Journal of Genetic Psychology最新文献

In response to ethical transgressions, some children respond with ethical guilt (e.g., remorse), while others do not. The affective and cognitive precursors of ethical guilt have been widely studied on their own, however, few studies have looked at the interaction of affective (e.g., sympathy) and cognitive (e.g., attention) precursors on ethical guilt. This study examined the effects of children's sympathy, attentional control, and their interaction on 4 and 6-year-old children's ethical guilt. A sample of 118 children (50% girls, 4-year-olds: M_age = 4.58, SD = .24, n = 57; 6-year-old: M_age = 6.52, SD = .33, n = 61) completed an attentional control task and provided self-reports of dispositional sympathy and ethical guilt in response to hypothetical ethical violations. Sympathy and attentional control were not directly associated with ethical guilt. Attentional control, however, moderated the relation between sympathy and ethical guilt, such that sympathy was more strongly related to ethical guilt at increasing levels of attentional control. This interaction did not differ between 4- and 6-year-olds or boys and girls. These findings illustrate an interaction between emotion and cognitive processes and suggest that promoting children's ethical development may require a focus on both attentional control and sympathy.

Executive functions (EF) play an essential role in many spheres of child development. Therefore, it is crucial to get a better understanding of their etiology. Using a genetic design that involved 934 twins (400 monozygotic), this study examined the etiology of cognitive flexibility, a component of EF, at 5 years of age and its phenotypic and etiological associations with maternal control. Cognitive flexibility was measured in a laboratory setting at 5 years of age using a well-known EF-task, i.e. the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS). Maternal control was measured using a self-report questionnaire. The univariate genetic model demonstrated that environmental factors mainly explained individual differences in preschoolers' performance on the DCCS task. A bivariate genetic model demonstrated that non-shared environmental mechanisms mainly explained the association (r = .-13) between maternal control and children's performance on the DCCS task. This study represents a preliminary step toward a better understanding of the genetic and environmental contributions underlying the relation between parenting behaviors and children's EF.

The present study investigated whether critical consciousness (CC) and feminist identity help explain emerging adult women's participation in actions to reduce gender inequality. CC is an applied tool marginalized and oppressed youth can use to combat inequality. It is conceptualized as three components: Critical reflection, critical efficacy, and critical action. Youth who have reflected on inequality are theorized to act against injustice if they have critical efficacy. However, empirical support for connections among components is mixed and questions remain concerning the contexts in which and people for whom CC serves as a resource. For instance, CC has rarely been examined as a tool to reduce sexism. Furthermore, researchers theorize that social identity is related to CC, yet little empirical evidence exists testing these associations. Finally, CC is typically examined within samples of children and adolescents, although advances in cognitive development and identity suggest emerging adulthood is an ideal time to use CC. To begin to fill these gaps, we investigated whether the components of CC in association with feminist identity could predict when emerging adult women act against sexism. A serial mediation model revealed reflection may lead to action for women who identify as feminist and who report greater internal efficacy. The pathway through external efficacy was not significant. Findings suggest CC together with feminist identity may be tools women can employ to transform unjust social conditions and improve their lives. Applied applications of findings are considered.

Children's gender schematic cognitions guide their attention, affinities, and behaviors, often narrowing their opportunities. The goal of the present study is to examine how children's exposure to animated Disney princesses modeling agentic behaviors (such as being a leader) alters children's gender schematic perceptions of princesses' characteristics, and if this exposure impacts children's perceptions of their own gender-typed qualities. Interviews with 60 children from the northeast region of the United States (M_age = 4.5 years old) at the beginning and end of six weeks indicate that, as hypothesized, children's perceptions of princesses and themselves became less gender schematic after cumulative exposure to animated videos depicting princesses modeling agentic behaviors. Children's perceptions of princesses' agency and their own agency increased throughout the study, asserting that with exposure to nontraditional gender-typed characters, children begin to see themselves as less gender-typed. These findings provide new insights into the role of early children's media exposure in shaping children's gender cognitions.

Prior multicultural meta-analyses have shown that three of the four individual expressions of parental rejection (viz., coldness/lack of affection, hostility/aggression, and indifference/neglect) tend to be significantly associated with all seven of the personality dispositions most central to interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory (IPARTheory). These dispositions include hostility/aggression, dependence, negative self-esteem, negative self-adequacy, emotional instability, emotional unresponsiveness, and negative worldview. However, it was unknown whether the fourth expression of rejection (i.e. undifferentiated rejection) tends to be associated transculturally, as predicted by the theory, with this cluster of dispositions among children. Thus, this meta-analysis investigated 1) the extent to which children's perceptions of maternal and paternal undifferentiated rejection were related to these personality dispositions, and 2) the extent to which these relations varied by gender of parent. To address these questions, we performed a meta-analysis on 16 studies involving 12,538 children in 14 countries. Results showed significant associations between all seven personality dispositions and both maternal and paternal undifferentiated rejection. The results also showed significantly stronger relations between maternal than paternal undifferentiated rejection on five of the seven indices of children's personality.

This study examined the link between autistic traits and mother-to-child attachment by introducing two mediators: emotional responsiveness to the infantile cuteness of children and negative parental self-concept. We screened 1,317 mothers and recruited those who have a child with high or low autistic traits based on their Autism Spectrum Quotient score. Fifty mothers in the high autistic and 71 mothers in the low autistic groups participated. Results showed that the autistic traits of children are related to weak maternal attachment. Reduced emotional responses to cuteness and negative self-concept mediated the link. These findings suggest that supporting mothers who have a child with autism spectrum disorder may benefit securing mother-to-child attachment as well as the wellbeing of both mother and child.

This study investigated the associations between parental monitoring, peer pressure, and motivations for responsible drinking, while also taking the mediating role of positive alcohol expectancies into account. The participants were 579 Italian adolescents, aged 14-20 years (M = 16.39 years, SD = 1.27; 55.3% females), involved in a cross-sectional survey. They were administered online self-report questionnaires. Structural equation modeling revealed both direct and indirect positive associations between study variables. Parental monitoring was positively associated, both directly and indirectly, with adolescents' motivations for responsible drinking through the mediation of positive alcohol expectancies; peer pressure was negatively and indirectly associated with adolescents' motivations for responsible drinking, via the mediating role of positive alcohol expectancies. Findings highlighted the importance of environmental factors with regard to motivations for responsible drinking, suggesting the opportunity to implement prevention programs to improve parental monitoring and increase adolescents' skills to manage peer pressure and to develop realistic expectancies about drinking.