Limor Goldner

Children's Family Drawings: A Study of Attachment, Personality, and Adjustment.

Abstract This study examined the relationship between childrens attachment security, as manifested in their family drawings, and their personality and adjustment. Family drawings were collected from 222 Israeli children, as well as data regarding their personality and adjustment. Each drawing was coded and classified into 1 of 4 attachment categories based on global and individual characteristics such as completeness of figures, facial expression, size, and degree of movement. Results showed that drawings from securely attached children included more positive markers of personality and reflected their superior psychosocial functioning. Drawings from children in the ambivalent and disorganized attachment categories reflected the childrens adjustment difficulties; children whose drawings were classified as representing avoidant attachment were found to function relatively well. The study demonstrated the effectiveness of using family drawings to assess childrens attachment representations and to identify children at risk for adjustment problems in the school setting.

Juggling the roles of parents, therapists, friends and teachers – a working model for an integrative conception of mentoring

Mentoring programs for youth have become increasingly popular interventions and are generally effective in promoting protégés’ wellbeing and functioning. Building on recent efforts to understand the interpersonal mechanisms underlying mentoring relationships, the authors apply central concepts from attachment, social support and social learning theories and systematically compare the mentor’s role with the roles of other caregivers (parent, therapist, friend, teacher). The authors highlight similarities and differences between mentoring and these roles, and discuss interpersonal dynamics specific to each relationship that can be enacted in mentoring. It is argued that the uniqueness of mentoring rests on mentors’ ability flexibly to transverse these different roles to some degree, without embodying any. Consequently, the authors underscore the existence of different profiles of mentoring relationships and suggest that these might address diverse protégés’ needs. This view serves to articulate specific recommendations for research and practice in light of protégé heterogeneity.

Attachment security, personality, and adjustment of elementary school children.

ABSTRACT Childrens development is assumed to be closely related to their attachment security and their personality. The authors’ aim was to examine the joint contribution of attachment security and personality traits to childrens adjustment by examining diverse childrens outcomes (emotional symptoms, social functioning, and behavioral problems) and using various perspectives (children, parents, and teachers). The sample comprised 247 8–12-year-old children from low socioeconomic status neighborhoods. Personality and attachment contribute to the different domains of adjustment. In cases of moderation, attachment security moderates the implications of personality traits on childrens adjustment. The findings highlight the contribution of positive personality tendencies in playing down the difficulties of insecurely attached children.

What is meaningful civic engagement for students? Recollections of Jewish and Palestinian graduates in Israel

ABSTRACT The current study identified factors contributing to the long-term perception of meaningful civic engagement in a sample of Israelis involved in extra-curricular civic-engagement programs as students. Using a qualitative research method supported by quantitative analyses, we found that five to 10 years after completing higher education, most perceived their civic engagement positively. Nevertheless, it was not necessarily perceived as a personal transformative experience which led to future civic engagement. Three major factors that contributed to the establishment of a meaningful experience which lead to long-term commitment were identified: (1) Conceptualizing personal development as embedded in the socio-political context; (2) Experiencing peer-group civic engagement as a place for self-reflection, support, and meaning; (3) Continuity and a sufficient duration of civic engagement to generate a change in the community. Palestinian citizens of Israel reported that civic engagement was more meaningful than Jewish students, who constitute the majority in Israel.

The contributions of boundary dissolution and trust in the romantic partner to young mothers’ parenting representations

ABSTRACT The aim of the current study was to explore the contributions of both boundary dissolution (i.e. guilt-psychological control, blurring boundaries, parentification, and triangulation) as experienced in childhood, and trust in the romantic partner to young mothers’ parental caregiving representations. The findings, based on a sample of 80 young Israeli first-time mothers, indicated negative correlations between types of dissolution and their representations. Trust in the romantic partner made a distinct contribution to the formation of mothers’ representations above and beyond mothers’ boundary dissolution. These results are suggestive of the important role of young mothers’ relational history with their own mothers as well as their relationship with their romantic partner in shaping their parenting representations.