The aim of this study was to investigate the relation between parental mental well-being and parenting skills and whether this relationship differs based on the child's temperament. Parenting...Show moreThe aim of this study was to investigate the relation between parental mental well-being and parenting skills and whether this relationship differs based on the child's temperament. Parenting skills are crucial factors in a child's emotional, cognitive, social, and behavioral development. Data were collected from 20 parents of young children (3 - 5 years old). Parenting skills were assessed using self-report questionnaires regarding confidence in parenting, reflective capacity, and parental sensitivity. The child's temperament was also assessed through questionnaires filled out by the parents. All multiple regressions were non-significant, and the relationships between parental mental well-being and parenting skills were not moderated by the child's temperament. This means that parental mental well-being and the child's temperament were not sufficiently predictive of parental self-confidence, reflective capacity, and parental sensitivity in parenting. By examining the correlations, a moderate positive relationship was found between parental mental well-being and their confidence in parenting. Parents with higher mental well-being had more confidence in their parenting. Parental mental well-being was negatively associated with their reflective capacity, indicating that parents with lower mental well-being displayed higher levels of reflective capacity. A moderate positive relationship was found between the child's temperament and parental sensitivity, suggesting that parents of children with a more challenging temperament were generally more sensitive in their parenting.Show less
It is estimated that between 89.160 and 127.190 children in the Netherlands experience maltreatment every year, which can cause long term effects such as medical problems, trauma, depression and...Show moreIt is estimated that between 89.160 and 127.190 children in the Netherlands experience maltreatment every year, which can cause long term effects such as medical problems, trauma, depression and anxiety. Research has shown that social support is a protective factor for experiencing behavior problems in maltreated individuals. This study examined whether social support moderates the relationship between maltreatment and anxiety by questioning 39 Dutch adolescents between 12 and 17 years old. During lab visits the participants filled out an informed consent and multiple questionnaires like the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS-PC) and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), the Social Support Scales for Children and Adolescents SSSC/SSSA and the Youth Self Report (YSR). A PROCESS-analysis was conducted to determine whether social support moderated the relationship between experienced maltreatment and anxiety. The relationship between child maltreatment and anxiety was found to be non-significant. Results also showed a non-significant negative relationship between social support and anxiety. Furthermore, social support did not moderate the relationship between experienced maltreatment and anxiety. These results may be partially explained by the small sample and the limited number of maltreated children in the sample. Furthermore, the group that experienced anxiety was also lower than expected due to a restriction of range. These results are not as expected, as other research has shown the buffering role of social support in relation to maltreatment and anxiety. Due to previous research and the limitations of this study it is important to implement social support for people who experience anxiety in society. Examples like reading books and school curricula are discussed. Upcoming research should be conducted with a larger and representative sample and ways to diminish social desirability should be taken into consideration.Show less
This cross-sectional study aimed to understand the role of age in the relationship of time spent on leisure activities (LA) and subjective well-being (SWB) with the data collected by the surveys of...Show moreThis cross-sectional study aimed to understand the role of age in the relationship of time spent on leisure activities (LA) and subjective well-being (SWB) with the data collected by the surveys of the LISS Panel in the late months of 2018 (N=5013). The mean age of the participants was 53 (SD = 18) with an even spread of male participants (46%) and female participants (54%). In this study a distinction was made between four types of leisure: digital, creative, sport and cultural. With the use of regression analyses and ANOVAs, this research analysed the relationship between time spent on LA and SWB (1), the relationship between age and time spent on LA (2) and the possible moderation effect of age on the relationship of time spent on LA and SWB (3). The analyses of the first research question showed a mostly positive relationship between time spent on different LA and SWB. Only digital leisure has a significant negative relationship, though the effect size was very small for all significant relationships found. Secondly (2), age related negatively to time spent on digital and cultural leisure, positively to creative leisure and did not relate significantly to sports-related leisure. Lastly (3), only the moderation analysis of age on the relationship between time spent on creative leisure and SWB came out significant (Beta = .05, t = 3.36, p = .001), even though the effect sizes were negligible. Overall, this results do not fully support the hypotheses. Either other factors and relationships play a larger role in predicting SWB or the limitations of this study make it not possible to produce clear results. The study gives the suggestion for future research to examine the relationship between age and the underlying mechanisms that make up the effect of leisure activity on SWB. If this study would be replicated, advice is given to use a longitudinal design and take into account the effects of the COVID19 pandemic on leisure.Show less
Previous research found that personality and chronotype both are significant predictors of alcohol consumption. This study examined the personality type neuroticism and the evening chronotype as...Show morePrevious research found that personality and chronotype both are significant predictors of alcohol consumption. This study examined the personality type neuroticism and the evening chronotype as possible correlates of increased alcohol consumption. Additionally, we aimed to find a moderating effect of eveningness in the relationship between neuroticism and alcohol consumption. The Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA) included 2,981 participants between the ages of 18 and 65 and a total of more than eight questionnaires, from which we used the Munich Chronotype Questionnaire (MCTQ), Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) and Neuroticism-Extraversion-Openness Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). Results showed a significant association between eveningness and alcohol consumption. The predicted moderation effect of eveningness was not found. The findings of this study may give a better understanding of possible risk factors for increased alcohol consumption, by verifying the predicted association between eveningness and increased alcohol consumption. Future research may however look further into the working mechanisms of eveningness with respect to the susceptibility of increased alcohol consumption.Show less
Research findings on the interrelationships between stress and sleep, stress and optimism, optimism and sleep have been found in the literature. However, a possible relationship between all three...Show moreResearch findings on the interrelationships between stress and sleep, stress and optimism, optimism and sleep have been found in the literature. However, a possible relationship between all three of these variables together remains unstudied. Understanding this relationship and whether these relationships are interdependent, may provide new prevention and intervention opportunities for sleep- or stress-related health problems. The current study aimed to investigate whether the relationship between perceived stress and sleep quality depends on the level of optimism. The study employed a quantitative and quasi experimental design, with data collected cross-sectionally via online self-report questionnaires. The Life Orientation Test Revised was administered to measure the level of optimism, the Perceived Stress Scale was administered to measure the level of stress, and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index was administered to assess sleep quality. To examine the hypothesis that the level of optimism will moderate the relationship between level of perceived stress and sleep quality, a moderated hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis was conducted on data from 250 respondents. The results revealed that the level of perceived stress was able to predict sleep quality (b = .14, p < .001), but the level of optimism failed to predict sleep quality (b = -.05, p > .05) and no evidence was found for the moderating role of optimism in the relationship between perceived stress and sleep quality (b = .002, p > .05). It is possible that the baseline sleep quality was not poor enough, and there were not enough people with low levels of optimism to detect whether the level of optimism could interfere with the relationship between perceived stress and sleep quality. However, the role of optimism within this relationship can be studied more in the future, with better-informed research designs.Show less
The scientific community is trying uncover and understand the underlying mechanisms of music, movement and social cognition. As an attempt to do so, this thesis proposes an interactive model that...Show moreThe scientific community is trying uncover and understand the underlying mechanisms of music, movement and social cognition. As an attempt to do so, this thesis proposes an interactive model that hypothesizes a relationship between tapping ability and interpersonal synchrony, moderated by musicality and interpersonal synchrony. Furthermore, this study predicts that there is a relationship between these two moderators as well and that musicality predicts empathic perspective-taking. A sample of 209 participants was recruited to take part in an online experiment that included questionnaires on empathy and music, as well as a tapping task in which participants tapped along to music with another person on the screen and rated their feelings of synchrony with them. The results showed that even though the interaction of tapping ability and musicality and that of tapping ability and empathic perspective-taking were not significant, the full model did turn out to be significant. In addition, musicality significantly predicted the scores on empathic perspective-taking. These results strengthen the existing literature on the socially adaptive effects of synchrony and the connection between the mechanisms present in movement to music and empathic abilities. It is concluded that the knowledge from this study can be applied to treatment and non-clinical populations, but that more research is needed to uncover the underlying mechanisms of music, movement and social cognition by exploring different interaction models.Show less
