Parent-child conflict (PCC) significantly influences adolescent development and is linked to risky behaviors, including alcohol use and aggression, both offline and online. This study investigates the bidirectional relationships among PCC, alcohol use, and aggression, focusing on whether alcohol use mediates these relationships in Czech adolescents.
Data were collected from a national quota-based sample of 3,087 Czech adolescents (at first wave; ages 11-16, Mage = 13.47, SD = 1.74 years; 49.9% female) over four waves within 18 months (2021-2022). The study assessed PCC, alcohol use, offline aggression, and online aggression across six-month intervals using a random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM).
Results indicate that, at the between-person level, PCC correlates positively with alcohol use, offline aggression, and online aggression. At the within-person level, PCC showed significant autoregressive effects, indicating that previous levels of conflict predicted later conflict levels. Alcohol use did not show significant cross-lagged effects with aggression or PCC. Online aggression was significantly and positively associated with PCC from time 1 (T1) to time 2 (T2) wave, indicating that adolescents who engaged in more online aggression at T1 reported higher levels of PCC at T2. Interestingly, offline aggression demonstrated a significant negative relationship with PCC over the same period, suggesting that aggressive behavior in offline settings does not always escalate PCC. In contrast, between time 3 (T3) and time 4 (T4), a significant positive cross-lagged effect between PCC and offline aggression was observed, indicating that higher PCC levels at T3 predicted increased offline aggression at T4, highlighting a potential escalating cycle in offline aggression. No mediating role for alcohol use was observed. Furthermore, a significant positive between-person correlation, as well as a bidirectional within-person relationship between offline and online aggression was found. This suggests that an increase in one form of aggression contributes to an increase in the other.

Procrastination involves an intentional delay of tasks or decisions, despite one expecting the consequences of a delay can be worse off. A procrastination pattern is considered irrational and dysfunctional given its linkage with a range of adverse outcomes such as poorer school performances, higher risks for affective difficulties and health problems. Although there has been abundant evidence on psychosocial and task-related correlates of general or domain-specific procrastination in students and adults, the issues were rarely scrutinized from the life course perspective with a bioecological lens. To fill this gap, this study aimed to examine whether temperamental traits in early childhood can predict procrastination tendency in adolescence, and how parenting behaviors may play a role in moderating the relationship. I used longitudinal data from the Taiwan Birth Cohort Study and included 17,623 participants with complete data on key study variables. Effortful control and difficult temperament were the two traits measured at age 5.5 by caregiver report and general procrastination was self-rated at age 15 using a five-item scale. Parenting influences encompassed three domains- respect for autonomy, emotional support and punitive responses to misbehaviors were assessed at the 12-year survey. After adjusting for child characteristics and parental selectivity in multivariate linear regression models, I found that lower level of effortful control (β=-0.09, p< .001) and more difficult temperament (β=0.04, p< .001) significantly predicted higher procrastination tendency in adolescence. Moreover, parents’ respect for autonomy could mitigate the negative influence of early difficult temperament on procrastination while punitive responses of parents was found to strengthen the relationship between poor effort control and procrastination. This study confirms that temperament traits demonstrated in young children can be an indication of later procrastination tendency but is also contingent on parenting behaviors.

The age at which children access digital devices decreases, leading to potential risks to their development and well-being (Bozzola et al., 2018). The risks seem amplified if parents use devices pervasively (e.g., cannot stay without the smartphone, continuously check the screen) or in an instrumental way towards their children (i.e., to soothe them, to prevent them from getting bored, or to keep them occupied or entertained) (Radesky et al., 2016). These attitudes may be associated with poor parenting quality and low sensitivity to the child’s needs (McDaniel, 2019). The present work explores whether parental smartphone use (PSU) is associated with children’s internalizing and externalizing symptoms and prosocial behavior, directly and indirectly, via the instrumental use of electronic devices in childrearing.
The sample included 292 children (52.10% females) aged 43-100 months (M = 74.54, SD = 14.14). Measures tested: 1) PSU (adapted from Karadag et al., 2015); 2) instrumental use of devices (Mascaro, 2024); 3) children’s internalizing and externalizing symptoms and prosocial behavior, assessed with the SDQ teacher report (Goodman et al., 1997).
Results highlighted that PSU was associated with instrumental use of devices (b = .213, p < .001), which, in turn, was associated with internalizing problems, positively (b = .753, p = .016; Indirect effect: b = .160, [.009, .341]), and with prosocial behavior, negatively (b = -.718, p = .003; Indirect effect: b = -.153, [-.324, -.019]). Direct effects were not significant.
Findings indicate that parents who pervasively use smartphones are more prone to employ digital devices as instruments to calm or entertain their children. This attitude deprives children of proper occasions to interiorize self-regulation strategies and lowers the threshold of frustration and the possibilities of interactions. Therefore, it is feasible that internalizing difficulties increase and that behaviors aimed at facing and helping others decrease.

The Emotional Security Theory (EST), which has been tested for nearly three decades, initially extended the concept of trust from the caregiver-child relationship to include the impact of parental conflict. Later the EST was further expanded to encompass political violence, guided by Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory. Just as research has been conducted on armed conflict environments around the world, researchers should also examine whether there is a relationship between emotional insecurity and adjustment problems among minority adolescents from all around the world. Feeling insecure in the family due to marital conflict, as well as feeling insecure in the community due to political reasons, can lead adolescents to have adjustment problems. In light of the literature, the aim of this study is to measure the emotional security levels of minority adolescents in Turkey within the family and community and to investigate the role of perceptions of emotional security in both context on adolescents' behavioral outcomes, both separately and on an interaction basis. The participants of the study, who are included using purposive sampling method, consist of 30 adolescents from each minority groups in terms of ethnic and/or religious origin (Jews, Alevis and Armenians). Data is collected using the Security in the Interparental Subsystem Scale, the Security in Community Scale, the Social Safeness and Pleasure Scale, the Youth Self Report and a demographic form. Results are evaluated to understand relations between implicit political violence and adolescent adjustment from a social ecological perspective. This study is the first to investigate feelings of insecurity in the community among minority adolescents and aims to expand the scope of relevant theory. In addition, the current study is thought to attract attention in terms of its potential to increase the external validity of the theory.

Keywords: emotional security, minority, political conflict.