Love beyond gluten: self-esteem, illness identity, and social support in romantic rejection concerns among adolescents with celiac disease.

Introduction: Fear of stigmatization, high perceived partner burden, or refraining from self-disclosure may manifest in romantic rejection concerns among adolescents with celiac disease (CD), potentially impacting their health-related quality of life (HRQOL). This study examined the prevalence, predictors, and consequences of romantic rejection concerns among adolescents and young adults with CD. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among 165 German adolescents and young adults (aged 14-22) with self-reported CD. Participants completed measures of romantic rejection concerns, illness identity, self-esteem, peer support, and CD-specific HRQOL. Results: Participants reported moderate levels of concerns about the impact of CD on their romantic relationships, with no significant gender differences. Participants involved in romantic relationships expressed lower concerns of rejection, but similar preference for a "gluten-free partner." Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that higher illness acceptance and peer support predicted lower rejection concerns. Significant interactions emerged between self-esteem and illness acceptance, and between self-esteem and peer support. Higher illness acceptance predicted fewer rejection worries only among those with high self-esteem, while peer support played a mitigating role only for those with low self-esteem. Romantic rejection concerns significantly predicted lower CD-specific HRQOL across all domains. Discussion: Anxieties about CD's impact on romantic relationships are prevalent among adolescents and may hinder their HRQOL. The findings highlight the complex interplay between self-esteem, illness identity, and social support in shaping romantic concerns. Targeted interventions focusing on peer support and fostering positive illness identity are recommended to alleviate rejection fears and improve HRQOL among youth with CD.

The true role that suppressor effects play in condition-based regression analysis: None. A reply to Fiedler (2021).

Condition-based regression analysis (CRA) is a statistical method for testing self-enhancement effects. That is, CRA indicates whether, in a set of empirical data, people with higher values on the directed discrepancy self-view S minus reality criterion R (i.e., S-R) tend to have higher values on some outcome variable (e.g., happiness). In a critical comment, Fiedler (2021) claims that CRA yields inaccurate conclusions in data with a suppressor effect. Here, we show that Fiedler's critique is unwarranted. All data that are simulated in his comment show a positive association between S-R and H, which is accurately detected by CRA. By construction, CRA indicates an association between S-R and H only when it is present in the data. In contrast to Fiedler's claim, it also yields valid conclusions when the outcome variable is related only to the self-view or when there is a suppressor effect. Our clarifications provide guidance for evaluating Fiedler's comment, clear up with the common heuristic that suppressor effects are always problematic, and assist readers in fully understanding CRA. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Adolescent development of interethnic attitudes following a social intervention to increase intergroup contact: The moderating role of affective forecasting.

This longitudinal, quasi-experimental field study investigated affective forecasting as a moderator of positive intergroup contact effects among adolescents. We also examined a novel mediating mechanism that underlies this effect, namely accuracy of perceived outgroup willingness for intergroup contact. Three annual waves of survey data were used from 1,169 adolescents (Mage = 13.88 at Wave 1; 50% girls; 66% White British, 44% Asian British) whose schools were merged, in a unique intervention that resulted in one school where ethnic groups were evenly mixed (i.e., balanced school) and two White British majority schools (i.e., majority skewed schools). Results showed that positive intergroup contact and attitudes improved more in the balanced school than in the majority skewed schools. In all schools, change in adolescents' positive intergroup contact predicted change in positive intergroup attitudes indirectly via (a) increased accuracy of perceived outgroup willingness for contact and (b) reduced intergroup anxiety. Indirect effects via accuracy of perceived contact willingness were stronger for adolescents who made more negative affective forecasts than for other adolescents. These moderated mediation effects were stronger in the balanced school than in the majority skewed schools. Thus, more balanced ethnic mixing in schools seemed to directly enhance positive intergroup relations and attitudes for all adolescents, but to particularly benefit adolescents who made more negative affective forecasts about positive contact before the school merger. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The codevelopment of extraversion and friendships: Bonding and behavioral interaction mechanisms in friendship networks.

Empirical evidence suggests that people select friends whose extraversion is similar to their own (selection). However, little is known about whether friends influence extraversion development (influence) and about the interaction mechanisms that underlie friendship selection and influence. We examined whether selection and influence explain similarity in extraversion between friends in two independent samples. Similarity in extraversion predicted a higher likelihood of friendship selection across 4 years in Sample 1 (n = 1,698; Mage = 22.72, SD = 2.99; 49% female) and across a period of 16 weeks in Sample 2 (n = 131; Mage = 21.34, SD = 3.95; 77% female). Friends' extraversion predicted increases in young adults' extraversion in both samples. In Sample 2, we examined the interaction mechanisms underlying selection and influence by combining event-based experience-sampling network changes with diary data on friendship network and extraversion changes. Findings showed that (a) similarity in extraversion predicted positive interaction quality changes and (b) positive interaction quality predicted friendship selection (bonding mechanism). In the same model, (a) friends' extraversion predicted friends' sociable behavior changes, (b) friends' sociable behavior predicted young adults' sociable behavior changes, and (c) young adults' sociable behavior predicted young adults' extraversion changes (behavioral mimicry mechanism). These findings provide unique insight into interaction mechanisms underlying longitudinal links between friendships and extraversion. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Is accurate, positive, or inflated self-perception most advantageous for psychological adjustment? A competitive test of key hypotheses.

Empirical research on the (mal-)adaptiveness of favorable self-perceptions, self-enhancement, and self-knowledge has typically applied a classical null-hypothesis testing approach and provided mixed and even contradictory findings. Using data from 5 studies (laboratory and field, total N = 2,823), we used an information-theoretic approach combined with Response Surface Analysis to provide the first competitive test of 6 popular hypotheses: that more favorable self-perceptions are adaptive versus maladaptive (Hypotheses 1 and 2: Positivity of self-view hypotheses), that higher levels of self-enhancement (i.e., a higher discrepancy of self-viewed and objectively assessed ability) are adaptive versus maladaptive (Hypotheses 3 and 4: Self-enhancement hypotheses), that accurate self-perceptions are adaptive (Hypothesis 5: Self-knowledge hypothesis), and that a slight degree of self-enhancement is adaptive (Hypothesis 6: Optimal margin hypothesis). We considered self-perceptions and objective ability measures in two content domains (reasoning ability, vocabulary knowledge) and investigated 6 indicators of intra- and interpersonal psychological adjustment. Results showed that most adjustment indicators were best predicted by the positivity of self-perceptions. There were some specific self-enhancement effects, and evidence generally spoke against the self-knowledge and optimal margin hypotheses. Our results highlight the need for comprehensive and simultaneous tests of competing hypotheses. Implications for the understanding of underlying processes are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Enhanced versus simply positive: A new condition-based regression analysis to disentangle effects of self-enhancement from effects of positivity of self-view.

Despite a large body of literature and ongoing refinements of analytical techniques, research on the consequences of self-enhancement (SE) is still vague about how to define SE effects, and empirical results are inconsistent. In this paper, we point out that part of this confusion is due to a lack of conceptual and methodological differentiation between effects of individual differences in how much people enhance themselves (SE) and in how positively they view themselves (positivity of self-view; PSV). We show that methods commonly used to analyze SE effects are biased because they cannot differentiate between the effects of PSV and the effects of SE. We provide a new condition-based regression analysis (CRA) that unequivocally identifies effects of SE by testing intuitive and mathematically derived conditions on the coefficients in a bivariate linear regression. Using data from 3 studies on intellectual SE (total N = 566), we then illustrate that the CRA provides novel results as compared with traditional methods. Results suggest that many previously identified SE effects are in fact effects of PSV alone. The new CRA approach thus provides a clear and unbiased understanding of the consequences of SE. It can be applied to all conceptualizations of SE and, more generally, to every context in which the effects of the discrepancy between 2 variables on a third variable are examined. (PsycINFO Database Record

Who benefits from chatting, and why? The roles of extraversion and supportiveness in online chatting and emotional adjustment.

The current study aimed to provide more insight into the role of online chatting in young adults' emotional adjustment. A model was tested that takes into account (a) extraversion of individuals who communicate online, (b) the kind of peers these individuals communicate with online (i.e., online-exclusive peers vs. friends), and (c) the extent to which effects of online chatting on emotional adjustment are mediated by individuals' ability to provide support to others. Young adults (age M = 18.9) filled out questionnaires about themselves and their fellow students at three measurements with a 4-month interval. Results showed that only for less extraverted individuals, chatting with peers found exclusively online directly predicted higher self-esteem and indirectly predicted less depressive symptoms through increases in supportiveness. Thus, results supported a model of social compensation where effects of online chatting with online-exclusive peers improved young adults' emotional adjustment.