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Drawing on attachment theory, this study examined the associations among mothers' self-report attachment styles (i.e., anxiety and avoidance), adolescents' attachment to mother, and adolescents' psychosocial adjustment (i.e., psychological difficulties, prosocial behavior, and self-control) in 425 Chinese mother–adolescent dyads. The results of path analysis based on the total sample showed that adolescents' attachment to mother mediated the association between mothers' avoidant, but not anxious, attachment style and adolescents' psychosocial adjustment. Moreover, the results based on multigroup comparison suggested that while adolescents' attachment to mother significantly mediated the "avoidant attachment–psychosocial adjustment" link for both early and middle adolescents, it significantly mediated the "anxious attachment–psychosocial adjustment" link only for middle adolescents. In addition, the association between mothers' anxious attachment and adolescents' attachment to mother was larger for middle than for early adolescents, while the association between adolescents' attachment to mother and self-control was larger for early than for middle adolescents. These findings implicate the importance of mothers' and adolescents' secure attachment to positive youth development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-control plays an important role in human’s daily life. In the recent two decades, scholars have exerted tremendous effort to examine the etiologies of the individual differences in self-control. Among numerous predictors of self-control, the role of culture has been relatively overlooked. In this study, the influences of cultural orientation on self-control were examined based on the collectivism-individualism framework using both self-report and behavioral task to assess self-control. A convenience sample of 542 Chinese and 446 U.S. undergraduates participated in the research. They were invited to fill out self-report questionnaires reporting their levels of attitudinal self-control and individualistic-collectivistic orientation after completing a computer-based Stroop task. Results of hierarchical regression models showed that Chinese participants reported less attitudinal self-control but had higher behavioral self-control than their U.S. counterparts. Moreover, individual-level individualism and collectivism was negatively and positively related to attitudinal self-control in both countries, respectively. Individual-level collectivism was significantly related to better behavioral self-control, but no significant results were found for the relationship between individual-level individualism and behavioral self-control. In sum, individualism and collectivism have some influences on individual differences in self-control. Implications for future research were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research has found that a strong family allocentrism relates to reduced adolescent depressive symptoms. Besides providing continuous support for this relation, this research extended the scope by exploring whether there was a U-shaped association between family allocentrism and depressive symptoms and testing the mediation effect of identity style among Italian adolescents (N = 387, 183 boys, 204 girls, Mage = 16.38 years). Result of hierarchical regression model showed that the association between family allocentrism and depressive symptoms was linear rather than U-shaped. More importantly, this linear relation was mediated by normative and diffuse-avoidant style. In sum, the current findings suggest that adolescents who are allocentric toward family tend to follow family members’ expectations to establish self-identity and deal with identity issues more proactively, and thus they are less likely to experience depressive symptoms. Moreover, there is no significant evidence that too much family allocentrism would lead to elevated depressive symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anxiety disorders are one of the most widespread psychological diseases in adolescence, which may lead to impairment in several areas of life and has been demonstrated a risk factor of other psychiatric disorders. One of the most widely used self-report measures to assess multiple symptoms of anxiety in youth is the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale (SCAS). Literature suggests that anxiety symptoms vary across cultures to some extent. It has been found that individuals from collectivistic culture report higher levels of anxiety disorders than those from individualistic culture. Poland is a country whose culture was traditionally collectivistic; but now Poland is undergoing social and economic system transformation, which is taking it closer to individualistic culture. However, SCAS has never been validated in Polish samples, and thus the current study aimed (1) to assess the psychometric properties (structural validity and reliability) of SCAS in a sample of 303 Polish adolescents, (2) to examine gender differences, (3) to test the divergent validity of SCAS by relating it to the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and (4) to compare the mean levels with Chinese (collectivistic) and Italian (individualistic) samples. The results confirmed that the Polish version of SCAS showed good reliability and validity. Polish girls showed higher physical injury and generalized anxiety/overanxious symptoms than boys. Furthermore, Polish adolescents reported higher levels of anxiety than Italian youth but lower levels of anxiety than their Chinese counterparts. Implications for professionals and researchers are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The parent-report Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ-P) is a widely used scale that assesses children's and adolescents' strengths and difficulties. The present study applied this scale to Italian adolescents and compared the current results with previous Chinese findings and the United Kingdom norm. Participants were 422 Italian parents and their adolescent children. Parents and adolescents answered the parent-report and the self-report SDQ, respectively. Results showed that the five-factor first-order model was better than other competing models. Cronbach's alpha of emotional problems, conduct problems, hyperactivity, peer problems, prosocial behavior, and total difficulties was .63, .52, .69, .51, .59, and .77 respectively for mother-report measure, and .67, .48, .67, .46, .55, and .79 respectively for father-report measure. Parent-adolescent agreements ranged from low to medium, whereas mother-father agreements were large. Parents did not rate boys and girls as well as early-adolescence and mid-adolescence differently. Italian parents rated their adolescent children to have lower levels of hyperactivity, peer problems, total difficulties, and higher levels of prosocial behavior than Chinese parents; and Italian mothers rated their adolescent children to have lower levels of hyperactivity than United Kingdom parents. In conclusion, the current findings suggest both strengths and inadequacies of the SDQ-P for Italian adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I(3) theory assumes that aggressive behavior is dependent on three orthogonal processes (i.e., Instigator, Impellance, and Inhibition). Previous studies showed that Impellance (trait aggressiveness, retaliation tendencies) better predicted aggression when Instigator was strong and Inhibition was weak. In the current study, we predicted that another Impellance (i.e., normative beliefs about aggression) might predict aggression when Instigator was absent and Inhibition was high (i.e., the perfect calm proposition). In two experiments, participants first completed the normative beliefs about aggression questionnaire. Two weeks later, participants' self-control resources were manipulated either using the Stroop task (study 1, N = 148) or through an "e-crossing" task (study 2, N = 180). Afterwards, with or without being provoked, participants played a game with an ostensible partner where they had a chance to aggress against them. Study 1 found that normative beliefs about aggression negatively and significantly predicted aggressive behavior only when provocation was absent and self-control resources were not depleted. In Study 2, normative beliefs about aggression negatively predicted aggressive behavior at marginal significance level only in the "no-provocation and no-depletion" condition. In conclusion, the current study provides partial support for the perfect calm proposition and I(3) theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study investigated the relationship between parental attachment and depressive symptoms as well as the mediating effect of self-control in two different cultures. Samples were 1305 Chinese and 1327 Italian adolescents. They completed the Inventory of Parental and Peer Attachment, the Self-Restraint Subscale of the Adolescents' Self-Consciousness Scale, and the Children's Depression Inventory that assessed parental attachment, self-control, and depressive symptoms, respectively. Results showed that: (1) Few cultural differences in depressive symptom were observed. (2) Parental attachment and self-control were negatively related to depressive symptoms in both cultures. (3) Self-control mediated the relations between parental attachment and depressive symptoms in both cultures. (4) The direct and indirect effects were invariant across cultures. In conclusion, parental attachment and self-control are important for adolescents' depressive symptoms in Chinese and Italian adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Self-consciousness is considered as a multifaceted and hierarchical construct that includes self-evaluation, self-experience, and self-control. This study assumes that self-consciousness is a preventative factor of internalizing and externalizing problems among Chinese adolescents. 1202 Chinese adolescents from grade 7 to grade 12 participated in this study by completing a battery of questionnaires that assessed self-consciousness and internalizing/externalizing problems. The results showed that, after controlling demographic variables, some lower-order factors (i.e., sense of satisfaction, sense of anxiety, social self, self-restraint, self-esteem, and self-monitoring) and higher-order subscales (i.e., self-evaluation and self-experience) of self-consciousness significantly predicted internalizing problems, while externalizing problems were predicted by several lower-order factors (i.e., self-restraint, sense of satisfaction, and self-monitoring) and higher-order subscales (i.e., self-control and self-experience). In conclusion, this study demonstrates that Chinese adolescents' internalizing and externalizing problems are related with different aspects of self-consciousness, which sheds light on the prevention into adolescents' problem behaviors. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Past research has consistently found that people are likely to do worse on high-level cognitive tasks after exerting self-control on previous actions. However, little has been unraveled about to what extent ego depletion affects subsequent prospective memory. Drawing upon the self-control strength model and the relationship between self-control resources and executive control, this study proposes that the initial actions of self-control may undermine subsequent event-based prospective memory (EBPM). Ego depletion was manipulated through watching a video requiring visual attention (Experiment 1) or completing an incongruent Stroop task (Experiment 2). Participants were then tested on EBPM embedded in an ongoing task. As predicted, the results showed that after ruling out possible intervening variables (e.g. mood, focal and nonfocal cues, and characteristics of ongoing task and ego depletion task), participants in the high-depletion condition performed significantlyworseon EBPM than those in the low-depletion condition. The results suggested that the effect of ego depletion on EBPM was mainly due to an impaired prospective component rather than to a retrospective component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]