Latent profile analysis of adolescent temperament: Relations to happiness and health in adulthood.

INTRODUCTION: This study provides long-term evidence that profiles of temperament during adolescence are associated with happiness and health over two decades later. METHODS: Data are based on the ongoing Fullerton Longitudinal Study, a community-based sample in the United States. At 14 and 16 years, adolescents (N = 111; 52% male, 90% Euro-American) and their mothers (N = 105) completed the Dimensions of Temperament Survey-Revised, a scale designed specifically to assess adolescents' temperament across a set of attributes. When adolescents reached age 38 years in 2017, they completed scales measuring comprehensive happiness and global health. RESULTS: Latent profile analysis (LPA), a person-centered approach, was conducted for adolescents' and for mothers' temperament ratings separately. Distinct two-profile solutions, labeled more regulated and less regulated, emerged for each informant. These were comparable in features across informants. Only the adolescents' self-rated profiles, controlling for sex and family SES, revealed a conceptually meaningful and statistically significant relation to the distal outcomes of health and happiness two decades later. CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents with temperament profiles characterized as more regulated, in contrast to less regulated, reported being happier and healthier upon entering middle adulthood. Implications for intervention are presented.

Positive family relationships across 30 years: Predicting adult health and happiness.

In this prospective study, we examined the link between positive family relationships during childhood and adolescence and health and happiness three decades later in middle adulthood. We also investigated the stability of positive family relationships into adulthood as one possible pathway underlying this long-term association. Data were from the Fullerton Longitudinal Study (FLS) an ongoing investigation in the United States initiated in 1979 when children were aged 1 year with the most recent data collected in 2017. A cross-informant methodology was employed in which mothers and children independently completed the Positive Family Relationships (PFR) scale annually when children were of ages 9-17 years. When study children reached age 38, they reported on their current PFR, global health, and comprehensive happiness. Structural equation models revealed that children's perceptions of the family during childhood and adolescence predicted both their health and happiness at age 38. Mothers' perspectives of PFR predicted greater adult children's health, but did not predict their happiness. Associations were independent of family socioeconomic status, gender, intelligence, and extraversion. Moreover, while controlling for behavior problems (proxy for health) and happiness at age 17, both children's and mothers' early PFR related to PFR at 38 years, which in turn, predicted increased health and happiness at age 38, thus providing evidence for a pathway underlying this long-term connection. Our prospective findings revealed that families in which members get along well and support each other during the childhood and adolescent years furnish a foundation for positive family relationships in adulthood, which are associated with greater health and happiness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Simultaneous Linking of Cross-Informant and Longitudinal Data Involving Positive Family Relationships.

Measurement invariance is a prerequisite when comparing different groups of individuals or when studying a group of individuals across time. This assures that the same construct is assessed without measurement artifacts. This investigation applied a novel approach of simultaneous parameter linking to cross-sectional and longitudinal measures of the construct of positive family relationships. Previously, a scale to measure this construct in mothers was developed longitudinally using the nominal response model of item response theory. In this study, this methodology was conducted for the first time to develop such a scale for children. The data for both informants derived from the Fullerton Longitudinal Study and encompassed 9 annual assessments spanning 8-years (age 9-17 years). This permitted linking across informants studied concurrently and prospectively. This procedure minimized measurement error, furnished a common metric across informants and time and established measurement invariance. Resulting thetas revealed a significant degree of concordance between informants across assessment waves as well as stability of individual differences for both informants over time. This psychometric investigation is unique because it simultaneously established invariance of a construct across informants and time. Implications for future research are discussed.

Positive family relationships: Longitudinal network of relations.

The construct of positive family relationships (PFR), defined as family members getting along well and supporting each other, was investigated in a long-term prospective study. A newly constructed scale of positive family relationships developed using the nominal response model of item-response theory, was subject to a longitudinal network of relations analysis. The conceptualization for this research was founded on a positive psychology framework. Data derived from the Fullerton Longitudinal Study and spanned 20 years from middle childhood (age 9 years) to early adulthood (age 29 years). Evidence indicated both stability and change in PFR across time. Moderate to high stability of individual differences among families across 9 annual assessments was found from ages 9-17 years. Concomitantly across these years, there was a progressive decline in PFR. PFR proved to be independent of socioeconomic status. Specific conceptually based directional hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. Multiple sources of information included intra- and cross-informant, as well as objective and ecologically valid data. The network of relations involved concurrent and predictive criterion-related variables. PFR had a pervasive relation to a variety of psychological domains across time. As predicted, PFR related (a) positively to family cohesion and inversely to family conflict, (b) positively to parental social support, (c) positively to children's self-concept, (d) positively to children's academic performance and educational attainment, and (e) inversely to children's behavior problems. The theoretical importance of the findings and the applicability of the PFR Scale for both researchers and practitioners in the field of family psychology are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Applying the Nominal Response Model Within a Longitudinal Framework to Construct the Positive Family Relationships Scale.

A psychometric analysis was conducted using the nominal response model under the item response theory framework to construct the Positive Family Relationships scale. Using data from the Fullerton Longitudinal Study, this scale was constructed within a long-term longitudinal framework spanning middle childhood through adolescence. Items tapping this construct were completed annually by mothers when children were aged 9 to 17 years. The scale measures a construct customized for each age with uniquely informative items consisting exclusively of discriminating response categories as evaluated using the nominal response model. By using longitudinal data, the study is innovative in implementing the method of test equating to a psychological construct across nine assessments spanning 8 years. Future research pertaining to validity is discussed.