The Multisource Assessment of Social Competence Scale was developed, based on the School Social Behavior Scale and examined to test the factor pattern and the consistency of the ratings of self, peers, teachers, and parents. The findings of the confirmatory factor analysis supported a four-factor solution consistent with two main dimensions (prosocial and antisocial), each divided into two subdimensions (cooperating skills, empathy, impulsivity, and disruptiveness). The resultant model was cross-validated with a new sample. The fit indexes implied that the factor patterns were invariant for the two samples. The correlations between the four social agents were statistically significant, albeit quite low, indicating that the different sources tend to provide divergent pictures of a child's social competence. Statistically significant differences in social competence were found between educational settings and between genders.

This study examined the relationships between social loneliness, emotional loneliness, social anxiety and peer victimisation among 390 seventh-through ninth-grade secondary students. Data were collected in the fall and spring of the school year. Path analyses revealed that feelings of loneliness (both social and emotional) increased adolescents' peer victimisation experiences, however social loneliness was associated with higher levels of peer victimisation than emotional loneliness in seventh and eighth grade. Early experiences of social anxiety significantly predicted bullying victimisation. Implications for research and intervention programmes are discussed.

The aim of this study was to examine the existence of the intergenerational transmission of loneliness between parents and children, including an examination of its stability and of gender differences. The study consisted of an evaluation of loneliness in mothers (n= 834), fathers (n= 661) and their 10-year-old children (n= 981). Parent's self-reported loneliness was measured once, and their children's social and emotional loneliness were assessed at three time-points. The stability analysis indicated average stability in children's loneliness, especially their social loneliness. Boys were found to experience more emotional loneliness than girls. Structural equation modeling indicated no direct relationship between mothers'/fathers' loneliness and their children's loneliness. However, mothers' and fathers' loneliness reduced their daughters' peer-evaluated cooperating skills, which consequently predicted higher levels of both social and emotional loneliness.

Our aim was to study the inter-correlations and developmental pathways of mothers' and fathers' social and emotional loneliness during pregnancy (20th pregnancy week), infancy (child aged 8 months), and early childhood (child aged 18 months). Moreover, we aimed to study whether mothers and fathers who have different developmental profiles (identified by latent growth curve mixture models) differ in their experiences of marital dissatisfaction (RDAS), social phobia (SPIN) and depression (BDI) during pregnancy. Both mothers' social and emotional loneliness and fathers' social and emotional loneliness were highly stable, and within individuals these loneliness factors were strongly correlated. However, the correlations between mothers' loneliness experiences and fathers' loneliness experiences were weaker than expected. Separate latent growth curve groups were identified, which differed in feelings of marital dissatisfaction, social phobia, and depression. These groupings revealed that the higher the loneliness was, the more the parents experience these other psychosocial problems.

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Maternal prenatal symptoms of depression and anxiety have been suggested to impose differential effects on later offspring development, depending on their characteristics, such as timing, intensity and persistence. Paternal symptoms have been less investigated. While knowledge on these trajectory characteristics is essential for improved comprehension of prenatal stress, prospective studies including both expecting parents have been scarce. We aim at identifying and comparing the trajectories of prenatal depressive and anxiety symptoms in both parents in a pregnancy cohort design. The sample included 3202 mothers and 2076 fathers who were recruited to the FinnBrain Birth Cohort study (www.finnbrain.fi). Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and general anxiety by the anxiety scale of the Symptom Checklist -90 (SCL-90) repeatedly at 14, 24, and 34 gestational weeks. Five differential depressive and four anxiety symptom trajectories were identified across pregnancy both in mothers and in fathers. The trajectories of consistently low depressive or anxiety symptoms were associated with higher educational level in both parents, and with nulliparity and non-smoking during pregnancy in mothers. Parents with consistently high or increasing levels of symptoms had more often prenatal SSRI medication. The congruences between elevated depressive and anxiety symptoms at any point in pregnancy, as well as parental trajectories within families were low. However, in this population-based sample, the self-reported symptom levels of both parents were generally very low. Variance in timing and persistence of parent-reported prenatal depressive and anxiety symptoms is potentially important, while symptom trajectories are very similar in mothers and fathers. These differential symptom trajectories and the significance of their correlates should be acknowledged when studying prenatal stress exposures and the related outcomes in children.

Loneliness was a common phenomenon in childhood, and no notable changes were found during the 24-year study period. Psychiatric symptoms were strongly associated with loneliness. It is important to pay attention to children's loneliness and make it an integral part of school health care. Further epidemiological research is needed.

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