The Good Parent: Southern Italian Mothers’ Conceptualization of Good Parenting and Parent–Child Relationships

Thirty mothers, ranging in age between 30 and 46 years, participated in seven focus groups aimed at analyzing perceptions and ideas of the characteristics of a good parent and parent–child relationship in southern Italy (Sicily). The discussions were transcribed and analyzed using the constant comparative analysis approach. Two major themes, discipline and affection, emerged from the discussions about the idea of a good parent, with seven further subthemes. In defining good parenting beliefs and practices, Sicilian mothers mostly believed that control, discipline, and demandingness were imperative and prioritized over warmth and responsiveness. Despite the importance given to demandingness…

Autonomy and relatedness in mother-adoelscent relationship and parenting stress

Autonomy and relatedness in mother-adolescent relationship and family differentiation

La relazione tra attaccamento, empatia ed aggressività in soggetti adulti.

Le pratiche di socializzazione etnica nelle famiglie immigrate

La presente ricerca si proponeva l’obiettivo generale di analizzare le pratiche di socializzazione etnica che caratterizzano le madri immigrate indagando, in particolare, il ruolo che alcune variabili giocano sulle stesse. I risultati hanno confermato l’importanza dell’origine delle madri e del periodo di tempo trascorso dall’immigrazione. Le madri provenienti dall’Est - Europa utilizzavano, infatti, meno di altre la socializzazione culturale, mentre quelle arrivate in Italia da maggior tempo tendevano a promuovere una maggiore sfiducia nei confronti dei membri di altri gruppi. È stato inoltre considerato il ruolo delle strategie di acculturazione e dell’identità culturale delle madri. L’as…

Autonomia e connessione nella relazione madre-adolescente

Mutual intercultural relations among immigrant and autochthonous youth in Italy. Testing the integration, multiculturalism, and contact hypotheses

Italy is increasingly becoming a culturally complex society. This poses numerous challenges for developmental and educational psychology, mainly in terms of how to encourage adequate levels of social harmony by promoting positive development of both immigrant and autochthonous youth. Within this perspective, the current paper presents the Italian findings of the Mutual Intercultural Relations in Plural Societies (MIRIPS) international project, postulating the centrality of three core hypotheses: integration, multiculturalism, and contact. Two studies were performed to investigate these hypotheses. Study 1 comprised 188 Tunisian adolescents aged 13-18 (51% F; Mage=15.94), while Study 2 inclu…

Problemi comportamentali internalizzanti ed esternalizzanti e caratteristiche personali dell’adolescente.

Relazioni tra identità etnica, atteggiamenti intergruppo e stress di acculturazione in adolescenza: l’effetto moderatore dell’età

Parental psychological control, autonomy support and Italian emerging adult’s psychosocial well-being: a cluster analytic approach

According to a person-oriented approach, the study was addressed to inquire the existence of different groups of emerging adults (EAs) each characterized by distinct configurations of parental psychological control and autonomy support conceptualized in terms of promotion of volitional functioning (PVF) and in terms promotion of independence (PI). At the study participated 476 Italian undergraduate students following the academic track in several south Italian universities. Results showed the existence of four profiles: 1. the Moderate Volitional Dependence cluster; 2. the Moderate Controlling Independence cluster; 3. the Volitional Independence cluster; 4. the Controlling Dependence cluste…

Italian Adaptation of the "Autonomy and Relatedness Coding System

The study examined the applicability of the observational technique developed by Allen and colleagues (Allen, Hauser, Bell, & O’Connor, 1994; Allen, Hauser, et al., 2003) to investigate the issues of autonomy and relatedness in parent-adolescent relationship in the Italian context. Thirty-five mother-adolescent dyads participated to a task in which they discussed a family issue about which they disagree. Adolescents were also administered a self-report measure assessing their relationship with mothers. Mothers reported significantly higher levels of promoting and inhibiting autonomy, and promoting relatedness behaviors than their children. Results also suggested a partial behavioral rec…

A Revised Short Form of the Extended Class Play Among Italian Early Adolescents

Among the measures assessing peer reputation, the Extended Class Play (ECP) is now used extensively in North American settings. Little information is available in other cultural contexts. Furthermore, practical considerations suggest developing a shorter form of the ECP to be used in socio-educational environments. This study examined the ECP dimensions of peer assessment in Italy as well as developed a shorter form of the measure. We revised the ECP using factor analyses according to an explorative-confirmatory approach. The original 37-item ECP was shortened to a 22-item version and, subsequently, the properties of the revised measure were evaluated. We performed two studies comprising, r…

Parenting Dimensions and Internalizing Difficulties in Italian and U.S. Emerging Adults: The Intervening Role of Autonomy and Relatedness

The present study examined the associations between emerging adults’ perceived parental psychological control and autonomy support, and their autonomy, relatedness and internalizing difficulties in Italy and the U.S. The participants included 494 Italian and 414 U.S. college students, between 18 and 28 years of age (Mean = 21.58, SD = 2.18). Our findings showed that dependency-oriented psychological control had no significant direct associations with autonomy, relatedness or internalizing difficulties. Moreover, the association between parental autonomy support and internalizing problems was fully intervened by autonomy and relatedness, whereas the association between achievement-oriented p…

L’atteggiamento di apertura verso le differenze culturali in adolescenti italiani: il ruolo dell’età e della sicurezza percepita.

Promoting Democratic and Intercultural Competences in the Primary School Context: The experience of “Children’s Voices for a new Human Space”

The promotion of citizen’s democratic and intercultural competence is one of the main actions that European societies may take against some of the most significant challenges they are facing nowadays. The paper is aimed at briefly describing the Council of Europe’s Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture, some actions that can be taken to promote democratic and intercultural competences and a case of implementation of this framework in the context of primary school, that is the Erasmus+ Project “Children’s Voices for a new Human Space” (CVS). The paper also aims at illustrating the intellectual outputs produced by CVS project consisting in a training course for teachers, a…

Relazioni tra dimensioni dell'attaccamento ed empatia in adolescenza.

Aggressive and boasting young adolescents: a comparison of their friendship

Adolescen Emotional separation in parent-adolescent relationship: The role of adolescent personal characteristics.

Peer Reputation Configurations and Associations with Friendship Adjustment

Peer reputation (PR) refers to how peer groups collectively view an individual in terms of socio-behavioral characteristics, such as aggression, social withdrawal, leadership, and prosociality. Despite considerable research on PR, few studies have considered PRs in relation to indices of friendship, particularly with a person-centered approach. The goal of the current study was to adopt such an approach and identify peer reputation configurations and their defining characteristics, and to examine how such configurations are linked to friendship prevalence and quality. Four hundred and twenty-six Italian seventh-grade students (57.3% male, M-age = 12.07) completed peer nomination measures of…

Autonomy and Relatedness in Mother-adolescent Relationship and Parenting Stress.

Emotional separation and detachment as two distinct dimensions of parent--adolescent relationships

The study examined adolescents’ emotional separation and detachment from parents, analyzing their relations with connectedness and agency, with some aspects of self—other boundary regulation and with problem behavior. The participants were 331 Italian adolescents, aged from 16 to 19 years (mean age = 17.40, SD = 1.14). Separation and detachment were positively related; they were negatively related to connectedness; detachment was also negatively associated to agency. Emotional separation was negatively predicted by empathic concern, perspective-taking and separate self; emotional detachment was negatively predicted by empathic concern and self—other differentiation. Separation negatively p…

La qualità delle relazioni diadiche in adolescenti timidi e aggressivi.

Il ruolo degli stili di attaccamento e delle dimensioni sottostanti nell’autostima.

Il ruolo delle caratteristiche personali nei comportamenti problematici degli adolescenti

Associations Among Psychologically Controlling Parenting, Autonomy, Relatedness, and Problem Behaviors During Emerging Adulthood.

ABSTRACTThe present study aimed to investigate the relations among perceived parental psychological control (PPC), autonomy and relatedness, and negative outcomes during emerging adulthood in two cultural contexts: Italy and the USA. More specifically, we explored the mechanisms through which dependency-oriented PPC (DPPC) and achievement-oriented PPC (APPC) are associated with both internalizing and externalizing difficulties, focusing on the mediating role of autonomy and relatedness. Participants were 418 European-American and 359 Italian college students. Results indicated that the expressions of PPC with regard to dependency and achievement were related to emerging adults’ negative out…

Autonomy and Relatedness in Mother-Adolescent Relationship: An Observational Study

I modelli di socializzazione delle famiglie immigrate

Using Focus Group in the Development of UNIPA Emotional Autonomy Inventory

Adolescents' Emotional Autonomy from Parents A relevant tenet in developmental psychology is that adolescents are expected to achieve an autonomous functioning, independent from parents, to become reliant on their internal resources and responsible for their actions and decisions. Within this framework, emotional autonomy reflects the affective side of the largest process by which a young person acquires a more mature identity. It emerges when adolescents are capable to abandon dependence on parents and to individuate from them. Moreover, emotional autonomy implies a shift towards a less idealized conception of parental figures, the development of a more complex consideration of them as peo…

An observational study on autonomy and relatedness in italian mother-adolescent relationships

Autonomia e connessione nella relazione madre-adolescente e relazione con i pari

Mothers' parenting stress and adolescents' emotional separation: The role of youngsters' self orientation

The study examined the association among mothers’ parenting stress, adolescents’ emotional separation and self-orientation toward connectedness. Participants were 194 Italian adolescents, aged from 15 to 19 years (mean age = 17.39, SD = 1.18), and their mothers, aged from 33 to 64 years (mean age = 44.35, SD = 5.40). General findings showed that adolescents’ emotional separation may not necessarily be associated with their mothers’ parenting stress, but both of these variables may be related to adolescents’ personal characteristics, which may contribute to define parent-child relationship. Particularly, adolescents’ orientation towards a connected self was associated negatively with emotion…

Autonomy and Relatedness in Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood: Relationships with Parental Support and Psychological Distress

Autonomy and relatedness are fundamental needs both in adolescence and in emerging adulthood which are affected by parental support and are linked to children’s psychological distress. The study investigated autonomy and relatedness in late adolescents and emerging adults living in Italy, analyzing the relationships with perceived parental support and psychological distress. Self-report data were collected from a sample of 325 Caucasian adolescents and emerging adults (males = 41 %) ranging in age from 17 to 26 years and living in Sicily (southern Italy). Results showed that: (a) both autonomy and relatedness were positively predicted by parental support to these needs, (b) perceived suppor…