PROJECTS
Explore Our Research
Funded by the ISF
Co-PI with Moti Benita
Socialization of Values in the Classroom: The Effect of Teachers' Autonomy Support on Students' Values Internalization and Behavior
Values are broad goals that reflect what is important in people’s lives. A central goal of education systems, especially of teachers, is to assist in the development of students’ values, because well-internalized values can set the stage for socially adaptive behaviors (Benish-Weisman, 2015). Yet student values internalization is taken almost for granted, with surprisingly little attempt to systematically examine whether and how this process happens. Relying on Schwartz’s (1992) Basic Human Values Theory, and self-determination theory (SDT; Ryan & Deci, 2017), this study’s aims to explore: (1) whether teachers inculcate their personal values in their students, using a longitudinal design to determine whether students’ values become more similar to their teachers’ values over time; (2) how teachers’ practices (autonomy supportive vs. controlling) support or undermine students’ internalization of teachers’ values; (3) how these processes relate to students’ value-congruent behavior.
Funded by the BSF
Co-PI with Seth Schwartz
Parent-Youth Acculturation Discrepancies and Their Effects on Family Functioning and Adjustment Among Immigrant Families in the US and Israel
The project aims to test the acculturation discrepancy theory – that parent-adolescent differences in acculturation predict compromised family functioning, which in turn predicts lower well-being, increased anxiety and depressive symptoms, and greater risk for externalizing problems and substance use – longitudinally across both the United States and Israel. The project focuses on recent arrivals from prominent immigrant groups in the two countries (Venezuelans in the US and Former Soviet Union Jews in Israel). The study includes several advances over prior research: (1) testing acculturation discrepancy theory across multiple nations, (2) including discrepancies in multiple components of acculturation (practices, values, and identifications), (3) examining effects of discrepancies across time, to pinpoint precisely which parent-adolescent acculturation discrepancies are most harmful and when they are most harmful, and (4) examining parent outcomes as well as youth outcomes. A sample of parent-youth dyads was recruited and assessed at 6 time points across 3 years. Participants completed measures of heritage and destination cultural practices, values, and identifications, measures of family cohesion, parent involvement, and positive parenting, and measures of immigrant adaptation, well-being, anxiety/depression, externalizing, and substance use.
Anxiety and Identity Formation Among Adolescents Who Stutter
Leading Ph.D. Student: Omer Levy-Kardash
This longitudinal study focuses on the relationship between anxiety and the development of self-identity among adolescents. It examines avoidance and self-esteem as factors that mediate this relationship. This model is examined in two populations: adolescents with fluent speech and adolescents who stutter.
