The first issue of Journal for Person-Oriented Research (JPOR) was published in 2015, representing the first international journal specifically focused on person-oriented research. With this issue, the JPOR completes its tenth yearly volume. The status of JPOR as a truly international journal is reflected in the number of published articles from different countries. The number of submissions to JPOR has been steadily increasing, as has also its CiteScore as measured by Scopus. A call is made for papers on the application of non-linear dynamic system modelling.

The purpose of this study was to explore the role of social support for posttraumatic growth (PTG) and identity processes in a sample of 217 women victims of intimate partner violence (IPV), recruited from women shelters, social support centers, and through counseling psychologists. The results of the study highlight the important role of social support in seeking positive personal resolutions after experiencing traumatic events of IPV. It indicates that social support, but not social nonsupport, predicts higher levels of PTG and the development of new positive identities. In particular, social support was positively associated with the manifestation of all five identity processes, that is, with identification with commitment, commitment making, exploration in breadth, exploration in depth, and ruminative exploration. Furthermore, contextual and socioeconomic factors, such as time after last violence, relationships with the perpetrator, place of residence, education, and age of the victims of IPV were also related to identity processes. Severity of the violence, time after the last violence, education, and personal income were related to PTG. Thus, this study indicated that there are significant contextual and socioeconomic differences in the PTG and reconsideration of one's identity. Recommendations for practitioners and future research have been suggested.

The purpose of this series of three cross-sectional studies was to identify typical syndromes of self-reported externalizing and internalizing problems, and examine their overlap, among adolescent girls and young women in Swedish special residential homes for young people (N = 713). The associations with some family background factors were also investigated. Data came from a research register at the Swedish National Board of Institutional Care and concerned structured interviews with all girls admitted to these homes from 1997 to 2001. An advanced clustering procedure was applied and significant syndrome structures were retrieved in both the externalizing and internalizing area. Among the nine externalizing syndromes were a low-problem syndrome and two multiple-problem syndromes, one combining aggressive behavior, alcohol use/abuse and criminality, and the other combining drug abuse with property/drug offenses. Among the seven internalizing syndromes were a low-problem syndrome, an anxiety/depression syndrome and a generalized internalizing syndrome with particularly high rates of physical and sexual abuse. Results supported the theoretical assumption, made within a holistic-interactionistic paradigm, that adjustment problems would co-occur in a limited number of syndromes. When the overlap between externalizing and internalizing syndromes was considered, good adjustment was generalized between the two areas, whereas there appeared to be an increased risk of having an internalizing syndrome among girls with externalizing syndromes related to aggressive behavior. It is of great importance to consider the full problem pattern of girls with externalizing adjustment problems, including internalizing problems and histories of physical and sexual abuse, when considering subgroups in need of different treatment regimes.

The educational and vocational careers of adolescents with below average IQ were studied in a sample of Swedish adolescents (N = 1326), born in 1955 and followed from early adolescence to midlife. Compared to those with average IQ, the level of education and occupational status achieved by those with below average IQ were, generally, considerably lower. This was the case, in particular, for female participants in the lowest IQ group. No significant relationships were found between parents' socioeconomic status and educational level, income, or occupational status in midlife for adolescents with low IQ (lowest 20%). When those with a successful educational or vocational career were compared to others on a number of competence factors, own educational aspirations stood out as the factor that differed most within each IQ group between those who succeeded and those who did not. The differences were largest for those of low IQ (effect sizes 0.4–1.6). These findings were consistent with results from multiple regression analyses, which, for instance, showed that, within the low IQ group and controlling for confounders, the only significant predictor of career outcomes was educational aspirations.

The psychological and social adjustment of high-IQ adolescents (top 10%) were studied for a Swedish cohort born in 1955 (N = 1,326 with IQ data). The focus was on comparing high-IQ adolescents to adolescents of average IQ with regard to their adjustment in adolescence and 30 years later in midlife. The research design enabled us also to study linear and nonlinear relationships of high IQ to adjustment. In adolescence, those with high IQ had better adjustment than those of average IQ in most studied adjustment areas, most strongly so for school achievement, capacity to concentrate, and absence of unhappiness. Data from official records showed that higher IQ was related to less alcohol, criminal, and mental problems in childhood and young adulthood. In midlife, the adjustment differences between those of high IQ and those of average IQ were usually nonsignificant, but for some adjustment indicators, adjustment was moderately worse for the high-IQ group, for instance in global life satisfaction and in satisfaction with friend relations. Controlling for school achievement absorbed almost all significant IQ-adjustment associations, which supports the idea of school achievement as a mediator between IQ and adjustment.

To what extent do intellectually talented adolescents pursue educational and vocational careers that match their intellectual resources? Career outcomes were compared between groups within different IQ ranges with a focus on comparing those with high IQ (top 10%, IQ > 119) to those with average IQ. Data were analyzed from the longitudinal Swedish IDA study (N = 1,326) with career outcomes measured in midlife (age 43–47). To obtain at least a master’s degree was almost 10 times more common for those of high IQ than for those of average IQ. Still, the proportion of high-IQ adolescents who did this was not high (13% of females, 34% of males) and as much as 20% of them did not even graduate from 3-year high school. For men only, there was a graded raise in income by IQ group.Within the high-IQ group there was no significant relationship between parents’ socioeconomic status and income. For men, high IQ predicted a strongly increased income/vocational level in midlife beyond what was predicted from a linear model of the IQ-outcome relationship.

This article provides a summary and treatment of the wider implications of the findings reported in four empirical articles, in which the importance for outcomes in midlife of having a high IQ was studied. All studies were based on data from the Swedish longitudinal research program Individual Development and Adaptation (N = 1,326, born 1955). Some highlights from the studies include the identification of a nonlinear relationship between IQ and a number of adult outcomes, suggesting that nonlinear IQ-outcome relationships might not be rare. In common with numerous studies of IQ-outcome relationships, parents’ socioeconomic status was found to be a moderately strong predictor of vocational outcomes when the whole sample was studied. However, within the high-IQ group no significant relationship existed. In adolescence, the adjustment for those of high IQ was often better than for those of average IQ, but in midlife this positive difference often disappeared and was in some cases reversed. Intellectually talented women as compared to intellectually talented men often had considerably less successful careers, especially vocational careers. Underachieving women as compared to women who did not underachieve also tended to have more adjustment roblems in midlife. It was concluded that schools and their personnel must be adequately supported to “make good on” society’s obligation to further the potential of students that show early intellectual talent. Given past and current inequalities of opportunity, this seems especially important for bright girls and women.

In this chapter, we apply the expectancy-value model of motivation, particularly the family socialization aspect of the model (Eccles (Parsons) et al., 1983; Eccles, 1994, 2007; Wigfield & Eccles, 2002) to address a number of key questions regarding gender differences in adult attainment, in particular educational attainment. When some individuals in the work force of today were children, what kinds of expectations did they have for themselves? What expectations did their parents have for them? Did these expectations vary for girls and boys? Were parents' expectations about their children's future education related to the actual education that these adolescents later attained in midlife? How did the child's academic ability and characteristics of the family figure into this picture? We present original empirical findings, drawing on data collected for a Swedish longitudinal study that spans from childhood to middle adulthood. In line with the expectancy-value model of motivation, the family's socioeconomic status (SES) was identified as an important predictor of several outcomes. Consistent with the model, for both genders, the family's SES and parental educational expectations in middle adolescence predicted middle adult educational attainment. The importance of grades differed by gender in that the mathematics grade was a statistically significant predictor of middle adult educational attainment for males, while for females grades in Swedish were a statistically significant predictor of middle adult educational attainment. In this chapter, we situated these study findings in the wider pertinent scholarly literature and discussed the implications of our results as they might relate to efforts to promote equitable and optimal life chances for the current generation of European girls and boys.

Inquiry into what intellectual talent is and how social institutions can support intellectually talented youth are historic, internationally held concerns. This article provides an introduction to a special issue that deals with the implications of high IQ in early adolescence for several important midlife outcomes. From a societal perspective, it is vital to know the extent to which intellectually talented youth attain an advanced education and become engaged in qualified occupations. Studies in this issue document a diversity of midlife outcomes for a large, reasonably representative urban cohort of intellectually talented Swedish adolescents, as well as consider the importance of gender and social class for these outcomes.

Earlier studies have indicated the importance of IQ, educational aspirations, school grades, and task persistence during childhood and adolescence for later educational and vocational attainment. In this study, these characteristics were studied from a person-oriented perspective, identifying typical competence profiles using cluster analysis. The aim was to investigate a potential career bonus for adolescents with a highly positive competence profile for later educational and occupational success. Data were analyzed from the longitudinal Swedish Individual Development and Adaptation (IDA) study (N = 1326) with career outcomes measured in midlife (age 43-47). Results showed that having a highly positive competence profile predicted higher income and increased the probability of having a high occupational level, controlling for the separate competence components. The effects were only significant for males. Taken together, our findings support the idea that adolescent boys with a highly positive competence profile are optimized for career success to a larger extent than could be expected from the competence components considered separately.