Autonomy-supportive parenting as a moderator of associations between ethnic and racial identity processes and psychological adjustment during college.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to test the roles of ethnic and racial identity (ERI) processes and autonomy-supportive parenting on college students' psychological adjustment.

Method: American college students of color ( = 505) completed questionnaires assessing ERI exploration and commitment, autonomy-supportive parenting, and psychological adjustment (self-esteem, depressive symptoms). Key variables were operationalized as latent constructs, and main and interaction effects were tested using the latent moderated structural equation modeling approach.

Financial, resource, and psychological impacts of COVID-19 on U.S. College students: Who is impacted and what are the implications for adjustment and well-being?

The COVID-19 pandemic has been highly disruptive for college students and has altered their living, learning, and working environments. COVID-19-related financial impact, access to needed resources, and psychological impacts are reported amongst college students, though research has yet to examine how severity and type of impact varies by student. This study investigated how undergraduate college students were impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic regarding finances, access to needed resources, and psychological well-being, and explored outcomes associated with patterns of perceived impact.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on first-year college students: Racial/ethnic differences.

Prior research has shown that the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted American college students; however, few studies have focused on first-year students and their experiences with attending college during unprecedented circumstances. To address this gap, first-year college students ( = 268) completed online questionnaires assessing their perceptions of the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic had impacted them in terms of access to resources and psychological well-being. Students also completed a measure of college-specific adjustment in the relational, psychological, and educational domains.

Parental Self-Efficacy and Physiological Responses to Stress among Mothers of Early Adolescents.

Little research addresses how parental self-efficacy is related to stress responses, and no research does so among parents of early adolescents. To fill this research gap, the current study examined the association between maternal self-efficacy and physiological stress responses during early adolescence. Participants were 68 mother-early adolescent dyads with youth in the 6th grade (M = 11 years; 56% female).

Youth Parasympathetic Functioning Moderates Relations between Cumulative Family Risk and Internalizing Behaviors.

Problematic family functioning places young adolescents at risk for internalizing behaviors. However, not all adolescents who experience family risk develop internalizing behaviors during early adolescence. Informed by a cumulative risk perspective, the current study examined whether associations between cumulative family risk, as well as particular family risk domains, and youth internalizing behaviors are moderated by youth parasympathetic reactivity.

Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nervous System Functioning and Experiences of Peer Exclusion: Links to Internalizing Problems in Early Adolescence.

This study examines the moderating effect of both branches of the autonomic nervous system (sympathetic and parasympathetic) on associations between peer exclusion and internalizing behaviors. Young adolescents (N = 68) self-reported their perceptions of peer exclusion and internalizing problems and participated in stress-inducing public speaking tasks. Skin conductance and respiratory sinus arrhythmia were assessed at baseline (skin conductance baseline, SCLB; respiratory sinus arrhythmia baseline, RSAB) and during the challenge task to provide measures of physiological reactivity (skin conductance reactivity, SCLR; respiratory sinus arrhythmia reactivity, delta RSA).

Parenting stressors and young adolescents' depressive symptoms: Does high vagal suppression offer protection?

Grounded in a dual-risk, biosocial perspective of developmental psychopathology, this study examined the role of higher vagal suppression in providing young adolescents protection from four parenting stressors. It was expected that lower vagal suppression would increase youth vulnerability to the deleterious effects of these parenting stressors. Depressive symptoms were examined as a central marker of socioemotional difficulties during early adolescence.

A Process Model of Parenting and Adolescents' Friendship Competence.

This study examined the prospective relationship between negative parenting behaviors and adolescents' friendship competence in a community sample of 416 two-parent families in the Southeastern USA. Adolescents' externalizing problems and their emotional insecurity with parents were examined as mediators. Parents' psychological control was uniquely associated with adolescents' friendship competence.

Associations between interparental relationships and experiences of parenting stress among mothers: the mediating role of perceived control.

The current study investigated the potential benefits of relationships between parents whose children were friends (closure relationships) within a sample of 404 mothers. Associations between closure and three domains of parenting stress were explored. Mothers' perceived control was considered as a potential mediator of closure-stress associations.

Links between social network closure and child well-being: the organizing role of friendship context.

Third grade children (N = 404) and their mothers completed questionnaires and participated in interviews designed to identify children's friendships across multiple contexts, determine levels of social network closure for these friendships, and assess child well-being. Cluster analyses revealed distinct patterns in the contexts in which children's friendships were maintained. Closure was highest for children whose friendship clusters heavily represented relatives as friends and lowest when friends were from schools and the broader community.

The extension of school-based inter- and intraracial children's friendships: influences on psychosocial well-being.

Children's (N=142) school friendships with same versus different race peers were coded for prevalence and the extent to which parents maintained social relationships with these friends (a proxy for extension of friendships beyond the school context). Membership in integrated versus nonintegrated social networks at school was unassociated with psychosocial well-being. Out-of-school extension of interracial friendships was linked with greater social competence among Black children.

Parental influences on adolescent problem behavior: revisiting Stattin and Kerr.

High school students (approximately 14-18 years old; N=2,568) completed questionnaires in which they reported on their involvement in substance use and delinquency, and their perceptions of parental warmth, control, monitoring, and knowledge. Three alternative models were compared describing the nature of relations among these variables. Problem behavior was best predicted by a model that included indirect effects of warmth, control, and monitoring (all by way of parental knowledge), as well as direct effects of control and monitoring.