Parental Monitoring and Youth's Binge Behaviors: The Role of Sensation Seeking and Life Satisfaction
Framed within an ecological perspective of the onset of adolescent problem behaviors, the current study explored the joint role of parent-adolescents’ relationships and youth's individual factors in binge eating and drinking. Firstly, in line with pieces of research highlighting the beneficial impact of effective parenting on youth development, the present paper sought to enhance the knowledge about the positive influence of parental monitoring on youth's binge drinking and eating. Moreover, since literature evidenced that the explanatory mechanisms of the association between parental monitoring and binge behaviors are not fully explored, the study focused on the potential intervening role …
Associations Between Peer Pressure and Adolescents' Binge Behaviors: The Role of Basic Needs and Coping
Framed from a framework based on the integration of self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000 Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.68 [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®], , [Google Scholar] ) and Endler and Parker’s (1990) conception of coping strategies, the authors analyzed the relationships between peer pressure and binge behaviors (binge eating and binge drinking) in adolescence. Moreover, the authors explored the mediating role of satisfaction/frustration of basic psychological needs and coping strategi…
Psychometric Evaluation of the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale (BPNSFS) in Italy
The purpose of this multistudy report was to adapt the Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale (BPNSFS) to the Italian context. Two studies were conducted. In Study 1, we investigated the dimensionality, reliability, and convergent and discriminant validity of the instrument in a sample of 544 participants (males = 41%) from 16 to 35 years old. In Study 2, we replicated the results concerning dimensionality in an independent sample of 502 participants (males = 42%) from 16 to 35 years old. Furthermore, we analyzed measurement invariance across gender. Results of both studies showed that comparing a series of competitive factorial models, the 6-factor model had the best f…
The Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale: Construct and Predictive Validity in the Italian Context
The Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction and Frustration Scale (BPNSFS) is a self-report instrument assessing the satisfaction and frustration of the three basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness defined by self-determination theory. The aim of this study was to examine the dimensionality, the predictive validity, and the measurement invariance across different age groups of the Italian version of the BPNSFS. The participants were 2,204 Italian adolescents and young adults (41% males) from 14 to 28 years old (M age = 20.23, SD = 4.25). The invariance across age demonstrated adequate equivalence of the 6-factor model of scales across adolescents (14–18 years) and …
The Role of parental control and Coping Strategies on adolescents’ problem behaviors
The current study was aimed at contributing to the understanding of the role of perceived parental monitoring, psychological control, and coping strategies on adolescents’ problem behaviors, in terms of anxiety and drinking behavior. Participants were 541 high school students, 17 to 19-year old (M = 17.09, SD = 0.80) high school students in Sicily and Calabria (Italy). Participants completed self-report measures assessing parental monitoring, psychological control, coping strategies (i.e., Task-Oriented, Emotion-Oriented, and Avoidance-Oriented). Results of the path analysis showed that coping strategies play a mediating role in the association between parental psychological control and bot…
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…
The socialization of coping strategies in adolescence: the modeling role of parents
Background and Objectives: The main aim of this study is to test the intergenerational transmission of the relations between coping strategies to well-being from parents to adolescents through the modeling of the coping strategies of the parents to those of the child. Methods: 154 cohabitating families composed by father, mother, and adolescent in age range between 14 and 18 (M = 16.40; SD = 1.53) took part to the research. To test the proposed model, SEM with observed variables and the integration of the APIM approach and the Bootstrapping approach was used. Results: Findings showed in both parents and adolescents significant positively relations between coping task strategy and well-being…
Happiness in Physical Activity: A Longitudinal Examination of Children Motivation and Negative Affect in Physical Activity
Physical activity has beneficial effects on health and is extremely recommended for children's well-being. Understanding risk factors that could cause negative affect in children practicing physical activity is hugely relevant, and there is a growing consensus that autonomous and controlled motivation in the self-determination theory (SDT) framework could offer a broader perspective. Consequently, this study aims to examine the longitudinal relations between autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, and negative affect in physical activity, using a sample of children that regularly participate in physical activity. One hundred forty children in the range age between 7 and 11 (M = 8.45, …
A teacher-led motor programme to enhance pre-literacy and motor skills in kindergarten children
Structured motor tasks may affect cognitive development by creating a cognitively challenging “enriched environment’, giving opportunity for social cooperation, increasing the joy to learn through play, improving the sense of mastery and competence. The study investigated the association between motor and cognitive exercises, through a teacher-led programme, to provide kindergarten children with the skills necessary for school literacy. Using a cluster-randomized trial design with an intervention group (N = 110) and a control group (N = 64), we examined the effects of a 3-month teacher-led motor programme enriched by executive function tasks. In the intervention group, significant gains wer…
Effects of the Enriched Sports Activities-Program on Executive Functions in Italian Children.
Physical activity (PA) during childhood plays an important role in brain development. This role is played in both the structural domain, prefrontal cortex area, and in the functional domain, involving the higher cognitive functions, including the executive functions (EF). Working memory (WM), inhibition, and switching as fundamental EF were investigated in an Italian children sample before and after four months of an Enriched Sports Activities-Program (ESA-Program). EFs were assessed at pre-test and post-test using, respectively, the digit span test, the color word Stroop test, and the trail making test derived from Millisecond Software. The Italian sample was composed of 141 children aged …
Preliminary evaluation of a short version questionnaire for Executive Functioning Self-Report (EF-SR)
The aim of the present study is the development and the evaluation of preliminary psychometric characteristics of a short form self-report questionnaire to assess executive functioning (EF). The research was conducted in a sample of 316 Italian children that attended primary or secondary schools, with an age range between 7 and 11. EFA showed that Executive Functioning Self-Report (EF-SR) is composed of eleven items that are adequately represented by a single factor that characterizes the total score of the EFs. Furthermore, preliminary analyses showed an adequate level of skewness and kurtosis, of internal reliabilities, and test-retest reliability. Finally, the EF-SR showed positive moder…