Aspects Of Psychosocial Adjustment Research Articles

Multicultural Adolescents’ Profiles of Social Support and their Psychosocial Adjustment and Academic Achievement

이 연구는 국내 중학교 2학년에 재학 중인 다문화 가정 청소년들이 가족, 교사, 또래, 이웃으로부터 받는 사회적 지지 프로파일을 탐색하고, 프로파일 집단에 따라 다문화 청소년의 심리사회적 적응과 학업 성취에 유의한 차이가 나타나는지를 확인하고자 수행되었다. 다문화청소년종단조사 5차년도에 참여한 중학교 2학년 1,347명을 대상으로 잠재프로파일분석(LPA)을 실시한 결과, ‘높은 지지형’, ‘높은 또래지지형’, ‘중간수준 지지형’, ‘낮은 지지형’, ‘매우 낮은 또래지지형’의 5개 프로파일 모형이 최종 모형으로 선정되었다. 네가지 지지원 중 특히 또래로부터 받는 지지의 수준은 프로파일들의 특징을 나타내는 중요한 역할을 담당하였다. 일원변량분석 결과 사회적 지지 프로파일에 따라 다문화 청소년들의 삶의 만족도, 문화적응스트레스, 사회적 위축, 학교생활적응, 학업성취 등에 유의한 차이가 나타났다. 먼저 ‘높은 지지형’은 모든 영역에서 가장 적응적인 결과를 나타냈다. 또한, 또래로부터의 지지를 상대적으로 높게 지각하는 ‘높은 또래지지형’은 또래관계가 중요한 영향을 미칠 수 있는 사회적 위축이나 또래 관계 적응 등에서 긍정적인 결과를 나타냈다. 한편 또래로부터의 지지를 유독 낮게 지각하는 ‘매우 낮은 또래지지형’은 다양한 적응 측면과 학업성취에 있어 가장 부적응적인 결과를 나타냈다. 마지막으로 연구결과가 주는 교육적·정책적 시사점을 논의하였다.The purpose of this study is to explore profiles of perceived social support among adolescents in multicultural families in Korea and to examine how their profiles relate to their psychosocial adjustment and academic achievement. The study focused on four different sources of social support: family, teachers, friends, and neighborhood. A total of 1,347 middle school students who had participated in the 5th Multicultural Adolescents Panel Study were the sample of this study. As a result of the Latent Profile Analysis(LPA), a five-profile model of ‘high support’, ‘high peer support’, ‘moderate support’, ‘low support’, ‘very low peer support’ was selected as a final model. There were significant differences in students’ life satisfaction, acculturative stress, social withdrawal, school adjustment, and academic achievement depending of the profiles. The ‘high support’ profile showed the most adaptive results in all areas. The ‘high peer support’ group with relatively high perceptions of peer support showed positive results in social withdrawal and peer relation adjustment where peers can play an important role. Meanwhile, the ‘very low peer support’ group showed the most maladaptive results in various aspects of psychosocial adjustment and academic achievement. The implications of the results for policy and practice were discussed at the end.

Parents’ and teachers’ views on the psychosocial adjustment of students with and without a history of early grade retention

The study compared teachers’ and parents’ views about elementary school children’s psychosocial adjustment with and without a history of early grade retention. The sample included retained and non-retained students currently in Grades Two and Four (age range 7.5 to 11.6 years) in Cypriot public schools. The retained students experienced early grade retention either in kindergarten or Grade One and, therefore, were one year older than their current classmates. Both parents and teachers of all children completed a psychosocial adjustment inventory designed to assess social, emotional, and school competence as well as behaviour problems. The findings indicated important differences between teachers and parents in their evaluation of children’s psychosocial adjustment, but notable similarities in consistently evaluating early-retained children lower on all aspects of adjustment. Teachers evaluated all students lower than parents in terms of behaviour, school, and social competence. Both groups, however, considered retained students lower in social and school competence regardless of grade level. The implications of these findings in relation to evaluation aspects of psychosocial adjustment and the practice of early-grade retention are discussed.

Peer Attachment and Youth Internalizing Problems: A Meta-Analysis

Peer relationships become the central arena in which attachment processes are likely to play out during adolescence and beyond, and contribute to various aspects of psychosocial adjustment. Given the relevance of peer connections and the growing literature examining them, the purpose of this article was to review, through a meta-analytic approach, the evidence of the links of youth close peer relationships with internalizing problems within the theoretical framework of attachment. Journal articles were searched in PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, ERIC, Web of Science, and Scopus electronic databases; in journals most likely to publish papers on peer attachment; and in reference lists of selected papers. Thirty-six studies were included in the meta-analysis. The findings showed significant moderate correlations between peer attachment and anxiety, depression, and internalizing problems. Additional analyses indicated that the dimensions of attachment more strongly related to depression were alienation and trust, whereas peer communication was weakly related to depression. Findings were characterized by significant heterogeneity across studies that was partially explained by the results of moderator analyses. This study suggests that secure peer attachment might make young people less vulnerable to symptoms of depression and anxiety. Insecure peer attachment, on the other hand, is associated with an increased likelihood of experiencing internalizing symptomatology. Additionally, this study shows the moderating effect of gender suggesting that peer attachment is more strongly related to depressive symptoms in adolescent girls.

Self-Efficacy in Regulating Positive and Negative Emotions

Perceived self-efficacy in emotion regulation facilitates various aspects of psychosocial adjustment. The Regulatory Emotional Self-Efficacy scale (RESE) by Caprara and Gerbino (2001) measures perceived capabilities to express positive emotions (POS) and to manage negative emotions, namely, despondency/distress (DES) and anger/irritation (ANG). The present research investigated the validity of the RESE scale in Germany. Study 1 investigated the factor structure and convergent validity of the scale in a sample of university students. In order to test the generalizability of findings from Study 1, in Study 2 we studied the factor structure, cross-gender invariance, and convergent validity of a slightly revised version of the scale in a sample of parents. The previously found factor structure was successfully replicated in both samples. Partial invariance on the scalar level was confirmed across gender. All self-efficacy subscales were positively correlated with life satisfaction and with reappraisal (a cognitive emotion regulation strategy). Suppression, a strategy of regulating emotional expression, was negatively related to POS. Findings suggest that the RESE scale is a valid instrument to assess emotion regulation self-efficacy in German-speaking samples.

Do television and electronic games predict children's psychosocial adjustment? Longitudinal research using the UK Millennium Cohort Study

BackgroundScreen entertainment for young children has been associated with several aspects of psychosocial adjustment. Most research is from North America and focuses on television. Few longitudinal studies have compared the...

Short-Term and Long-Term Psychosocial Adjustment and Quality of Life in Women Undergoing Different Surgical Procedures for Breast Cancer

The various surgical procedures for early-stage breast cancer are equivalent in terms of survival. Therefore, other factors, such as the procedures' effect on psychosocial adjustment and quality of life (QOL), take on great importance. The aim of the current study was to prospectively examine the short- and long-term effects of mastectomy with reconstruction, mastectomy without reconstruction, and breast conservation therapy on aspects of psychosocial adjustment and QOL in a sample of 258 women with breast cancer. Participants completed questionnaires before surgery and then again 1, 6, 12, and 24 months after surgery. Questionnaires assessed depressive symptoms, anxiety, body image, sexual functioning, and QOL. Adjustment patterns differed throughout the 2-year period after surgery. Some short-term changes in adjustment (less anxiety, less overall body satisfaction) were similar across surgery groups, whereas others (satisfaction with chest appearance, QOL in physical health domain) were higher for women who had breast conservation therapy. However, women who had mastectomy with reconstruction reported greater satisfaction with their abdominal area. During the long-term follow-up period (6 months to 2 years after surgery), women in all three groups experienced marked improvements in psychosocial adjustment (depressive symptoms, satisfaction with chest appearance, sexual functioning) and QOL in physical and mental health domains. In fact, the level for most variables returned to baseline levels or higher. Overall, the general patterns of psychosocial adjustment and QOL are similar among the three surgery groups.

Patterns and Correlates of Substance Use Among Affluent, Suburban High School Students

Despite ongoing concern about substance use during adolescence, very little is known about alcohol and drug use among teens living in affluent social settings. In this longitudinal study, cluster analysis was used to characterize patterns of substance use and change in other dimensions of psychosocial adjustment within a cohort of 292 high school students (54% girls) living in an affluent, suburban community. When compared with a cluster of students reporting minimal use, clusters reporting escalating, declining, and persistently high use consistently demonstrated relatively poorer psychosocial adjustment. Moreover, other dimensions of psychosocial adjustment remained relatively stable despite changes in substance use, and there were relations involving substance use and other aspects of psychosocial adjustment that may be specific to this social setting. The findings highlight the need for preventive intervention grounded in a clear understanding of developmental process occurring within populations of affluent, suburban teens.

Community violence exposure and children's academic functioning.

This study reports a cross-sectional investigation of the link between community violence exposure and academic difficulties for 237 urban elementary school children (mean age of 9.5 years). Children completed a self-report inventory assessing exposure to community violence. Their achievement test scores and GPAs were obtained from school records, and other aspects of psychosocial adjustment were assessed with a multi-informant approach. Analyses indicated that community violence exposure was associated with poor academic performance. These relations appeared to be mediated by symptoms of depression and disruptive behavior and remained significant even after the prediction associated with bullying by peers was controlled. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Emotional autonomy, psychosocial adjustment and parenting: interactions, moderating and mediating effects

Following inconsistent results on the developmental outcomes of emotional autonomy, this study examined the consequences of emotional and behavioural autonomy for different aspects of psychosocial adjustment in the context of the parenting process as perceived by the adolescent. Measures of emotional autonomy, behavioural autonomy, perceived parenting and various aspects of psychosocial adjustment were completed by a sample of 558 adolescent boys and girls (aged 12–17 years) from the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. A continuous measure of authoritativeness was constructed for this study. Correlations revealed that authoritativeness was associated with a positive pattern of adjustment, while autonomy was associated with a negative pattern of adjustment, except for self-reliance. Analyses indicated that authoritativeness and autonomy did not interact to produce mean differences in adjustment. Further, hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that it was only for self-reliance that the interaction between emotional autonomy and authoritativeness explained significantly more variance than a model that comprised only the main effects. Finally, path analysis clarified the difference between emotional and behavioural autonomy, in that emotional autonomy predicted only higher levels of internal distress, while behavioural autonomy predicted only lower school grades and higher levels of deviant behaviour, at least when authoritativeness was partialled out. These results reveal that it is useful to study autonomy and its developmental outcomes in the broader family context, but they also reveal the limitations of such an approach.

Differences between school classes in preschoolers' psychosocial adjustment: evidence for the importance of children's interpersonal relations.

We examined differences between school classes with respect to three aspects of psychosocial adjustment at school, namely the extent that children in the class liked to play with each other, the number of teacher-reported behaviour problems, and children's feelings of wellbeing at school. The sample consisted of 1282 4- to 5-year-olds from 94 school classes and 51 schools, but due to nonresponse actual sample sizes were somewhat smaller for most analyses. Multilevel analyses showed that on average 87% of the variance was at the child level, 11% at the class level, and 3% at the school level. This indicated that a non-negligible amount of variance could not be accounted for by factors at the child level. Furthermore, this variance was mainly associated with differences between classes instead of differences between schools. A set of variables that pertained to sociodemographic characteristics of schools, school facilities, organisational aspects of classrooms, and the teacher did not provide an adequate explanation for the differences in adjustment levels. In contrast to these traditional variables, social network indices yielded substantial correlations, showed consistent trends across the different adjustment measures, and fulfilled the necessary requirement that to explain differences between school classes the predictor variables themselves should differ for classes within the same school. These results suggested that aspects of the interpersonal relations of children in the classroom such as proximity, integration, and the amount of contact could be determinants of differences between school classes in psychosocial adjustment.

Differences between School Classes in Preschoolers' Psychosocial Adjustment: Evidence for the Importance of Children's Interpersonal Relations

We examined differences between school classes with respect to three aspects of psychosocial adjustment at school, namely the extent that children in the class liked to play with each other, the number of teacher‐reported behaviour problems, and children's feelings of well‐being at school. The sample consisted of 1282 4‐ to 5‐year‐olds from 94 school classes and 51 schools, but due to nonresponse actual sample sizes were somewhat smaller for most analyses. Multilevel analyses showed that on average 87% of the variance was at the child level, 11% at the class level, and 3% at the school level. This indicated that a non‐negligible amount of variance could not be accounted for by factors at the child level. Furthermore, this variance was mainly associated with differences between classes instead of differences between schools. A set of variables that pertained to sociodemographic characteristics of schools, school facilities, organisational aspects of classrooms, and the teacher did not provide an adequate explanation for the differences in adjustment levels. In contrast to these traditional variables, social network indices yielded substantial correlations, showed consistent trends across the different adjustment measures, and fulfilled the necessary requirement that to explain differences between school classes the predictor variables themselves should differ for classes within the same school. These results suggested that aspects of the interpersonal relations of children in the classroom such as proximity, integration, and the amount of contact could be determinants of differences between school classes in psychosocial adjustment.

Psychosocial adjustment to and control of diabetes mellitus: differences by disease type and treatment.

The relationship of diabetic patients' psychosocial adjustment to disease type, treatment mode, and indexes of control was examined in a representative community population. The psychometric properties of the Diabetes Educational Profile (DEP) and its application to psychosocial research in diabetes were also investigated. Findings support the reliability and validity of the DEP. Various measures of psychosocial adjustment were related to diabetes control but the specific relationships depended on the particular aspect of adjustment, the specific measure of diabetes control, and the type of disease and treatment. The findings suggest that analyses that aggregate dissimilar patient groups are subject to misinterpretation due to ecological masking and supressor effects. The results indicate that clinicians and researchers must recognize that patients with different disease types and treatment modes have different norms for psychological adjustment and diabetes control. Further, the particular aspects of psychosocial adjustment associated with diabetes control differ across patient groups.