Attitudes toward children: Distinguishing affection and stress.
attitudes
children
individual differences
intergroup processes
prejudice
Journal
Journal of personality
ISSN: 1467-6494
Titre abrégé: J Pers
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 2985194R
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
02 Jun 2023
02 Jun 2023
Historique:
revised:
31
03
2023
received:
13
12
2022
accepted:
21
05
2023
medline:
3
6
2023
pubmed:
3
6
2023
entrez:
3
6
2023
Statut:
aheadofprint
Résumé
Adults' views and behaviors toward children can vary from being supportive to shockingly abusive, and there are significant unanswered questions about the psychological factors underpinning this variability. The present research examined the content of adults' attitudes toward children to address these questions. Ten studies (N = 4702) identified the factor structure of adults' descriptions of babies, toddlers, and school-age children and examined how the resulting factors related to a range of external variables. Two factors emerged-affection toward children and stress elicited by them-and this factor structure was invariant across the United Kingdom, the United States, and South Africa. Affection uniquely captures emotional approach tendencies, concern for others, and broad positivity in evaluations, experiences, motivations, and donation behavior. Stress relates to emotional instability, emotional avoidance, and concern about disruptions to a self-oriented, structured life. The factors also predict distinct experiences in a challenging situation-home-parenting during COVID-19 lockdown-with affection explaining greater enjoyment and stress explaining greater perceived difficulty. Affection further predicts mentally visualizing children as pleasant and confident, whereas stress predicts mentally visualizing children as less innocent. These findings offer fundamental new insights about social cognitive processes in adults that impact adult-child relationships and children's well-being.
Sections du résumé
BACKGROUND
BACKGROUND
Adults' views and behaviors toward children can vary from being supportive to shockingly abusive, and there are significant unanswered questions about the psychological factors underpinning this variability.
OBJECTIVE
OBJECTIVE
The present research examined the content of adults' attitudes toward children to address these questions.
METHOD
METHODS
Ten studies (N = 4702) identified the factor structure of adults' descriptions of babies, toddlers, and school-age children and examined how the resulting factors related to a range of external variables.
RESULTS
RESULTS
Two factors emerged-affection toward children and stress elicited by them-and this factor structure was invariant across the United Kingdom, the United States, and South Africa. Affection uniquely captures emotional approach tendencies, concern for others, and broad positivity in evaluations, experiences, motivations, and donation behavior. Stress relates to emotional instability, emotional avoidance, and concern about disruptions to a self-oriented, structured life. The factors also predict distinct experiences in a challenging situation-home-parenting during COVID-19 lockdown-with affection explaining greater enjoyment and stress explaining greater perceived difficulty. Affection further predicts mentally visualizing children as pleasant and confident, whereas stress predicts mentally visualizing children as less innocent.
CONCLUSIONS
CONCLUSIONS
These findings offer fundamental new insights about social cognitive processes in adults that impact adult-child relationships and children's well-being.
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Subventions
Organisme : Economic and Social Research Council
ID : ES/P002463/1
Informations de copyright
© 2023 The Authors. Journal of Personality published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.
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