Hostile, aggressive family conflict trajectories during the transition to adulthood: Associations with adolescent Big Five and emerging adulthood adjustment problems

The dimensionality of the Conflict Resolution Styles Inventory across age and relationships

Close interpersonal conflicts between parents and children, marital or romantic partners, and between friends are common, and adjustment in youth and adults depends on how these conflicts are managed. While conflict management is important for relationships and adjustment, the structure of conflict management in adults or in youths has rarely been examined. Knowing how conflict management is structured, and whether this structure changes with age and relationships, is important to understanding what factors influence the development of conflict management skills, and how to intervene. In the current study, we explored the unidimensional vs. multidimensional structure of conflict management in family relationships, friendships and romantic relationships across adolescence and adulthood. The sample consisted of 497 Dutch adolescents (57% boys, Mage = 13.03, SD = 0.46, 11-15 years old) who were followed over 11 years in 9 measurement waves, and their parents, siblings, best friends (six waves), and romantic partner (three waves). First-order factor analyses (CFA) showed that the structure of conflict management is similar for adolescents and adults, across relationships. The results of second-order models, including the theoretical higher dimensions positive/negative conflict management and engagement/disengagement, showed no support for these higher dimensions. The results of bifactor models showed differences between adults and youths: while positive problem solving was part of the general factor of conflict management in adults, it was not part of this general factor in adolescents. The general factor was linked to increases in internalizing and externalizing problems, and with decreases in prosocial behavior. Overall, the bifactor models increased the interpretability and validity of the conflict management measure.

Life Satisfaction in Young Adults-The Moderating Role of Parental Support

The transition to adulthood in Western societies, termed emerging adulthood (EA), holds new challenges for family relationships across and within generations. Drawing on Self Determination Theory and Bowens' Family systems theory, this study examines the combined contribution of personal resources and relationships with parents and friends to satisfaction with life among young Israeli adults. It also examines the possible change in parental support that occurs with increasing age. A convenience sample (n = 572) of young Jewish Israeli adults (18-29 years) completed structured questionnaires. Using regression analysis, we modelled the associations between personal and support variables to life satisfaction as well as the interactions between age and parental support. The findings reveal that young women reported receiving more parental support than young men. Commitment to values and beliefs and greater support from friends make a positive contribution to life satisfaction. High parental support impairs life satisfaction as age increases. The study extends Bowens' theory to understand the developmental stage of young adulthood and emphasize on the practical level that therapists need to familiarize themselves with the protective variables at this stage of life and the changing role of parental support.

Parent-child relationship and smartphone use disorder among Chinese adolescents: The mediating role of quality of life and the moderating role of educational level

The present study explored the effect of parent-child relationship on Smartphone Use Disorder (SUD) and the mediating role of quality of life (QOL). In addition, we explored the role of educational level from the developmental psychology perspective. Our results indicate that: (1) parent-child relationship could negatively predict SUD among adolescents; (2) QOL played a partial mediator role in the relationship between parent-child relationship and SUD; (3) As educational level increased from elementary school to middle school to high school, the effect of parent-child relationship on QOL weakened. This study showed that adolescents with good parent-child relationship had a higher QOL thus exhibiting a lower extent of SUD. Moreover, the link between parent-child relationship and SUD weakened as the educational level increased.

The influence of parents and schools on developmental trajectories of antisocial behaviors in Caucasian and African American youths

African American youths are overrepresented in the American juvenile justice system relative to Caucasians. Yet, research on antisocial behaviors (ASB) has focused on predominantly Caucasian populations. Furthermore, relatively little is known about how environmental factors, such as supportive parenting (e.g., how close adolescents feel to their parent) and school connectedness (e.g., how supported adolescents feel at school), affect trajectories of ASB in Caucasians versus African Americans. This study mapped developmental trajectories of ASB in Caucasians (n = 10,764) and African Americans (n = 4,091) separately, using four waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. We then examined supportive parenting and school connectedness on the trajectories of ASB. Four trajectories of ASB were identified for both Caucasians and African Americans: negligible, adolescence-peaked, low-persistence, and high-persistence ASB, although prevalence rates differed by racial-ethnic status. Supportive parenting reduced the risk of membership into the adolescence-peaked trajectory for both Caucasians and African Americans. However, school connectedness was less protective for African Americans than for Caucasians because it only predicted a lower risk of adolescence-peaked membership for African Americans. Findings may reflect the complex social dynamics between race and schools in the development of ASB.

Assessing the interplay between multigenic and environmental influences on adolescent to adult pathways of antisocial behaviors

The current investigation utilized a developmental psychopathology approach to test the hypothesis that multigenic (i.e., dopaminergic and serotonergic genes) and multienvironmental factors interactively contribute to developmental pathways of antisocial behavior (ASB). A sample of 8,834 Caucasian individuals from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) were used to (a) examine the developmental pathways of ASB from age 13 to 32 using growth mixture modeling, (b) compute weighted multigenic risk scores (Add Health MRS) for ASB from six well-characterized polymorphisms in dopamine and serotonin genes, and (c) test the interaction between the Add Health MRS and a measures of support (incorporating indicators of both positive and negative support from parents and schools). Four pathways of adolescent to adult ASB emerged from the growth mixture models: low, adolescence-peaked, high decline, and persistent. Add Health MRS predicted the persistent ASB pathway, but not other ASB pathways. Males with high Add Health MRS, but not low MRS, had significantly greater odds of being in the adolescence-peaked pathway relative to the low pathway at low levels of school connectedness. Nonfamilial environmental influences during adolescence may have a cumulative impact on the development of ASB, particularly among males with greater underlying genetic risks.

Co-Development of Personality and Friendships Across the Lifespan

Abstract. This article examines changes in the co-development of personality characteristics and friendships across the lifespan. We address how personality traits shape friendship development (i.e., selection effects) and how friendships shape personality traits (i.e., socialization effects). By integrating separate empirical studies, we look at how selection and socialization effects change across the lifespan. A review of longitudinal research supports our hypothesis that selection effects on friendships intensify during adolescence, peak in young adulthood, and diminish throughout middle and late adulthood. Socialization effects through friendships seem to be moderately sized during adolescence, then small to negligible from young adulthood onwards. For future directions, we discuss effects of the transactional development of friendships and personality regarding associated dispositions within individuals, associated individuals within friendship dyads, and individuals associated within wider social networks.

Trajectories of Organized Activity Participation Among Urban Adolescents: An Analysis of Predisposing Factors

Organized activity participation provides important opportunities for adolescents to develop assets and resources related to positive youth development. Predisposing factors, in addition to sociodemographics and self-selection factors, may influence how youth participate over time. In this study, we used growth mixture modeling with longitudinal data from African American adolescents attending urban high schools in Flint, MI to identify subgroups of participation trajectories (Wave 1 N = 681, mean age at Wave 1 = 14.86 years, 51% female). We measured activity participation using psychological and behavioral engagement across multiple contexts over the 4 years of high school. We examined how predisposing risk and promotive factors were related to these trajectories, accounting for sociodemographic and self-selection factors. The results indicated three participation trajectories: a low group decreasing over time (74%), a moderate, consistent participation group (21%) and a moderate, increasing group (5%). More substance use was associated with lower odds of being in the moderate/consistent versus low/decreasing participation group. More parental support was associated with lower odds of being in the moderate/increasing versus the moderate/consistent group. Our results suggest that addressing predisposing factors such as substance use may help facilitate participation over time.

Advancements in the field of personality development

A summary is provided what the fields of personality and developmental psychology had to offer each other the past decade, reflected in the eleven contributions enclosed in this special issue. Strengths and opportunities to further advance the field are identified, including the extension of general trait with maladaptive trait models, the use of alternative methods to assess personality, and the adoption of configural approaches to describe traits in individuals, beyond more traditional person-centered approaches.