Parents' and classmates' influences on adolescents' ethnic prejudice: A longitudinal multi-informant study.

The family and classroom are important contexts that can contribute to the socialization of ethnic prejudice. However, less is known about their unique, relative, and synergic contributions in influencing youth's affective and cognitive prejudice. The current longitudinal study examined these processes and possible moderators among 688 Italian youth (49.13% girls; Mage = 15.61 years), their parents (nmothers = 603, nfathers = 471; Mage = 49.51 years), and classmates between January/February 2022 and January/February 2023. Cross-lagged panel models highlighted that parents and classmates exert unique and relative influences on different dimensions of adolescents' prejudice. Additionally, different interaction effects also emerged for affective (i.e., adverse compensatory effect) and cognitive (i.e., amplifying effect) prejudice. Thus, adolescents draw from the multiple contexts of development to orient themselves in the social world.

A war on prejudice: The role of media salience in reducing ethnic prejudice.

INTRODUCTION: Ethnic prejudice poses a great challenge to the cohesion of current multicultural societies. Prior research has found that media portrayals of immigration-related issues might skew individual attitudes and feelings toward ethnic minorities. While these studies have focused on negative representations of ethnic minorities, less is known about the effects of media reports of unfortunate events affecting the victims of war, as in the case of the Ukrainian group in the Russia-Ukraine war. Therefore, the current research aims to examine whether media salience of this situation might change adolescents' ethnic prejudice against the Ukrainian minority. METHODS: A total of 1016 ethnic-majority Italian adolescents (Mage = 15.66, SDage = 1.17, 49.61% females) completed online questionnaires during school hours before (T1: January/February 2022) and after (T2: April/May 2022) the Russia-Ukraine war onset. Additionally, the media salience of the war was quantified separately for the national newspaper and Twitter. RESULTS: Levels of prejudice significantly decreased from T1 to T2 for multiple ethnic minority groups but especially so for the Ukrainian group. The results of bivariate Latent Change Score models highlighted that increased salience of the war in the national newspaper was significantly associated with decreased prejudice against Ukrainians, regardless of adolescents' levels of self-reported newspaper consumption. Conversely, changes in the salience of the war on Twitter were not associated with changes in prejudice. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight the importance of media attention for the war's victims in skewing individuals' outgroup perceptions and feelings.

One way or another or both: Different roles of fathers, mothers, and adolescents in the intergenerational transmission of inclusive attitudes.

This study aimed to examine the processes of intergenerational transmission of attitudes toward migrant integration policies in families with adolescents. Participants included 809 adolescents (Mage = 15.61, range: 13.87-20.04 years), 545 fathers (Mage = 51.19, range: 38-77 years), and 716 mothers (Mage = 48.11, range: 33-68 years) involved in a longitudinal study with two assessments and a time-lag of 1 year between them. Each family member completed the Attitudes towards Migrant Integration Policies scale. In addition, adolescents reported their perception of discussion of current events with parents and the level of support they receive from them. The cross-lagged model highlighted a unidirectional transmission, with fathers' but not mothers' attitudes toward migrant integration policies influencing adolescents' attitudes. Furthermore, it has been examined which factors can either amplify or reduce the strength of intergenerational transmission processes considering individual characteristics of both adolescents (i.e., sex, age) and their parents (i.e., political orientation), and cultural (i.e., family, ethnic background) and relational (i.e., discussion of current events, perceived support from fathers and mothers) family characteristics. Individual factors (i.e., fathers' political orientation) and family relational characteristics (i.e., perceived support from fathers) moderated the transmission processes. The transmission was bidirectional when fathers reported being left-wing and politically oriented and stronger when adolescents reported high support from their fathers. Thus, this study underscores the complexity of the family context, highlighting that the transmission of inclusive attitudes does not always operate in one way (e.g., from parents to children) or another, but in some cases, simultaneously.

Identity Matters for Well-Being: The Longitudinal Associations Between Identity Processes and Well-Being in Adolescents with Different Cultural Backgrounds.

Adolescents' identity processes and their levels of well-being are likely to be intertwined. On the one hand, how adolescents cope with the core developmental task of forming their identity has important implications for their well-being. On the other hand, experiencing a condition of well-being can help adolescents consolidate their identity. This longitudinal study adopted a multidimensional and culturally sensitive perspective to unravel how identity processes (i.e., commitment, in-depth exploration, and reconsideration of commitment) in two domains (i.e., educational and interpersonal identity) were developmentally related to multiple indicators of positive well-being (i.e., physical health, subjective, psychological, and social well-being) in adolescents with different cultural backgrounds. Participants were 1396 adolescents (Mage = 15.73, SDage = 1.23, 49.93% females; 20.89% with a migrant background) who completed questionnaires at four-time points across one year. Results of cross-lagged models confirmed the positive reciprocal associations between identity commitment and well-being in all its facets. The nuanced picture of associations of in-depth exploration and reconsideration of commitment with multiple dimensions of well-being highlighted the importance of adopting a multi-dimensional perspective on well-being and a domain-specific approach to identity. Multigroup analyses indicated that the associations between identity commitment in the educational domain and well-being are relevant, especially for adolescents with a migrant background. Overall, this study highlights the centrality of identity processes for adolescents' adaptation and points to a dynamic loop of reciprocal influences at the core of youth positive development.

Navigating Across Heritage and Destination Cultures: How Personal Identity and Social Identification Processes Relate to Domain-Specific Acculturation Orientations in Adolescence.

Personal identity and social identification processes can be challenging for adolescents belonging to an ethnic minority, who have to cope with the acculturation task of navigating several (and often conflictual) alternatives put forth by their cultural heritage community and destination society. Because identity and acculturation tasks are embedded in core domains of adolescents' life, this three-wave longitudinal study with ethnic minority adolescents (N = 244, 43.4% male; Mage = 14.9) examined how personal identity processes and social identifications are related to acculturation orientations in the education and friendship domains. Results of traditional cross-lagged models showed that, in the educational domain, adolescents who scored higher on cultural heritage maintenance compared to their peers, scored higher on commitment later on. In the friendship domain, stronger associations were found, such that adolescents who scored higher on cultural heritage maintenance compared to their peers, reported higher commitment and in-depth exploration later on, while those who scored higher on identification with friends reported over time also higher cultural heritage maintenance and destination culture adoption. Random-intercept crossed-lagged models indicated that, when adolescents reported above their own average on reconsideration of educational commitment, they reported increased cultural heritage maintenance later on. Furthermore, consistent associations (at baseline and over time) emerged. Overall, this study points to virtuous alliances between the fulfillment of tasks related to adolescents' identity development and acculturation.

External validity of the reduced Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents: an actigraphic study.

The aim of this study was to examine the external validity of the reduced Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaires for Children and Adolescents, using circadian motor activity, assessed through actigraphy, as an external criterion. Overall, 458 participants (269 females), with a mean (standard deviation) age of 15.75 (1.16) years, took part in this study. Each adolescent was requested to wear the actigraph Micro Motionlogger Watch actigraph (Ambulatory Monitoring, Inc., Ardlsey, NY, USA) around the non-dominant wrist for 1 week. At the end of the actigraphic recording, participants completed the reduced Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaires for Children and Adolescents. We extracted the motor activity counts, minute-by-minute over the 24 h, to depict the 24-h motor activity pattern, and we adopted the statistical framework of functional linear modelling to examine its changes according to chronotype. According to the reduced Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaires for Children and Adolescents cut-off scores, 13.97% of participants (n = 64) belonged to the evening-types category, 9.39% (n = 43) to morning-types, while the remaining (76.64%, n = 351) to the intermediate-types category. Evening types moved significantly more than the intermediate and morning types from around 10:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m., while the opposite pattern of results was observed around 4:00 a.m. The results highlighted a significant difference in the 24-h motor activity pattern between chronotypes, in line with the expectations based on their well-known behaviour. Therefore, this study shows that the external validity of the reduced Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents, established by considering motor activity (recorded through actigraphy) as an external criterion, is satisfactory.

Meeting in school: Cultural diversity approaches of teachers and intergroup contact among ethnic minority and majority adolescents.

This study investigated the associations between cultural diversity approaches endorsed by teachers and adolescents' positive and negative intergroup contact in schools. Participants were 984 adolescents (Mage  = 14.66; 62.7% female; 24.8% ethnic minority) involved in a three-wave longitudinal study between 2019 and 2020. Results highlighted that perceived equal treatment by teachers was related to higher positive and lower negative contact over time. However, perceived support for contact and cooperation and interest of teachers in children's cultural background were not related to either positive or negative contact over time. Importantly, the results were replicated across ethnic minority and majority adolescents. This study provides novel insights into the key role that teachers can play in promoting cultural diversity approaches to facilitate harmonious intergroup interactions in schools.

The future is present in the past: A meta-analysis on the longitudinal associations of parent-adolescent relationships with peer and romantic relationships.

Positive peer and romantic relationships are crucial for adolescents' positive adjustment and relationships with parents lay the foundation for these relationships. This longitudinal meta-analysis examined how parent-adolescent relationships continue into later peer and romantic relationships. Included longitudinal studies (k = 54 involving peer relationships, k = 38 involving romantic relationships) contained demographically diverse samples from predominantly Western cultural contexts. Multilevel meta-regressions indicated that supportive and negative parent-adolescent relationships were associated with supportive and negative future peer and romantic relationships. Meta-analytic structural equation modeling (k = 54) indicated that supportive parent-adolescent relationships unidirectionally predicted supportive and negative peer relationships, while negative parent-adolescent relationships were bidirectionally associated with supportive and negative peer relationships. Maintaining mutually supportive relationships with parents may help adolescents to develop positive social relationships.

The complex story of educational identity in adolescence: Longitudinal relations with academic achievement and perfectionism.

OBJECTIVE: Education has a strong impact on adolescent development. This study investigated the complex longitudinal associations between educational identity processes, academic achievement, and perfectionism. METHOD: The study used a 4-wave design (N = 744 adolescents, Mage = 15.2 years, 55% girls). RESULTS: Results showed that self-oriented perfectionism mediated the longitudinal relation between academic achievement and educational commitment, whereas educational commitment mediated the longitudinal relation between self-oriented perfectionism and academic achievement. Also, a unidirectional positive direct link from educational in-depth exploration to socially prescribed perfectionism was found, while self-oriented perfectionism mediated the positive relationship between academic achievement and exploration. Finally, higher academic achievement led to decreases in educational reconsideration of commitment, whereas socially prescribed perfectionism predicted increases in educational reconsideration of commitment and decreases in academic achievement. CONCLUSIONS: These findings bring forward the intricate and possibly sabotaging links between educational identity processes, academic achievement, and perfectionism.

I was, I am, I will be: Identity and time perspective before and during COVID-19.

The ways in which youth reach a stable identity, a core developmental task of emerging adulthood, are intertwined with their perceptions of the past, present, and future. Additionally, these dynamics are embedded in and are strongly influenced by the socio-historical context and concurrent events, such as COVID-19. This study examines how different groups of emerging adults (university students and workers) engage in identity processes in educational/vocational and interpersonal domains and frame their perspective of time before (N = 299, Mage  = 21.90; 51.4% females) and during the pandemic (N = 497; Mage  = 23.11; 68.2% females). Significant differences in identity processes and time perspective emerged between the two cohorts. Moreover, significant associations between identity and time perspective were found to be similar across different identity domains and cohorts.

Positive and negative intergroup contact in school and out-of-school contexts: A longitudinal approach to spillover effects.

This study aims to tackle positive and negative intergroup contact in school and out-of-school contexts to test whether a spillover effect (i.e., the extent to which experiences that individuals have in one context spill over into another) applies to intergroup contact. Participants were 984 adolescents (Mage = 14.66; 62.7% female; 24.8% ethnic minority). Results indicated that positive contact in school was related over time to higher positive contact in out-of-school contexts and vice versa (i.e., valence consistent spillover effect). Positive contact in school was linked over time to lower negative contact in out-of-school contexts (i.e., valence inconsistent spillover effect). Overall, this study provides novel insights into the transmission of adolescents' intergroup contact across socialization contexts by emphasizing the leading role of positive contact in schools.

Adolescents' Identity Development Predicts the Transition and the Adjustment to Tertiary Education or Work.

Although identity development is crucial in individuals' psychological adjustment from adolescence to adulthood, little is known about its impact in the transition to tertiary education or work. This study examined whether identity development during high school predicts career choices and adjustment (i.e., engagement) and maladjustment (i.e., burnout) after graduation. A total of 357 Japanese adolescents participated throughout the 3-year period of vocational high school (Mage = 15.75; 62.75% girls). A follow-up assessment, at 18 months after the school-to-tertiary education or school-to-work transitions, was conducted. Higher identity synthesis during high school years predicted entry into tertiary education, while higher identity confusion predicted transition to work. Furthermore, higher identity synthesis during the high school years predicted higher post-graduation academic engagement, and higher levels of identity confusion predicted higher levels of post-graduation academic or work burnout. Overall, this study contributes to the understanding of the role of identity development in adolescence as a valuable asset for predicting the transition and the adjustment to tertiary education or work.

Determinants of workers' well-being during the COVID-19 outbreak: An exploratory study.

Inspired by the Conservation of Resource theory (Hobfoll, 1989), this study investigated the role of a broad set of personal vulnerabilities, social, and work-related stressors and resources as predictors of workers' well-being during the COVID-19 outbreak. Participants were 594 workers in Italy. Results showed that personality predispostions, such as positivity, neuroticism and conscientiousness as well as key aspects of the individuals' relationship with their work (such as job insecurity, type of employment contract or trust in the organization) emerged as factors promoting (or hampering) workers' adjustment during the COVID -19 outbreak. Interactions between stressors and resources were also found and discussed. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-021-02408-w.

Illness unpredictability and psychosocial adjustment of adolescent and young adults impacted by parental cancer: the mediating role of unmet needs.

PURPOSE: Given the large number of adolescents and young adults (AYAs) impacted by parental cancer and the potential for negative psychosocial outcomes in this vulnerable population, this study examined the mediating role of offspring unmet needs with regard to parental cancer and the relation between AYAs psychosocial adjustment and perceived illness unpredictability. METHODS: A total of 113 AYAs (aged 11-24 years) living with a parent diagnosed with cancer completed a questionnaire assessing illness unpredictability, offspring unmet needs, and psychosocial adjustment (i.e., health-related quality of life and internalizing problems). RESULTS: Higher offspring unmet needs were associated with lower health-related quality of life (r = -0.24**) and higher internalizing problems (r = 0.21*). Offspring unmet needs mediated the relation between illness unpredictability and health-related quality of life (standardized indirect effect = -0.100* [-0.183, -0.018]) but not internalizing problems (standardized indirect effect = 0.067 [-0.015, 0.148]). In particular, higher illness unpredictability was related to higher unmet needs (ß = 0.351**) which, in turn, predicted lower health-related quality of life (ß = -0.286**). CONCLUSION: These findings identify offspring unmet needs and illness unpredictability as implicated in AYAs positive psychosocial adjustment to parental cancer. Given that AYAs are at greater risk of elevated psychosocial difficulties, interventions should target offspring unmet needs and perception of illness unpredictability to mitigate the adverse effects of parental cancer.

Direction of associations between personality traits and educational identity processes: Between- and within-person associations.

INTRODUCTION: In adolescence, personality traits and educational identity processes are interwoven. Previous studies have shown that personality traits predict healthy identity commitment and exploration in education. However, the direction of associations between personality traits and an identity process that searches for another identity option (i.e., reconsideration of commitment) is unclear. Furthermore, there is a lack of prospective studies regarding the direction of the association between personality traits and the educational identity process using within-person methods. Therefore, this study examined the direction of these associations. METHODS: Participants of this four-wave longitudinal study comprised 618 Japanese 13-year-old adolescents (53.3% girls). This study involved a 1-year-interval assessment. RESULTS: Cross-lagged panel models (CLPM) indicated that four personality traits (neuroticism, agreeableness, and conscientiousness) predicted three educational identity processes, while reconsideration of commitment predicted two personality traits (i.e., neuroticism and conscientiousness). Random intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPM) indicated that agreeableness predicted healthy commitment, while commitment predicted agreeableness at within-person level. CONCLUSION: The findings from CLPM suggest that reconsideration of commitment is a significant factor to predict healthy (i.e., conscientiousness) and unhealthy (i.e., neuroticism) personality traits in individual differences. Furthermore, the findings from RI-CLPM suggest that agreeableness may be a key trait in promoting healthy educational identity commitment. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

"I Feel You!": The Role of Empathic Competences in Reducing Ethnic Prejudice Among Adolescents.

Empathic competences might help adolescents navigate current multicultural societies by supporting harmonious intergroup relations. Yet it is unclear how each component of empathy (empathic concern and perspective-taking) is associated with different dimensions (affective, cognitive, behavioral) of ethnic prejudice. The current study aims to fill this gap. A total of 259 Italian adolescents (Mage = 15.60, 87.6% female) completed online questionnaires at three time points (i.e., April, May, and October 2021). The results of cross-lagged models indicated that empathic concern was directly and indirectly associated with reduced affective, cognitive, and behavioral ethnic prejudice, while perspective-taking was linked to increases in cognitive and one facet of behavioral (i.e., lower contact willingness) prejudice. Furthermore, the prevalence of affect over cognition was found, with the affective component of both empathic competences (i.e., empathic concern) and ethnic prejudice exerting the strongest influence on the cognitive ones.

Developing Identification with Humanity and Social Well-Being Through Social Identification with Peer Groups in Adolescence.

Developmental literature highlights that cognitive, moral, and affective development proceeds from concrete operations to more abstract ones. However, it is not known whether this fundamental developmental trajectory also characterizes the development of social identification (i.e., the feelings of belonging, affiliation, and correctness to a group, coupled with the sense of commonality with fellow ingroup members). This longitudinal study aimed (a) to unfold the association between identifications with two proximal groups (i.e., classmates and friends) and identification with humanity, and (b) to examine how these identifications with close and abstract groups affect adolescents' social well-being (i.e., an indicator of youth adaptation in their societies and communities). Participants were 304 adolescents (61.84% female, Mage = 17.49) involved in a three-wave longitudinal study. Identification with proximal social groups (especially classmates) was positively associated with identification with humanity, and identifications with both proximal and abstract groups were related to social well-being over time. Moreover, identification with humanity and identification with friends mediated the positive longitudinal effects of identification with classmates on social well-being. The implications of these findings for adolescents' social inclusivity and adjustment are discussed.

On Imbalance of Impulse Control and Sensation Seeking and Adolescent Risk: An Intra-individual Developmental Test of the Dual Systems and Maturational Imbalance Models.

Heterogeneity in development of imbalance between impulse control and sensation seeking has not been studied until now. The present study scrutinized this heterogeneity and the link between imbalance and adolescent risk. Seven-wave data of 7,558 youth (50.71% males; age range from 12/13 until 24/25) were used. Three developmental trajectories were identified. The first trajectory, "sensation seeking to balanced sensation seeking", included participants with a higher level of sensation seeking than impulse control across all ages. The second trajectory, "moderate dominant control", included participants showing moderate and increasing impulse control relative to sensation seeking across all ages. The third trajectory, "strong late dominant control", included participants showing the highest level of impulse control which was about as strong as sensation seeking from early to middle adolescence and became substantially stronger from late adolescence to early adulthood. Although the systematic increase of impulse control in all subgroups is in line with both models, neither of these combined trajectories of control and sensation seeking was predicted by the Dual Systems Model or the Maturational Imbalance Model. Consistent with both models the "sensation seeking to balanced sensation seeking" trajectory showed the highest level of substance use. It can be concluded that, even though both theories adequately predict the link between imbalance and risk, neither the Dual Systems Model nor the Maturational Imbalance Model correctly predict the heterogeneity in development of imbalance between impulse control and sensation seeking.

Psychological and social adjustment in refugee adolescents: The role of parents' and adolescents' friendships.

Friendships have important implications for adolescents' psychological and social adjustment. However, there is still limited evidence on how different same-ethnic and cross-ethnic friendships are formed and regarding their role in refugee adjustment. Therefore, the present study was designed to examine the interplay of parents' and adolescents' same-ethnic and cross-ethnic friendships with adolescents' own psychological and social adjustment among refugee adolescents. Participants were 208 Syrian refugees (71.2% female; Mage = 15.35, SDage = 0.95) in the Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. Findings indicated that refugee parents' same-ethnic and cross-ethnic friendships were positively related to their children's same-ethnic and cross-ethnic friendships. Moreover, parents' same-ethnic friendships were negatively linked with adolescents' social well-being, whereas parents' cross-ethnic friendships were positively related to adolescents' social well-being. Furthermore, adolescents' same-ethnic and cross-ethnic friendships were both positively related to adolescents' social well-being, and cross-ethnic friendships were also positively associated with psychological well-being. These findings suggest that adolescents' cross-ethnic friendships mediated the positive associations of parents' cross-ethnic friendships with adolescents' social and psychological well-being. Overall, our study provides novel insights into the protective roles of diverse friendships for refugee adolescents.

Prejudice and Inclusiveness in Adolescence: The Role of Social Dominance Orientation and Multiple Categorization.

This study examined the relations of multiple categorization and social dominance orientation with adolescents' prejudice against migrants and identification with the human group over time. Participants were 304 Northern-Italian late adolescents (61.84% female, Mage  = 17.49) involved in a three-wave longitudinal study (with 3 months interval between waves). Results showed that multiple categorization was negatively linked to prejudice at a later time, whereas social dominance orientation was positively associated with it; prejudice also negatively affected multiple categorization and positively affected social dominance orientation at a later time. Moreover, prejudice mediated the effects of multiple categorization and social dominance orientation on human identification. These findings have important implications suggesting the construens effect of multiple categorization for enhancing social inclusiveness.