Superhero ideal, authenticity in relationships, and depressive symptoms: A multiple mediation analysis.

Striving for high achievement across multiple domains to achieve an unrealistic ideal may predict adolescents' depressive symptoms, and this relation may be explained by authenticity in meaningful relationships. This is the first known study to examine the relation between internalization of the superhero ideal, defined as the socially prescribed desire for achievement across personal and professional domains, and depressive symptoms, and to examine authenticity in relationships as a mediator in the relation between the superhero ideal and depressive symptoms. Participants were 163 adolescents (ages 12-14).

The Roles of Authenticity in Relationships and Attachment in Adolescents' Prosocial Experiences.

The current study examined prosocial experiences in 165 girls and boys ( = 14.87). Two aspects of relationships, parental attachment and parent and peer authenticity in relationships, were explored as predictors of prosocial experiences.

Parasocial Interactions and Relationships in Early Adolescence.

Parasocial interactions and relationships, one-sided connections imagined with celebrities and media figures, are common in adolescence and might play a role in adolescent identity formation and autonomy development. We asked 151 early adolescents ( = 14.8 years) to identify a famous individual of whom they are fond; we examined the type of celebrities chosen and why they admired them, and the relationships imagined with these figures across the entire sample and by gender.

A social-contextual understanding of concordance and discordance between maternal prenatal representations of the infant and infant-mother attachment.

This prospective study examined the relationship between maternal prenatal representations of the infant and later infant-mother attachment, including contextual factors related to concordance and discordance among dyads over time. Participants were 173 pregnant women between the ages of 18 and 40 who were interviewed during their last trimester of pregnancy and 2 and 13 months after birth. Maternal representations were assessed by the Working Model of the Child Interview during pregnancy (WMCI; C.

The interaction between the superhero ideal and maladaptive perfectionism as predictors of unhealthy eating attitudes and body esteem.

Unhealthy eating attitudes and poor body esteem often lead to adverse outcomes (e.g., eating disorders).

Adolescent girls' parasocial interactions with media figures.

We examined aspects of adolescent girls' parasocial interactions in the context of typical development. Parasocial interactions are defined as symbolic, one-sided quasi-interactions between a viewer and a media figure. In total, 107 adolescent girls were examined; 94% reported engaging in parasocial interactions to some degree.

Predictors of level of voice in adolescent girls: ethnicity, attachment, and gender role socialization.

The current study empirically examined predictors of level of voice (ethnicity, attachment, and gender role socialization) in a diverse sample of 108 14-year-old girls. Structural equation modeling results indicated that parental attachment predicted level of voice with authority figures, and gender role socialization predicted level of voice with authority figures and peers. Both masculinity and femininity were salient for higher levels of voice with authority figures whereas higher scores on masculinity contributed to higher levels of voice with peers.

Abusive partners and ex-partners: understanding the effects of relationship to the abuser on women's well-being.

This study examined how being abused by a current partner versus an ex-partner might affect psychological well-being and social support in a community sample of 398 women, half of whom had experienced abuse in the past 6 months. The impact of emotional and physical abuse was influenced by partner status, with emotional abuse being more detrimental to women abused by current partners and physical abuse being more detrimental to women abused by ex-partners. Emotional support was negatively related to depression in women abused by current partners, whereas practical support was negatively related to depression in women abused by ex-partners.

Stability and change in mothers' internal representations of their infants over time.

This study examined predictors of stability and change in women's maternal representations of their children. Participants were 180 women, recruited from the community, half of whom had experienced domestic violence during pregnancy. Maternal representations of were assessed with the Working Model of the Child Interview (WMCI; Zeanah, Benoit, Hirshberg, Barton, & Regan, 1994) during the last trimester of pregnancy and again at the child's first birthday.

The social networks of women experiencing domestic violence.

The research literature has demonstrated that battered women living in shelters experience impaired social support. This study examines this phenomenon among battered women living in the community. This study compared a group of pregnant battered women (n = 145) and a group of pregnant nonbattered women (n = 58) in terms of their structural [e.