Mutual influences in parent and adolescent psychological distress.

Using a cross-lagged effect model with 3 waves of panel data, this study examined mutual influences in parent and adolescent psychological distress reported independently by respondents in each of 4 parent–child dyads: mothers–sons, mothers–daughters, fathers–sons, and fathers–daughters. Results showed that parent and adolescent distress were reciprocally related across time, even after earlier emotional status was statistically controlled. These mutual influences in distress, however, were gender specific, with the strongest cross-lagged associations occurring between mothers and sons and fathers and daughters. Moreover, boys were more susceptible to parental distress during early adolescence, girls during early to mid-adolescence. Incremental fit comparisons for alternative models suggest that a son's distress may have more negative consequences for mothers than the reverse. Finally, mutual influences in psychological distress for fathers and daughters were more pronounced for girls who were experiencing the onset of menarche and for girls who recently experienced a school transition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interactional correlates of treatment outcome in behavioral parent training.

52 21–38 yr old mothers and their 2–11 yr old children took part in a behavioral parent-training program to modify aggressive and oppositional child behavior. Several measures of mother–child interaction were obtained for each dyad at baseline, treatment, and follow-up. Measures included sociodemographic variables and home observations. After 1-yr follow-up, measures were compared between dyads who succeeded in the program and dyads who did not. Results show that: (1) unsuccessful mothers were more aversive and indiscriminate in their use of aversive behavior toward their children than successful mothers in all phases; (2) unsuccessful children were more aversive than successful children, but only in treatment and follow-up; and (3) all children evidenced some degree of indiscriminate aversive responding. The majority of unsuccessful dyads scored high on several measures of socioeconomic disadvantage, suggesting that such interactional differences might provide a link to account in part for the impact of adverse socioeconomic factors on mother–child interaction. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of ethnicity in observers’ ratings of mother–child behavior.

This study examined the role of ethnicity in untrained observers’ ratings of videotaped mother–child interactions. Participants were Black, White, and Latino undergraduates (N = 109), who rated videotapes of 4 Black, 4 White, and 4 Latino mother–child dyads. Overall, participants of different ethnicities showed more similarities than differences in their ratings of parent–child behavior. There was, however, evidence that participant ethnicity and parent–child ethnicity interacted for ratings of child defiance/negative emotion. Black and White participants differed in their ratings of Black and White children’s defiance/negative emotion, with members of each ethnic group favoring children of their own ethnic group. Intergroup contact appeared to play a role in ratings of parent behavior among Black observers. Black observers who reported low intergroup contact tended to rate Black mothers high on strictness and low on permissiveness. More research is needed to better understand the role of ethnicity in observers’ ratings of parent and child behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

L'influence du risque psychosocial, des conflits conjugaux et du stress parental sur la qualité de l'interaction mère-gar?on et mère-fille.

Studied the influence of familial and extrafamilial stressors on mother–son and mother–daughter interactions. Ss were 97 mothers and 99 normal preschool and school-age children (aged 31–70 mo). The mother–child dyads were observed in a laboratory setting in the presence of another unfamiliar mother–child pair. The quality of the mother–child interactions was analyzed in relation to questionnaire data on parental stress, marital adjustment, frequency of social contacts, and SES. Results from mother–daughter dyads and the mother–son dyads were compared. Several French-language instruments, including French versions of the Parental Stress Index (R. R. Abidin, 1983) and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (G. B. Spanier, 1976), were used. (English abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early intervention for parents at risk of child abuse and neglect: A preliminary investigation.

An early intervention program for young parents and children who have been identified as being at risk of child maltreatment was evaluated. Thirty mother–child dyads were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: (a) an information group offered by the child protection agency (which served as a control condition) or (b) a special program of behavioral parent training in addition to the agency group. Self-report measures indicated that significant improvements in parenting risk and child behavior problems at posttest and at 3-month follow-up were evident only for mothers who received parent training in addition to information groups. Home observation data were inconclusive, possibly due to the limited opportunities to observe behaviors of interest. Both groups showed improvements in their child-rearing environments and in their children's adaptive behaviors at follow-up. Caseworker ratings of clients' risks of maltreatment and abilities to manage their families at 1-year follow-up significantly favored the families who received parent training in addition to information. Methodological and treatment issues arising from this preliminary investigation of early intervention with diverse population of high-risk parents and children are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences in the socialization of affectionate expression.

87 parent–child pairs were videotaped during the departure routine when the parent left the child at a child-care center. In the 2-parent sample, parent–daughter dyads showed higher levels of overall interaction than parent–son dyads. Although affectionate interaction was high for parent–daughter dyads, the level of affection was particularly low in father–son dyads. The single mother interacted with both sexes at high and nonsignificantly different levels, but did not engage in more affection with her child. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Maternal mood, video-mediated cognitions, and daily stress during home-based, family interactions.

This article presents an in vivo investigation of maternal negative mood, maternal video-mediated cognitions, and daily stressors in families with young children. Specifically, it was hypothesized that greater levels of maternal depressed, anxious, and hostile mood states immediately prior to a daily, reportedly routine, stressful parent–child interaction would be significantly associated with higher percentages of dysfunctional and lower percentages of functional cognitions. Forty-five mothers of 2- to 5-year-old children participated in this study by rating their mood before being videotaped in a daily routine with their child they reported as recurrent and stressful (e.g., mealtime). Using video-mediated recall (VMR) methodology, mothers were instructed to recall their cognitions upon immediate video review. Results indicated that greater levels of negative mood were associated with a greater percentage of dysfunctional cognitions and a smaller percentage of functional cognitions. Levels of maternal depressed mood were significantly and independently associated with greater rates of dysfunctional and lower rates of functional cognitions. Negative mood states were not consistently associated with the amount of maternal self-reported general irrationality, pointing to the utility of the VMR to elicit maternal cognitions specific to the observed interaction, which may have more implications for clinical intervention than more general irrationality measures. Evaluating maternal mood and using video-mediated maternal cognitions regarding daily family stressors can precipitate clinical interventions meant to reduce family-related stress and potentially improve maternal and child mental health outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differences in mothers' and fathers' behaviors toward children: A cross-cultural comparison.

Systematic observations of 78 parent–child dyads in Mexican families revealed a number of differences between maternal and paternal behaviors. Some of the patterns observed run counter to the traditionally held views of Mexican parental roles—for example, that fathers are more aloof and authoritarian, whereas mothers are more warm and nurturant. Fathers, in fact, were found to be more playful and companionable with their children than mothers were, and mothers were more nurturant only in terms of providing immediate physical needs. In addition, fathers, but not mothers, differed significantly in their behavior toward girls and boys: on reprimanding-restrictive and instrumental-directive behaviors they were substantially lower toward girls, whereas they directed more attention and cognitive involvement toward boys. The findings, when compared cross-culturally, proved to be similar to findings obtained in observational studies of parents' interactions with infants and young children in this country. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Post-partum employment patterns, family-based care arrangements, and the mother–infant relationship at age two.

This longitudinal study examined the relations of postpartum maternal employment profiles with infant–mother attachment security, maternal sensitivity, and concurrent child and maternal characteristics in Canada. Ss were 57 mothers (aged 21–37) and their 23–27 mo-old children. Contrary to expectations, dyads where mothers returned to outside work after 6 mo postpartum showed higher Q-sort scores on attachment security than other dyads, and higher sensitivity scores than dyads in which women were not employed outside the home in the 1st 2 yrs. Post 6-mo returners also reported less child domain parental stress, less avoidant coping, and less child externalizing behavior problems than other mothers. Results emphasize the importance of a process-oriented approach to understanding early relationships in a family context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cross-gender effect in two-child families.

Describes an experiment involving 20 2-parent 2-child families with a child of each gender, 10 with the older child a boy and 10 with the older child a girl. The families were videotaped in a standardized situation, and the amount of time spent in various interactive behaviors was recorded for each parent–child dyad. A multivariate ANOVA revealed differences between same-gender parent–child dyads and cross-gender parent–child dyads, with parents displaying less negative verbal behavior to the cross-gender child than to the same-gender child. (6 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Social Relations Model analysis of parent and child play.

Introduces the Social Relations Model (Kenny & LaVoie, 1984) as a new approach for understanding reciprocity during parent–child and sibling play. 32 12-month-old infants and their 3- to 4-year-old siblings were videotaped during separate dyadic sessions in a laboratory playroom with their mothers, their fathers, and each other. Each partner's play was coded using a detailed classification system consisting of six discrete play behaviors. Multivariate analyses indicated that mother–child dyads engaged in more instructive play than father–child dyads, although both parents demonstrated age-appropriate adjustments in their play with their two children. Infants and preschoolers engaged in more elaborate types of play with their parents than with their less socially competent siblings. Social Relations Model analyses revealed that the unique adjustments that family members made to one another outweighed family members' general tendencies to behave in particular ways and the partners' tendencies to elicit particular behaviors from family members. Furthermore, these analyses suggested that parents may be primarily responsible for much of the structuring occurring in children's early social interactions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transactive discussions with peers and adults.

Piaget (1932) hypothesized that peer and adult–child discussions of moral dilemmas are qualitatively different and that children are more likely to use reasoning when interacting with peers. To test this hypothesis, the present study compared the interactive styles of child–child and adult–child dyads engaged in discussions of moral dilemmas, focusing on the use of logical operations (transacts). 48 7- and 11-yr-old girls were paired with either a female agemate or their mother. Ss used transacts in a higher proportion of their conversational turns when interacting with peers than when interacting with mothers. Ss produced proportionally more transactive responses when interacting with mothers because mothers produced proportionally more requests for idea clarification than did peer partners. Self-generated transacts, on the other hand, were produced proportionally more often with peers. When paired with peers, Ss produced transactive statements that operated on the partner's logic more often rather than clarifying their own logic. Results support Piaget's contention that moral discussions with peers feature a more spontaneous use of reasoning than do discussions with adults. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mothers' and toddlers' coordinated joint focus of attention: Variations with maternal dysphoric symptoms.

This investigation compared the attention patterns of 40 toddlers and their mothers with or without dysphoric symptoms in a situation that allowed both common and independent foci of attention. Mother–toddler dyads with a dysphoric mother spent a smaller proportion of the session engaged in attention to an activity in common than did dyads with nondysphoric mothers. In addition, even when primarily attending elsewhere, nondysphoric mothers more extensively time-shared their attention between their child and a competing activity than did dysphoric mothers. Thus, dysphoric mothers appear to attend to an event in common with their children less frequently than do nondysphoric mothers in terms of both their primary focus of attention and their attentiveness to the child when primarily attending to a competing event. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Home observations of mothers and sibling dyads comprised of Down's syndrome and nonhandicapped children.

Observed interaction in 31 mother–child–child triads in which 1 of the children had Down""s syndrome. Down""s syndrome siblings were all aged 18–117 mo, nonhandicapped siblings were aged 12–132 mo, and mothers were aged 30–46 yrs. Mothers were more positive and directive toward their children with Down""s syndrome but received more positive initiations from their nonhandicapped children. Significant reciprocity between mother and child was found in dyads with a handicapped child but not in dyads with a nonhandicapped child. The handicapped child""s negative behavior toward the sibling was the most important predictor of interaction across the triad. Individual differences in the social behavior of children with Down""s syndrome may have an impact throughout family systems. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parental concordance on child rearing and the interactive emphases of parents: Sex-differentiated relationships during the preschool years.

An objective index of parental concordance on child-rearing values was generated in families of 3-year-old children by comparing the independent responses of 70 parent dyads with the set of 91 Child-rearing Practices Report (CRPR) Q-items. The CRPR agreement index was then related to mother–child and father–child structured interaction observed 2 years later in a structured interaction situation. In families of boys, concordance on child rearing was positively associated with parental education. Relations between parental value concordance and parents' interactive emphases were more readily apparent for parents of boys than for parents of girls, with the largest number of correlates obtained in the mother–son dyad. In the sample of boys, converging parental value systems were associated with a maternal interactive style characterized by permissive control strategies, nonauthoritarianism, indirectness of maternal communication, resourcefulness, and by an absence of intrusive and competitive maternal behaviors. In the mother–son dyad, reliable relationships between the CRPR agreement index and maternal interactive behaviors continued to be observed after controlling for mother's education. When the interactive correlates of parental value concordance were compared across the four parent–child dyads, the father–daughter dyad was described as being particularly different from the other three dyads. The implications of these results for the understanding of marriage–parenting relationships as moderated by sex are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parental caregiving and child externalizing behavior in nonclinical samples: A meta-analysis.

A meta-analysis of 47 studies was used to shed light on inconsistencies in the concurrent association between parental caregiving and child externalizing behavior. Parent–child associations were strongest when the measure of caregiving relied on observations or interviews, as opposed to questionnaires, and when the measure tapped combinations of parent behaviors (patterns), as opposed to single behaviors. Stronger parent–child associations were also found for older than for younger children, and for mothers than for fathers. Finally, externalizing was more strongly linked to parental caregiving for boys than for girls, especially among preadolescents and their mothers. The meta-analysis helps account for inconsistencies in findings across previous studies and supports theories emphasizing reciprocity of parent and child behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adaptability and cohesion of dyadic relationships in families with developmentally disabled children.

In 93 families with developmentally disabled children, mothers, fathers, and 1 nondisabled sibling rated the cohesion and adaptability of family dyads using D. A. Cole and A. E. Jordan's (1989) modified version of Olson's Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scale (D. H. Olson et al, 1985). With these multiple perspectives of multiple relationships, multitrait-multimethod confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess the convergent and discriminant validity of dyadic adaptability and cohesion. Three distinct cohesion traits representing the mother–father, father–child, and mother–child relationships were confirmed. In contrast, mother–child and father–child adaptability traits were highly correlated, suggesting a 2-trait model: parent–child adaptability and mother–father adaptability. The importance of this methodology for research on families with developmentally disabled children is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of child gender role and maternal feedback to child stress on the emergence of the gender difference in depressive rumination in adolescence.

Extensive research has linked a greater female tendency to ruminate about depressed feelings or mood to the gender difference in depression. However, the developmental origins of the gender difference in depressive rumination are not well understood. We hypothesized that girls and women may be more likely to ruminate because rumination represents a gender-stereotyped coping style that is associated with a more feminine gender role identity, maternal encouragement of emotion expression, and passive coping responses to stress. This study examined whether child self-reported gender role identity and observed maternal responses to child stress mediated the emergent gender difference in depressive rumination in adolescence. Maternal gender role attitudes were further hypothesized to moderate the relationship between child sex and mediating variables. Rumination and gender role identity were assessed in 316 youths and their mothers in a longitudinal study from age 11 to age 15; in addition, 153 mother–child dyads participated in an observational task at age 11 from which maternal responses to a child stressor were coded. Results indicated that greater feminine gender role identity among children and encouragement of emotion expression by mothers at age 11 significantly mediated the association between child sex and the development of depressive rumination at age 15, even after controlling for rumination at age 11. Maternal gender role attitudes significantly moderated the relationship between child sex and maternal encouragement of emotion expression, such that mothers who endorsed more traditional gender role attitudes themselves were particularly likely to encourage emotion expression in their daughters. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Les pratiques parentales des parents d'enfants en difficultés de comportement: Effets de la dyade parent-enfant.

The study set out to indentify the differences and the similarities in the parental practices of mothers and fathers of kindergarten children known to exhibit problem behaviour (n = 109) as it relates to parenting a son or a daughter. The results obtained from self-reported parental measurements and direct observation of the parent–child dyad in a play situation revealed a greater complicity in dyads of the same sex during the play situation and, in opposite sex dyads, a significant link between the expression of negative parental emotions during interactions and problem behaviour in children. In girls, negative interactions with both parents, particularly the hostile disciplinary practices used by the mother, seem to be associated with problem behaviour; in boys, the mother's feeling of inadequacy and the poor quality of the father's presence seem more closely linked with these difficulties. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's fearfulness as a moderator of parenting in early socialization: Two longitudinal studies.

Findings from 2 longitudinal studies replicate and considerably extend past work on child temperament as a moderating link between parenting and successful socialization outcomes. In Study 1 (N = 106 mothers and children), child fearfulness, mother-child positive relationship, and maternal power assertion were assessed at 22 and 33 months; the outcome-children's moral self-was assessed at 56 months. In Study 2 (N = 102 mothers, fathers, and children), child fearfulness and parent-child positive relationship were assessed at 7 and 15 months; parents' power assertion was assessed at 15 months. The outcomes were children's receptive, willing stance toward the parent at 25 months, and rule-compatible conduct without supervision at 38 months. Child fearfulness significantly moderated the impact of parenting: In both studies, for relatively fearless children, mother-child positive relationship predicted future successful socialization outcomes in mother-child dyads. There was no analogous moderation effect in father-child dyads in Study 2. For relatively fearful children, fathers' power assertion in Study 2 predicted poor socialization outcomes. All Temperament × Parenting interactions appeared limited to measures obtained in the 2nd year. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)