Carla Zappulla

Aspects of social reputation and peer relationships in Italian children: A cross-cultural perspective.

A group of Italian children (790 boys and 717 girls), 10-13 years old, were administered the Revised Class Play (Masten, Morison, & Pellegrini, 1985) in order to explore cross-cultural differences in social reputation with respect to North American studies. Children also were given sociometric nominations to examine the association between social reputation and peer acceptance-rejection. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses showed a 4-factor structure with the original Leadership-Sociability factor split in 2 separate dimensions: leadership and sociability. Leadership items seemed to draw a profile of a well-behaved, polite and socially correct child, whereas Sociability items seemed to draw a profile of a child that is sociable, liked, exuberant, and ready to make friends and to interact with others. Moreover, the data suggested somewhat subtle forms of association between Aggression and Sociability. Results on relations between peer acceptance-rejection and social reputation confirmed North American findings.

A cross-cultural study of behavioral inhibition in toddlers: East-West-North-South

The prevalence of behavioral inhibition in toddlers was examined in five cultures. Participants in this study included 110 Australian, 108 Canadian, 151 Chinese, 104 Italian, and 113 South Korean toddlers and their mothers who were observed during a structured observational laboratory session. Matched procedures were used in each country, with children encountering an unfamiliar stranger with a truck and a robot. Indicators of inhibition included the length of time toddlers delayed before approaching the stranger and the duration of contact with their mother while the stranger was in the room. Results were generally consistent with expectations and showed differences between eastern and western cultures; Italian and Australian toddlers were less inhibited than toddlers from the other countries, whereas Chinese and South Korean toddlers were more inhibited. The implications of these findings are discussed and a research agenda for further exploration of inhibition is outlined.

Loneliness and Social Adaptation in Brazilian, Canadian, Chinese and Italian Children: A Multi-National Comparative Study.

BACKGROUND Research on childrens loneliness has been conducted mostly in Western, especially North American, cultures. The purpose of the study was to examine relations between loneliness and social adaptation among children and adolescents in four different societies. METHODS A total of 2263 children from grade 3 to grade 6, aged 9 to 12 years, in Brazil, Canada, P. R. China, and Southern Italy participated in the study. The participants completed a self-report measure of loneliness. Information about social behaviors and peer relationships was obtained from peer assessments. RESULTS Multi-group analyses revealed that the overall patterns of relations among social behaviors, peer relationships and loneliness differed across the samples. Specifically, sociability was positively associated with peer relationships and made negative indirect contributions to loneliness through peer relationships in all four samples. Aggression made significant indirect contributions to the prediction of loneliness in Chinese children, but not in other samples. Shyness-sensitivity was associated with loneliness directly in Brazilian and Italian children and indirectly through peer relationships in Canadian children, but not associated with loneliness in Chinese children. CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that the nature of childrens loneliness may be affected by the broad socio-cultural context.

Self-perceptions of competence in Brazilian, Canadian, Chinese and Italian children: Relations with social and school adjustment

The purpose of the present study was to examine relations between self-perceptions of competence and social, behavioural, and school adjustment in Brazilian, Canadian, Chinese, and Italian children. Self-perception data were collected through children’s self-reports. Information about social behaviours, peer acceptance, and school achievement was obtained from peer assessments and teacher ratings. Multi-group analyses revealed similar patterns of relations between self-perceptions in scholastic and general self-worth domains and social and school performance in the four samples. However, the relations between self-perceptions of social competence and shyness and academic achievement were different across these samples. Self-perceptions of social competence was negatively associated with shyness in Brazilian, Canadian, and Italian children, but not in the Chinese children, and positively associated with academic achievement in Canadian and Chinese children, but not in Brazilian and Italian children. Similarities and differences in the patterns of relations between self-perceptions and social and school adjustment across cultures indicate that the self system may be a culture-general as well as culture-specific phenomenon.

Identity Processes and Quality of Emotional Autonomy: The Contribution of Two Developmental Tasks on Middle-Adolescents' Subjective Well-Being

This study examined the concurrent and predictive relationships between identity-related processes of commitment and exploration, emotional autonomy quality-related constructs of separation and detachment, and subjective well-being, measured through life satisfaction. Four hundred and sixty-one middle-adolescents (227 boys, 234 girls) completed measures of identity, emotional autonomy quality, and satisfaction within different domains. Results showed concurrent and predictive positive relations between commitment, separation and satisfaction with self, and negative relations between exploration, detachment, and satisfaction with self. Results also showed that the relation between satisfaction with self and detachment was different for adolescents who had high levels of commitment and low levels of exploration. Findings suggest a moderator role of high commitment and low exploration in the relation between detachment and self-satisfaction.

Detachment From Parents, Problem Behaviors, and the Moderating Role of Parental Support Among Italian Adolescents:

This study examined the relationship of emotional detachment from parents, parental support, and problem behaviors and focused on the unique and common contribution that detachment and parental support made to internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems. A total of 461 young adolescents, 13 to 14 years old (M = 13.4; SD = 0.44), 234 boys and 227 girls, completed self-reporting measures of detachment, parental support, and internalizing and externalizing problems. Data showed that detachment was related positively to internalizing problem behaviors. Results revealed that parental support played a moderating role in the relationship between detachment and internalizing problems, such that, at higher levels of detachment, internalizing problems tended to be lower when parental support was high.

The Emotion Regulation Checklist – Italian translation. Validation of parent and teacher versions

Our research explored the factor structure and the reliability of the Italian version of the Emotion Regulation Checklist [ERC; Shields, A.,& Cicchetti, D. (1997). Emotion regulation among school-age children: The development and validation of a new criterion Q-sort scale. Developmental Psychology, 33, 906-916], an instrument that has been widely adopted in studies using parents and/or teachers as informants. We carried out two studies evaluating the properties of the Italian ERC (ERC-I) when completed by parents and teachers, respectively. Study 1 participants were kindergarten and elementary school children for whom the ERC was completed by their mothers. Study 2 involved kindergarten and elementary school children for whom the ERC was completed by their teachers. The work confirms the two-factor structure of the instrument, supporting structure validity and the reliability of ERC.

The mediating role of perceived peer support in the relation between quality of attachment and internalizing problems in adolescence: a longitudinal perspective

ABSTRACT The study was aimed to verify, from a longitudinal perspective, whether perceived peer support would mediate the relationship between attachment and internalizing problems. Longitudinal participants included 482 adolescents (245 boys) aged 14–15 years in Wave 1 and 17–18 years in Wave 2. Participants in Wave 1 completed the Relationship Questionnaire, and those in Wave 2 completed the Social Support Questionnaire and the Youth Self-Report. Results showed that secure attachment positively predicted high levels of perceived peer support and negatively predicted internalizing problems, whereas fearful and preoccupied attachment negatively predicted perceived peer support and positively predicted internalizing problems. The mediation models showed that perceived peer support partially mediated the relationship between secure attachment and internalizing problems as well as between preoccupied attachment and internalizing problems and between fearful attachment and internalizing problems. Our results confirm the role of subjective perception of peer support in contributing to the prediction of internalizing problems beyond attachment styles.

Adolescent Effortful Control as Moderator of Father's Psychological Control in Externalizing Problems: A Longitudinal Study

ABSTRACT This longitudinal study investigates the moderating role of a temperamental trait, the effortful control, in the relation between fathers psychological control and externalizing problems. In Wave 1, the participants included 507 adolescents attending the second classes of two public schools situated in two Italian cities; in Wave 2, 482 adolescents attending the fifth classes of high school participated again in the study. The results demonstrated a positive contribution of paternal achievement-oriented psychological control to externalizing problems and a moderator effect of effortful control in the relationship between the fathers psychological control and externalizing problems. These findings extend current knowledge on the role of the father in the difficult task of balancing the promotion of individuality without falling into psychological control that can trigger externalizing problems among adolescents, especially when the temperament of the latter does not foresee the availability of self-regulating abilities that mediate disadvantageous reactivity.

The role of moral disengagement and cognitive distortions toward children among sex offenders

This study investigated the individual and social characteristics, moral disengagement strategies and cognitive distortions toward children among 120 sex offenders in Italian jails. A semistructured interview was administered to collect data about family, social and medical histories, utilizing the Moral Disengagement Scale and the Hanson Sex Attitude Questionnaire. Results showed that sex offenders with sexual abuse trauma in their past had higher scores of moral disengagement and cognitive distortion toward children than sex offenders without sexual abuse trauma. In particular, the highest levels of moral disengagement, cognitive distortions related to children as sexual objects and sexual entitlement were shown by sex offenders who had been physically and sexually abused in their past. Moreover, moral disengagement predicted cognitive distortions related to children being sexy and sexual entitlement. Studying self-regulatory mechanisms and cognitive distortions is important to expand the literature about sexual behaviors committed by offenders and implement the promotion of effective and targeted treatment strategies.