Cornelis F. M. van Lieshout

Perceived Relational Support in Adolescence: Dimensions, Configurations, and Adolescent Adjustment.

The perceived relational support from four key providers (father, mother, special sibling, and best friend) on five provisions (quality of information, respect for autonomy, emotional support, convergence of goals, and acceptance) was examined for 2,262 adolescents (aged 12 – 18 years). In a variable-centered approach, factor analyses yielded five dimensions of support: three specific to providers (parent, friend, and sibling support) and two specific to provisions (convergence of goals and respect for autonomy). Only parental support was found to change (decrease) across age. In a person-centered approach, five types of adolescents with different configurations of perceived support were identified. The first three types differed in overall level of support (high, average, and low) for all of the five dimensions; the fourth type represented extremely low support from parents with above-average support from best friends; the fifth type consisted of adolescents with no best friend. These configurations were significantly related to different patterns of adolescent adjustment in various domains (psychological well-being, delinquency, substance use, and peer-group functioning).

Mutual Antipathies and Their Significance in Middle Childhood and Adolescence

Mutual antipathies (when two children or adolescents dislike one another) were studied among 2,348 school-age children and 2,768 adolescents to determine incidence, gender and age differences, and implications for social adjustment. The children were more frequently involved than were the adolescents in same-sex antipathies but not mixed-sex ones. Boys were involved more frequently than were girls in same-sex antipathies, but involvement in mixed-sex antipathies was comparable for the two genders. With peer rejection scores used as a covariate, same-sex antipathies were associated with antisocial behavior and social withdrawal among children and adolescents of both genders and, in addition, to emotionality and lack of friendship support among adolescents. Mixed-sex antipathies were related to social adjustment depending on gender: these antipathies were related to antisocial and bullying behavior in boys but not girls; and to nonaggressiveness, victimization, lesser cooperation, shyness, and depression in girls but not boys. Mutual antipathies thus appear to be concomitants of adaptational risk in both childhood and adolescence.

Family Contexts, Parental Behaviour, and Personality Profiles of Children and Adolescents with Prader-Willi, Fragile-X, or Williams Syndrome

The personality profiles for youths with Prader-Willi, fragile-X, or Williams syndrome were compared to three matched groups attending regular schools. Using the California Child Q-Set (CCQ), both of the parents of the 39 children with Prader-Willi syndrome, 32 boys with fragile-X syndrome, 28 children with Williams syndrome, and children in the comparison groups provided independent personality descriptions in terms of the Big Five personality factors of Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Openness, along with Motor Activity and Irritability. Specific personality phenotypes for each of the three syndrome groups were found to be differentially related to parental behaviours (i.e. control and anger) and family contexts (i.e. experienced family stress, marital conflict, and parental consistency).

Relations between Agreeableness and perceived support in family relationships: Why nice people are not always supportive

Do more agreeable individuals perceive more support, and are they perceived as more supportive, across all family relationships or only within specific relationships? In a study of 256 Dutch two-parent families with two adolescents, we examine whether links between Agreeableness and support are generalised across relationships or occur within specific relationships. Social Relations Model analyses showed that individuals who perceive their family members as more agreeable perceive more support from family members across relationships. Also, individuals who are perceived as more agreeable are perceived as more supportive across relationships, except for mothers. In addition, individuals who perceive specific family members as more agreeable perceive these specific members as more supportive. However, individuals who are perceived as more agreeable perceive more support only within specific relationships. Thus, agreeable family members are supportive across relationships, but agreeable family members perceive support only within specific relationships.

Attachment in the Indonesian Caregiving Context

The quality of the mother-child attachment relationship, the quality of support mothers provide to their children, and characteristics of the caregiving context were examined in 46 Indonesian mother-child dyads. The distribution of attachment patterns, as assessed with the Strange Situation, showed the proportion of children classified as secure and insecure-disorganized to be comparable to the global distribution as reported in two meta-analyses. An over-representation of resistant children was found within the insecure group, which was comparable to the distribution in Japanese samples. The quality of maternal support, measured in two settings, was highest for secure dyads and lowest for insecure-disorganized dyads. Contextual characteristics were not found to differentiate secure from insecure dyads but were found to discriminate between different types of insecure attachment.

Lifespan personality development: Self-organising goal-oriented agents and developmental outcome

Several historical trends are enumerated that preceded contemporary discussions concerning the development of personality dimensions, personality types, and the person as a self-organising goal-oriented agent. For description of personality across the life course, the big-five personality dimensions are related to similar dimensions in temperament. For a proper understanding of the person as an activeagent in personality development, a model for personality functioning is proposed that integrates elements of descriptive research on personality and temperament with theoretical views on personality and temperament functioning, that is, Block and Blocks (1980) views on the curvilinear relation between ego-control and ego-resiliency and Rothbarts (1989) ideas on the distinction between reactivity and self-regulation. Typological personality studies are related to this model for personality functioning. Finally, personality development across the life course is related to the development of four developmenta...Several historical trends are enumerated that preceded contemporary discussions concerning the development of personality dimensions, personality types, and the person as a self-organising goal-oriented agent. For description of personality across the life course, the big-five personality dimensions are related to similar dimensions in temperament. For a proper understanding of the person as an active agent in personality development, a model for personality functioning is proposed that integrates elements of descriptive research on personality and temperament with theoretical views on personality and temperament functioning, that is, Block and Block’s (1980) views on the curvilinear relation between ego-control and ego-resiliency and Rothbart’s (1989) ideas on the distinction between reactivity and self-regulation. Typological personality studies are related to this model for personality functioning. Finally, personality development across the life course is related to the development of four developmental domains (i.e., interpersonal, achievement, self-concept, and creative domains).

Mother-Infant Relationships in Japan Attachment, Dependency, and Amae

Dependency and attachment are distinct concepts describing the mother-child relationship in infancy. The Japanese indigenous concept of amae indicates a specific quality of relationships, namely. interdependence, which is not captured by the Western concepts of attachment and dependency. Eight Japanese behavioral scientists were asked to describe amae using the Attachment Q-Sort. First, this description of amae was compared with descriptions of the concepts of dependency and attachment security, as provided by Western experts. Second, the expert descriptions were used to derive scores on each of the three concepts for a sample of Japanese infants. Both analyses showed that amae and dependency are highly similar and that both concepts are unrelated to attachment security. Furthermore, counter to our expectations, it was found that Japanese mothers consider attachment security to be the most desirable of the three concepts, whereas amae is considered the least desirable.

“Tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who your friends will be”: Consistency and change in social competence in adolescent friendships across school transitions

This study examined selection effects in behavioral similarity between adolescents and their new best friends after a school transition. Participants were 322 adolescents with a best friend in elementary school (Time 1, age 11) and a new best friend three years later in secondary school (Time 2, age 14). Three aspects of participants’ and their two best friends’ social competence were measured (antisocial behavior, prosocial behavior, low sociability). Structural equation modeling was used to predict the competence profiles of the adolescents’ new friends from their own and their previous friends’ social competence. There was evidence for the consistency across friendships in sociability and antisocial behavior. Findings indicate consistency and opportunities for change in friendship patterns across developmental transitions in adolescence.

Longitudinal Patterns of Parental Support as Predictors of Children's Competence Motivation.

The competence motivation of 77 children at 12 and 30 months was examined in relation to the quality of support they received from their parents at 6, 9, 12, 18, and 30 months. First, the quality of parental support at the separate ages was used to predict the childrens competence motivation. Although the quality of parental support was moderately stable across time, only weak relationships were found between the quality of parental support the children received at earlier ages and their later competence motivation. Next, the individual patterns of parental support across time were examined in relation to childrens competence motivation. Using cluster analysis, four groups of parent‐child pairs were identified with similar patterns of parental support across time: (1) increasing, (2) decreasing, (3) stable high, and (4) stable low quality of support. The children in these four groups differed significantly with regard to competence motivation. Remarkably low levels of competence motivation were found at 30 months for children receiving a decreased quality of parental support over time.

Perspectives on Peer Relations from Mothers, Teachers, Friends and Self

A developmental model is proposed in which the development of peer relations is conceived as a developmental task among other tasks. Continuity of the dimensions of cooperation and dominance in peer relations was assessed from the age of 12 months into the elementary school years and adolescence. As early as 12–24 months, some stability of both dimensions existed. Development of peer relations is anteceded and influenced by two accomplishments of mother-child relations – the capacity to use the mother as a secure base for social exploration and the responsiveness of the mother. In later years, the role of the mother in peer relations is augmented by relations with other primary referents (e.g., teacher and friends) and by the development of a self-concept. In late childhood and adolescence, peer competence is differentially related to self-descriptions and child-descriptions by primary referents. The stability and interrelatedness of self- and child-descriptions by primary referents are reciprocally related to adaptation in peer competence.