GROW&TREAT" project that examines the development of foster children in comparison to children who live with their biological families. Results: Differences were found in comparison to the data of the German Census Bureau for the foster family sample and the biological sample for parental education, apportionment of parental employment, and familial net income. Concerning the direct sample group comparison, differences could be observed in terms of age gap between (foster) mother and child and parental education. Furthermore, the representativeness of the foster family sample was analyzed based on reports of participating youth welfare services. Conclusions: The examined sample seems to be representative for foster family samples in research contexts. The consequences of these differences on potential research results and recruitment characteristics were further discussed.

The Development of Implicit Memory From Infancy to Childhood: On Average Performance Levels and Interindividual Differences.

The present multimethod longitudinal study aimed at investigating development and stability of implicit memory during infancy and early childhood. A total of 134 children were followed longitudinally from 3 months to 3 years of life assessing different age-appropriate measures of implicit memory. Results from structural equation modeling give further evidence that implicit memory is stable from 9 months of life on, with earlier performance predicting later performance. Second, it was found that implicit memory is present from early on, and no age-related improvements are found from 3 months on. Results are discussed with respect to the basic brain structures implicit memory builds on, as well as methodological issues.

Waiting for the Second Treat: Developing Culture-Specific Modes of Self-Regulation.

The development of self-regulation has been studied primarily in Western middle-class contexts and has, therefore, neglected what is known about culturally varying self-concepts and socialization strategies. The research reported here compared the self-regulatory competencies of German middle-class (N = 125) and rural Cameroonian Nso preschoolers (N = 76) using the Marshmallow test (Mischel, 2014). Study 1 revealed that 4-year-old Nso children showed better delay-of-gratification performance than their German peers. Study 2 revealed that culture-specific maternal socialization goals and interaction behaviors were related to delay-of-gratification performance. Nso mothers' focus on hierarchical relational socialization goals and responsive control seems to support children's delay-of-gratification performance more than German middle-class mothers' emphasis on psychological autonomous socialization goals and sensitive, child-centered parenting.

[Parents' and Children's Perspectives of Parental Mediation Strategies in Association with Children's Internet Skills]. / Elterliche und kindliche Einschätzung von elterlichen Medienerziehungsstrategien und deren Zusammenhang mit der kindlichen Internetnutzungskompetenz.

Parents' and Children's Perspectives of Parental Mediation Strategies in Association with Children's Internet Skills The purpose of this study was to examine the association of parental mediation strategies (from parents' and children's perspective) and children's internet skills. In total 194 parent-child dyads were questioned about their parent's mediation strategies. The children (fifth to ninth grade) additionally answered questions about their internet skills and the amount of time they spent daily on the internet. Parents' and children's ratings of the parental mediation strategies showed moderate associations. Parents reported to use more often mediation strategies than was perceived by their children. The mediation strategies had only limited value for the prediction of the children's internet skills. Parents' and children's perspective about restrictive content mediation were both negatively associated to children's internet skills. After controlling for children's age, sex and time spent daily on the internet, results showed that only congruencies between children's and parental perspectives regarding the parental restrictive content mediation were associated with decreased technical and social internet skills. Additionally, discrepancies between the children's and parental perspectives regarding the parental use of technical mediation were associated with decreased technical internet skills. Discrepancies regarding the parental mediation strategy monitoring were related to increased information navigation skills.

Experience with headwear influences the other-race effect in 4-year-old children.

The other-race effect (ORE) implies the better recognition of faces of one's own race compared with faces of a different race. It demonstrates that face recognition is shaped by daily experience with human faces. Such experience mainly includes structural information of own-race faces and also information on the way faces are usually seen, as a whole or partly covered by scarves or other headwear. In two experiments, we investigated how this mode of presentation is related to the occurrence of the ORE during childhood. In Experiment 1, 4-year-old German children (N = 104), accustomed to seeing faces without headwear in daily life, were asked to recognize female Caucasian or African faces, presented either as a whole or wearing a woolen hat, in a forced choice paradigm. In Experiment 2, 4-year-olds from rural Cameroon (N = 70), accustomed to seeing faces with and without headwear in daily life, participated in the same task. In both groups, the ORE was present in the familiar mode of presentation, that is, in whole faces in German children and in whole and partly covered faces in Cameroonian children. The results are discussed in relation to the role of experience for face recognition processes.

Stress and wellbeing among Turkish and German adolescents living in rural and urban areas.

INTRODUCTION: This study focuses on stress experiences and the psychological wellbeing of adolescents from rural and urban areas of Turkey and Germany. It also analyzes the role of social support, family problem solving and self-construals (independent vs interdependent) for stress and wellbeing in the different subsamples. METHODS: The total sample included 1850 high school students (500 Turkish urban, 771 Turkish rural, 268 German urban, and 311 German rural). The participants filled in questionnaires related to coping, self-construal, stress and wellbeing. RESULTS: The results indicated that the perception of stress is higher for Turkish adolescents than for German adolescents. Moreover, it was found that adolescents who live in rural parts experience more stress than their urban counterparts of both countries. In line with this, adolescents in rural regions report lower wellbeing than adolescents in urban regions. However, the latter difference between urban and rural regions is only salient for adolescents who live in Turkey. The search for possible factors associated with stress and wellbeing showed that coping variables related to social support and to solving family problems as well as variables related to the interdependent-independent distinction might be relevant as predictors. Most of the predicting variables showed non-moderated associations. There were only few moderations related to nation (Turkey vs Germany), location (urban vs rural) or sex. CONCLUSIONS: The current study leads to a better understanding of stress experiences and wellbeing of adolescents living in rural and urban areas. As a consequence, improving social systems, especially in developing countries, may support youths to cope with stress effectively and to improve their psychological wellbeing.

Sleep Reactivity and Related Factors in Adolescence: An Increased Risk for Insomnia? A Longitudinal Assessment.

Purpose: The individual vulnerability for stress-related sleep difficulties (eg, sleep reactivity) is known as a predisposing factor of insomnia in adults, yet relatively little is known about sleep reactivity in adolescence. The study goal is to determine factors related to sleep reactivity and to investigate whether sleep reactivity and related factors predict current and new incidents of insomnia in adolescents. Patients and Methods: At baseline, 11-to-17-year-olds (N = 185, Mage = 14.3 years, SD = 1.8, 54% female) answered an age-appropriate version of the Ford Insomnia Response to Stress Test, questionnaires about sleep, stress, psychological symptoms, and resources, filled out a sleep diary and used actigraphy. Insomnia diagnoses according to ISCD-3 criteria were assessed at baseline, after 9 months and after one and a half years. Results: Adolescents with high compared to low sleep reactivity had increased pre-sleep arousal, negative sleep-related cognitions, pre-sleep mobile phone use, stress experience, stress vulnerability, internalizing and externalizing symptoms, less social resources, and a later midpoint of bedtime. High sleep reactivity increased the likelihood for currently having insomnia, but not for the development of insomnia at subsequent assessments. Conclusion: The findings suggest that high sleep reactivity is related to poor sleep health and mental health but cast doubt on sleep reactivity as a pivotal predisposing factor for the development of insomnia in adolescence.

Lifetime poly-victimization and later bullying victimization: Associations with internalizing problems and out-of-home care.

BACKGROUND: Many youth in out-of-home care (OOHC) have experienced victimization in their lifetime making them vulnerable to mental health problems and further victimization. However, little is known about mechanisms behind this continuing victimization, e.g. in the form of bullying victimization, and about possible mediating and moderating factors. OBJECTIVE: This study examined the association between lifetime poly-victimization and later bullying victimization, as well as mediation by internalizing problems, and moderation by OOHC. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: In total n = 226 youth (n = 117 OOHC, n = 109 biological families) participated, with one of their social/biological caregivers when possible, resulting in subsamples of n = 159 participants (11-21 years) for self-report, and n = 210 participants (8-21 years) for caregiver report. METHODS: An online survey assessed self-report of bullying victimization in the past six months, as well as self-report and caregiver report of lifetime poly-victimization and internalizing problems. RESULTS: Based on both self-report and caregiver report, youth in OOHC showed higher levels of poly-victimization and internalizing problems than youth in biological families. In self-report, a conditional direct effect of lifetime poly-victimization on bullying victimization was found for youth in OOHC, c' = 0.18, SE = 0.07, p = .007, while the association was mediated by internalizing problems for youth in biological families, ab = 0.13, 95 % CI [0.020; 10.805]. In the caregiver report, there was neither a direct nor a mediated effect of lifetime poly-victimization on bullying victimization. CONCLUSIONS: The results stress the importance of considering the high impact of poly-victimization in predicting bullying victimization, particularly for youth in OOHC. For youth in biological families, a mediating effect of internalizing problems was found.

Process-Oriented Measurement of Emotion Regulation: General and Specific Associations With Psychosocial Adjustment and Well-Being in (Pre-)Adolescence.

The development of emotion regulation (ER) is associated with children's and adolescents' psychosocial adjustment and well-being. In this regard, previous studies have examined the role of different ER strategies, which can be characterized as being functional (e.g., reappraisal, problem solving) or dysfunctional (e.g., suppression, rumination). Based on the process model of emotion regulation, the strategies can also be classified according to their temporal position within the emotion generative process, with five families of ER strategies being proposed: situation selection, situation modification, attentional deployment, cognitive change, and response modulation. This study aimed to examine the role of ER for adolescents' psychosocial adjustment (internalizing and externalizing problems, prosocial behavior) and well-being. First, associations were investigated on a more general level by distinguishing between functional and dysfunctional ER. Second, relations were examined on a more specific level by additionally distinguishing between the five families of ER strategies as suggested in the process model of ER. Questionnaire self-reports of N = 1,727 German children and adolescents (55% girls) aged 9-18 years (M = 13.03, SD = 1.75) collected in schools were analyzed. Path analyses showed that more functional and less dysfunctional ER in general is associated with fewer internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and higher well-being. Prosocial behavior was only positively related to functional but not dysfunctional ER. Analyses of associations on the level of specific categories of ER strategies generally showed a similar pattern, but in part indicated differential associations with the dependent variables: Internalizing problems were particularly associated with functional situation selection, dysfunctional cognitive change, and dysfunctional response modulation. Externalizing problems were associated with functional situation selection and response modulation, as well as numerous dysfunctional strategies, none of which were particularly salient. Similarly, numerous rather than single specific associations emerged between prosocial behavior and the five categories of functional ER strategies. Well-being was particularly associated with functional situation selection and dysfunctional cognitive change. Overall, a more precise assessment of ER, as implemented in this study, could not only advance research in this field, but can also be helpful in planning and evaluating prevention and intervention programs.

Sleep-related parenting self-efficacy and parent-reported sleep in young children: A dyadic analysis of parental actor and partner effects.

OBJECTIVES: The role of positive cognitions, particularly domain-specific sleep-related parenting self-efficacy (SPSE), for young children's sleep has received limited attention so far. The present study investigates possible interdependencies between maternal/paternal SPSE and parent-reported sleep problems in infants and toddlers. DESIGN AND SETTING: Mother-father dyads participated in this cross-sectional German study and filled out questionnaires. PARTICIPANTS: One hundred thirty-one parental dyads with children aged between 2 and 47 months (M = 19.4; standard deviation = 10.6) participated in the study. MEASUREMENTS: Parents answered a questionnaire about their own SPSE and the Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire-Infant Version about their child's sleep. Paired sample t tests and correlations were used to investigate parental differences and agreement. An actor-partner interdependence model to examine the relationship between maternal/paternal SPSE and parent-reported child sleep problems was estimated, controlling for child age and co-sleeping. RESULTS: The results reveal no differences between parents regarding their own SPSE and between mother- and father-reported child sleep problems. Mothers and fathers showed significant agreement regarding their children's sleep problems. For both parents, significant actor effects between SPSE and child sleep emerged, with higher SPSE being related to fewer child sleep problems. For fathers, also partner effects were significant with higher paternal SPSE being related to fewer child sleep problems in the maternal report. CONCLUSION: This study underlines the importance of considering mothers' and fathers' nonindependence in dyadic data analysis. Parenting self-efficacy might play a specific role in the context of young children's sleep and could be used for early intervention and prevention programs.

Taking Care Triple P for Foster Parents With Young Children in Foster Care: Results of a 1-Year Randomized Trial.

Young children with a history of maltreatment or neglect in foster families often confront their caregivers with particularly challenging behaviors. This may lead to more parenting stress, an increased risk for the child in foster care to experience further maltreatment, and placement disruptions. We conducted a randomized controlled trial to investigate the efficacy of a parent group training tailored to the special needs of foster families. We hypothesized significant short- and long-term improvements regarding foster parents' parenting competencies, child mental health problems, and related outcomes. Eighty-one families with 87 children in foster care aged 2 to 7 years participated in the trial. For the intervention study, 44 randomly selected families (54%) were offered to participate in the parent group training. Intervention and control group families were reassessed three times over a period of 1 year. Contrary to our expectations, we found no advantages of the intervention group compared with the usual care control group on any outcome measure. Instead, we found some significant changes in both groups across time. Placement into foster care is associated with some favorable outcomes for children in foster care. Additional support for foster families beyond the services delivered in the youth welfare system to foster parents was not associated with more favorable outcomes. The present intervention is likely associated with a low risk of harm but also with a high likelihood of a lack of significant benefits for foster parents and their young children going beyond feeling satisfied about the delivered services. Participating foster families showed favorable baseline results on parenting measures which may have impeded intervention effects to unfold on these proximal variables.

Personal and social resources in the context of adolescent sleep.

OBJECTIVE: The existing literature has focused little on the health-promoting role of resources for sleep. Mainly risk factors have been highlighted regarding mental health in general. Moreover, for the vulnerable age group of adolescents, resources and their relation to sleep have hardly been explored. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the predictive role of personal/social resources for the likelihood of having chronic sleep problems in adolescents. METHODS AND MEASURES: A sample of n = 131 adolescents (M = 14.31 years, SD = 1.84) completed the Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children and the Questionnaire to Assess Resources for Children and Adolescents at two measurement points about 8 months apart. RESULTS: Binomial logistic regressions controlling for age and sex revealed that higher levels of personal and social resources were associated with a lower likelihood of having chronic sleep problems. Especially optimism and school integration were associated with not experiencing chronic sleep problems. CONCLUSION: For the first time, this study highlighted multiple resources and their health-promoting role in adolescent sleep. Both personal and social resources seem to be relevant for preventing adolescents from chronic sleep problems. Prevention and intervention programs for sleep disorders in teenagers should especially promote optimism and school integration.

Foster Parents' Parenting and the Social-Emotional Development and Adaptive Functioning of Children in Foster Care: A PRISMA-Guided Literature Review and Meta-Analysis.

Children in foster care (CFC) are at increased risk for negative developmental outcomes. Given the potential influence of foster parents' parenting on the development of CFC, this literature review and meta-analysis provide an initial overview of how parenting factors in foster families relate to CFC's developmental outcomes. We aimed to explore (1) whether foster parents' parenting conceptualizations are related differently to various CFC developmental outcome variables and (2) how characteristics of foster parents and CFC moderate these associations. Following the recommendations of the PRISMA statement, we searched four databases in 2017 (with an update in May 2020). Forty-three primary studies were coded manually. The interrater agreement was 92.1%. Parenting variables were specified as parenting behavior, style, and goals and were distinguished further into functional and dysfunctional parenting. CFC development was divided into adaptive (including cognitive) development and maladaptive development. Meta-analyses could be performed for foster parenting behavior and developmental outcomes, as well as for functional parenting goals and maladaptive socioemotional outcomes in CFC. Associations between functional parenting behavior and adaptive child development were positive and negative for maladaptive child development, respectively. For dysfunctional, parenting effects were in the opposite direction. All effects were small to moderate. Similar results were found descriptively in the associations of parenting style and child developmental outcomes. We found similar effect sizes and directions of the associations between parenting behavior in foster families and the child's developmental outcomes as those previously reported for biological families. These findings provide strong support for the significant role of parenting in foster families regarding children's development in foster care.