0000000001036033

AUTHOR

Paula Samper

Problematic internet use prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic

The health and socio-economic challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic have led to greater reliance on the internet to meet basic needs and responsibilities. Greater engagement in online activities may have negative mental and physical health consequences for some vulnerable individuals, particularly under mandatory self-isolation or ‘lockdown’ conditions. The present study investigated whether changes in levels of involvement in online activities during the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e., watching TV series,online sexual activities, video games, social networks, gambling, online shopping, and instant messaging) were associated with problematic internet use, as well as whether certain psychol…

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Are women more empathetic than men? A longitudinal study in adolescence.

Since the 1970s there has been a growing interest in analysing sex differences in psychological variables. Empirical studies and meta-analyses have contributed evidence on the differences between male and female individuals. More recently, the gender similarities hypothesis has supported the similarity of men and women in most psychological variables. This study contributes information on women's greater empathic disposition in comparison with men by means of a longitudinal design in an adolescent population. 505 male and female adolescents aged between 13 and 16 years were evaluated at two different moments (grade 2 and grade 3, lower secondary education). They completed the Index of Empat…

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Empatía en la adolescencia. Relaciones con razonamiento moral prosocial, conducta prosocial y agresividad

ResumenEste estudio persigue un doble objetivo: i) analizar las relaciones entre empatía, conducta prosocial y razonamiento moral prosocial y sus diferencias en función del sexo; ii) analizar el valor predictor de dichas variables en la empatía, como variable dependiente. La población evaluada está compuesta por 1557 adolescentes de 12 a 15 años (M = 13.13, DT = .86; 47.4 % chicas; 52.6 % chicos). Los análisis muestran diferencias significativas entre chicos y chicas. Las chicas obtienen mayores índices de empatía, conducta prosocial, razonamiento moral prosocial, en las dimensiones de interiorizado, orientado hacia la necesidad y estereotipado. Los chicos, por su parte, muestran mayores ín…

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Feelings or cognitions? Moral cognitions and emotions as longitudinal predictors of prosocial and aggressive behaviors

Abstract There is debate regarding the roles of sociomoral cognitions and emotions in understanding moral development. The short-term longitudinal relations among perspective taking, sympathy, prosocial moral reasoning, prosocial behaviors and aggression in adolescents were examined. Participants were 489 students ( M age = 12.28 years, SD  = .48; 232 boys) in public and private schools from predominantly middle class families in Valencia, Spain. Students completed measures of perspective taking, sympathy, prosocial moral reasoning, prosocial behaviors, and aggressive behaviors. Overall, structural equation modeling analyses showed that moral reasoning and emotions were interrelated and pre…

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Parents or Peers? Predictors of Prosocial Behavior and Aggression: A Longitudinal Study

The aim of this longitudinal study was to determine the associations among peer attachment, warmth from the mother and father, strict control by the mother and father, prosocial behavior, and physical and verbal aggression in adolescence. Few longitudinal studies have examined how peer attachment and parenting styles of the mother and father relate to prosocial behavior and aggression. Participants were 192 boys and 255 girls (M = 14.70 years; SD = 0.68) in wave 1. In the study participated 11 schools. For three successive years, participants reported on their fathers’ and mothers’ warmth and strict control, peer attachment, prosocial behavior, and aggression. Structural equations modeling …

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Adaptación y validación en población española del PROM: una medida objetiva del razonamiento moral prosocial [Adaptation and validation of prom in a Spanish population: Objective measurement of pro-social moral reasoning]

The assessment of pro-social moral reasoning through objective measurement is considered an important attainment in pro-social development research in recent decades. Based on N. Eisenberg's theory, PROM (Carlo et al., 1992) can objectively measure reasoning cognitive processes related to pro-social behaviour. This paper presents the adaptation and accreditation of this instrument for a Spanish adolescent population. The randomisation of the selected sample, its wide scope, and the reliability and validity of the results obtained make PROM a suitable instrument for evaluating the different pro-social reasoning types related to aid conduct amongst adolescents.

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The interplay of emotional instability, empathy, and coping on prosocial and aggressive behaviors

Abstract Mediating and moderating effects of socioemotive traits and coping styles on aggression and prosocial behaviors were examined. A sample of 1557 students from Spain (53% male, M age = 13.12) completed self-report instruments of coping, empathy, emotional instability, physical aggression, and prosocial behaviors. Structural equation analysis showed support for two mediation models but little support for moderation. Emotional instability positively predicted emotion-focused coping, which in turn, positively predicted aggression. In contrast, empathy positively predicted problem-focused coping, which in turn, positively predicted prosocial behaviors. Moreover, problem-focused coping po…

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PROSOCIAL MORAL REASONING AND PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR AMONG TURKISH AND SPANISH ADOLESCENTS

Due to copyright restrictions, the access to the full text of this article is only available via subscription. Prosocial moral reasoning and behavior of young people in early and middle adolescence were examined in relation to the association among the variable of cultural group, age, and gender. Adolescents from Valencia, Spain (673 boys, 579 girls) and Ankara, Turkey (185 boys, 145 girls) participated in this study. Results showed significant cultural group differences on both prosocial moral reasoning subscales and peer rating of prosocial behavior with Spanish adolescents scoring higher than Turkish adolescents, and in the pattern of relationships between these variables. There were als…

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Sexism and Aggression in Adolescence.¿How Do They Relate to Perceived Academic Achievement?

Sexist attitudes are rooted in patriarchal structures, which uphold traditional gender stereotypes, and which are still found in society today. Scholars have found gender differences in perceived academic achievement, with girls performing better than boys, and negative relationships between sexism and perceived academic achievement. Moreover, perceived academic achievement and sexist attitudes have been associated with aggression and different kinds of violence. This study examined the associations between sexist attitudes and perceived academic achievement (using self-report data). The study also assessed the mediating role of physical and verbal aggression in the relationship between sex…

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The Effects of Perceptions of Parents' Use of Social and Materials Rewards on Prosocial Behaviors in Spanish and U.S.Youth

We examined the links between perceived parental use of social and material rewards and prosocial behaviors across youth from two countries. Six hundred forty adolescents (297 girls; [Formula: see text] age = 15.32 years) from Valencia, Spain, and 552 adolescents (321 girls; [Formula: see text] age = 13.38 years) from the United States completed measures of their perceptions of parental use of rewards, prosocial behaviors, and empathy. Results generally showed that perceived use of social rewards was directly and indirectly positively related to prosocial behaviors via empathic tendencies. In contrast, perceived use of material rewards was directly and indirectly negatively related to pros…

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Design and implementation of the DAP 360º tool for the assessment of risk and vulnerability in childhood and adolescence

Introducción. El maltrato a la infancia y la adolescencia es un problema a nivel mundial que tiene graves consecuencias que pueden durar toda la vida. La detección y evaluación eficaz del maltrato infantil se considera esencial para facilitar el proceso de toma de decisiones profesional. No obstante, en la actualidad, la descentralización de la atención, la falta de rigurosidad científica y objetiva en los diagnósticos y las evaluaciones parciales y fragmentadas pueden dificultar la adopción de medidas de protección efectivas. Objetivo. El objetivo de este estudio es presentar el proceso de diseño de la herramienta DAP 360º, creada para colaborar en el juicio profesional para la evaluación …

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The Protective Role of Prosocial Behaviors on Antisocial Behaviors: The Mediating Effects of Deviant Peer Affiliation

Prosocial behaviors, actions intended to help others, may serve a protective function against association with deviant peers and subsequent delinquent and antisocial behaviors. The present study examined the relations among specific types of prosocial behaviors, deviant peer affiliation, and delinquent and aggressive behaviors. Six hundred and sixty-six adolescents (46% girls; M age = 15.33, SD = .47) from Valencia, Spain completed questionnaires of prosocial behaviors, affiliation with deviant peers, antisocial behaviors, and aggression. Results showed that antisocial behaviors were negatively related only to specific forms of prosocial behaviors. Further analyses showed that deviant peer …

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Psychometric Evidence of a Multidimensional Measure of Prosocial Behaviors for Spanish Adolescents

Prior theories and scholars rarely distinguished between distinct forms of prosocial behaviors (i.e., actions intended to benefit others) and most scholars operationalize prosocial behaviors as a global construct. Furthermore, stringent tests of psychometric properties of prosocial behavior measures are rare, especially in countries other than the United States. The present study was designed to examine the structure and functions of a multidimensional measure of prosocial behaviors in youth from Spain. Six hundred and 66 adolescents (46% girls; M age = 15.33 years, SD = 0.47 years) from Valencia, Spain, completed the Prosocial Tendencies Measure-Revised (PTM-R), measures of sympathy, persp…

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Development of Prosocial Behavior in Spanish Adolescents and Its Relations to Parenting Styles

The goal of this chapter is to describe how parenting relates to prosocial development in Spanish adolescents. Although not a lot of work has been done on Spanish youth, the work that has been done has largely paralleled the work done on European American youth. We present evidence from a longitudinal study that examines how support and communication, psychological control, and permissiveness from both mothers and fathers change across adolescence and relate to prosocial behavior in a large sample of Spanish adolescents. Adolescent prosocial behavior was relatively stable. Both mothers and fathers became more permissive and supportive across adolescence, but less psychologically controlling…

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The longitudinal relations among dimensions of parenting styles, sympathy, prosocial moral reasoning, and prosocial behaviors

Developmental scholars assert that parents are important in fostering prosocial behaviors in adolescents, but longitudinal investigations on this topic are limited. Participants consisted of 372 boys and 358 girls with a mean age of 10.84 years (SD = 1.57) at Wave 1 from a mostly middle class community in Spain. Across three successive years, participants completed measures of fathers’ and mothers’ warmth and strict control, sympathy, prosocial moral reasoning, and self- and peer-reported prosocial behaviors. Results showed that parental warmth, sympathy, and prosocial moral reasoning were predictive of prosocial behaviors. Further analyses showed bidirectional effects such that early proso…

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The role of emotions in depression and aggression

Background Depression is a broad and heterogeneous diagnostic grouping, central to which is depressed mood or inability to enjoy most activities. Depressive symptoms are frequently accompanied by conduct problems stemming from anger. It is very important to know the interrelation of these emotions very well to be able to help adolescents to manage them more easily. The main aim of this article is to present the problem of interaction between negative affects (emotional instability, anger state and trait, physical and verbal aggression and depression) analyzing the different relationship through the time in spanish sample. Material and Methods The sample included 470 adolescents (192 boys an…

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Emociones, estilos de afrontamiento y agresividad en la adolescencia

Este estudio analiza la relación entre las estrategias de afrontamiento y las emociones para determinar en qué medida son procesos relacionados con la conducta agresiva. Se parte del supuesto de que en la agresividad influyen los mecanismos de afrontamiento en la resolución de problemas y el manejo de las emociones: inestabilidad emocional (falta de autocontrol ante situaciones que producen tensión) o empatía (sentimientos orientados al otro que tiene un problema o necesidad). Se ha evaluado una muestra de 1.557 niños y niñas, con un rango de edad entre 12 y 15 años, escolarizados en primer ciclo de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria (ESO) en 36 Centros escolares de la Comunidad Valenciana, s…

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Examining the predictors of prosocial behavior in young offenders and nonoffenders

Research on young offenders has primarily focused on identifying predictors of the maladaptive, aggressive behavior; there is a scarcity of evidence on factors that relate to prosocial behavior in these adolescents. The current study examined the link from parenting, emotional instability, and prosocial reasoning to prosocial behavior, while also examining the mediating roles of empathic concern (EC) and perspective taking (PT) in a sample of Spanish adolescent offenders compared to a sample of nonoffenders. Participants were 440 adolescents: 220 young offenders residing in four Youth Detention Centres of Valencia (67.3% men) and 220 enrolled in public and private schools within the metrop…

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Anxiety in adolescence. Can we prevent it?

Background Emotions are potent modulators and motivators of the behaviour that the individual displays in the different situations they have to live and they can act as a protection factor or vulnerability of the adapted or maladaptive behaviour. This study focuses on anxiety in adolescence. Objectives. The objective is, through a longitudinal study, to analyse the psychological processes and emotions that facilitate the symptoms of anxiety and those which protect the adolescent from these symptoms. Material and Methods 417 adolescents (192 boys and 225 girls) participated in a three-wave longitudinal study in Valencia, Spain. In the first wave, adolescents were either in the third year of …

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Empathy in adolescence. Relations with prosocial moral reasoning, prosocial behavior and aggression

Resumen Este estudio persigue un doble objetivo: i) analizar las relaciones entre empatía, conducta prosocial y razonamiento moral prosocial y sus diferencias en función del sexo; ii) analizar el valor predictor de dichas variables en la empatía, como variable dependiente. La población evaluada está compuesta por 1557 adolescentes de 12 a 15 años (M = 13.13, DT = .86, 47.4 % chicas, 52.6 % chicos). Los análisis muestran diferencias significativas entre chicos y chicas. Las chicas obtienen mayores índices de empatía, conducta prosocial, razonamiento moral prosocial, en las dimensiones de interiorizado, orientado hacia la necesidad y estereotipado. Los chicos, por su parte, muestran mayores í…

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A influência da cultura nos estilos parentais em contextos de vulnerabilidade social

Los objetivos del presente trabajo son: (a) analizar si las relaciones entre las dimensiones de la parentalidad y el ajuste de los niños en lo que se refiere a estrategias de afrontamiento, se mantienen constantes en una muestra argentina y otra española en contextos de pobreza; (b) comparar las dimensiones de la parentalidad en los dos grupos en estudio, y (c) determinar la eficiencia de la parentalidad través del estudio de su influencia en la forma de afrontar la amenaza de los niños. Se administró la escala Graffar-Méndez Castellano (Méndez-Castellano & Méndez, 1994), que permite una caracterización socio económica de la población; la escala argentina de percepción de la relación con lo…

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REARING STYLES IN ADOLESCENCE: THEIR RELATION WITH PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR

El trabajo muestra dos estudios realizados con adolescentes españoles cuyo objetivo es estudiar la relación entre los estilos de crianza, el comportamiento prosocial y la empatía, la agresividad, la inestabilidad emocional y la ira desde un doble planteamiento: en uno de los estudios (N = 531) la evaluación de los estilos de crianza la realiza la madre y en el otro (N =782), los adolescentes. Los resultados indican que cuando es la madre quien evalúa los estilos de crianza, éstos alcanzan menor poder predictor en el comportamiento prosocial. La evaluación positiva del hijo/a, el apoyo emocional junto con la coherencia en la aplicación de las normas es el estilo de crianza más relacionado po…

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Three Decades of Psychological Research in the Journal Cognitive Psychology (1979–1999)

We examined the journal Cognitive Psychology, as representative of the evolution of cognitive psychology during the last three decades (1979–1999). Analysis of changes in the impact factor defined according to the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) is an indication of the ranking of this journal both in the general classification of archival research journals as well as in relation to other periodicals in the area of cognitive psychology. This single quantitative measure of articles published in Cognitive Psychology indicates a change in the topics of interest. An analysis of the research topics and identification of the most productive authors identifies important indicators of the psyc…

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The Structure and Correlates of a Measure of Prosocial Moral Reasoning in Adolescents from Spain

Examined the structure and correlates of a measure of prosocial moral reasoning in a sample of young and middle-aged adolescents. 1556 students (53% male, M age = 13.12, SD = .87) from Valencia, Spain completed paper-and-pencil measures of prosocial moral reasoning (PROM), empathy, prosocial behaviors, and aggression. As expected, a series of confirmatory factor and structural equation modeling analyses revealed a four-factor solution of the PROM to have the best fit (as compared to alternative models) among Spanish youth (across gender and grade). Moreover, higher level and other-oriented forms of prosocial moral reasoning were generally positively related to empathy and prosocial behavior…

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