Abstract/Overview Interviews were conducted with 336 mother–child dyads (children's ages ranged from 6 to 17 years; mothers' ages ranged from 20 to 59 years) in China, India, Italy, Kenya, the Philippines, and Thailand to examine whether normativeness of physical discipline moderates the link between mothers' use of physical discipline and children's adjustment. Multilevel regression analyses revealed that physical discipline was less strongly associated with adverse child outcomes in cond...
Abstract/Overview Using data from 195 dyads of mothers and children (age range ¼ 8–12 years; M ¼ 10.63) in four countries (China, India, the Philippines, and Thailand), this study examined children’s perceptions of maternal hostility as a mediator of the links between physical discipline and harsh verbal discipline and children’s adjustment. Both physical discipline and harsh verbal discipline had direct effects on mothers’ reports of children’s anxiety and aggression; three of t...
Abstract/Overview The goal of the current study was to investigate potential cross-cultural differences in the covariation between two of the major dimensions of parenting behavior: control and warmth. Participants included 1421 (51% female) 7- to 10-year-old (M = 8.29, SD = .67 years) children and their mothers and fathers representing 13 cultural groups in nine countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America. Children and parents completed questionnaires and...
Abstract/Overview The authors assessed whether mothers’ and fathers’ self-reports of acceptance-rejection, warmth, and hostility/rejection/neglect (HRN) of their preadolescent children differ cross-nationally and relative to the gender of the parent and child in 10 communities in 9 countries, including China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States (N = 998 families). Mothers and fathers in all countries reported a high degree of acceptanc...
Abstract/Overview Numerous studies on adolescents have explored factors associated with sexual risk-taking behaviors among youth. However, few studies have examined the link between social exclusion of youth in social and sexual matters and sexual risk-taking behaviors associated with HIV/AIDS infection. This study was carried out using cross sectional design among 365 students randomly selected in secondary school in Bondo District, Kenya in order to determine the link between social exclus...
Abstract/Overview This study examines parents' and children's exposure to short-term political violence and the relation between childrearing violence and child adjustment following widespread violence that erupted in Kisumu, Kenya after the disputed presidential election in December 2007.
Abstract/Overview Exposure to neighborhood danger during childhood has negative effects that permeate multiple dimensions of childhood. The current study examined whether mothers’, fathers’, and children’s perceptions of neighborhood danger are related to child aggression, whether parental monitoring moderates this relation, and whether harsh parenting mediates this relation. Interviews were conducted with a sample of 1293 children (age M = 10.68, SD = 0.66; 51% girls) and their mother...
Abstract/Overview We assessed 2 forms of agreement between mothers’ and fathers’ socially desirable responding in China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand and the United States (N =1110 families). Mothers and fathers in all 9 countries reported socially desirable responding in the upper half of the distribution, and countries varied minimally (but China was higher than the cross-country grand mean and Sweden lower). Mothers and fathers did not differ in re...
Abstract/Overview We tested a model that children’s tendency to attribute hostile intent to others in response to provocation is a key psychological process that statistically accounts for individual differences in reactive aggressive behavior and that this mechanism contributes to global group differences in children’s chronic aggressive behavior problems. Participants were 1,299 children (mean age at year 1 = 8.3 y; 51% girls) from 12 diverse ecological-context groups in nine countries...
Abstract/Overview : It is generally believed that parental rejection of children leads to child maladaptation. However, the specific effects of perceived parental acceptance-rejection on diverse domains of child adjustment and development have been incompletely documented, and whether these effects hold across diverse populations and for mothers and fathers are still open questions
Abstract/Overview Most studies of the effects of parental religiousness on parenting and child development focus on a particular religion or cultural group, which limits generalizations that can be made about the effects of parental religiousness on family life
Abstract/Overview Using data from 1,177 families in eight countries (Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States), we tested a conceptual model of direct effects of childhood family adversity on subsequent externalizing behaviors as well as indirect effects through psychological mediators. When children were 9 years old, mothers and fathers reported on financial difficulties and their use of corporal punishment, and children reported perceptions o...
Abstract/Overview This study examined the relationship between adolescents’ perceptions of parents’ behaviours and their involvement in nonillegal and minor illegal delinquent behaviours in Secondary Schools, Nairobi Kenya. The study adopted a co-relational survey design. Questionnaires and a behaviour check list were used to gather data among students selected by stratified and simple random sampling. Data analysis was done by doing correlation. The findings showed that, perceived paren...
Abstract/Overview All countries distinguish between minors and adults for various legal purposes. Recent U.S. Supreme Court cases concerning the legal status of juveniles have consulted psychological science to decide where to draw these boundaries. However, little is known about the robustness of the relevant research, because it has been conducted largely in the U.S. and other Western countries. To the extent that lawmakers look to research to guide their decisions, it is important to know...
Abstract/Overview Safety is essential for life. To survive, humans and other animals have developed sets of psychological and physiological adaptations known as life history (LH) tradeoff strategies in response to various safety constraints. Evolutionarily selected LH strategies in turn regulate development and behavior to optimize survival under prevailing safety conditions. The present study tested LH hypotheses concerning safety based on a 6-year longitudinal sample of 1245 adolescents an...