Religiosity tends to decline across generations. However, religious decline is more pronounced in some countries and the diminishing aspects of religion vary by context. To explain such variation, we extend the general secular transition model, which proposes that countries undergo a similar process of secularization beginning at different points in time. We explain that secular transition happens in three steps: first, public ritual participation declines; second, the importance of religion to individuals declines; and third, people shed religious affiliation. We test this model using datasets from surveys in 111 countries (Pew Research Center), 58 countries (World Values Survey and European Values Study (WVS/EVS)), and a subset of 17 countries measured in at least five WVS/EVS waves. We show the model fits countries with Christian, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist pluralities. While Eastern post-Soviet countries deviate from this pattern, traditionally Muslim countries appear to follow its early stages. However, we recommend caution in interpreting longitudinal claims, due to limited data.

During adulthood, personality characteristics may contribute to the individual capacity to compensate the impact of developing cerebral Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology on cognitive impairment in later life. In this study we aimed to investigate whether and how premorbid personality traits interact with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) markers of AD pathology to predict cognitive performance in subjects with mild cognitive impairment or mild AD dementia and in participants with normal cognition. One hundred and ten subjects, of whom 66 were patients with mild cognitive impairment or mild AD dementia and 44 were healthy controls, had a comprehensive medical and neuropsychological examination as well as lumbar puncture to measure CSF biomarkers of AD pathology (amyloid beta1–42, phosphorylated tau and total-tau). Participants’ proxies completed the Revised NEO Personality Inventory, Form R to retrospectively assess subjects’ premorbid personality. In hierarchical multivariate regression analyses, including age, gender, education, APOEε4 status and cognitive level, premorbid neuroticism, conscientiousness and agreeableness modulated the effect of CSF biomarkers on cognitive performance. Low premorbid openness independently predicted lower levels of cognitive functioning after controlling for biomarker concentrations. Our findings suggest that specific premorbid personality traits are associated with cerebral AD pathology and modulate its impact on cognitive performance. Considering personality characteristics may help to appraise a person’s cognitive reserve and the risk of cognitive decline in later life.

The literature reveals particularly high standards of good parenting in Western societies, especially for mothers. However, parents as active agents of their parenting may react differently to societal prescriptions, and this variability may translate into different parental practices. The present article had two aims. A first aim was to identify profiles of parents by considering their adherence to intensive parenting beliefs, their perceived societal pressure to be a perfect parent, and their gender essentialist beliefs (i.e., the idea that mothers are naturally better parents than fathers). A second aim was to examine differences between parent profiles in terms of positive and negative parental involvement. To identify clusters among mothers and fathers, we conducted model-based cluster analysis (Fraley & Raftery, 1998) on a sample of 1,002 Belgian parents (609 mothers and 393 fathers) of adolescents (M_age = 16.83, SD = 0.96; 53% girls), based on parents' scores on intensive parenting beliefs, gender essentialism, and perceived societal pressure. Differences between mothers' and fathers' clusters were examined in terms of interpersonal involvement, responsiveness, autonomy support, overprotection and controlling parenting. Analyses revealed five clusters for mothers and three for fathers. In both samples, traditional intensive profiles were associated to higher levels of parental overprotection and controlling parenting whereas no cluster differences were found in terms of positive parenting. These results suggest that demanding social prescriptions of parenthood may have an ironical effect as they might push some mothers and fathers to adopt parenting practices that are less attuned to their adolescents' developmental needs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

In many Western countries, the ideology of intensive parenting has gained prominence in the discourse of experts, policymakers, and within popular culture. This ideology emphasizes deep parental involvement in emotional, physical, and financial aspects (Lee et al., 2014). Meeting these demanding standards can exert significant pressure on parents, especially on mothers often considered as the primary caregiver. Moreover, these pressures may prompt parents to be highly, and potentially overly, involved in their children’s lives. Using data from 146 parent dyads (N = 292 parents; M_age = 47.57 years) of Swiss adolescents, the study explores parental perceptions of pressure to be a perfect parent and its association with one positive (responsiveness) and two negative types of involvement (overprotection and overvaluation). Thereby, we estimated Actor-Partner Interdependence Models (APIM) to examine mutual influences between mothers and fathers. The results indicated that mothers reported experiencing significantly more pressure than fathers. We found evidence for a positive association between perceptions of pressure and parental overprotection among both parents. The results also showed that there was a significant association between feelings of pressure and overvaluation, but only among fathers. Associations between pressure and responsiveness were not significant, and no significant partner effects were observed in any of the models. In conclusion, mothers particularly face heightened pressure to be perfect parents, but both parents may adapt their parenting strategies in response to perceived pressure to be perfect as a parent. These findings highlight the potential issues associated with societal pressures on parents and their impact on parenting behavior.

This study aimed to test empirically the developmental goal pursuit model of paediatric chronic pain, which draws upon Self-Determination Theory for understanding risks and resources for living with chronic pain. This study examined the relationship between basic psychological need satisfaction (i.e. the satisfaction of the needs for autonomy, relatedness and competence) and the fear-avoidance model of pain in adolescents suffering from chronic pain. Hundred and twenty adolescents (mean age = 14.52, 71.6% female), receiving treatment through paediatric pain centres for chronic pain, were enrolled. Adolescents completed measures of basic psychological need satisfaction, fear and avoidance of pain, and pain-related functional impairment. Path analyses model indicated that higher levels of autonomy and competence satisfaction were associated with lower levels of functional disability, through the mediation of fear and avoidance of pain. Relatedness satisfaction was not significatively related to fear of pain, avoidance, and functional disability. The integration of Self-Determination Theory in the paediatric pain literature may further our understanding of potential resources for decreasing functional disability in children living with chronic pain.