Eugenia Scabini

Beyond Self-Esteem: Influence of Multiple Motives on Identity Construction

Diverse theories suggest that people are motivated to maintain or enhance feelings of self-esteem, continuity, distinctiveness, belonging, efficacy, and meaning in their identities. Four studies tested the influence of these motives on identity construction, by using a multilevel regression design. Participants perceived as more central those identity elements that provided a greater sense of self-esteem, continuity, distinctiveness, and meaning; this was found for individual, relational, and group levels of identity, among various populations, and by using a prospective design. Motives for belonging and efficacy influenced identity definition indirectly through their direct influences on identity enactment and through their contributions to self-esteem. Participants were happiest about those identity elements that best satisfied motives for self-esteem and efficacy. These findings point to the need for an integrated theory of identity motivation.

Assessment of Filial, Parental, Marital, and Collective Family Efficacy Beliefs

Summary: This study examines the psychometric properties of four scales designed to assess efficacy beliefs that family members hold about their role as spouse, parent, and child, as well as about ...

Value transmission in the family: do adolescents accept the values their parents want to transmit?

This study focused on value transmission in the family and assessed adolescents’ acceptance of the values their parents want to transmit to them (socialisation values), identifying some factors that may affect the level of acceptance. Specifically, actual value agreement between parents, parental agreement as perceived by adolescents, parent–child closeness and promotion of child’s volitional functioning, were considered as predictors. Participants were 381 family triads (father, mother and adolescent child) from northern Italy; the adolescents (46.2% male) were all high‐school students from 15 to 19 years of age. Both parents and their children filled out self‐report questionnaires. Findings showed a moderate level of acceptance in families, suggesting the presence of similarities as well as differences between parents’ socialisation values and adolescents’ personal values. All the predictors considered except parents’ actual agreement, were found to be significantly and positively related to acceptance. Implications for moral development are discussed and suggestions for education and future research are provided.

Identity motives underlying desired and feared possible future selves

Desired and feared possible future selves are important motivators of behavior and provide a temporal context for self-evaluation. Yet little research has examined why people desire some possible selves and fear others. In two studies, we tested the reflection of identity motives for self-esteem, efficacy, meaning, continuity, belonging, and distinctiveness in peoples desired and feared possible future selves and in their possible future identity structures. As predicted, participants desired especially those possible futures in which motives for self-esteem, efficacy, meaning, and continuity would be satisfied, and they feared especially those in which the same four motives and, marginally, the motive for distinctiveness would be frustrated. Analyses supported an indirect path from belonging via self-esteem to desire and fear. Desired and feared possible future selves reflect potential satisfaction and frustration of these identity motives.

Parent-child relationships in Italian families: connectedness and autonomy in the transition to adulthood

This contribution focuses on the changes in parent-child relationships during the transition to adulthood, that implies a modification of the balance of connectedness and autonomy. The principal aim was twofold: 1) to verify how relational support and style of decision making - respectively markers of family connectedness and autonomy - change from adolescence to young adulthood; 2) to compare the perceptions of parents and children through a measure of agreement. The sample was composed of 259 Italian families with a child between 17 and 25 years of age. Participants filled out a self report questionnaire including the Parent-Adolescent Support Scale and the Style of Decision Making Scale. Results highlighted that children perceived a significant increase in relational support and in autonomy from late adolescence to young adulthood. Furthermore, agreement between parents and children increased by aging. Therefore, near the transition to adulthood, parents and young adults are closer to each other than during late adolescence.

Congruence on child rearing in families with early adolescent and middle adolescent children

This study investigates the extent to which parents’ and adolescent’s reports of parental child-rearing behaviour are in agreement with each other. The aim of this study is twofold. The first aim is to verify whether familial congruence (congruence between family members) about child rearing exists. The second aim is to verify whether the level of congruence varies with the stage of the adolescent (early and middle) and gender of parent or child. The sample consists of 788 families with a child between the ages of 9 and 16 years. Congruence scores were computed on diverse aspects of child rearing: material rewarding, expression of affection, conformity, autonomy, ignoring, and punishment. The results show that familial congruence exists, not only between father and mother but also between parents and their children. A second result is that congruence between parents and their children increases from early to middle adolescence indicating that children become more competent interpreting their parents’ behaviour.

Family Processes and Identity

Family is a unique relationship context that influences the contents and processes of identity. The identity of individuals emerges, at least in part, from being members of a family. Moreover, the family context influences not only the development of one’s personal identity as a family member but also other aspects of personal identity. Family is not a neutral environment for identity development. On the contrary, it deeply affects the individual process, starting during adolescence, that leads to the development of one’s identity (Grotevant & Cooper, 1986). In this chapter, first we briefly review the main theories that have tried to outline a definition of family, from which we have derived our own definition. Second, we analyze the concept of family identity. We address the topic of family identity at three different levels: (1) at the group level, which is the specific identity of the family as a group; (2) at the couple subsystem level, since the couple has its own identity and, thus, its own set of potentials to be pursued; (3) at the individual subsystem level, which is the component of individual identity that comes from being part of a specific family group. Finally, we aim to describe family members’ identity processes and how they are affected by the family system and in particular by the process of mutual differentiation.

Young Adult Families: An Evolutionary Slowdown or a Breakdown in the Generational Transition?

This article is divided into two parts. The first one, through both qualitative and quantitative data, shows the results of research concerning Italian families with young adults. The second part is devoted to qualitative research and related findings. In particular, young adults ages 20 to 30 have been interviewed jointly with their parents. Given that the evolutionary slowdown is also due to the labor market (see the high rate of youth unemployment), family relations have a wider scope and a specificity of their own. Results outline that family relations prove to be at once an optimum context for childrens self-fulfillment and a hindrance for the generational transition. The problem lies in the representation of adulthood that both parents and children share, which in turn stems from the split that is now quite evident between self-fulfillment and the life course transition.

Value similarity among grandparents, parents, and adolescent children: Unique or stereotypical?

A core issue in family research on value transmission is the extent of value similarity between generations, similarity which can originate from the transmission process within the family and from the social-cultural context in which the family lives. The general aim of this three-generational study was to measure parent-child value similarity, removing the effect of the social-cultural context in order to uncover that value similarity that stems from the unique and specific relationship between members of a family. Participants were 381 Italian family triads (father, mother, and one adolescent child); for 257 families one grandmother was also involved. Subjects completed the Portrait Values Questionnaire. Findings empirically showed the strong interaction between family and social-cultural context in determining the level of value similarity.

Psychosocial Adjustment and Family Relationships: A Typology of Italian Families with a Late Adolescent

The importance of family relationships in human development and adjustment has always been recognized in psychological studies. The present study aims to construct a typology of families with a late adolescent and to analyze the family relationships present in each type. The typology, constructed using family satisfaction—a global index of family functioning—as the discriminate variable, took into account eight types. This study is focused on the two extreme types of the typology: “Families with adequate functioning or satisfied families” and “Families with inadequate functioning or dissatisfied families.” These two types of families were compared according to variables such as: (a) parent-child communication and its topics and (b) the familys decision-making process on topics related to the adolescent and his/her future orientation. All subjects completed a questionnaire composed of different scales. The results show substantial differences in the two family types regarding both family functioning and the role played by mothers and fathers. Satisfied families give evidence of a better communication process than the dissatisfied ones, greater sharing between parents and adolescents and, finally, a decision-making process based mostly on sharing and support. Moreover, in satisfied families the father has the role of social mediator. In this way, he succeeds in part in restoring equilibrium to the relational imbalance in favor of mothers so typical of Italian families.