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Guided by the social-cognitive theory and self-determination theory, this study examined whether moral disengagement is indirectly associated with pro-bullying, passive bystanding, and defending, mediated by autonomous motivation, introjected motivation, extrinsic motivation, and amotivation to defend victims of bullying among early adolescents. Participants were 901 upper elementary students from 43 school classes at 15 public schools in Sweden who completed a questionnaire in their classrooms. The results showed that students who were less inclined to morally disengage in peer bullying tended to be more autonomously motivated to take the victim's side, which in turn was associated with greater defending and fewer pro-bullying behaviors. Introjected motivation to defend negatively mediated the association between moral disengagement and defending, and positively mediated moral disengagement's associations with passive bystanding and pro-bullying behavior. Extrinsic motivation to defend mediated moral disengagement's associations with passive bystanding and pro-bullying behavior. Finally, students who were more prone to morally disengage in peer bullying tended to be more amotivated to take the victim's side, which in turn was associated with greater pro-bullying behavior and less defending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strength interventions at work have been shown to influence workers' optimal functioning and well-being. To increase the accessibility of these interventions in the workplace, relying on digital platforms would be a realistic idea. Akin to the Character Strengths 360-degree feedback activity, a smartphone (and computer) application allows users to send or receive anonymous strength-oriented descriptive feedback to/from colleagues, hence disseminating the identification and use of each other's signature strengths associated with their enacted behaviors. Drawing on Self-Determination Theory, an intervention was developed to investigate if the use of the online platform may impact psychological well-being, by increasing psychological need satisfaction and autonomous motivation and decreasing need frustration and controlled motivation. A sample of full-time workers (n = 112) experienced the application, while participants who did not use the platform were assigned to the a posteriori control condition (n = 54). Data were collected before and after the 4-weeks intervention. Results showed (1) that participants from the experimental group reported significantly higher levels of strength use, need satisfaction, autonomous motivation, and psychological well-being compared to the a posteriori control group, and (2) that increases in the levels of need satisfaction reported by participants from the experimental group were related to increases in autonomous motivation, which in turn resulted in higher levels of well-being. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highly responsive teachers tend to foster behaviors that are low in conflict and high in prosociality, among their students, leading to a positive classroom climate and to a decrease in bullying victimization. However, little is known about the interaction between teacher responsiveness and both student–teacher, and student–student relationship characteristics, in influencing students' bullying victimization at school. Here, we examined student–teacher relationship quality and students' likeability among peers as predictors of in-school victimization. Additionally, we investigated the moderating role of teacher responsiveness over this link. Study sample consisted of 386 early-adolescent students (55.2% female, mean age [SD] = 12.17 [0.73]) and 19 main teachers (females, n = 14). Findings indicated that students' exposure to victimization was positively associated with student–teacher conflict and negatively associated with likeability among classroom peers. Teacher responsiveness did not show a significant direct association with bullying victimization. However, when teachers showed high responsiveness, the strength of the association between student–teacher conflict and students' likelihood of bullying victimization was slightly increased. The present study highlights the importance of considering the role of teacher responsiveness when modeling the link between student and teacher relationship quality and in school bullying victimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: School bullying is a widespread phenomenon across the world, which involves bystanders who take on various roles. Motivation to defend victims is important to investigate because it helps us devise better, evidence-based, anti-bullying interventions. Objective: We aimed to determine whether students' behavioral and emotional strengths and difficulties and student–teacher relationships were associated with different types of motivation to defend victims of bullying. The hypotheses were (1) emotional and behavioral difficulties will be associated with less autonomous and introjected motivation to defend and greater extrinsic motivation to defend and (2) close student–teacher relationships will be associated with greater autonomous motivation to defend, and less extrinsic motivation to defend. Method: Data were collected from 483 Swedish early adolescents who completed a survey in their classrooms. Results: Results showed that, among boys and girls, close student–teacher relationships were positively associated with autonomous motivation and negatively associated with extrinsic motivation to defend, while negative expectations concerning teachers were associated with all forms of motivation to defend. Emotional and behavioral difficulties were only associated with introjected motivation to defend among girls. Furthermore, extrinsic motivation to defend was associated with the interactions between individual differences in behavioral and emotional difficulties and negative expectations. Conclusions: Adolescents who are more occupied with wanting to have a better relationship with their teachers might be motivated to be involved in good social relationships with others. The results also indicate that closeness in student–teacher relationships is important for greater autonomous motivation to defend victims during bullying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For years, a popular explanation for women choosing to abandon studies in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) has been their lack of aptitude. This study challenged that notion by integrating theories of cognitive style, academic emotion, self-efficacy, and motivation to explain students' academic achievement and perseverance in STEM when transitioning to college. A sample of 1597 high school and junior college students participated. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were first conducted to validate a reduced version of the cognitive style questionnaire. Structural equation modeling revealed that the cognitive style known as systemizing indirectly predicted STEM achievement and persistence by way of intrinsic motivation, learning anxiety, and self-efficacy, providing a new perspective for re-examining the gender gap in STEM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-021-00555-z [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although callous-unemotional (CU) traits have been associated with bullying among children and adolescents, relatively little is known about whether each of the three sub-constructs of CU traits-callous, uncaring, and unemotional-are associated with bullying when they are considered concurrently in the analysis. Objective: This study was the first to examine in a single model whether callous, uncaring, and unemotional traits are directly related to the perpetration of bullying and to harm-effect moral reasoning in bullying among children as well as whether these three CU traits are indirectly related to bullying mediated by harm-effect moral reasoning. Methods: Self-reported data on CU traits, harm-effect moral reasoning in bullying situations, and bullying perpetration were collected from 381 children from 13 schools in Sweden. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses. Results: When all three sub-constructs of CU traits were included in a single model, greater callousness and uncaring were directly associated with greater bullying. In contrast, greater harm-effect moral reasoning was associated with less bullying. Moreover, greater callousness and unemotional were indirectly associated with greater bullying through the reduced use of harm-effect moral reasoning. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate that all three CU traits are important to address, although their associations with bullying took some different paths, and that callousness appears to be the most important CU trait in relation to bullying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present investigation examined motivation for parenting and some of its correlates in parents and children. The data came from samples of 151 first-time mothers of infants, 153 mothers of middle school children, and 260 mothers and fathers of high school children. Parents provided self-report data about their motivation in their parenting role as well as reports of role satisfaction, parental competence, child temperament, and parenting styles. Using three samples, factor analyses confirmed the distinction between autonomous and controlled forms of parenting motivation. Autonomous motivation refers to investing in the parenting role because it is interesting and meaningful whereas controlled motivation refers to investment based on external or internal pressures. Results showed that autonomous motivation was associated concurrently with parenting satisfaction and competence as well as with authoritative and autonomy-supportive parenting styles. Child temperament was unrelated to parenting motivation, but mothers reported greater autonomous motivation for girls than boys and for younger children rather than older children. Autonomous parenting motivation was associated with children reporting autonomy supportive parenting and high levels of well-being. A prospective analysis showed that controlled parenting motivation in first time mothers was associated with reductions in parenting satisfaction as infants became toddlers. A similar analysis showed that autonomous parenting motivation was associated with children developing fewer behavior problems whereas controlled motivation was associated with children developing more behavioral problems. The present findings highlight the heuristic value of assessing why parents invest themselves in the parenting role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This longitudinal paper draws on data from a larger ongoing project and examines how students conceive of their opportunities to influence their study environment and how this may be related to their self-efficacy beliefs and their study motivation. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyze semi-structured in-depth interviews of 10 students of a Masters Program in Engineering. The results indicate that most students had confidence in their opportunities to influence their study environment and believed influencing could increase self-efficacy beliefs and study motivation. The high content of problem solving in courses was the principal motivator. Students that either perceived their opportunities to influence the study environment as not highly important or as satisfactory were more motivated and performed better than other students. Findings have implications for students’ motivation and performance if educators inform students of their formal and informal opportunities to influence their study environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]