Maternal and Paternal Resources across Childhood and Adolescence as Predictors of Young Adult Achievement

Obesity, Pregnancy and the Social Contract with Today's Adolescents

Adolescent health and well-being are of great concern worldwide, and adolescents encounter particular challenges, vulnerabilities and constraints. The dual challenges of adolescent parenthood and obesity are of public health relevance because of the life-altering health and socioeconomic effects on both the parents and the offspring. Prevention and treatment strategies at the individual and population levels have not been successful in the long term, suggesting that adolescent pregnancy and obesity cannot be managed by more of the same. Here, we view adolescent obese pregnancy through the lens of the social contract with youth. The disruption of this contract is faced by today's adolescents, with work, social and economic dilemmas which perpetuate socioeconomic and health inequities across generations. The lack of employment, education and social opportunities, together with obesogenic settings, increase vulnerability and exposure to lifelong health risks, affecting their offspring's life chances too. To break such vicious circles of disadvantage and achieve sustainable solutions in real-world settings, strong efforts on the part of policymakers, healthcare providers and the community must be oriented towards guaranteeing equity and healthy nutrition and environments for today's adolescents. The involvement of adolescents themselves in developing such programs is paramount, not only so that they feel a sense of agency but also to better meet their real life needs.

Performance, Achievement, and Success in Psychological Research: Towards a More Transparent Use of the Still Ambiguous Terminology

The present study focused on the terms performance, achievement, and success that have often been used in an ambiguous manner in psychological research. The way in which the meaning of the domain-specific constructs referred to with the terms was established for measurement purposes was investigated on a sample of 262 articles that stemmed from 35 randomly selected journals covering the full range of psychological research. The operational definitions of the constructs referred to with the terms performance, achievement, and success were analysed and compared in both inter- and intra-domain fashion. Additionally, we assessed the match among the observed operational definitions and general conceptual definitions available in the extant literature. The results revealed terminology-related issues in educational and occupational research. Within these domains, lack of adherence to the multidimensionality of the constructs of academic performance, academic achievement, academic success, job performance, and career success was identified as a general issue. Further, the tendency to measure job performance via indicators based on self-rating was considered inadequate given the objective nature of the term performance. In educational research, the overlap of the academic performance, academic achievement, and academic success constructs was confirmed, resulting from the tendency to use GPA as a universal indicator of academic outcomes. Based on the present findings, we provided several recommendations in order to encourage future research towards a more transparent way of dealing with the particular constructs referred to with the terms performance, achievement, and success. We suppose the present study may help researchers in the full range of psychological disciplines to add clarity to their own research.

Career adaptivity mediates longitudinal links between parent-adolescent relationships and young adult occupational attainment

This study aimed to illuminate the implications of adolescents' relationships with mothers and fathers for their career development processes and, in turn, their occupational attainment in young adulthood across a 10-12-year period. Grounded in the career construction theory, which highlights adolescence as a significant period of preparation for career attainment and families' role in this process (Savickas, 2013), we tested the mediating effect of adolescent career adaptivity, a fundamental component of career adaptation, in the longitudinal links between mother- and father-adolescent relationship quality and young adult occupational prestige. We also compared mothers' and fathers' roles in these links and tested youth gender moderation. Data came from mothers, fathers, and 236 youth (122 firstborns and 114 secondborns; 53% female) from 147 European American working- to middle-class families. Structural equation modeling tested whether effects of relationships with mothers and fathers at Time 1 (adolescents' Mage = 15.17, SD = .96) were mediated by Time 2 (1 year later) adolescent career adaptivity, represented by academic performance, sense of control, and self-worth, in relation to occupational prestige at about age 26. Results showed that career adaptivity fully mediated the link between mother-adolescent relationship quality and young adult occupational prestige, but the effects of father-adolescent relationship quality were nonsignificant, though model comparison did not reveal a significant difference between mother and father effects. There were no differences by youth gender. Findings contribute to understanding of families' role in youth career development and future attainment and add to the literature on career construction theory. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Parents or Peers? Predictors of Prosocial Behavior and Aggression: A Longitudinal Study

The aim of this longitudinal study was to determine the associations among peer attachment, warmth from the mother and father, strict control by the mother and father, prosocial behavior, and physical and verbal aggression in adolescence. Few longitudinal studies have examined how peer attachment and parenting styles of the mother and father relate to prosocial behavior and aggression. Participants were 192 boys and 255 girls (M = 14.70 years; SD = 0.68) in wave 1. In the study participated 11 schools. For three successive years, participants reported on their fathers’ and mothers’ warmth and strict control, peer attachment, prosocial behavior, and aggression. Structural equations modeling was employed to explore two longitudinal models. Results show the influence of the mother and father on prosocial and aggression during adolescence. In addition, strong peer attachment predicted prosocial behavior in subsequent years. Therefore, the findings indicate that despite the increasingly important role of friends during the transition from childhood to adolescence, parenting styles play a key role in the personal and social development of their children. Programs aimed at preventing aggression should be designed considering the importance of stimulating and strengthening prosocial behavior, peer attachment and a family environment of affect, support and communication.

Sibling Experiences in Middle Childhood Predict Sibling Differences in College Graduation

To illuminate how within-family differences in achievement may emerge, this study examined sibling experiences in middle childhood as predictors of sibling differences in college graduation. First- and second-borns from 152 families reported on their experiences with siblings and parents at ages 11.80 (SD = 0.56) and 9.22 (SD = 0.90), respectively, and on their educational attainment at about age 26. Significant childhood predictors of sibling differences in college graduation status included low sibling warmth, fathers' differential time spent with siblings, and perceived unfair differential treatment by parents. Findings suggest long-term implications of early sibling dynamics for educational attainment and provided novel insights into families' role in achievement.