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Empathy is the heightened ability to cognitively perceive and/or affectively share the emotions of others, which has been consistently associated with desirable social interactions. This paper aimed to test the bi-factorial structure of a Portuguese version of the Basic Empathy Scale and examine its variation by gender and age using a large community sample (n = 1029) of adolescents. The two-factor model, originally developed and supported by other cross-cultural validations, presented good fit indicators which was similar across genders and adolescent age groups. Girls were more empathic than boys and younger adolescents were more empathic than the older ones. Further support for the validity of the new scale comes from its relations to measures of social skills and aggression which were similar to theoretical predictions. In conclusion, the Portuguese version of the BES is a consistent and valid instrument for the assessment of empathy in samples of adolescents aged 12–18 years old in Portugal, which can now be used in cross-cultural studies of this important psychological construct. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Attachment is an important relational construct. Many studies have shown concurrent as well as longitudinal associations between attachment and many indices of adolescent and adult adaptation. The experiences in close relationships-revised (ECR-R) is one of the most commonly used self-report instruments of romantic attachment and therefore it is important to extend knowledge on its applicability in understudied non-Western samples. The purpose of this paper was threefold: (1) to examine the factor structure of the ECR-R in a Chinese sample, (2) to test the factorial equivalence of the instrument between Chinese and Greek samples, (3) to examine the measurement invariance of the instrument between those samples. Results supported the well-known two-factor structure of the instrument in the Chinese sample and the common factor structure between the two groups. Applying a multiple testing procedure we were able to detect those parameters for which invariance did not hold. Implications of results are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Adolescence is a key stage in terms of character formation, and it is important to study positive aspects such as character strengths and virtues by means of longitudinal studies. To this end, this study uses longitudinal methodology to analyse character virtues over three consecutive years during adolescence. Participants were 282 school students, whose mean age at the first measurement point was 12.10 years. Results show that character virtues remain relatively stable between the ages of 12 and 14 years, with a slight increase over time in scores on humanity and justice. Girls scored higher than boys on all six virtues analysed, and this trend was maintained over time. The paper discusses these findings and their possible implications for achieving optimal psychological development in adolescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quality of parent–child relationships has important implications for adolescent development and well-being. However, whereas numerous measures of specific dimensions contributing to quality of parent–child relationships are available, scales that provide a global assessment of this content are scarce. Consequently, the assessment of quality of parent–child relationships poses a challenge to the researcher, especially when the need exists to consider its main aspects but long instruments can not be used due to diverse circumstances. This paper presents a composite factorial score on quality of parent–child relationships developed from four short measures of affection, communication, parental knowledge and family satisfaction that can contribute to solving some of those difficulties. This composite score can be a useful tool to assess quality of parent–child relationships, especially for studies devoted to the study of the relationships between experiences within the family and the adolescent's well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper summarizes some of the key findings on the dynamics of personality and identity in adolescence by the author's research group. With regard to personality, we found evidence for a maturation process in which girls were ahead of boys. Being ahead or lagging behind with regard to this maturation process was found to be associated with internalizing and externalizing problems, respectively. We further identified which specific traits were associated with problem behaviour, and showed that these associations are bidirectional. With regard to identity, we showed that short-term fluctuations affect subsequent levels of identity dimensions. In addition, we uncovered a commitment–reconsideration dynamic that operates on a day-to-day level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Offline peer victimization has been linked to psychosomatic complaints. As peer victimization is no longer limited to adolescents’ offline relationships, it is crucial that we investigate whetheronlinepeer victimization has similar negative consequences. To date, no study systematically investigated the unique contribution of online vs. offline peer victimization on psychosomatic complaints, and the possible protective effect of social support. The current study disentangled offline and online peer victimization by distinguishing four victim types: non-victims, offline, online, and dual victims (N = 897, 9-to-18-year-olds). In addition, we assessed perceived social support from teachers, parents, friends and classmates. A main effect was found for victim type on psychosomatic complaints. Victims (offline or dual) reported more psychosomatic complaints than non-victims. Notably, online victims reported similar levels of psychosomatic complaints compared to non-victims. Furthermore, although social support from parents and classmates was related to fewer psychosomatic complaints, only limited support was found for a buffering effect of social support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the influence of connectedness on school engagement and life satisfaction among Roma (n = 121) and Bulgarian (n = 143) mainstream adolescents (mean age 15.89, SD = 1.18). A set of measures on family, peer, school and neighbourhood connectedness were administered alongside life satisfaction and school engagement scales. Multigroup path analysis indicated that while the relationship between connectedness, life satisfaction and school engagement was largely the same across groups, the strength of such relationship differed among groups. A closer inspection of the model indicated that when it comes to school engagement, there was a salient difference in the role of different forms of connectedness between Roma and mainstream adolescents. For Roma adolescents, familial connectedness was especially salient for school engagement. The practical and theoretical implications of our findings for strengths and adaptive processes among Roma adolescents in Bulgaria are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent studies have shown that higher levels of moral value evaluation (i.e., the attribution of importance to moral values) are consistently correlated with less externalizing behaviour in adolescents. The current study further investigates this relationship in a community sample of adolescents (N = 216, 100 males,MAGE = 15.2, SDAGE = 1.3), while differentiating between value areas (i.e., clusters of affiliated values:contract,truth andaffiliation;lifeandproperty,lawandlegal justice) and between delinquent and antisocial behaviour. Higher levels of moral value evaluation for theproperty,lawandlegal justicearea were associated with less delinquent and antisocial behaviour, while controlling for gender and age. Contrastingly, the areacontract, truthand affiliationwas not associated with delinquent or antisocial behaviour, andlifewas positively associated with antisocial behaviour. Implications for the nature of moral value evaluation and previous research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adolescents' relationships with parents are considered to be a major learning source and emotional base for developing expectations and styles of behaviour in close relationships. Using a longitudinal sample of late adolescents from nuclear families drawn from the German Family Panel pairfam (N = 720; mean age: 18.6 years), we investigated how adolescents' relationships with both parents influenced their romantic relationship quality one year later. Bagged (Averaged) Binary Recursive Partitioning was used to compare features of adolescents' relationships with mother and father (relatedness, negative conflict, emotional insecurity, and parental dominance) in respect of their importance in predicting similar aspects of romantic relationship quality. Overall, our findings suggest some degree of domain-specific continuities in adolescents' relationships with parents and partner, particularly for negative conflict, as well as more global effects for most features of the parent–adolescent relationship. Emotional insecurity with mother was most broadly linked to all features of adolescents' romantic relationship. Overall, adolescents' relationship with mother was found to be more influential than their relationship with father. The findings are discussed with reference to a behavioural systems perspective and attachment theory. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this study was to test the psychometric quality of a scale to measure adolescents' preferences and moral judgements of media portraying antisocial, risky and norm-crossing behaviours, titled the Media, Morality, and Youth Questionnaire (MMaYQue). We applied confirmatory factor analyses with two independent samples of adolescents (N = 666 and 780). A model with method effects and two correlated constructs (i.e., media preferences and moral judgements), fitted the data best and measurement invariance was confirmed. In addition, the MMaYQue successfully discriminates between groups and significantly correlates with relevant personality traits and related measures, supporting good discriminant, convergent and criterion validity of the MMaYQue. Findings provide evidence for the validity and applicability of the MMaYQue in various research designs, including experiments, to incorporate media use in research regarding youth and adolescent development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study compared the sociomoral reasoning of 7-, 9-, 12-, and 15-year-old children and adolescents of two collectivistic cultures in the 1990s: Spain (horizontal collectivism;N = 208) and Russia (vertical collectivism;N = 247). Participants reasoned about choices and moral justifications of a protagonist in a sociomoral dilemma where participants can focus on different moral and non-moral concerns (e.g., going with their best friend, going with a new classmate or trying to do something with both). Results support previous research in western societies: participants tend to choose the option “visiting the best friend”, and self-interest tends to decrease with age whereas altruism tends to increase. Moreover, Spanish participants tended to consider all parties involved in the dilemma (i.e., old friend and new classmate), whereas Russian participants did not. These results are discussed in light of their differences as horizontal and vertical collectivistic societies. Overall, the results open an avenue for new studies when comparing the effects of culture on children's and adolescents' development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aims of the longitudinal study were to investigate the development of social problem solving (SPS) among adolescents (N = 180) in Hungary, to describe the nature of correlations between the raters' judgements (child, mother, teacher) and to examine what the correlations are between SPS factors and family background. At the beginning of the study students were 12-year-olds and they were 14 at the last time of measurement. The questionnaire of SPS was adapted [SPSI-R:S, D'Zurilla, T. J., Nezu, A., & Maydeu-Olivares, A. (2002).Social Problem-Solving Inventory-Revised (SPSI-R): Technical manual. North Tonawanda, NY: Multi-Health Systems]. The factors were the following: negative and positive problem orientation (NPO, PPO, respectively), rational problem solving (RPS), impulsivity/carelessness style (ICS) and avoidance style (AS). Based on self-assessment, NPO, RPS, ICS and ACS show increasing tendency with age; however, in the case of PPO, significant age differences have not been found. The mothers' ratings are the same in the case of NPO, PPO and RPS, but they think that their 12-year-olds show lower impulsivity and avoidance than their children of 13 and 14 years. According to the teachers' rating, NPO, RPS and AS show increasing tendency; however, the values of ICS and PPO decrease with age. Correlations between children's and mothers' ratings are strongest, and the most divergent evaluations were given by teachers and mothers. Parents' educational levels influence the SPS factors differently: mothers' educational level has an effect on NPO and ICS; fathers' educational level has an impact on RPS in all years. The effects of free-time activities in family are stronger than those of the time spent learning with children in all years. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Research on developmental and time-related trends (cohort effects) of anxiety is important for the assessment of anxiety levels that are not in line with expected developmental trends, and are in need of intervention. We present the results of a large cross-sectional, two-wave cohort study for anxiety for emotional and cognitive components of anxiety, respectively. We measured anxiety using the Lestvica Anksioznosti za Otroke in Mladostnike [LAOM (Anxiety Scale for Children and Adolescents)] anxiety scale (general trait anxiety, and two cognitive components and one emotional component) in two age groups: 10-year-olds (N = 4351; 2621 males and 2663 females), and 14-year-olds (N = 4043; 2545 males and 2569 females) over a 4-year period (2007–2011). The results of three-way analysis of variance showed significant gender, age and cohort effects with significant age × gender interaction effects (η2 = 0.002) and age × cohort effects (η2 = 0.000). The effect sizes are small. As expected, females showed higher levels of anxiety and, in line with developmental trends, 14-year-olds showed higher levels of anxiety compared with 10-year-olds. The time-related trends (cohort effects) show a significant increase in anxiety and its components from 2007 to 2011. The effect sizes are small, with cohort effect being the largest one (.07 < d < .34) and larger effect sizes generally in 14-year-olds than in 10-year-olds. The implications of the findings are discussed, and in line with the results early intervention is supported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collective moral disengagement refers to shared group beliefs that morally justify negative actions. This study reports an initial validation of the newly developed Classroom Collective Moral Disengagement Scale (CCMDS) for adolescents. This self-report instrument assesses the degree to which mechanisms of moral disengagement are shared by students in their class. Data were collected from two samples of 486 and 654 adolescents attending middle and high schools in Italy. Through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses the unidimensional structure of the scale was established. Multigroup analyses demonstrated configural, metric and scalar invariance of the model across age and gender groups. The final version of the scale consists of 17 items and it has good internal consistency and validity. It is concluded that the scale is a promising measure for research concerning group level morality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moderator analysis in developmental research is concerned with the conditionals of development. When conditionals are known, developmental trajectories can be predicted, and the conditionals can be interpreted as moderators of development. In this article, we start from a standard definition of the term moderator, and present configural models that allow researchers to test hypotheses that are compatible with moderation. The methods that are discussed enable researchers to take person- as well as variable-oriented perspectives by using configural frequency analysis or logit models, respectively. We then proceed and propose a hierarchy of moderator models for configural analysis. The three levels of this hierarchy differ in the roles played by the variables under study and type as well as amount of information that decisions about moderation are based on. At the highest level, moderation hypotheses are analysed in the Baron and Kenny sense. Application examples use data from a study on the development of aggression in adolescence. Bases of interpretation of moderator models are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There appears to be some perceptual confusion with regard to the scope and extent of online bullying based on media reports and a number of studies—some of which are theoretically sound and methodologically rigorous and some of which are not. In the following text, we share findings from our own research and those of our peers to highlight the actual prevalence rates of cyberbullying. We also depict an overlap between offline and online bullying based on empirical works to make clear that those who are mistreated in the real world and in cyberspace are not two separate populations. Finally, we champion the systemic approach of enhancing the emotional and relational climate within schools as the most promising way to stem the tide of adolescent aggression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A psychometric measure of non-direct aggression was developed for use in teenagers and adults. The scale composed of 23 items was administered to a sample of 812 participants in Madrid (Spain). Exploratory factor analysis of the items yielded two factors, named indirect aggression and negative criticism. Reliability analysis indicated satisfactory Cronbach alpha coefficients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to illustrate how development is shaped by genes, environments, and their interactions. To this aim, a selective overview of research on adolescent loneliness is presented. Earlier approaches have already recognized the combined influence of environmental and personal factors on adolescent loneliness. Contemporary approaches, and the evolutionary theory of loneliness and associated sociocognitive model in particular, have provided a new impetus to research on loneliness. The rapidly expanding knowledge of genes and gene–environment interactions suggests that genetic effects related to loneliness represent some form of differential susceptibility to the environment. Methods from the neurosciences provide new insights into the basic mechanisms underlying feelings of loneliness. The concluding part of the article explains why loneliness is a valuable topic of scientific inquiry and presents an integrative model for future research on adolescent loneliness. Developmental psychologists throughout Europe can contribute to such integrative research programmes, each from their own perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to increase our knowledge regarding the role that emotional functioning can play in the genesis of bullying and victimization at school for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Therefore, we examined the unique associations of basic emotions (anger and fear) and moral emotions (shame and guilt) with bullying and victimization in children with an ASD and a control group with typically developing (TD) children. The study included 130 children and young adolescents (64 with ASD, 66 TD, M age 140 months), who filled out self-report questionnaires. The main findings showed that in both groups less guilt and more anger were associated with more bullying. More fear was associated with more victimization in TD children only. Yet, more anger was also strongly and uniquely associated with more victimization in children with ASD, but not in TD children. These outcomes support the idea that lack of guilt is a pivotal antecedent of bullying for TD and ASD children. However, unlike TD children, the dysregulation of anger seems to play an important role in victimization as well as bullying in children with ASD. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this study was to investigate whether different aspects of morality predict traditional bullying and cyberbullying behaviour in a similar way. Students between 12 and 19 years participated in an online study. They reported on the frequency of different traditional and cyberbullying behaviours andcompleted self-report measures on moral emotions and moral values. A scenario approach with open questions was used to assess morally disengaged justifications. Tobit regressions indicated that a lack of moral values and a lack of remorse predicted both traditional and cyberbullying behaviour. Traditional bullying was strongly predictive for cyberbullying. A lack of moral emotions and moral values predicted cyberbullying behaviour even when controlling for traditional bullying. Morally disengaged justifications were only predictive for traditional, but not for cyberbullying behaviour. The findings show that moral standards and moral affect are important to understand individual differences in engagement in both traditional and cyberforms of bullying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study investigated similarities between mothers' and their adolescent children's individualistic and collectivistic values by analysing data from 337 American mother–adolescent dyads and 100 Romanian mother–adolescent dyads. The two countries differ in the degree of socioeconomic and political changes as well as quality of intergenerational relationships, therefore differences in the extent of shared values between mothers and adolescents were expected. Similarities in value orientations between mothers and adolescents may be a result of actual transmission processes, but it may also be due to influences from the general value context in their society, an aspect often called Zeitgeist influence or cultural stereotype. Adolescents' perception of maternal parenting behaviours was hypothesized to moderate the similarities between mothers and adolescents. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that collectivistic values were transmitted more than individualistic values and that stronger value similarities were found within biological dyads compared to randomly assigned dyads or within the peer group. Additionally, maternal acceptance and control moderated the similarities between mothers and adolescents, and associations between perceived maternal parenting and adolescents' values were revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although it is generally assumed that support for democratic values and beliefs develops as a result of social learning, the concrete socializing circumstances through which this occurs are less obvious. This study investigated the relationship between democratic family functioning and democratic values of adolescents. Adolescents' (N = 1,341, 16- to 17-year-olds) reports on their parents' psychological control, autonomy granting, warmth, and behavioural control were considered predictors of adolescents' democratic orientation. The results demonstrated that the democratic functioning of families was positively related to adolescents' support for democratic values when controlling for the effects of gender, political experience, authoritarianism, empathy, and political activism. Additionally, this study examined the possible role of empathy as a mediator in the relation between democratic family functioning and adolescent's democratic values. The results show that empathy was a partial mediator of a family's contribution to adolescents' democratic orientation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has linked (im)moral behaviour with both moral emotion expectancies and the self-importance of moral values, indicating that these two factors influence moral decision making and action. Disentangling the relationship between moral emotion expectancies and self-importance of moral values as predictors of adolescents' anti- and prosocial behaviour was the primary goal of this research. Two hundred five participants (mean age = 14.83 years) completed a semi-structured interview assessing moral emotion expectancies in hypothetical situations and a written questionnaire measuring self-reported prosocial and antisocial behaviour and the self-importance of moral values. Moral emotion expectancies were found to mediate the relationship between the self-importance of moral values and self-reported levels of antisocial behaviour. When predicting levels of prosocial engagement, however, scores of moral value self-importance were the primary variable associated with prosocial behaviour whereas moral emotion expectancies were not involved in this relationship. In addition, a moderating effect of age was found when predicting antisocial behaviour by moral emotion expectancies. Overall, the study confirms and significantly extends previous research on the relationship between adolescents' moral self, moral emotion expectancies and anti- versus prosocial behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]