To Örebro University

What function does parental self-efficacy have for parenting behaviors and children's adjustment, and what explains individual variations in parents' self-efficacy? Parental self-efficacy involves parents' beliefs about their influence on their children and this systematic review presents results from 35 empirical studies published between 2003 and 2022 among parents of school-aged children and adolescents. First, the studies in this review show a bi-directional association between parental self-efficacy and positive parenting, and some empirical evidence that parental self-efficacy influences children indirectly, via parenting. The few longitudinal studies examining associations between parental self-efficacy and child behaviors suggest that self-efficacy might emerge as a reaction to children's behaviors. Second, many child, parent, and sociocultural factors were shown to predict parental self-efficacy (e.g., child gender and age, parents' psychological well-being, and socio-economic status), and results suggest that these associations are similar across multiple countries and age groups. Finally, studies reporting on parental self-efficacy at different time points or a correlation between self-efficacy and the child's age suggested that parental self-efficacy decreases over the school-age and adolescent period. This review shows the complex role of parental self-efficacy in associations with parent and child factors, and it also highlight questions to address for future research.

Addressing climate change requires people in the Global North to avoid high-impact behaviors like car use and air travel. Late adolescents, whose engagement in such behaviors may be restricted by age and parental decision-making, are in a crucial stage for developing a sense of moral responsibility for climate change. Understandingwhy some adolescents cultivate this responsibility is vital, as responsibility relates to both pro-environmentalengagement and well-being. Therefore, this study aims to identify factors associated with late adolescents’sense of moral responsibility. Nature connectedness, parental descriptive norms, and macro climate-changeworry have been positively linked to pro-environmental behavior in previous research, but their role in rela-tion to moral responsibility regarding climate change remains less clear. Similarly, the relationship betweendistancing coping and moral responsibility is yet to be fully understood. In this study we explore ways that thesefactors are associated with late adolescents’ moral responsibility and examine whether these relationships differbetween girls and boys. In 2023, we surveyed 619 Swedish high school students (ages 16–20). We used structuralequation modeling to answer our research questions. Connectedness to nature, parental norms, worry, anddistancing coping were positively associated with responsibility, with parental norms having a stronger effect forboys. Worry partially mediated how parental norms and nature connectedness related to responsibility, with astronger mediation effect for girls in the latter relationship. Distancing coping did not moderate the relationshipbetween worry and responsibility. Our findings are interpreted within social-ecological and emotion-normframeworks, and we suggest promoting responsibility through nature connectedness, role modeling, andconstructive worry management. Limitations, including those related to cross-sectional designs, are discussed. 

Addressing climate change requires people in the Global North to avoid high-impact behaviors like car use and air travel. Late adolescents, whose engagement in such behaviors may be restricted by age and parental decision-making, are in a crucial stage for developing a sense of moral responsibility for climate change. Understanding why some adolescents cultivate this responsibility is vital, as responsibility relates to both climate engagement and well-being. Therefore, this study aims to identify factors associated with late adolescents' sense of moral responsibility. Nature connectedness, parental social norms, and climate-change worry have been positively linked to pro-environmental behavior in previous research, but their role in relation to moral responsibility for climate change remains less clear. Similarly, the relationship between distancing coping and moral responsibility is yet to be fully understood. In this study we explore ways that these factors are associated with late adolescents´ moral responsibility, and examine whether these relationships differ between girls and boys. In 2023, we surveyed 619 Swedish high school students (ages 16-19), and used structural equation modeling to answer our research questions. Connection to nature, parents' norms, climate-change worry, and distancing coping positively influenced responsibility, with parents' norms having a stronger effect on boys. Climate-change worry partially mediated how parents’ norms and nature connectedness influenced responsibility, with a stronger mediation effect for girls in the latter relationship. Distancing coping did not moderate the relationship between worry and responsibility. Limitations are discussed, and we propose fostering moral responsibility through nature experiences, role modeling, and constructive worry management.

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore whether there are naturally occurring groups of parents who display different profiles of upward (i.e., comparing with those better off) and downward (i.e., comparing with those worse off) social comparisons, and if these differ on parental symptoms, self-efficacy, and positive parenting behaviors.

Background: While social comparisons can contribute to self-evaluation and offer opportunities for self-improvement by providing new information, they may also be associated with less positive parenting. One reason for different outcomes is the type of comparisons (i.e., upward or downward), which has not been studied using person-oriented analysis within the parenting literature.

Method: A sample of 187 parents of children aged between 2 to 5 years were included (85% mothers and 15% fathers). Cluster analysis was used to explore profiles of parents depending on their upward and downward social comparisons, and analyses of variance were used to examine mean level differences. Results: Results yielded a four-cluster solution. In general, engaging in upward or downward social comparisons were associated with less positive outcomes. However, parents in the cluster who did predominantly upward comparisons showed more parental symptoms and less positive parenting.

Conclusion: The frequency and direction of social comparisons are important, with parents engaging in predominantly upward comparisons showing the greatest vulnerability.ImplicationsPractitioners can help parents to reflect on their comparisons and to identify parents who focus mostly on others who they believe are doing better.

The gendered division of housework and care has long been a key topic in family research. In this qualitative study, the aim is to deepen the knowledge of parents' division of labour by exploring how their division of housework and care changes over time. We are specifically interested in how the cognitive labour emerges and develops as couples transition into parenthood and the following years: (1) How is the division of labour among couples modified, maintained, and/or challenged during the transition to parenthood, and as their children go from early childhood to school-age? and (2) how does cognitive labour, and the different aspects of such labour, emerge over time among studied parental couples? Drawing on theories of gender, care and cognitive labour, a key finding concerns the gradual emergence of the female planning responsibility, a central aspect of cognitive labour. Although the parents wanted to share the care and housework equally, it was still the mothers who mainly carried this invisible responsibility. The findings thus suggest that even when couples are reflecting and trying actively to avoid falling into a traditional gendered division, the new parenthood puts these norms and values to a test.

Little is known about the developmental trajectories of parental self-efficacy as children transition into adolescence. This study examined parental self-efficacy among mothers and fathers over 3 1/2 years representing this transition, and whether the level and developmental trajectory of parental self-efficacy varied by cultural group. Data were drawn from three waves of the Parenting Across Cultures (PAC) project, a large-scale longitudinal, cross-cultural study, and included 1178 mothers and 1041 fathers of children who averaged 9.72 years of age at T1 (51.2% girls). Parents were from nine countries (12 ethnic/cultural groups), which were categorized into those with a predominant collectivistic (i.e., China, Kenya, Philippines, Thailand, Colombia, and Jordan) or individualistic (i.e., Italy, Sweden, and USA) cultural orientation based on Hofstede's Individualism Index (Hofstede Insights, 2021). Latent growth curve analyses supported the hypothesis that parental self-efficacy would decline as children transition into adolescence only for parents from more individualistic countries; parental self-efficacy increased over the same years among parents from more collectivistic countries. Secondary exploratory analyses showed that some demographic characteristics predicted the level and trajectory of parental self-efficacy differently for parents in more individualistic and more collectivistic countries. Results suggest that declines in parental self-efficacy documented in previous research are culturally influenced.

People in the Global North need to adopt high-impact behaviors (such as refraining from using a car or avoiding air travel). Given that numerous late adolescents may still reside with their parent/-s, assessing the personal adoption of high-impact climate behaviors could be challenging, as these decisions are often influenced by their parent/-s. Therefore, it might be more relevant to explore factors that can predict how morally responsible late adolescents feel, as moral obligation can be closely related to behavior. Climate-change worry, nature connectedness, parents´ social norms, and being female, have shown positive associations to climate-friendly engagement in previous research, whereas de-emphasizing coping has revealed a negative relationship. A questionnaire study was conducted with 596 Swedish senior high school students (age 16-20) in 2023, and data analyzed through hierarchical regression. Preliminary results reveal that after controlling for gender in step 1, the explained variance in moral responsibility increased from 12 % to 56 % when climate-change worry, nature connectedness, parents´ norms and de-emphasizing coping were entered into the model in step 2. The largest unique effect on moral responsibility was attributed to climate-change worry. The results suggest that more than half of the variability in late adolescents´ moral responsibility can be explained by the proposed predictors. Limitations and implications are discussed. 

A challenge for professional psychology programs is the assessment of students' professional competence. Despite its potential, objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) has not gained widespread use in the psychological field. However, at Ume & aring; University and & Ouml;rebro University in Sweden, the OSCE has been introduced at the Clinical psychology programs to assess professional competence. The aim of this study was to explore students' perceptions of whether and how, preparing for and performing the OSCE benefits their professional learning and prepares them for clinical practice. A web-based questionnaire was administered to 88 psychology students who completed the OSCE and field training. Most of the students perceived the OSCE as a valuable experience that benefits their learning. The OSCE prepared them for clinical practice through practical hands-on training, and by providing essential experience in client interaction, increasing students' confidence in the role as a psychologist. Students also reported that feedback from the OSCE was crucial for their ongoing learning, but that the authenticity of the examination can be improved. Based on these findings, recommendations for future OSCEs in professional psychology include appropriate preparations, providing constructive feedback as well as striving for high authenticity in the tasks of the OSCE stations.

The present study examined the moderating role of maternal and paternal behaviors on the association between ADHD symptoms and antisocial behavior. The data are from a Swedish community-based study with 2886 adolescent participants, aged 13-15. We analyzed the adolescents' self-reports of negative and positive parental behavior, ADHD symptoms, and antisocial behavior. Results show that ADHD symptoms significantly predicted levels of antisocial behavior in both maternal- and paternal-moderated regression models. Also, several significant interaction effects emerged. Fathers' attempted understanding and mothers' warmth significantly buffered the association with antisocial behavior. In turn, mothers' negative behaviors-both coldness and rejection and angry outbursts-significantly enhanced the association with antisocial behavior, whereas only fathers' angry outbursts emerged as a significant moderator. Thus, there is support for differential effects of maternal and paternal behavior on the association between ADHD symptoms and adolescent antisocial behavior.

In this study, we examined parents' online activities and whether engagement in specific activities attracts certain parents. Additionally, we examined sub-groups of parents regarding their difficulties to interpret and deal with online information. We used a sample of 401 parents of children below the age of five living in Sweden. The results showed that most parents used the Internet frequently, but there were differences in what activities parents were involved in. In general, results suggested that mothers and parents of younger children used the Internet more to find information about parenting related issues compared to fathers and parents of older children. Mothers seemed to rely more on online information in their parenting role than did fathers, but at the same time, they reported more troubles dealing with the information they found online. Additionally, parents with higher education read parenting blogs whereas parents with lower education posted photos and information on Social Networking Sites (SNS). The results of this study offer important knowledge regarding variations in parents' online use and might be used to develop support offered to different groups of parents.