Changes in the Reciprocal Relationship Between Parenting and Self-Awareness During Adolescence: A Longitudinal Analysis of National Big Data

PURPOSE

This study aimed to identify the reciprocal relationship between parenting and self-awareness during adolescence.

DESIGN AND METHODS

This study analyzed longitudinal data from the Korea Children and Youth Panel Survey at three time points over a four-year period. Individuals (n = 2092; mean age 12.95 years) in their first year of middle school participated at the beginning of the survey. Repeated measurements were performed for the same participants in their third year of middle school and first year of high school between 2010 and 2016. Participants completed 18 self-awareness (self-esteem and self-identity) items and 21 parenting (positive and negative) items at three different time points. The autoregressive cross-lagged model was used to examine the causal relationship between parenting and adolescents' self-awareness.

RESULTS

Positive parenting and adolescents' self-awareness influenced each other. In terms of the magnitude of the effects of the two variables, the impact of adolescents' self-awareness on positive parenting was greater than that of positive parenting on adolescents' self-awareness. Adolescents' self-awareness at the previous time points negatively predicted negative parenting at the later time points. However, negative parenting at the previous time points was not a significant predictor of adolescents' self-awareness at the later time points.

CONCLUSIONS

In this study, the impact of adolescents' self-awareness on parenting was greater than was the case vice versa. This result could be regarded as reflecting adolescents' developmental characteristics.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

Intervention programs directly focusing on improving adolescents' self-awareness may be more effective than parenting interventions to improve self-awareness in adolescents.

Differential susceptibility in a developmental perspective: DRD4 and maternal sensitivity predicting externalizing behavior

This study is the first to investigate the longitudinal effects of gene-environment interplay between DRD4 genotype and maternal sensitivity on child externalizing behavior. Multiple measures of maternal sensitivity (14, 36, and 48 months) and externalizing behavior (18 months, 36 months, and 5 years) were assessed in a large cohort study (N = 548). Early maternal insensitivity (14 months) was associated with early externalizing behavior (18 months) in a for better and for worse manner, but only in children with at least one DRD4 7-repeat, consistent with a differential susceptibility model. Later insensitivity (48 months) predicted externalizing behavior at age 5 independent of DRD4 genotype. A structural equation model including all measures across time supported the differential susceptibility model: The overall effect of early maternal sensitivity on later externalizing behavior was significant only for children with a DRD4 7-repeat allele. The results highlight the importance of studying gene-environment interactions across development.

It takes two: a brief report examining mutual support between parents and teens learning to drive

Parental supervision of teen drivers has been identified as a way to mitigate teen crash risk. However, we know little about what motivates parents to be engaged supervisors throughout all phases of the learning-to-drive process. As a result, we are just beginning to understand what factors might motivate parents to actively supervise pre-license practice. In the current study, we examine how the provision of social support between parent and teen dyads might relate to parents' intention to remain engaged supervisors for the entire learner phase. Participants were a national sample of 309 teens with learner permits (age range 15-17 years, M (SD) 16.1 (0.8)) and a parent practice supervisor in the United States. Results indicated that parents in mutually supportive dyads reported stronger intentions to be engaged in their teens' practice driving over the course of the permit phase as compared to dyads where both members reported receiving low support: (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) [95% confidence interval (CI)]: 2.02 [1.04, 3.94]; p=0.038). No benefit was observed for only having one member of the dyad provide support, irrespective of it being the parent or the teen. Future research on this topic should consider reciprocal parent-teen interactions as potential determinates of parent driving supervision behaviors.

Gender, ethnicity, and the interactions of prematurely born children and their mothers

This study examined the relationship of child gender and maternal ethnicity to the interactive behaviors of 53 3-year-old prematurely born children and their mothers. Boys and Non-White children had more developmental sequelae. Although most interactive behaviors did not differ by gender or ethnicity, mothers expressed more positive affect to girls than boys, and girls looked at their mothers more often and expressed more positive affect. White mothers expressed more positive affect, touched more, and had better scores on three Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) Inventory subscales and the total HOME score than Non-White mothers. Child behaviors did not differ by ethnicity. Gender and ethnic group differences were affected by maternal education and child illness severity. Thus, although the interactive behaviors of mothers and prematurely born children are related to both child gender and ethnicity, some of these effects are better explained by maternal education and child illness severity. The systems view of the mother-child relationship is used to interpret these findings.

Genetic and environmental influences on human psychological differences

Psychological researchers typically distinguish five major domains of individual differences in human behavior: cognitive abilities, personality, social attitudes, psychological interests, and psychopathology (Lubinski, 2000). In this article we: discuss a number of methodological errors commonly found in research on human individual differences; introduce a broad framework for interpreting findings from contemporary behavioral genetic studies; briefly outline the basic quantitative methods used in human behavioral genetic research; review the major criticisms of behavior genetic designs, with particular emphasis on the twin and adoption methods; describe the major or dominant theoretical scheme in each domain; and review behavioral genetic findings in all five domains. We conclude that there is now strong evidence that virtually all individual psychological differences, when reliably measured, are moderately to substantially heritable.