Suchergebnisse

AbstractThe present study aims to differentiate groups of children and early adolescents characterized by their motivations for social withdrawal and personal experiences with solitude. Participants were N = 561 (307 girls) children and early adolescents, aged 8–14 years (M = 11.32, SD = 1.63), who completed self‐report assessments of motivations for social withdrawal (i.e., shyness, unsociability), social/asocial dissatisfaction (i.e., loneliness, aloneliness), time alone, affect during solitude, personality traits (i.e., Big Five), and indices of internalizing difficulties (i.e., social anxiety, depression). Results from a Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) provided evidence of three distinct groups characterized by different motivations for social withdrawal and experiences with solitude: (1) the shy group, characterized by higher levels of loneliness, social anxiety, depression, and emotional instability; (2) the unsociable group, who reported higher levels of aloneliness and average scores of extraversion and internalizing difficulties; and (3) the sociable group, characterized by lower levels of both loneliness and aloneliness, and higher levels of extraversion. Overall, findings confirmed the heterogeneity in how children and early adolescents experience solitude, their motivations, and individual dispositions.

The current cross-cultural study aimed to extend research on parenting and children's prosocial behavior by examining relations among parental warmth, values related to family obligations (i.e., children's support to and respect for their parents, siblings, and extended family), and prosocial behavior during the transition to adolescence (from ages 9 to 12). Mothers, fathers, and their children (N = 1107 families) from 8 countries including 11 cultural groups (Colombia; Rome and Naples, Italy; Jordan; Kenya; the Philippines; Sweden; Thailand; and African Americans, European Americans, and Latin Americans in the United States) provided data over 3 years in 3 waves (Mage of child in wave 1 = 9.34 years, SD = 0.75; 50.5% female). Overall, across all 11 cultural groups, multivariate change score analysis revealed positive associations among the change rates of parental warmth, values related to family obligations, and prosocial behavior during late childhood (from age 9 to 10) and early-adolescence (from age 10 to 12). In most cultural groups, more parental warmth at ages 9 and 10 predicted steeper mean-level increases in prosocial behavior in subsequent years. The findings highlight the prominent role of positive family context, characterized by warm relationships and shared prosocial values, in fostering children's positive development in the transition to adolescence. The practical implications of these findings are discussed.