Developmental and Educational Psychology, Social Psychology, Multidisciplinary, Life-span and Life-course Studies
9
Scopus Publications
Scopus Publications
Estimating students' online learning satisfaction during COVID-19: A discriminant analysis Mais Al-Nasa'h, Luae' Al-Tarawneh, Ferial M. Abu Awwad, Ikhlas Ahmad Heliyon, 2021 This study aims to examine online learning effects regarding self-efficacy, generalized anxiety, and fear of COVID-19 on three distinct online learning satisfaction levels (low, moderate, and high) among university students. A cross-sectional survey was utilized for data collection between June 2020 and August 2020 to assess students' online self-efficacy, general anxiety, fear of COVID-19, and online learning satisfaction. The descriptive data analysis demonstrated a fundamental understanding of the gathered data results. Meanwhile, discriminant data analysis was employed to explore different online learning satisfaction levels following various study factors. The correlational analysis implied online learning self-efficacy to be significantly and positively associated with online learning satisfaction while general anxiety and fear of COVID-19 were significantly and negatively related to online learning satisfaction. The discriminant analysis revealed the emergence of three online learning satisfaction levels from online self-efficacy, general anxiety, and fear of COVID-19. This study theoretically justified the essentiality of online learning self-efficacy towards online learning satisfaction. High online learning satisfaction levels occurred with high online self-efficacy, moderate general anxiety, and low fear of COVID-19. Two discriminant functions (academic engagement and fear) were subsequently evolved. Academic engagement corresponded to online self-efficacy and general anxiety while fear was associated with COVID-19. In this vein, online learning self-efficacy and moderate general anxiety led to high online learning satisfaction. The fear of COVID-19 also required alleviation towards online learning satisfaction. For example, academicians and policymakers needed to focus on developing online self-efficacy and reducing the fear of COVID-19 for high online learning satisfaction.
Palestinian refugee youth in jordan: Parental practices, neighborhood cohesion and assistance and adolescent wellbeing Ikhlas Ahmad, Judith Smetana International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2021 In this study, a total of 335 Palestinian refugees (M = 15.5 years, SD = 1.05, 49% males), recruited from four United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) schools at the Al-Baqa’a and Jabal Al-Hussein refugee camps in Jordan, rated their neighborhood physical environment and neighborhood support and cohesion, separately rated their mothers’ and fathers’ parenting on several dimensions, and reported on their adjustment to these circumstances (internalizing symptoms, self-concept clarity, and norm breaking). Living in more dangerous physical environments was associated with higher levels of refugee youths’ internalizing symptoms and norm breaking, but effects were not significant when parenting was considered. Our study showed that higher levels of psychological control–disrespect (significantly for fathers and marginally for mothers) and marginally, higher levels of maternal harsh punishment were associated with more teen internalizing symptoms. In addition, fathers’ greater psychological control and lower levels of support had a marginally significant effect on teens’ greater norm breaking. For behavioral control, only mothers’ greater behavioral control was associated with refugee youths’ greater self-concept clarity but not with paternal behavioral control. Thus, fathers’ psychological control and mothers’ behavioral control had the biggest association with adolescent outcomes.
Heterogeneity in Perceptions of Parenting Among Arab Refugee Adolescents in Jordan Judith G. Smetana, Ikhlas Ahmad Child Development, 2018 Heterogeneity in parenting was examined in 883 Arab refugee adolescents in Jordan (Mage = 15.01 years, SD = 1.60). Latent profile analyses of five parenting dimensions rated separately for mothers and fathers yielded authoritative, authoritarian, indifferent, punitive, and for mothers, permissive profiles, with most mothers (60%) and fathers (66%) classified as authoritative. Parenting was more often authoritative for women than men and punitive (for fathers) or permissive (for mothers) of boys than girls. Authoritative fathers and authoritarian mothers were better educated than punitive parents, whose offspring reported more norm breaking and internalizing symptoms and lower academic achievement than other youth. Adjustment was better when adolescents had at least one authoritative parent than when parents were either consistent or discrepant but nonauthoritative.
Beliefs about parental authority legitimacy among refugee youth in jordan: Between- and Within-Person variations Judith G. Smetana, Ikhlas Ahmad, Laura Wray-Lake Developmental Psychology, 2016 We examined within- and between-person variations in parental legitimacy beliefs in a sample of 883 Arab refugee youth (M(age) = 15.01 years, SD = 1.60), 277 Iraqis, 275 Syrians, and 331 Palestinians, in Amman, Jordan. Latent profile analyses of 22 belief items yielded 4 profiles of youth. The normative profile (67% of the sample, n = 585) most strongly endorsed parental authority legitimacy for prudential (risky) items, followed by moral, conventional, and then friendship items, with legitimacy lowest for personal items. The low-normative profile (10%, n = 85) followed a similar pattern, although legitimacy ratings were significantly lower than normative youth for most items, but not the personal ones. Rebellious youth (11%, n = 96) held deviant peer values; they endorsed less legitimacy, particularly for prudential and friendship items, than did youth in other profiles. Mixed youth (12%, n = 101) were similar to rebellious youth in some judgments and ryouth in others. Profile membership did not differ by adolescents' age or parental socioeconomic status but did differ by gender and national background. Youth fitting the normative (and to some extent, the low-normative) profile rated parents higher in support, behavioral control, and knowledge of adolescents' activities and lower in psychological control-disrespect and harsh punishment than did rebellious or mixed youth. Normative (and also, but less consistently, low-normative) youth reported better psychosocial adjustment across multiple measures than did rebellious and mixed youth. (PsycINFO Database Record
Iraqi, Syrian, and Palestinian Refugee Adolescents' Beliefs About Parental Authority Legitimacy and Its Correlates Judith G. Smetana, Ikhlas Ahmad, Laura Wray-Lake Child Development, 2015 This study examined intra- and interindividual variations in parental legitimacy beliefs in a sample of 883 Arab refugee adolescents (M(age) = 15.01 years, SD = 1.60), 277 Iraqis, 275 Syrians, and 331 Palestinians in Amman, Jordan. Confirmatory factor analyses showed distinct latent factors for moral-conventional, prudential, and personal legitimacy items. Older adolescents rated legitimacy lower for personal issues, but higher for prudential issues. Beliefs were associated with socioeconomic status (fathers' education, family size), particularly for personal issues, but were more pervasively associated with displacement-related experiences. Greater war trauma was associated with less prudential legitimacy for all youth and more authority legitimacy over moral-conventional issues for Syrian youth. Greater hopefulness was associated with more authority legitimacy over all but personal issues.
Maternal Monitoring, Adolescent Disclosure, and Adolescent Adjustment Among Palestinian Refugee Youth in Jordan Ikhlas Ahmad, Judith G. Smetana, Theo Klimstra Journal of Research on Adolescence, 2015 The role of parenting (adolescent-perceived maternal solicitation of information and control), and child-driven processes (adolescent disclosure and secrecy) in parental knowledge of adolescents' activities, norm-breaking, and anxiety were examined among 498 poor Palestinian youth (M = 15 years) living in refugee camps in Jordan. With family relationships and demographic background controlled, greater adolescent disclosure and less secrecy about activities, but also more maternal control and solicitation, were associated with greater maternal knowledge. Greater dispositional secrecy was associated with greater norm-breaking and generalized anxiety, but parental control and parental solicitation were not. In addition, both gender and maternal control moderated the effects of disclosure on norm-breaking. Differences between these findings and research with Western samples are discussed.
The relations of Arab Jordanian adolescents' perceived maternal parenting to teacher-rated adjustment and problems: the intervening role of perceived need satisfaction. Ikhlas Ahmad, Maarten Vansteenkiste, Bart Soenens Developmental Psychology, 2013 Although the effects of important parenting dimensions, such as responsiveness and psychological control, are well documented among Western populations, research has only recently begun to systematically identify psychological processes that may account for the cross-cultural generalization of these effects. A first aim of this study was to examine whether perceived maternal responsiveness and psychological control would relate differentially to teacher ratings of adolescent adjustment in a vertical-collectivist society (i.e., Jordan). The most important aim of this study was to examine, on the basis of self-determination theory, whether these associations would be accounted for by perceived satisfaction of the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Results in a large sample of Jordanian adolescents (N = 545) showed that perceived maternal psychological control and responsiveness yielded, respectively, a positive and negative association with teacher-rated problems, whereas psychological control was negatively related to teacher-rated adjustment. Further, these 2 parenting dimensions related to adjustment and problems via perceived satisfaction of the basic psychological needs for autonomy and competence (but not relatedness). The findings are discussed in light of the ongoing debate between universalistic and relativistic perspectives on parenting and adolescent adjustment.
Perceived Maternal Parenting as a Mediator of the Intergenerational Similarity of Dependency and Self-Criticism: A Study With Arab Jordanian Adolescents and Their Mothers Ikhlas Ahmad, Bart Soenens Journal of Family Psychology, 2010 This study investigated the intergenerational similarity of personality vulnerability to depression as conceptualized by Blatt (1974) in a sample of Arab Jordanian mothers and their adolescents. Perceived maternal parenting was examined as a mediator of the intergenerational similarity of two personality vulnerabilities; that is, dependency and self-criticism. Both mothers and adolescents (N = 298 families) completed the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ) to tap into personality vulnerability and adolescents additionally provided ratings of maternal parenting (support and psychological control) and depressive symptoms. Findings showed significant and specific associations between mothers' and adolescents' dependency and self-criticism. Perceived maternal parenting was found to mediate this intergenerational similarity at least partially. This study is among the first to test developmental hypotheses derived from Blatt's theory in a non-Western sample. Findings show striking similarity with data obtained in the West and, as such, contribute to the cross-cultural generalization of the theory.
