Anecdotal evidence suggests an increase in entitled attitudes and behaviors of youth in school and college settings. Using a newly developed scale to assess ''academic entitlement'' (AE), a construct that includes expectations of high grades for modest effort and demanding attitudes towards teachers, this research is the first to investigate the phenomenon systematically. In two separate samples of ethnically diverse college students comprised largely of East and Southeast Asian American, followed by Caucasians, Latinos, and other groups (total N = 839, age range 18-25 years), we examined the personality, parenting, and motivational correlates of AE. AE was most strongly related to exploitive attitudes towards others and moderately related to an overall sense of entitlement and to narcissism. Students who reported more academically entitled attitudes perceived their parents as exerting achievement pressure marked by social comparison with other youth and materially rewarding good grades, scored higher than their peers in achievement anxiety and extrinsic motivation, and engaged in more academic dishonesty. AE was not significantly associated with GPA.

A developmental cascade model for adolescent substance use beginning in infancy was examined in a sample of children with alcoholic and non-alcoholic parents. The model examined the role of parents’ alcohol diagnoses, depression and antisocial behavior in a cascading process of risk via three major hypothesized pathways: first via parental warmth/sensitivity from toddler to kindergarten age predicting higher parental monitoring in middle childhood through early adolescence serving as a protective pathway for adolescent substance use; second, via child low self-regulation in the preschool years to a continuing externalizing behavior problem pathway leading to underage drinking and higher engagement with substance using peers; and third, via higher social competence from kindergarten age through middle childhood being protective against engagement with delinquent and substance using peers, and leading to lower adolescent substance use. The sample consisted of 227 intact families recruited from the community at 12 months of child age. Results were supportive for the first two pathways to substance use in late adolescence. Among proximal, early adolescent risks, engagement with delinquent peers and parent’s acceptance of underage drinking were significant predictors of late adolescent alcohol and marijuana use. The results highlight the important protective roles of maternal warmth/sensitivity in early childhood to kindergarten age, parental monitoring in middle childhood, and of child self-regulation in the preschool period as reducing risk for externalizing behavior problems, underage drinking, and engagement with delinquent peers in early adolescence. Specific implications for the creation of developmentally fine-tuned preventive intervention are discussed.

a b s t r a c tPrevious personality research (e.g., Campbell et al., 2004) has described the sense of entitlement as an unifactorial construct. In this study, we examined characteristics of two potential facets of entitlement: exploitive entitlement, characterized by exploitive interactions and expectations of special treatment, and non-exploitive entitlement, or entitled beliefs that rest on notions of self-worth and fairness. 466 college students (mean age ¼ 20.5) completed a questionnaire consisting of unifactorial and two-factor measures of entitlement and other personality dispositions and attitudes. As expected, both exploitive and non-exploitive entitlement were positively related to the Psychological Entitlement Scale (PES; r ¼ .51 and r ¼ .43, respectively), an unifactorial measure of entitlement. In other respects, exploitive and non-exploitive entitlement had quite distinct correlates. Exploitive entitlement was uniquely related to higher levels of psychopathy and neuroticism, and lower levels of work orientation, social commitment, and self-esteem; whereas non-exploitive entitlement was uniquely associated with higher self-esteem. Ó

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Previous research has shown inconsistent findings regarding the relations between the functional Val158Met polymorphisms of the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene and individual differences in personality traits. This study attempts to overcome some of the weaknesses of previous research, namely, small sample sizes, clinical samples, ethnic stratification, wide age ranges, neglecting sex differences, and single measures of personality traits. A large sample (n ¼ 556, 250 male, 306 female) of healthy Chinese college students (mean age ¼ 20.5 ± 1 years) was given a battery of personality scales, including the temperament and character inventory-revised, the behavioral inhibition system and behavioral approach system scale, the Beck depression inventory, and the Beck anxiety inventory. Factor analysis of the affect-related personality traits revealed two factors that corresponded to positive (PEM) and negative emotionality (NEM). We found a consistent COMT-by-sex interaction effect on affect-related personality traits. Compared with males with Met/Met alleles, males with Val/Val alleles showed significantly higher scores on NEM, but lower scores on PEM. Females, however, showed an opposite but nonsignificant pattern. Our results supported the role of the COMT gene in personality traits for males and contributed to the growing literature on sex differences in gene-behavior connections.

introduction:Few studies have examined predictors of ever having used electronic cigarettes (or e-cigarettes) among older adolescents. This study examined correlates of ever having used e-cigarettes among adolescent children of alcoholic fathers.

In combination with previous research, these findings increase support for a role of the TPJ in self-appraisal processes, particularly when Chinese young adults consider peer perspectives. The possible functional contributions provided by the TPJ are explored and discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

The present research reveals the bi-directional relationship between career-related control beliefs and strivings, and their predictive relationship with hours of gainful employment. Three waves of data of a longitudinal study of 532 graduating high school seniors from four ethnically diverse schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results show individuals' career-related personal control beliefs in effort and social connections, but not in ability or luck, were significantly predictive of career-related control strivings 1 year later. Thus, only personal control beliefs in causal factors that are contingent on an individual's primary control strivings to enact effects are predictive of active motivational engagement in pursuit of career-related goals. Regarding the inverse direction of influence (i.e., strivings predict beliefs), career-related control strivings were significantly predictive of careerrelated personal control beliefs in ability, effort, and social connections, but not luck, 1 year later. These results support the idea that active goal engagement creates an implemental mindset that optimistically biases individuals' beliefs in their personal control over causal factors relevant to attaining a pursued career-related goal. In addition, the results show that career-related control strivings, but not career-related personal control beliefs, are significantly positively associated with the number of hours of gainful employment worked 1-year later, supporting a beliefsstrivings-outcome sequential relationship.