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Religiosity has been associated with positive psychological adjustment during emerging adulthood. However, the unique effects of specific dimensions of religiosity on emerging adults’ mental health and the underlying mechanisms are less understood. This study examined the mediating role of self-regulation between three dimensions of religiosity (religious commitment, religious engagement, and religious struggle) and psychological adjustment among 258 Christian emerging adults (Mage = 20.09 years, SD = 1.58; 74% female) in the United States. Participants reported on their religiosity, self-regulation, psychological well-being, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. The three dimensions of religiosity were uniquely associated with psychological adjustment through self-regulation. Specifically, religious commitment was associated with higher levels of self-regulation, and in turn, more positive psychological adjustment; whereas religious engagement and religious struggle were associated with lower levels of self-regulation, and in turn, more negative psychological adjustment. Our findings suggest that acceptance and internalization may be essential for religiosity to promote emerging adults’ self-regulation abilities, and in turn, benefit their mental health. In contrast, behavioral participation in religious activities without internal identification may be detrimental for emerging adults’ self-regulation and hinder their psychological adjustment. These findings highlight the importance of examining religiosity as a multidimensional construct to better understand the distinct effects of different religious dimensions on emerging adults’ mental health.

The present study examined identity synthesis as a linking pathway in the association between perceived parenting (autonomy support, dependency-oriented psychological control, and achievement-oriented psychological control) and emerging adults’ internalizing problems across three groups (European Americans, African Americans, and Asian Americans). The sample comprised 471 European American, 241 African American, and 355 Asian American emerging adults (total N = 1067; 69% female; Mage = 20.47; SD = 1.79). The mediating role of identity synthesis was tested and compared across ethnic groups via multiple-group path analyses using bootstrapping technique. Findings revealed both similarities and differences across ethnic groups. Specifically, identity synthesis mediated the association between parental autonomy support and internalizing problems in all three ethnic groups. However, identity synthesis only mediated the association between parental dependency-oriented psychological control and internalizing problems for European American emerging adults, and the association between parental achievement-oriented psychological control and internalizing problems for African American and Asian American emerging adults. These findings illustrated the significant roles of parenting and identity development in emerging adults’ psychological adjustment across ethnic groups. Moreover, although parenting indirectly impacted emerging adults’ mental health in all groups, the specific patterns varied across different ethnic groups depending on the particular form of parenting, thus revealing both culturally-shared and -unique pathways from parents’ socialization practices to their offspring’s mental health outcomes.

Service participation plays a critical role in adolescent development. To explore the characteristics of Chinese adolescents’ service participation, a national survey (N = 6161 adolescents)...

Past research has revealed direct effects of parental involvement and parenting style on children’s achievement goals separately, however, it is necessary to investigate the interactive mechanism in an integrated way. This study examined the relations between children’s perception of different dimensions of parental involvement (i.e. home-based involvement, school-based involvement and academic socialisation) and their achievement goals, and the moderating role of parenting style (i.e. parental autonomy support vs. psychological control). Participants were 614 Chinese fourth and fifth grades students. Results showed that home-based involvement was positively associated with performance-approach goals, school-based involvement was positively associated with mastery goals, and academic socialisation was positively associated with both mastery and performance-approach goals. Parental psychological control moderated the relationships between performance-approach goals and two types of parental involve...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the development characteristics of Chinese college students’ engagement during a service-learning project with a case study method: 273 reflective journals from 31 college students who participated in service-learning were analyzed. Results indicated that students’ overall engagement showed 4 developmental stages: confusion and hesitancy, enlightenment and enthusiasm, fluctuation and adjustment, and stabilization and routinization. Also, the individual differences were investigated and demonstrated in following 3 categories: enthusiastic & fragile, regulatory & flexible, and persistent & resilient.

Previous research indicated that service learning (SL) is an effective pedagogy to improve students’ problem-solving ability and increase their classroom engagement. However, studies on SL are rare in China. This study examined the effects of SL on the problem solving of Chinese undergraduate students as well as the mechanism through which it worked. Eighty-two students were divided into two groups: the SL group participated in a SL activity during whole semester and the contrast group (no-SL group) underwent other comparable learning tasks. The study revealed the differentiated effects of SL on students solving different types of problems and investigated the mediating role of classroom behavior engagement in problem solving. The research findings suggested that teachers should provide students with authentic and ill-structured problems to increase their classroom engagement as well as far transfer.