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Regulatory emotional self-efficacy beliefs (RESE) in managing negative emotions and in expressing positive emotions are believed to play an important role in different spheres of psychological functioning. However, the literature does not offer a quantitative synthesis of the degree of the relation between RESE and indices of (mal)adjustment. The present study is a meta-analytic investigation of the relation between RESE and indices of maladjustment and adjustment. A total of 93 studies from 83 peer-reviewed international articles and 1 doctoral dissertation were included, for a total amount of 48,373 participants. RESE were negatively and significantly related to maladjustment (r = -.24). Conversely, RESE were positively and significantly related to adjustment (r =.35). Results seem not to be affected by publication bias and only a few moderating effects were documented. In conclusion, given the above results, RESE proved to be (among others) a valid marker of overall psychosocial functioning, both in its positive and negative facets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Following disasters, children and adolescents can use coping strategies to feel better. A growing body of studies investigated the relation between them and maladjustment/adjustment, i.e., negative symptomatology/positive indicators of development. Yet, these constructs are studied separately. Objective: We conducted two meta-analyses to examine the mean correlation between disaster-related coping strategies and indicators of maladjustment/adjustment following natural disasters in children and adolescents, considering the role of some moderators. Methods: We used PsycINFO, PubMed, Eric, and Scopus databases to identify articles on natural disasters (filters: participants ≤ 18 years at the disaster, peer-review, English language). Inclusion required investigating the relation between at least one coping strategy and at least one indicator of maladjustment (e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder, depression) and/or adjustment (e.g., self-efficacy, emotion understanding), for a total of 26 studies (k = 64, n = 9692, for maladjustment; k = 37, n = 3504, for adjustment). Results: There were global positive significant correlations between coping strategies and negative symptomatology (rpooled =.23) for maladjustment, and positive indicators (rpooled =.17) for adjustment. Negative symptomatology positively correlated with escape (r =.19), social isolation (r =.15), submission (r =.64), and opposition (r =.16); positive indicators positively correlated with problem solving (r =.31), social support (r =.22), and submission (r =.30). We found a moderating role of age, disaster type, and continent for maladjustment. Conclusions: The study presented an analysis of the coping strategies that can be effective for children and adolescents dealing with natural disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study assumed that perceived ex-partner rejection is likely to associate with increased symptoms of psychological distress among remarried women who had been previously divorced. Additionally, emotional intelligence may act as moderator between ex-partner rejection and psychological distress, and length of time between divorce and remarriage may play a role in the amount of psychological distress, a woman experiences. In this regard, 99 remarried women, who have been previously divorced, were recruited using purposive sampling technique. Separate hierarchical regressions revealed that perceived ex-spousal rejection significantly and positively predicted psychological distress, however, EI did not moderate between ex-partner rejection and psychological distress. Results further demonstrated no significant difference in level of psychological distress between group of women who remarried within 2 years of divorce, and those who remarried after 2 years of divorce. Implications for relationship researchers and mental health professionals are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exposure to child maltreatment and maternal depression are significant risk factors for the development of psychopathology. Difficulties in caregiving, including poor emotion socialization behavior, may mediate these associations. Thus, enhancing supportive parent emotion socialization may be a key transdiagnostic target for preventive interventions designed for these families. Reminiscing and Emotion Training (RET) is a brief relational intervention designed to improve maternal emotion socialization behavior by enhancing maltreating mothers' sensitive guidance during reminiscing with their young children. This study evaluated associations between maltreatment, maternal depressive symptoms, and the RET intervention with changes in children's maladjustment across one year following the intervention, and examined the extent to which intervention-related improvement in maternal emotion socialization mediated change in children's maladjustment. Participants were 242 children (aged 36 to 86 months) and their mothers from maltreating (66%) and nonmaltreating (34%) families. Results indicated that RET intervention-related improvement in maternal sensitive guidance mediated the effects of RET on reduced child maladjustment among maltreated children one year later. By comparison, poor sensitive guidance mediated the effects of maltreatment on higher child maladjustment among families that did not receive the RET intervention. Direct effects of maternal depressive symptoms on child maladjustment were also observed. This suggests RET is effective in facilitating emotional and behavioral adjustment in maltreated children by improving maltreating mothers' emotional socialization behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to analyze the efficacy of an intervention program for informal caregivers of elderly dependent that combined balneotherapy with group psychoeducation (BT-PE) based on the balanced care model. The BT-PE intervention (N = 124) was compared with a comparison group only exposed to balneotherapy (BT) (N = 76). The two modalities included both primary and secondary informal caregivers. A three-way mixed ANOVA was conducted to determine the effects of two between-subjects´ factors (intervention group and caregiver type) and one within-subjects´ factor (time) on burden, depression, anxiety, maladjustment and care satisfaction. Results showed less burden and more care satisfaction in both primary and secondary caregivers participating in the BT-PE program after the interventions. Primary caregivers also showed lower levels of maladjustment in the experimental group at post-intervention. Although depressive symptoms and anxiety decreased significantly in both intervention groups, BT-PE did not show lower scores compared with the application of sole BT. The relevance of caregivers´ psychoeducation on the balanced care model and its combination with balneotherapy is highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A central tenet of Self-Determination Theory is that the basic psychological needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence represent universal psychological nutriments for adolescents' functioning. This study contributed to the investigation of this universality claim by examining whether the satisfaction and frustration of basic psychological needs would relate, respectively, to adolescents' wellbeing and psychological maladjustment across gender, age, and socioeconomic status (SES). Having gathered data in a large sample of Spanish adolescents (N = 1047; M = 14.68, SD = 1.53), through a series of confirmatory factor analyses we began by providing validity evidence for the Spanish child-adapted version of the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale (BPNSFS; Chen et al. in Mot Emot 39:216–236, 2015b. 10.1007/s11031-014-9450-1). A 6-first-order factor model, distinguishing the satisfaction and frustration of each of the three needs, better represented the data. In addition, evidence for measurement and structural invariance of the BPNSFS-child version across the three sociodemographic characteristics was largely achieved. Structural equation models further revealed that need satisfaction contributed uniquely to well-being, whereas need frustration contributed uniquely to adolescents' psychological adjustment problems. Further, multigroup comparisons generally supported invariant patterns of relations across gender, age, and SES groups. Results are discussed in light of the generalizability of need-based dynamics among adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The present study considered whether helicopter parenting in emerging adulthood is linked to adjustment outcomes (i.e., social competence, prosocial behavior, depression, substance use, and lifetime criminality) above and beyond other parenting practices (i.e., acceptance, psychological and firm control), and whether any associations are mediated by personal mastery and/or self-regulation. Methods: Young adults ages 18 to 24 years responded to anonymous internet surveys (N= 302; 64.9% female, 79.4% white, 9.1% Hispanic). Results: High helicopter parenting was linked to low mastery, self-regulation, and social competence, and to high depression. Only associations with depression were attenuated when other parenting practices were controlled. Direct effects of helicopter parenting on depression and social competence were mitigated to non-significance when self-regulation and/or mastery were modeled. Helicopter parenting and parental acceptance had indirect effects on all forms of adjustment via self-regulation, as well as indirect effects via mastery for depression. Conclusions: Collectively, the findings suggest that helicopter parenting has comparatively stronger impacts for socio-emotional versus behavioral adjustment, operating indirectly via self-regulation versus mastery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnic identification (i.e., one's self-reported ethnicity) is a social construction and therefore subject to misperceptions by others. When adolescents' self-views and others' perceptions are not aligned, adolescents may experience adjustment challenges. The present study examined mismatches between adolescents' ethnic identification (i.e., self-reported ethnicity) and meta-perceptions (i.e., what ethnicity they believed their schoolmates presumed them to be), as well as longitudinal associations between mismatches and adjustment across the high school years. Participants (M14.5; 57% girls) were an ethnically diverse sample of 1151 low-income high school students who had participated in an earlier longitudinal study during middle school. Although ethnic identification was largely consistent across the high school years, many students (46%) experienced at least occasional mismatches between their self-reported ethnic identification and meta-perceptions, with students who ever identified as multiethnic experiencing more mismatches than their monoethnic counterparts. Experiencing a mismatch was associated with more depressive symptoms, physical symptoms, and lower self-worth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to examine differences in how young people view the period of life from the late teens to the mid-to-late twenties and how different perspectives of the time period may be differentially associated with indices of adjustment and maladjustment. Participants included 772 college students in the United States with an average age of 19.51 years ( SD = 1.69). The majority of participants were female (69 %), White (69 %), and not living at home (90 %). Five factors were identified reflecting different views of what the time period should be about including risk- taking (e.g., a time to drink and get drunk), uncertainty (e.g., a time of confusion), role preparation (e.g., a time to prepare to marry and be a parent), possibilities (e.g., a time of optimism and fun), and stress (e.g., a time of high pressure). Each view of emerging adulthood was differentially linked with indices of adjustment (e.g., prosocial behaviors, school engagement) and maladjustment (e.g., binge drinking, depression). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to advance our understanding of the etiology of individual differences in child maladjustment (i.e., conduct and emotional problems), we tested hypotheses about the statistical interactions between child temperament and two aspects of the family environment: maternal negativity and positivity, and household chaos (e.g., crowding, noise, lack of routines). Mothers ( n = 149) reported on their child's effortful control, negative affect, surgency, and behavioral/emotional problems. The age range of the children was 3 to 7 years old and half of the sample was girls. Observers rated maternal negativity and positivity based on brief structured interaction tasks in the laboratory. Child temperament moderated the association between maternal negativity/positivity and child maladjustment. Maternal negativity and child problem behavior were associated only for those children who also were high in surgency or negative affectivity. Maternal positivity was associated with less child problem behavior for those high in surgency. Child effortful control interacted with both maternal negativity and chaos. Maternal negativity and child problem behavior were most strongly associated for children who were low in effortful control and living in chaotic homes. The results point to distinct transactions between child temperament and maternal negativity/positivity that depend in part on the dimensions of temperament and parenting behavior in question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects on adults' current psychological adjustment of perceived acceptance or rejection by mothers and fathers in childhood and by intimate partners in adulthood. The sample consisted of 1,709 adults (35 % male and 65 % female), including 1,645 individuals in the multiple acceptance group and 64 in the multiple rejection group. Respondents were selected from a total sample of 2,236 adults in 10 countries including Bangladesh, Colombia, Finland, India, Japan, Korea, Kuwait, Puerto-Rico, Turkey, and the USA. Measures used were the Intimate Partner Acceptance-Rejection/Control Questionnaire (IPAR/CQ), the Adult version of the Parental Acceptance-Rejection/Control Questionnaire for Mothers and Fathers (Adult PARQ/Control: Mothers and Fathers), and the Adult version of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire (Adult PAQ). Results showed that significantly more women than men experienced multiple acceptance, and significantly more men than women reported multiple rejection. Regardless of gender, the majority of respondents in the multiple acceptance group reported healthy psychological adjustment, whereas the majority of respondents in the multiple rejection group reported severe maladjustment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the goals of the present work was to study the relationship between child-to-parent violence (CPV) and other types of intra-family violence such as inter-parental violence and parent-to-child violence, in order to verify which of these two types of domestic violence is a more relevant risk factor for CPV and to analyze the presence of gender differences in the bi-directionality of violence. Another purpose was to identify the psychological profile of perpetrators. The sample comprised 485 adolescents from the province of Gipuzkoa (Spain), of both sexes, taken from nine schools and aged 12 to 18. Parent-to-child violence and inter-parental violence were significant risk factors for CPV. Evidence was found in support of a social learning taking into account gender: boys were more likely to be physically aggressive toward the mother if she was also physically victimized by the father. Differences were found in the profiles of adolescents who behave violently toward their parents (inappropriate upbringing by mother, social maladjustment, and drug abuse) depending on gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on recent neuroscience research, Gilbert (, ) suggested that vulnerability and psychopathology could be conceptualized and treated using a tripartite model of affect regulation which postulates three evolved systems oriented toward threats, resources, and affiliation, and respectively triggering negative affect (NA), activated positive affect (PA), and social safeness. He additionally proposed that social safeness, characterized by feelings of warmth and connectedness, plays an especially important role in psychosocial functioning. We tested various aspects of this theory through a 7-day daily diary study in which 51 male and 51 female students completed measures of social safeness, NA, PA, perceived social support (PSS), and received social support (RSS) every evening. First, social safeness emerged as operationally distinct from low NA, PA, and PSS. Second, participants who endorsed higher mean levels of RSS over the week had higher mean levels of safeness, and social safeness was higher on days when participants reported higher RSS than their mean. Third, social safeness was more strongly related to numerous indicators of vulnerability and psychopathology than NA, PA, and PSS, and it predicted these variables controlling for NA, PA, and PSS. Results support the theory that social safeness is a distinct affective experience that responds to affiliation and offers unique protection from psychosocial suffering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To test the spectrum hypothesis-postulating that clinical and non-clinical samples are primarily differentiated by mean-level differences-, this study evaluates differences in parent-rated temperament, personality and maladjustment among a low-symptom ( N = 81), a high-symptom ( N = 94) ASD-group, and a comparison group ( N = 500). These classic spectrum hypothesis tests are extended by adding tests for similarity in variances, reliabilities and patterns of covariation between relevant variables. Children with ASD exhibit more extreme means, except for dominance. The low- and high-symptom ASD-groups are primarily differentiated by mean sociability and internal distress. Striking similarities in reliability and pattern of covariation of variables suggest that comparable processes link traits to maladaptation in low- and high-symptom children with ASD and in children with and without autism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lack of empirical research relating temperament models and personality hinders conceptual integration and holds back research linking childhood traits to problem behavior or maladjustment. This study evaluates, within a sample of 443 preschoolers, the relationships between children’s maladaptation and traits measured by three temperament models (Thomas and Chess, Buss and Plomin, and Rothbart), and a Five-Factor based personality model. Adequate reliabilities and expected factor structures are demonstrated for most scales. A joint principal component analysis combining 28 temperament and 18 personality scales indicates a six-factor model, distinguishing Sociability, Activity, Conscientiousness, Disagreeableness, Emotionality, and Sensitivity. Regression analyses reveal that although single temperament and personality scales explain from 23% to 37% of problem behavior variance, the six components explain from 41% to 49% and provide a clearer differentiation among CBCL-problem scales. This age-specific taxonomy refines and corroborates conclusions based on narrative reviews and furnishes a more balanced view of trait–maladjustment relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the exact expression of the maladjustment, an equation for calculating the boundary of step-size in MLMS algorithm is derived and the relationship between the convergence rate and step-size is discussed in detail. It is shown that the threshold of the step-size is constrained by maladjustment. Three different properties are presented between the LMS and MLMS algorithms based on comparison. It is indicated that MLMS does not differ significantly from LMS when the given maladjustment is small. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined relationships between repression, general maladjustment, body mass index (BMI), and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR). The participants were 1,081 healthy older men from the Normative Aging Study. Repression and General Maladjustment Scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory were composite measures of personality. Repression was associated with lower BMI and WHR, and maladjustment with higher BMI and WHR. However, associations between WHR and personality dimensions were no longer significant when controlling for BMI, but associations between BMI and personality dimensions remained significant when controlling for WHR. These effects were explained by differing relationships between WHR, repression, and maladjustment for normal weight, overweight, and obese individuals. Specifically, associations between repression, maladjustment, and body shape were significant for normal weight and overweight individuals, but not for obese individuals. Health behaviors including smoking did not mediate relationships between repression, maladjustment, and body shape, but might be considered in future studies as mechanisms underlying links between personality and body shape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]