Bullying constitutes a serious risk factor for the psychosocial adjustment of young people in both the general population and minority groups. Among minorities, international adoptees are likely to ...show a specific vulnerability to the experience of being bullied, moderated by specific risk and protective factors. This study aimed to investigate the association between adoptees' experience of bullying victimization and their psychosocial adjustment, and to explore the moderating role of adoptive identity and reflected minority categorization. An online, anonymous self-report questionnaire was completed by 140 adolescents (13-17 years), who were internationally adopted by Italian families. Findings showed that being victimized was associated with higher levels of emotional and behavioral difficulties, but that the strength of this relation varied according to the levels of adoptive identity and reflected minority categorization. Specifically, victimization was found to have a more detrimental and negative impact on psychological adjustment for adoptees who were highly identified with the adoptive group, and reported to be less perceived by others as members of the minority group. Results are discussed in relation to recommendations for further research as well as for professionals working with internationally adopted adolescents.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Intercountry adoptees constitute a distinct acculturating group that differs from traditional immigrant groups. Yet, there is a lack of research examining the psychosocial processes related to the ...well-being of this group and how these differ from other immigrant groups. A study carried out in Italy based on a sample group of young immigrants (N = 168) and intercountry adoptees (N = 160) tests a model in which social (perceived discrimination) and family factors (parental autonomy support) predict psychological well-being. The model also examines whether these associations are mediated by Bicultural Identity Integration (BII), the degree to which the ethnic and national identities are experienced as blended and compatible. Results indicate that while discrimination undermines BII among immigrants, it does not among adoptees. Moreover, parental autonomy support improves BII for both immigrants and intercountry adoptees. The findings showed significant associations between BII and psychological well-being. The implications of these results are discussed with regard to possible interventions with immigrants and intercountry adoptees.
The worldwide outbreak of COVID-19, the ensuing pandemic, and the related containment measures pose considerable challenges to psychological resilience and well-being. Researchers are now forced to ...look for resources to cope with negative experiences linked to this health emergency. According to the salutogenic approach proposed by Antonovsky, the sense of coherence (SOC) is a major source of resilience. Thus, this study aimed at assessing the role of SOC in moderating the link between illness experiences (in terms of knowing persons diagnosed with COVID-19 and fear of contracting COVID-19) and psychological well-being. 2,784 participants, taken from a large sample of the Italian population (65.4% females) and aged between 18 and 85 years, filled in an anonymous online survey during the 3rd week of the lockdown. Findings supported the moderating role of SOC in shaping the link between illness experiences and psychological well-being. Specifically, participants who knew at least one person diagnosed with COVID-19 showed lower levels of psychological well-being at low levels of SOC. The negative relation between participants' fear of contracting COVID-19 and psychological well-being was stronger for those who showed higher levels of SOC. This study discusses the implications of these results for interventions aimed at reducing the pandemic's detrimental effects and promoting resilience.
The situation caused by the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been representing a great source of concern and a challenge to the psychological well-being of many individuals around the world. ...For couples in particular, this extraordinary rise in concern, combined with the stress posed by the virus containment measures, such as prolonged cohabitation and lack of support networks, may have increased the likelihood of couple problems. At the same time, however, COVID-19 concerns may have been a stimulus to activate couples' stress management processes. A couple's resource, which may have an important role in dealing with COVID-19 concerns and stress, is dyadic coping, i.e., the process through which partners face stress together. Drawing on a sample of 1,823 Italian individuals involved in a couple relationship, the current study tested a serial mediation model in which concerns about COVID-19 predicted psychological well-being, through both explicit stress communication and perceived partner dyadic coping responses. In addition, the study explored whether this dyadic coping process functioned the same way in satisfied and dissatisfied couples. Results showed that concerns about the situation related to COVID-19 significantly threatened individuals' psychological well-being. However, these concerns positively predicted explicit stress communication, which in turn positively predicted perceived partner's dyadic coping responses, which finally positively predicted psychological well-being. In addition, in the group of dissatisfied individuals, the association between explicit stress communication and perceived partners' dyadic coping responses was not significant. The present study adds to the research on couples' coping by testing for the first time the whole theoretical model of dyadic coping and does so during a global emergency situation. The study also suggests key components of preventive interventions for individuals in couples.
Abstract The transmission of values between generations has gained more and more research interest over the last few years. One important outcome of the process of value transmission is the degree of ...similarity between parents and their children, that may vary across child's developmental stages. This study aimed to estimate the cultural stereotype effect on parent–child value similarity in adolescence and in emerging adulthood. Participants were 423 Italian fathers, mothers, and their adolescent (56.7%) or emerging adult (43.3%) children, who were asked to fill out the Portrait Values Questionnaire. Parent–child value similarity was small in size among families with adolescents, and significantly higher among families with emerging adults. Nevertheless, after removing stereotype effects, this difference disappeared, suggesting that the higher parent-emerging adult value similarity was to a great extent socially derived. Implications of this finding were discussed.
The current study explored whether and to what extent different procreative options (natural conception, adoption, homologous techniques, and heterologous techniques) were perceived as enriching or ...threatening to young adults’ expectation of identity motives fulfillment. Our sample consisted of 1380 Italian young adults (62.9% women) aged between 18 and 33 years who participated in a national online survey on young adulthood. Results showed that participants expect natural conception to be more enriching to their identity, whereas they expected heterologous techniques to be more threatening to their identity compared to all other procreative options. Moreover, participants perceived adoption in the event of one’s partner’s sterility to be more enriching to their identity compared to both homologous and heterologous assisted reproductive techniques. Data were also analyzed taking into account the participants’ sex, age, and religious beliefs.
Despite an increasing interest in how adoptive parents deal with situations appraised as stressful, there is a lack of research regarding adoptive parents’ adjustment to the challenges posed by the ...prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. The current study explores similarities and differences between adoptive and non-adoptive mothers in terms of risks (i.e., COVID-19-related stress) and individual (i.e., sense of coherence SOC), couple (i.e., partner's support), parent–child (i.e., parent–child relationship satisfaction), and social (i.e., friends’ support) resources in the face of the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the present study was aimed at predicting which variables discriminate more effectively between the two groups. Participants were 445 Italian mothers (40.9% adoptive mothers), who were asked to fill in an anonymous online survey between May 2021 and October 2021. Results showed that adoptive and non-adoptive mothers reported different resilience resources to face the stressors posed by the health emergency. Specifically, COVID-19 traumatic stress symptoms, parent–child relationship satisfaction, and SOC were found to contribute most in discriminating between the two groups. Findings are discussed in relation to future research developments and practical implications.
The transmission of positive values between parents and children is generally considered to be the hallmark of successful socialization. As this issue has been widely discussed but surprisingly ...little researched - especially with reference to core sport values - in this study we aimed to: 1) analyze adolescent athletes' acceptance of the sport values their parents want to transmit to them (i.e., parental socialization values) and 2) examine the relationship between parental involvement in children's sportive activity and adolescents' acceptance of their parents' socialization values. One hundred and seventy-two Italian adolescents (48.3% male, 51.7% female) who regularly practice team sports were asked to fill out a questionnaire which included the Youth Sport Values Questionnaire - 2 and the Parental Involvement in Sport Questionnaire. The dyadic correlations revealed that young athletes are in general willing to accept their parents' socialization values in regards to sport. Moreover, from the relative weight analysis (a relatively new data analysis strategy), it emerged that parental involvement characterized by praise and understanding is the most important predictor of adolescents' willingness to accept their parents' sport values. Implications of these results and further expansion of the study are discussed.
Intercountry adoption requires adoptive parents to assume their parenthood as well as to acknowledge the cultural and ethnic origins of their child. Narratives are effective means to help individuals ...cope with non-normative transitions, including adoption, as they allow them to make sense of and legitimise their experiences. This qualitative study sought to extend knowledge about the value of using narrative methods with adoptive families to explore how the language they employ determines the ways in which they perceive situations and vice versa. It uses the word-driven textual analysis software T-LAB to identify key topics highlighted by parents and analyse them in relation to specific variables. Child characteristics, such as gender, age at adoption and birth country, and family variables, such as mother’s and father’s narratives and first or not-first parenting experience, were considered. From the 37 narratives sampled, those parents adopting from Asia and Eastern Europe, mothers and first-time parents faced the most challenges.
Becoming an adoptive parent is a particularly stressful transition, given the additional challenges couples have to face. Dyadic coping, an under-investigated dimension in the adoption literature, ...may play a relevant role for prospective adoptive couples' ability to better cope with the adoptive process. The general aim of the present study was to investigate the association between dyadic coping and relationship functioning, in terms of relationship satisfaction and couple generativity, among prospective adoptive couples. Participants were 103 prospective adoptive couples pursuing international adoption in Italy. Couples were asked to fill in a self-report questionnaire. Results of the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model showed that prospective adoptive partners reported high levels of positive and common dyadic coping and low levels of negative dyadic coping - suggesting partners' ability to successfully cope together with a common stressor - a high level of relationship satisfaction, and an average level of couple generativity. Moreover, analyses showed significant actor effects of one's own perception of the partner's dyadic coping (positive, negative, and common) on one's own relationship satisfaction and on couple generativity for both wives and husbands. With regard to partner effects, we found that both partners' perceptions of the other's dyadic coping responses (positive, negative, and common) were associated with the other's relationship satisfaction, with the only exception of wives' perceptions of common dyadic coping, which were not associated with their husbands' relationship satisfaction. As for couple generativity, the only significant partner effect referred to negative dyadic coping responses for both wives and husbands.
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