Quinten A. W. Raaijmakers

Bio: Quinten A. W. Raaijmakers is an academic researcher from Utrecht University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Anxiety & Population. The author has an hindex of 40, co-authored 83 publications receiving 4984 citations. Previous affiliations of Quinten A. W. Raaijmakers include Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Maturation of personality in adolescence

Abstract: The present research assesses adolescent personality maturation by examining 3 measures of change and stability (i.e., mean-level change, rank-order stability, and profile similarity) of Big Five personality traits, employing data from a 5-annual-wave study with overlapping early to middle (n = 923) and middle to late (n = 390) adolescent cohorts. Results indicated that mean levels of Agreeableness and Emotional Stability increased during adolescence. There was mixed evidence for increases in Extraversion and Openness. Additionally, rank-order stability and profile similarity of adolescent personality traits clearly increased from early to late adolescence. For all change facets, the authors found evidence for gender differences in the timing of adolescent personality maturation, as girls were found to mature earlier than boys.

Identity Formation in Adolescence: Change or Stability?

Abstract: The aim of this five-wave longitudinal study of 923 early to middle adolescents (50.7% boys; 49.3% girls) and 390 middle to late adolescents (43.3% boys and 56.7% girls) is to provide a comprehensive view on change and stability in identity formation from ages 12 to 20. Several types of change and stability (i.e., mean-level change, rank-order stability, and profile similarity) were assessed for three dimensions of identity formation (i.e., commitment, in-depth exploration, and reconsideration), using adolescent self-report questionnaires. Results revealed changes in identity dimensions towards maturity, indicated by a decreasing tendency for reconsideration, increasingly more in-depth exploration, and increasingly more stable identity dimension profiles. Mean levels of commitment remained stable, and rank-order stability of commitment, in-depth exploration, and reconsideration did not change with age. Overall, girls were more mature with regard to identity formation in early adolescence, but boys had caught up with them by late adolescence. Taken together, our findings indicate that adolescent identity formation is guided by progressive changes in the way adolescents deal with commitments, rather than by changes in the commitments themselves.

Intergenerational Transmission and the Formation of Cultural Orientations in Adolescence and Young Adulthood.

Abstract: In this article we wanted to shed light on the intergenerational transmission and the formation of cultural orientations in adolescence. The intergenerational transmission was analyzed in different age groups in a longitudinal design (orientations of parents and their adolescent children were measured twice, with a time lapse of 3 years). Results clearly revealed that late adolescence is the "formative phase" for the establishment of cultural orientations and suggested that psychological processes such as internalization are guiding this formation. This internalization was found for all investigated orientations. In addition, as adolescents grew older, their susceptibility to parental orientations diminished, but, in contrast, parents did not become more susceptible to their children's orientations. No age effects in sociocultural influences were found. It was concluded that the investigated sociocultural influences should be seen as providing a structural context within which the formation of orientations in adolescence takes place. Despite popular beliefs that in adolescence children will turn away from their parents in search of alternative guidance for value orientation, most empirical research reveals a striking concordance between worldviews of parents and those of their (adult) children (Acock & Bengtson, 1980; Dalhouse & Frideres, 1996; Jennings & Niemi, 1981; Miller & Glass, 1989; Raaijmakers, 1993). This correspondence between parental attitudes and the attitudes of their children is not confined to the period when children are young and are living with their parents but ranges over large parts of the life course (Miller & Glass, 1989). On the basis of these results, one could easily conclude that parents simply pass their views on to their children while guiding their offspring into adulthood. However, it is widely acknowledged that processes of intergenerational transmission are more complex phenomena and that correspondence between parents and children may be the result of other processes as well. Comparable orientations in both parents and their children may result from sharing the same environment or sharing comparable social status. Explanations for the intergenerational transmission of attitudes are therefore found on at least two levels of analysis: on the level of the intergenerational transmission of social status and social positions from parents to their children (Glass, Bengtson, & Dunham, 1986) and on the level of direct transmission of cultural orientations of parents to those of their children through communication within the family (Acock & Bengtson, 1980; Beck & Jennings, 1975; Moen, Erickson, & Dempster-McClain, 1997; Petit, Clawson, Dodge, & Bates, 1996). Past empirical studies have suggested that both explanations are valid and complementary (Glass et al., 1986; Moen et al., 1997; Vollebergh, Iedema, & Raaijmakers, 1999). In addition, high correspondence between parents' and children's orientations need not reflect only the impact of parental orientations on those of their children. Children may also influence their parents. This potential reciprocity of influence in intergenerational transmission processes has rarely been investigated (Glass et al., 1986; Moen et al., 1997). This may be an especially important omission in studying adolescents. It is widely acknowledged that in the course of late adolescence and young adulthood, parent-child relations transform into more egalitarian relations. As a result, adolescents and young adults are likely to constitute a growing source of influence on their parents. In this article, we wanted to examine these explanations for the intergenerational transmission of orientations within the family, taking into account the reciprocal influence of parents and children. In doing so, we wanted to explore two issues further. We wanted to examine changes over the early life course (age 12 to 24 years) in the stability of cultural orientations and in the impact of parental attitudes and social context variables. …

Psychometric properties of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) in the general adolescent population

Abstract: Objective: This study examined the psychometric properties of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) in a large sample of adolescents from the general population. Method: In 2001, 1,340 junior high and high school adolescents in the Netherlands completed the SCARED. The SCARED is a questionnaire that purports to measure five child and adolescent anxiety symptom dimensions. The factor structure of the SCARED was investigated by means of confirmatory factor analyses that were conducted for males and females, early (10-13 years) and middle (14-18 years) adolescent groups, and for Dutch and ethnic minorities. Analyses of variance were carried out to compare mean scores for the various groups. Results: The five-factor structure of the SCARED not only had the best fit for the general adolescent population but also for the age, gender, and ethnic groups. It was also found that the SCARED scores of the adolescent subgroups differed from one another in agreement with previous studies on adolescent anxiety disorder symptoms. Conclusions: The findings of this study support the claim that the SCARED has a five-factor structure. The usefulness of the SCARED was also demonstrated.

Childhood and Society.

Abstract: Erik Eriksen is a remarkable individual. He has no college degrees yet is Professor of Human Development at Harvard University. He came to psychology via art, which explains why the reader will find him painting contexts and backgrounds rather than stating dull facts and concepts. He has been a training psychoanalyst for many years as well as a perceptive observer of cultural and social settings and their effect on growing up. This is not just a book on childhood. It is a panorama of our society. Anxiety in young children, apathy in American Indians, confusion in veterans of war, and arrogance in young Nazis are scrutinized under the psychoanalytic magnifying glass. The material is well written and devoid of technical jargon. The theme of the volume is that it is human to have a long childhood which will leave a lifelong residue of emotional immaturity in man. Primitive groups and

Social Influence: Compliance and Conformity

Abstract: This review covers recent developments in the social influence literature, focusing primarily on compliance and conformity research published between 1997 and 2002. The principles and processes underlying a target's susceptibility to outside influences are considered in light of three goals fundamental to rewarding human functioning. Specifically, targets are motivated to form accurate perceptions of reality and react accordingly, to develop and preserve meaningful social relationships, and to maintain a favorable self-concept. Consistent with the current movement in compliance and conformity research, this review emphasizes the ways in which these goals interact with external forces to engender social influence processes that are subtle, indirect, and outside of awareness.

The Self-medication Hypothesis of Substance Use Disorders: A Reconsideration and Recent Applications

Abstract: The self-medication hypothesis of addictive disorders derives primarily from clinical observations of patients with substance use disorders. Individuals discover that the specific actions or effects of each class of drugs relieve or change a range of painful affect states. Self-medication factors occur in a context of self-regulation vulnerabilities--primarily difficulties in regulating affects, self-esteem, relationships, and self-care. Persons with substance use disorders suffer in the extreme with their feelings, either being overwhelmed with painful affects or seeming not to feel their emotions at all. Substances of abuse help such individuals to relieve painful affects or to experience or control emotions when they are absent or confusing. Diagnostic studies provide evidence that variously supports and fails to support a self-medication hypothesis of addictive disorders. The cause-consequence controversy involving psychopathology and substance use/abuse is reviewed and critiqued. In contrast, clinical observations and empirical studies that focus on painful affects and subjective states of distress more consistently suggest that such states of suffering are important psychological determinants in using, becoming dependent upon, and relapsing to addictive substances. Subjective states of distress and suffering involved in motives to self-medicate with substances of abuse are considered with respect to nicotine dependence and to schizophrenia and posttraumatic stress disorder comorbid with a substance use disorder.