Browsing by Author "Ruffman, Ted"

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Examining the Indirect Role of Perceived Normativeness in the Association Between Collectivistic Values and Psychological Control of Turkish Mothers
(Wiley, 2023) Yavuz, Hatice Melis; Tuncay, İpek; Ruffman, Ted; Selçuk, Bilge
Parental psychological control has previously been related to negative developmental outcomes. However, fewer studies examined the cultural factors associated with parental psychological control. Several studies suggested that psychological control is used more by mothers in collectivistic (as compared to individualistic) cultures yet did not examine the mother's personal endorsement of the cultural values. This approach ignores the widely reported findings showing within country heterogeneity. In this study, we examined maternal adherence to collectivistic values and their psychologically controlling behaviour directed towards their preschool children. We also examined the indirect role of perceived normativeness of the psychologically controlling behaviour in the association between adherence to collectivistic values and using psychologically controlling behaviours. We hypothesized that mothers who endorsed collectivistic values more would perceive psychologically controlling parenting as more normative and in turn would display more psychological control. To test our research question, we collected data from 318 Turkish mothers, who had at least one preschool-aged child (child Mage = 59.46 months, SD = 9.23; range = 34-80 months; 160 males). The descriptive analyses are planned to be run in SPSS and path analyses in mplus are planned for examining the hypothesized mediational model.
Citation - WoS: 17
Citation - Scopus: 18
Executive Function and Theory of Mind as Predictors of Socially Withdrawn Behavior in Institutionalized Children
(Wiley, 2017) Yavuz, H. Melis; Selçuk, Bilge; Harma, Mehmet; Etel, Evren; Ruffman, Ted
False-belief understanding and executive functions are two main sociocognitive abilities reliably linked to child social competence. Although institution-reared children are especially at risk for behavioral problems and cognitive delays, the role that executive function and false-belief understanding might play in the social withdrawal of institutionalized children has not been examined. The current study used two-wave data to investigate the concurrent and longitudinal relations of social withdrawal with executive function and false-belief understanding in institutionalized children; it also allowed investigation of the directionality between executive function and false-belief understanding. Data were collected from 66 Turkish children (T1 M 5 = 57.83 months, SD = 9.20; T2 M = 69.58 months, SD = 8.45) residing in institutions, at two time points, approximately 1 year apart. We measured false-belief understanding and executive function via individual assessments, and social withdrawal via care provider reports at both time points. Results showed that both executive function and false-belief understanding increased between T1 and T2, while social withdrawal did not show a significant change. Path analysis revealed that when T1 age and language were controlled, T1 executive function predicted T2 executive function, and in turn, T2 executive function predicted lessened social withdrawal at T2. In addition, T1 executive function predicted T2 false-belief understanding. T1 false-belief understanding was not related to T2 false-belief understanding, executive function, or social withdrawal. Findings suggested that executive function is an important predictor of social withdrawal in high-risk populations.
An Evaluation of the Psychometric Properties of the Strengths and Difficulties Scale in Turkey: Implications for Other Non-Weird Countries
(Wiley, 2023) Selçuk, Bilge; Tuncay, İpek; Arikan, Kübra; Yavus-Muren, H. Melis; Ruffman, Ted
The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a very widely used scale in which parents, teachers or the child rate various aspects of the child's well-being. It is widely used in the Western world and is translated into 80+ languages. It is also used in countries that do not classify as WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic). However, unlike WEIRD countries, some studies indicate that the psychometric properties of the SDQ when used in non-WEIRD countries are questionable. Therefore, we gave the SDQ to the mothers and teachers of 310 3- to 5-year-olds in urban centres of Turkey and examined its psychometric properties. Turkey is not a WEIRD country because it is not Western, although the participants in our study were well educated, living in an industrialized area, rich relative to others in Turkey (although poor relative to Westerners) and democratic. As such, it is not drastically different from WEIRD countries and our question was whether even relatively small deviations from standard WEIRD criteria could result in questionable psychometric properties for the SDQ.