The influential child: How children affect their environment and influence their own risk and resilience

Abstract

Views regarding children's influence on their environment and their own development have undergone considerable changes over the years. Following Bell's (1968) seminal paper, the notion of children's influence and the view of socialization as a bidirectional process have gradually gained wide acceptance. However, empirical research implementing this theoretical advancement has lagged behind. This Special Section compiles a collection of new empirical works addressing multiple forms of influential child processes, with special attention to their consequences for children's and others' positive functioning, risk and resilience. By addressing a wide variety of child influences, this Special Section seeks to advance integration of influential child processes into myriad future studies on development and psychopathology and to promote the translation of such work into preventive interventions.

Comunicación con los padres, malestar psicológico y actitud hacia la autoridad en adolescentes mexicanos: su influencia en la victimización escolar

“…El predominio de la calidez en la comunicación con los padres brindará, de acuerdo a nuestros resultados, dos ventajas substanciales al adolescente: bajo malestar psicológico y una actitud de confi anza y respeto hacia los profesores y las normas del entorno escolar. Últimamente se ha resaltado la capacidad de niños y adolescentes de infl uir en sus ambientes de desarrollo, tanto e incluso más que lo que éstos lo infl uyen a él (Davidov, Knafo-noam, Serbin y Moss, 2015;Smetana, 2017). Un adolescente sin problemas de ajuste psicoemocional y con una actitud favorable en el trato con el profesorado y los pares tiene más probabilidades de infl uir de manera positiva en sus entornos.…”

Emotion Socialization Strategies of Mothers With Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms: The Role of Maternal Emotion Regulation and Interactions With Infant Temperament

“…In particular, there is evidence to suggest that infant temperament (or dispositional tendencies to respond to the environment with particular emotions; Goldsmith, 1996) influences both parenting behaviors in general and emotion socialization in particular (Davidov, Knafo-Noam, Serbin, & Moss, 2015;Eisenberg et al, 1998). For example, research indicates a relation between infant temperament and parental responses to infant distress, with infant temperamental anger and fear linked to more nonsupportive maternal responses (Feldman, Dollberg, & Nadam, 2011).…”

“…For example, research indicates a relation between infant temperament and parental responses to infant distress, with infant temperamental anger and fear linked to more nonsupportive maternal responses (Feldman, Dollberg, & Nadam, 2011). Although the influence of infant temperament on parental responses in general is well established (see Bates & Pettit, 2008;Davidov et al, 2015), literature suggests that the relation between infant anger and/or fearful temperament and nonsupportive emotion socialization may be particularly strong among mothers with BPD symptoms. Indeed, a recent extension of the mentalization-based theory of BPD highlights the particular relevance of hypermentalizing to BPD, suggesting that individuals with BPD tend to overattribute extreme mental states to others (Sharp & Vanwoerden, 2015).…”

Predicting the use of corporal punishment: Child aggression, parent religiosity, and the BDNF gene

“…This asymmetry parallels the greater research focus on parent effects (as compared to child effects, e.g.) found in the parenting literature more broadly (Davidov, Knafo-Noam, Serbin, & Moss, 2015).…”