Families created through surrogacy: Mother–child relationships and children's psychological adjustment at age 7.

Each year, an increasing number of children are born through surrogacy and thus lack a genetic and/or gestational link with their mother. This study examined the impact of surrogacy on mother–child relationships and children's psychological adjustment. Assessments of maternal positivity, maternal negativity, mother–child interaction, and child adjustment were administered to 32 surrogacy, 32 egg donation, and 54 natural conception families with a 7-year-old child. No differences were found for maternal negativity, maternal positivity, or child adjustment, although the surrogacy and egg donation families showed less positive mother–child interaction than the natural conception families. The findings suggest that both surrogacy and egg donation families function well in the early school years. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parent–child interaction among depressed fathers and mothers: Impact on child functioning.

Relatively little is known about whether children of depressed mothers versus fathers demonstrate similar difficulties and whether parent-child interaction moderates the effects of maternal depression, paternal depression, or both. In the current study, intact families with a depressed father (n?=?50), a depressed mother (n?=?41), and normal control families (n?=?50) completed questionnaires and participated in videotaped problem-solving interactions. Results indicate that paternal and maternal depression were similarly associated with child adjustment problems and more impaired parent-child communication. Interestingly, maternal versus paternal depression was associated with increased parent-child negativity, whereas father-child interactions were more influential than mother-child interactions in predicting child outcome after controlling for parental depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Victimization by peers: Associations with children's reports of mother–child interaction.

Children who are chronically victimized by peers are at risk for personal difficulties. This study examined whether victimization is associated with mother–child interaction at home. Preadolescents (N?=?184; mean age?=?11.7 years) reported on their mother"s child-rearing practices and on how they cope during conflicts with their mother. Peers reported on victimization at school. Sex-specific links between perceived family interaction and peer victimization were found. For boys, victimization was associated with perceived maternal overprotectiveness, especially when boys reported reacting with fear during mother–child conflict. For girls, victimization was associated with perceived maternal rejection and with girls" reports of aggressive coping during mother–child conflict. Results support the theory that parenting that hinders children"s development of gender-salient competencies (autonomy for boys and communion for girls) places children at risk for peer victimization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parental divorce during early adolescence in Caucasian families: The role of family process variables in predicting the long-term consequences for early adult psychosocial adjustment.

The relationship between parental divorce occurring during adolescence and young adult psychosocial adjustment was examined, as was the role of family process variables in clarifying this relationship. Participants were young Caucasian adults from divorced (n?=?119) and married (n?=?123) families. Assessments were conducted during adolescence and 6 years later during early adulthood. Young adults from married families reported more secure romantic attachments than those from divorced families; however, differences were not evident in other domains of psychosocial adjustment after demographic variables were controlled. Three family process variables (parent–adolescent relationship, interparental conflict, and maternal depressive symptoms) were examined as potential mediators and moderators of the association between parental divorce and young adult adjustment. No evidence supporting mediation or moderation was found; however, the parent–adolescent and parent–young adult relationships, particularly when the identified parent was the father, emerged as significant predictors of young adult psychosocial adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children conceived by gamete donation: Psychological adjustment and mother-child relationships at age 7.

An increasing number of babies are being born using donated sperm, where the child lacks a genetic link to the father, or donated eggs, where the child lacks a genetic link to the mother. This study examined the impact of telling children about their donor conception on mother-child relationships and children's psychological adjustment. Assessments of maternal positivity, maternal negativity, mother-child interaction, and child adjustment were administered to 32 egg donation, 36 donor insemination, and 54 natural conception families with a 7-year-old child. Although no differences were found for maternal negativity or child adjustment, mothers in nondisclosing gamete donation families showed less positive interaction than mothers in natural conception families, suggesting that families may benefit from openness about the child's genetic origins. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

An experimental evaluation of theory-based mother and mother–child programs for children of divorce.

This study evaluated the efficacy of 2 theory-based preventive interventions for divorced families: a program for mothers and a dual component mother–child program. The mother program targeted mother–child relationship quality, discipline, interparental conflict, and the father–child relationship. The child program targeted active coping, avoidant coping, appraisals of divorce stressors, and mother–child relationship quality. Families with a 9- to 12-year-old child (N ?=?240) were randomly assigned to the mother, dual-component, or self-study program. Postintervention comparisons showed significant positive program effects of the mother program versus self-study condition on relationship quality, discipline, attitude toward father–child contact, and adjustment problems. For several outcomes, more positive effects occurred in families with poorer initial functioning. Program effects on externalizing problems were maintained at 6-month follow-up. A few additive effects of the dual-component program occurred for the putative mediators; none occurred for adjustment problems. (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)     

Mother's emotional expressivity and children's behavior problems and social competence: Mediation through children's regulation.

The relations between mothers' expressed positive and negative emotion and 55–79-month-olds' (76% European American) regulation, social competence, and adjustment were examined. Structural equation modeling was used to test the plausibility of the hypothesis that the effects of maternal expression of emotion on children's adjustment and social competence are mediated through children's dispositional regulation. Mothers' expressed emotions were assessed during interactions with their children and with maternal reports of emotions expressed in the family. Children's regulation, externalizing and internalizing problems, and social competence were rated by parents and teachers, and children's persistence was surreptitiously observed. There were unique effects of positive and negative maternal expressed emotion on children's regulation, and the relations of maternal expressed emotion to children's externalizing problem behaviors and social competence were mediated through children's regulation. Alternative models of causation were tested; a child-directed model in which maternal expressivity mediated the effects of child regulation on child outcomes did not fit the data as well. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship of mother and child variables to child outcomes in a high-risk sample: A causal modeling analysis.

Children of depressed mothers are at risk for psychopathology, but most studies have failed to examine mediators of the effects, mutual influence of children and mothers on each other, and effects of children's own characteristics. Children, aged 8 to 16, of 64 mothers with recurrent unipolar or bipolar affective disorders, chronic medical illness, or no disorder were assessed on initial and 6-month follow-up measures. Structural equation modeling tested a model in which children's outcomes 6 months later were caused by maternal functioning (including depression symptoms, role adjustment, and observed positive interaction) and characteristics of the child. A reciprocal relationship was predicted between maternal functioning and child characteristics (including quality of interactions with the mother, self-concept, and age). Results supported the model; although maternal functioning is related to symptoms and dysfunction in children, characteristics of the child also contribute to maternal functioning in a cycle of negative mutual influence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relations between social contingency in mother-child interaction and 2-year-olds' social competence.

This study examined relations between social contingency in mother–child interaction and low income 9-yr-olds' social competence using a cross-sectional design (n?=?42). Measures of social contingency included time spent in joint attention and dyadic turn-taking behaviors following maternal bids. Measures of child social competence included emotional self-regulation during a delay-of-gratification task and empathic responsiveness toward an experimenter feigning injury. Social contingency was related to children's use of self-regulatory strategies, but not to empathic responsiveness. Child negative emotionality and gender contributed to explanations of children's self-regulatory strategy use. More emotionally negative children spent less time using self-distraction; girls used less self-distraction and more comfort-seeking during delay than did boys. However, time spent in joint attention made an additional independent contribution over and above child factors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affective quality of the mother–child relationship: Longitudinal consequences for children's school-relevant cognitive functioning.

This article reports longitudinal data on the link between the affective quality of the mother–child relationship and school-relevant cognitive performance. Sixty-seven mothers and their children participated in the first (preschool) phase of the study; 47 were included in a follow-up when the children were 12 years of age. The affective quality of the mother–child relationship when the child was 4 years of age was significantly correlated with mental ability at age 4, school readiness at ages 5–6, IQ at age 6, and school achievement at age 12. These associations remained significant when the contributions of maternal IQ, socioeconomic status (SES), and children's mental ability at age 4 were taken into account. Our findings suggest that affective relationships may influence cognitive growth in three ways: (a) by affecting parent's tendency to engage and support children in solving problems; (b) by affecting children's social competence and, consequently, the flow of information between children and adults; and (c) by affecting children's exploratory tendencies, hence their willingness to approach and persist in tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of maternal employment in the two-parent family.

Recent research is reviewed to consider the effects of the mother's employment on the child in the two-parent family. This work deals mainly with maternal employment during the child's preschool years. Because of the difficulties in measuring enduring traits in young children, and because neither previous nor current research has revealed clear differences between children in dual-wage and single-wage families, attention is also given to the effects on the family processes that mediate child outcomes: the psychological well-being of the parents, their marital relationship, the father's role, and parent–child interaction. The influence of maternal employment on these variables, as well as on child outcomes, is found to be dependent on the attitudes of the parents, the number of hours the mother is employed, social support, and the child's gender. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relation of parental marital status and perceived family conflict to adjustment in White adolescents.

Examined 2 contrasting views of how divorce relates to the long-term adjustment of children. The physical-wholeness position views divorce as the salient explanatory variable to adversely affect children's later adjustment through the physical dissolution of the 2-parent family; the psychological-wholeness position views perceived current family conflict as the critical variable that influences adjustment, regardless of parental marital status. Results from 823 White adolescents (age 13–18 yrs) fail to support the physical-wholeness position; parental marital status was not significantly related to psychological adjustment or satisfaction with social life. However, results provide strong support for the psychological-wholeness position: Ss' psychological adjustment and satisfaction with social life were significantly related to level of perceived conflict in the family. It is suggested that divorce be conceptualized as a crisis situation rather than as a universally negative event. Use of conflict identification and resolution interventions to reduce family conflict may prevent future problems in child development. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mothers' personality and its interaction with child temperament as predictors of parenting behavior.

In this longitudinal, multimethod investigation, the authors examined mothers' personality and its interaction with infants' negative emotionality as predictors of parenting behavior. When infants were 8–10 months old (N?=?112), mothers completed personality self-reports, and the authors observed infants' negative emotionality in both standard procedures and naturalistic daily contexts. When infants were 13–15 months old (N?=?108), the authors observed two aspects of parenting, power assertion and maternal responsiveness, in mother–child interactive contexts. Maternal personality alone and also in interaction with child emotionality predicted future parenting behaviors. The longitudinal links established between personality and parenting behaviors indicate the predictive utility of personality. Findings also highlight the bidirectionality of the early parent–child relationship. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relations among family interaction patterns, classroom self-restraint, and academic achievement in preadolescent boys.

Relations among observed family interaction patterns, preadolescent boys' classroom self-restraint, and academic achievement were studied in a sample of 65 intact families. In contrast to previous work in this area, children's social adjustment was introduced as a potential mechanism that mediates the relations between parent–child interactions and academic performance. Correlational results showed significant relations between achievement and all parent–child interaction scores except mother–son hostility. However, regression analyses suggested that the association between father–son interactions and achievement is mediated almost entirely by sons' restraint, whereas the relationships between mother–son interactions and achievement are not. Observed mother–father hostility also appears to be an indirect predictor of sons' academic achievement by way of its association with sons' restraint. These findings are especially important in that they identify social competence in the form of behavioral self-restraint as a noncognitive mediator between the quality of family functioning and academic achievement during early adolescence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Political violence and child adjustment in Northern Ireland: Testing pathways in a social–ecological model including single-and two-parent families.

Moving beyond simply documenting that political violence negatively impacts children, we tested a social–ecological hypothesis for relations between political violence and child outcomes. Participants were 700 mother–child (M = 12.1 years, SD = 1.8) dyads from 18 working-class, socially deprived areas in Belfast, Northern Ireland, including single- and two-parent families. Sectarian community violence was associated with elevated family conflict and children's reduced security about multiple aspects of their social environment (i.e., family, parent–child relations, and community), with links to child adjustment problems and reductions in prosocial behavior. By comparison, and consistent with expectations, links with negative family processes, child regulatory problems, and child outcomes were less consistent for nonsectarian community violence. Support was found for a social–ecological model for relations between political violence and child outcomes among both single- and two-parent families, with evidence that emotional security and adjustment problems were more negatively affected in single-parent families. The implications for understanding social ecologies of political violence and children's functioning are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Le r?le des interactions mère-enfant et de la dépression maternelle à l'age préscolaire dans la prédiction de l'attachement de l'enfant à l'age scolaire.

Examined the contribution of mother–child partnership and maternal depression during the preschool period to the prediction of the child's attachment classification at early school-age in 91 French-Canadian children. Mother–child interactions were observed during a collaborative task using a scale measuring synchronized and reciprocal social-affective exchanges in the mother-child partnership (age 3–5 yrs). Maternal depression was assessed during the same lab visit using the Beck Depression Inventory. At a second lab visit (age 5–7 yrs), attachment classifications were assigned on the basis of reunion behaviour. A discriminant function analysis showed that reciprocal mother–child partnerships in the absence of maternal depressive symptom predicted security of attachment two years later, whereas failed reciprocity in the presence of maternal depressive symptoms predicted both insecure disorganized and ambivalent attachment. Quality of prediction is high for secure, ambivalent and disorganized children, although ambivalent and disorganized children cannot be distinguished from each other. Results support the importance of mother–child interactions and maternal depression as preschool variables associated with security and insecurity of attachment at early school-age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Infant–mother attachment and children's friendship quality: Maternal mental-state talk as an intervening mechanism.

Utilizing data from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development's Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, we investigated mothers' talk about mental states during play with their 24-month-old children as a mechanism though which infant–mother attachment was associated with children's later friendship quality. A series of repeated measures analyses of covariance indicated that a secure versus avoidant or disorganized infant–mother attachment was associated with more maternal talk about cognitions (but not emotions or desires) at 24 months. Latent growth curve models tested within a structural equation modeling framework revealed indirect effects of infant–mother attachment on observed and mother-reported positive friendship interaction at 54 months and decreases in mother-reported negative friendship interaction from 54 months to 1st grade via maternal cognitive talk at 24 months. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Factors mediating problem drinking and mothers' personal adjustment.

Used analysis of structural relations to evaluate a stress process model in which family stress and family system resources (mothers' marital adjustment and positive mother–child relationships) were tested as mediators of the relationship between fathers' and mothers' problem drinking and mothers' personal adjustment. Data from 120 fathers and mothers of 4th–6th graders were used. Fathers' problem drinking was linked to higher family stress, whereas mothers' problem drinking was not. Higher family stress negatively affected both family system resources. Lower family system resources predicted reduced maternal personal adjustment. Thus, family stress (related to fathers' problem drinking) and family system resources functioned as perfect mediators. There were no direct relationships between problem drinking and either family system resources or mothers' personal adjustment. Implications for intervention are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)