Subjective age fluctuates considerably within persons across different contexts. The present study examined (a) whether older adults’ daily subjective age is associated with their respective romantic partner’s subjective age, and (b) whether such subjective age covariation is moderated by how everyday problems are appraised and approached. During a 10-day daily diary study, 67 older couples from Canada (age range 60–89 years) individually provided parallel ratings of how old they felt each day. They also reported their most bothersome problem that day and how they dealt with the problem together with their partner (collaborative problem solving). As predicted, multilevel regression analyses showed evidence for dyadic covariation in daily subjective age; changes in older adults’ subjective age were significantly associated with concurrent changes in their partners’ subjective age. Subjective age covariation was weaker on days when older adults reported higher severity problems and stronger on days when collaborative problem solving was higher. This moderation was specific to taking joint actions, and it did not emerge for emotional support. Our findings highlight the importance of social contexts for subjective age by providing insights into the circumstances under which individual subjective age covaries with the respective partner as couples engage in their daily lives.
Parental incarceration presents significant risks to adolescent development and well-being. However, most research has focused on deficits rather than protective factors and has mainly been limited to high-income Western contexts and caregivers’ reports. This study examined how contextual conditions impact the lives of adolescents with experience of parental incarceration (API) from South Africa and Canada. Multigroup structural equation modelling (SEM) compared API with sex- and age-matched peers who had not experienced parental incarceration on indicators of health, behaviour, risk, and resources, and identified common and country-specific predictors of API mental and physical health. Across countries, API showed poorer health and behavioural outcomes than their peers. South African API ( N = 54, M age = 18.70; 50% female) reported higher family adversity but no resource differences, whereas Canadian API ( N = 73, M age = 18.34; 60.3% female) showed disadvantages across multiple risk and resource domains compared with their peers. Being male was a consistent protective factor in both countries, and low family adversity and more benevolent childhood experiences were associated with better mental health in Canada. These findings underline that API represent a uniquely vulnerable, yet under-researched and underserved population. The results highlight the need for context-sensitive and gender-responsive supports for these young people.
Adolescents' relationship quality plays a central role in socioemotional development. The Network of Relationships Inventory-Social Provisions Version (NRI-SPV) is widely used to assess relationship quality. However, evidence regarding its psychometric properties across different relationship types remains limited. This study examined the factor structure, internal consistency, construct validity, and convergent validity of the NRI-SPV in relationships with mothers, fathers, best friends, and teachers. A total of 714 participants (53.2% girls), aged 11 to 15 years (M = 13.08, SD = 1.30), completed the inventory. Confirmatory factor analyses supported a nine-factor first-order structure, comprising seven positive provisions (reliable alliance, admiration, affection, companionship, instrumental help, intimacy, and nurturance) and two negative provisions (conflict and punishment), with good fit across relationship types (chi & sup2;/df = 1.99-2.56, CFI = .92-.97, TLI = .90-.96, RMSEA = 0.04-0.06, SRMR = .04-.06). In contrast, a second-order model with two higher-order factors (social support and negative interactions) showed poorer fit (chi & sup2;/df = 2.78-3.98, CFI = .87-.92, TLI = .85-.91, RMSEA = .06-.07, SRMR = .10-.16). Internal consistency was acceptable to strong, and all items loaded significantly on their intended factors. Convergent validity was demonstrated through robust associations with attachment security to mothers and fathers, indicating that the NRI-SPV effectively captures relational qualities aligned with established attachment constructs.
Despite the use of latent growth mixture modelling (LGMM) to study longitudinal changes, existing practices may inadvertently impede this very investigation. Although subgroup trajectories may theoretically differ in their structure (e.g., some subgroups being linear, some curvilinear), the current convention advocates overreliance on the baseline model to derive subsequent profile trajectories, which may obscure these structural differences. In this article, we provide a brief description of extant LGMM practices, after which we explicate the pitfalls of the current approach. Finally, we provide a principled approach for LGMM research moving forward. Specifically, we recommend specifying a set of theoretically plausible models that differ in the number of growth factors and selecting the most expansive model that demonstrates acceptable fit to the data.
Favorable biases toward attractive individuals significantly influence social interactions from early childhood. However, little is known about how such biases affect children’s resource allocation, particularly when they conflict with fairness norms. Across three studies, we examined how 6-year-olds allocate resources between a high- and a low-attractive, same-gender, unfamiliar peer. In Study 1 ( N = 42), children allocated more to high-attractive targets than to low-attractive ones. In Study 2 ( N = 72) and 3 ( N = 128), both targets were also assigned merit information. When both targets had equal merit, children continued to favor the high-attractive target. However, when the high-attractive target was less productive, children prioritized merit over attractiveness, paralleling their behavior when only merit information was available. In both Studies 1 and 3, children’s liking for the attractive target (rather than prosocial expectations) was positively associated with their allocation preferences, regardless of whether merit information was available. These findings identify conditions under which attractiveness influences young children’s allocation decisions and when equity concerns override this bias. They offer novel insights into the boundary conditions of the “beauty premium” in early childhood and how children balance fairness when navigating competing factors, such as merit and appearance.
