Jonathan Richard Henry Tudge

Extant research on parents’ understanding of gratitude and the socialization of gratitude in children has primarily been conducted in Western cultural contexts. To address this gap, this interview‐based qualitative study explored the perspectives of 50 Chinese parents (25 mothers and 25 fathers) regarding their understanding of gratitude, their socialization strategies for gratitude, and potential gender‐differentiated approaches to teaching gratitude. Our findings revealed that the Chinese parents in this study perceived gratitude as encompassing various components, including feeling grateful for the motherland and the predecessors, giving back to the society, feeling grateful toward benefactors with a desire to reciprocate the benefactors, and expressing gratitude toward parents and family members. Regarding gratitude socialization strategies, the results indicated that the Chinese parents typically employed training and role modeling to cultivate their children's gratitude. As compared to the Chinese fathers, the mothers took the primary responsibility for gratitude socialization. Notably, mothers were consistent in their socialization practices regardless of whether they had a son or daughter. In contrast, fathers tended to differentiate their approach based on the child's gender: fathers of sons were more actively involved in gratitude‐related discussions, emphasizing conversations about gratitude more frequently with their sons than fathers with daughters did. These findings provide empirical evidence supporting tenets of our theoretical frameworks and offer critical insights for designing intervention programs aimed at promoting children's gratitude development, particularly in Chinese cultural contexts.

A Escala RASH (relação, autonomia, separação e heteronomia) foi desenvolvida para investigar padrões de self em estudos transculturais. No presente estudo, foi realizada uma análise fatorial da escala RASH em amostras brasileiras e norte-americanas, com o objetivo de fornecer uma medida de quatro fatores com bons índices de ajuste. Buscou-se confirmar o padrão de self autônomo-relacionado nas duas amostras e também a relação entre o nível de escolaridade dos pais e tipos de valores que desejam para seus filhos. Coletou-se dados de 756 participantes (EUA, n = 519, Brasil, n = 237), pais ou responsáveis por alunos de 7 a 14 anos. Foram realizadas análise fatorial exploratória e confirmatória, medidas de invariância e estatísticas básicas como média, desvio padrão e correlação. Os resultados corroboram uma estrutura de quatro fatores do instrumento e os padrões autorrelatados nas duas culturas. O instrumento pode auxiliar em pesquisas transculturais sobre o desenvolvimento de valores e captar diferenças entre culturas.

Most extant research on parental socialization for child appreciation has either conflated appreciation and gratitude or fallen foul of a conceptual-operational mismatch, yielding theoretical controversies and inconsistent results. Using a matched conceptualization and operationalization of appreciation and based on three waves of data from 496 Chinese parent–child dyads (child age M = 10.25, SD = .69; 51.6% girls at Wave 1), this study examines: (a) associations among parental socialization goals and behaviors (e.g., I pointed out to my child that they have received something special) for child appreciation, parents’ own appreciation, and children’s appreciation; and (b) similarities and differences between appreciation and gratitude socialization processes. Results indicated that parental appreciation socialization goals at Wave 1 positively related to children’s appreciation at Wave 3 (i.e., 16 months later) via a positive association with parental socialization behaviors at Wave 2 (i.e., 8 months later). This mediation disappeared after incorporating parents’ own appreciation at Wave 2, which uniquely and positively related to children’s appreciation at Wave 3. When simultaneously including parents’ own appreciation and gratitude at Wave 2, only their appreciation positively related to both children’s appreciation and gratitude at Wave 3. Such findings highlight the importance of promoting parents’ own appreciation when facilitating children’s appreciation and differentiating between appreciation and gratitude.

Our interest is in the development of gratitude as a moral virtue, and its variability across different cultural contexts. Given psychology's overreliance on samples collected from the United Sates, Western Europe, and Australasia, we contrasted patterns of age-related expressions of gratitude among a sample of U.S. 7- to 14-year-old children with those from same-age samples from Brazil, China, Russia, South Korea, and Turkey (N = 2,540, 54.7% female, M_age = 10.61 years). The U.S. sample was diverse (n = 730: Black 26.4%, White 40.4%, Latinx 19.9%, Asian 3.8%, Other 1.6%, Missing 7.0%; 55.7% female, M_age = 10.52 years). The remaining samples were largely homogeneous by ethnicity. Our data were gathered using one quantitative scale to measure variations in the extent of gratitude that children expressed, and one qualitative measure to assess variability in the types of gratitude expressed by children of different ages. Both measures were chosen for their fit with the definition of virtuous gratitude. Hypotheses that the U.S. sample would differ from the others in extent and type of gratitude were largely supported. However, age-related differences in the type of gratitude expressed were similar across societies (e.g., in most samples older children were less likely to express concrete gratitude and more likely to express connective gratitude). Our results reveal the importance of treating gratitude as a virtue that develops during childhood and that is influenced by one's cultural group. Reliance on samples from a limited set of cultures is thus to be avoided. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Bronfenbrenner's ecological (and later bioecological) theory has been a mainstay in the theoretical wheelhouse of developmental and family sciences since its inception in the 1970s. However, few studies accurately operationalize Bronfenbrenner's process‐person‐context‐time (PPCT) research model. The aim of this paper is to provide a practical guide to the design, implementation, and analysis of PPCT research studies. Using recent qualitative and quantitative publications from developmental and family science journals, we illustrate how his theory can be operationalized simply and effectively in 21st‐century research. The eight studies, three qualitative and five quantitative, feature participants from Chile, China, South Africa, Turkey, and the United States.

We propose an adaptation of Urie Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory, neo-ecological theory. As bioecological theory was developed in the 20^th century, it requires significant modifications to reflect some of the most ubiquitous contexts in which adolescents learn, play, and grow—the technological and virtual ones. Although several scholars have developed laudable theories related to youth development in virtual contexts, the field lacks an overarching theory to address the intersection of development and technology. In developing neo-ecological theory, we hold true to the tenets of bioecological theory, but suggest key modifications to reflect our technologized world. We delineate a key alteration to the microsystem, namely the existence of two types of microsystems—physical and virtual. In addition, we emphasize the importance of macrosystemic influences (i.e., the influences of culture and within-society subcultural variation) in understanding development in the digital age. The implications of these modifications cascade across the Process-Person-Context-Time (PPCT) model; proximal processes, person characteristics, context, and time are all reexamined. In the digital age, virtual microsystems are central contexts in which youth engage in proximal processes. As such, we believe that all scholars of development, regardless of their specific research interests, should consider the ways digital contexts influence their outcomes of interest. Without it, practitioners, policy makers, parents, and technologists will be in the dark about how best to support adolescents.

Gratitude scholarship, whether in the close relationships or developmental literature, currently lacks a coherent framework. The termgratitudeis used for a wide variety of constructs, and there is rarely a clear link between conceptualization and operationalization. We think that gratitude should be considered a moral virtue, involving the desire to reciprocate in some kind or helpful way to one's intentional benefactors. Our goal is thus to provide a mid‐range theoretical framework for the study of the development of gratitude as a virtue. The theory from which this framework is derived is cultural‐ecological theory.

Gratitude has been previously defined as a tendency to appreciate positives in life, thus conflating gratitude and components of well-being. Accordingly, current measures assessing “gratitude” are primarily based on this conflated conceptualization, and do not adequately assess gratitude as a moral virtue. The Gratitude Assessment Questionnaire (GAQ-C) was developed to assess child virtuous gratitude (VG). This study evaluates the psychometric properties of the GAQ-C in 641 Chinese children (M_age = 10.70, SD = 4.48), showing it to be a reliable and valid measure to assess Chinese child VG. Specifically, results of confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated that virtuous gratitude consists of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral components. Furthermore, child VG measured by the GAQ-C was associated positively with parental appreciation socialization, unlike child appreciation assessed by the 6-item Gratitude Questionnaire (GQ-6). Additionally, child VG was related to child depressive symptoms, life satisfaction, daily gratitude behaviors, and prosocial behaviors. Such results provide evidence of conceptual differences between gratitude and appreciation.

Urie Bronfenbrenner is almost certainly best known for his theoretical writings about the ecology of human development. His interest in theory was not, however, separate from his practical concerns, particularly those related to early education and care of children and the families and teachers who interact with them. From the role that he played in the development of Head Start in the United States to his final publications, we show that his theory, as it developed over the course of three phases, was both influenced by and an influencer of his practical concerns.