Haspolat, Namık Kemal; Ağırkan, Murat; Eşkisu, Mustafa

Psychological problems are prevalent among adolescents, and previous studies have robustly demonstrated that individual and family factors play a role in the formation and maintenance of these problems. On the other hand, not all adolescents show the same characteristics in terms of these factors and can be categorized into different groups. Identifying this heterogeneity is also important in intervention for psychological problems. Thus, this study aimed to identify patterns of parental attitudes, basic psychological needs, self-regulation, and alexithymia, using latent class analysis (LCA), and investigated how different patterns of these individual and family factors are associated with psychological problems. Participants included a sample of 331 volunteer Turkish adolescents (140 male [42.3%], 191 female [57.7%]). LCA indicated a two-class solution fit the current data well and 65% of the participants were classified into the first latent class which was labeled as “positive individual and family context” (PIFC). The PIFC were found to have higher levels of parental sensitivity and autonomy support, need satisfaction and self-regulation, but lower levels of mother's psychological and behavioral control and father's behavioral control, need frustration, and alexithymia. The second latent class, labeled as “negative individual and family context” (NIFC), included 35% of the adolescents. Adolescents in NIFC had low levels of parental sensitivity, autonomy support, satisfaction of basic psychological needs, and self-regulation, but high levels of mother's psychological and behavioral control, father's behavioral control, frustration of basic psychological needs, and alexithymia. Moreover, after controlling gender and age, adolescents classified in the NIFC displayed significantly higher levels of psychological problems than those classified in the PIFC. These findings support the idea that individual and familial factors interact to affect adolescents' mental health and suggest that clinicians and helping professionals would benefit from including these factors in intervention processes.

Ağirkan, Murat; Keklik, İbrahim; Ergene, Tuncay

This study aimed to examine student and school characteristics that could affect adolescents' social and emotional learning (SEL) skills. The study group consisted of randomly selected 3017 high school students from 42 schools in Turkey. According to two-level Hierarchical Linear Modelling analysis findings, the mean SEL scores of schools differed statistically significantly. The variables of academic achievement, participation in events (scientific, artistic, sports, community services), adolescent-parent relationships, and absenteeism status variables were important predictors of SEL scores at the student level. The variables of the relationship between students, teacher–student relationships, number of students/teachers, music class (active use), number of student clubs in the school, parental involvement, presence of school counselor, and disciplinary action rate were important predictors of SEL scores at the school level. Findings were thoroughly discussed in relation to the existing literature, and recommendations were made for future studies and applications.

Haspolat, Namık Kemal; Yalçın, İlhan

The study aimed to investigate the correlations between psychological symptoms in high-achieving students with performance-oriented assessment, parental psychological control, parental achievement pressure, perfectionism, and academic expectation stress. The study group consisted of 1134 science high school students (658 females [57.1%], 486 males [42.9%]) aged between 14 and 19 years (mean = 16.26, SD = 0.871). In the research, the Classroom Assessment Environment Scale, Leuven Adolescent Perceived Parenting Scale, Parental Achievement Pressure Scale, Academic Expectation Stress Inventory, Child and Adolescent Perfectionism Scale, and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 were used as data collection tools. The research, using the correlational survey model, analyzed the data with structural equation modeling. In the structural model, performance-oriented assessment and parental psychological control significantly predicted parental achievement pressure, while parental achievement pressure significantly predicted perfectionism, academic expectation stress, and psychological symptoms. Parental achievement pressure had a mediating role in the relationship between performance-oriented assessment and parental psychological control with psychological symptoms. Performance-oriented assessment and parental psychological control indirectly predicted psychological symptoms mediated by parental achievement pressure, perfectionism, and academic expectation stress. Based on the multigroup structural equation model, it was also seen that the structural model did not differ by gender.