Intergenerational Relationships in Young Adulthood and Their Life Course, Mental Health, and Personality Correlates.

To evaluate effects of life-course events and experiences of young adults, as well as personality and mental-health history on intergenerational relationships in young adulthood, the authors examined dyadic relationship data drawn from a sample of more than 900 New Zealand 26-year-olds and their mothers and fathers. Results indicated that intergenerational relations were more positive when young adults were childless, not unemployed, married, and living away from home, but these factors did not interact with family relationship history in predicting relationship outcomes. Intergenerational relationships were less positive when children scored low on positive emotionality and constraint and high on negative emotionality and mental disorders, though these attributes did not account for the effect of life-course factors. Results are discussed in terms of the openness of the parent-child relationship in adulthood to further development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parent-child relationships, partner relationships, and emotional adjustment: A birth-to-maturity prospective study.

This study examined whether detrimental childhood relationships with parents were related to partner relationship quality and emotional adjustment in adulthood. The authors tested a theoretical model in which (a) low-quality parent-child relationships were related to conflict and low-quality communication with parents in adolescence, (b) parent-adolescent conflict and low-quality communication were linked to low-quality partner relationships in young adulthood, and (c) low-quality partner relationships in young adulthood were predictive of low-quality partner relationships as well as depression, anxiety, and dissatisfaction with life at midlife. Multi-informant data were used from 212 Swedish individuals who were followed from birth into adulthood. Results demonstrated that, as hypothesized, negative parent-child bonds were indirectly related to low-quality partner relationships and dissatisfaction with life in adulthood (but not anxiety and depression) through conflictual parent-adolescent communication and low-quality partner relationships in young adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multiple trajectories of cigarette smoking and the intergenerational transmission of smoking: A multigenerational, longitudinal study of a midwestern community sample.

Objective: To investigate the relation between developmental phenotypes of parental smoking (trajectories of smoking from adolescence to adulthood) and the intergenerational transmission of smoking to their adolescent children. Design: A longitudinal, multigenerational study of a midwestern community sample followed individuals from adolescence into adulthood and was combined with Web-based assessment of participants' spouses and adolescent children. Mixture modeling identified multiple trajectories of smoking, and path analyses related these trajectories to adolescents' smoking (beyond both parents' current smoking). Potential mediations were parental education and adolescents' personality characteristics. Main Outcome Measure: The outcome measure was adolescent smoking. Results: A parent's smoking trajectory had a unique effect on their adolescent's smoking, beyond both parents' current smoking and the parent's educational attainment. However, although adolescents' personality characteristics were related both to adolescent smoking and to their parents' smoking, these characteristics could not explain the effects of the parent's smoking trajectory. Conclusion: Parents whose smoking had an early onset, steep acceleration, high levels of smoking, and persistence over time had the highest risk for intergenerational transmission of smoking to their adolescent children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"The role of the family in the development of psychopathology": Erratum.

Reports an error in the original article by G. H. Frank (Psychological Bulletin, 1965, Vol 64[3], 191-205). The eighth item in the bibliography should have been attributed to Garmezy, Farina, and Rodnick (1960) rather than Bell, Garmezy, Farina, and Rodnick. The author also stated incorrectly that the parents' responses to the PARI were used as the content of the interaction between parents in the studies reported in Farina (I960), Farina and Dunham (1963), and Garmezy, Farina, and Rodnick (1960); it was, rather, sets of hypothetical situations adapted from a research method used by Jackson (1956). As was indicated in Frank's presentation, the common denominator in these particular research endeavors was that they were predicated on the basic model established by Strodtbeck (1951), that is, eliciting the attitudes of parents by having them respond to written material with their opinions, individually, then in interaction with each other; the error was in recording what constituted the material by which the parental attitudes were elicited.. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1965-15947-001.) Psychologists generally make the assumption that the experiences to which the individual is exposed over a period of time lead to the development of learned patterns of behavior. From this, psychologists have reasoned that the experiences the individual has in his early life at home, with his family, in general, and his mother, in particular, are major determinants in the learning of the constellation of behaviors subsumed under the rubric, personality, and in particular, the development of psychopathology. A review of the research of the past 40 yrs failed to support this assumption. No factors were found in the parent-child interaction of schizophrenics, neurotics, or those with behavior disorders which could be identified as unique to them or which could distinguish one group from the other, or any of the groups from the families of the controls. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some factors affecting the quality of therapeutic relationships.

The degree to which the quality of the therapeutic relationship established by two equally "expert" therapists with the same patient sample varies in terms of the therapist's personality and his perceptions of the patients is investigated. "It was found that the therapist who was able to establish the better social relationships also established the better therapeutic relationships. Moreover the therapist who perceived a patient as more closely approximating his 'ideal patient' concept created the better relationship with that patient." 21 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The centrality of the system Ucs in the theory of psychoanalysis: The nonrepressed unconscious.

After Freud discovered an unconscious system (Ucs) between 1894 and 1896, a window opened for him to formulate a comprehensive theory of the human psyche, which he called psychoanalysis. The Ucs was its foundation. The object relations theories, ego psychology, self-psychology, and their offshoots managed to erode that concept from the theory in different ways and tried to replace psychoanalysis. The reason is that Freud, for a long time, associated the unconscious with the repressed. It was possible by reviewing his work in the field of repression, defense, and the unconscious to uncover the nature of the system Ucs. It is not possible for a school of psychology within psychoanalysis to ignore the systemic unconscious and replace it with a dynamic unconscious and still claim that it is psychoanalytic. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The intergenerational transmission of parenting: Closing comments for the special section.

The 5 studies in this special section both confirm prior findings regarding the intergenerational transmission of parenting and provide important new evidence regarding the intergenerational transmission of positive parenting and the developmental mediators that seem involved in that transmission. Consistent with earlier research, the findings suggest that harsh parenting in the 1st generation (G1) predicts similar behavior in the 2nd generation (G2) primarily through the exacerbation of G2 conduct problems. In contrast, replicated findings in this set of articles indicate that intergenerational continuities in positive parenting likely stem from the social and academic competencies such parenting engenders in the next generation. In addition, these 5 studies demonstrate that the evidence for intergenerational continuity in parenting is robust across diverse study samples, different types of measurement, different lengths of time, and after the introduction of a variety of control variables. Important next steps in this area of inquiry should include the study of moderator variables that will explain discontinuities as well as continuities in G1 and G2 parenting. Also important will be research on genetic and epigenetic processes that contribute to similarities and dissimilarities in parenting across generations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Automaticity: A Theoretical and Conceptual Analysis.

Several theoretical views of automaticity are discussed. Most of these suggest that automaticity should be diagnosed by looking at the presence of features such as unintentional, uncontrolled/uncontrollable, goal independent, autonomous, purely stimulus driven, unconscious, efficient, and fast. Contemporary views further suggest that these features should be investigated separately. The authors examine whether features of automaticity can be disentangled on a conceptual level, because only then is the separate investigation of them worth the effort. They conclude that the conceptual analysis of features is to a large extent feasible. Not all researchers agree with this position, however. The authors show that assumptions of overlap among features are determined by the other researchers' views of automaticity and by the models they endorse for information processing in general. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Thoughts on Ahmed Fayek's article: "The centrality of the system Ucs in the theory of psychoanalysis": Setting the record straight.

Freud's first formulation about the structure of the mind was a tripartite theory of awareness--conscious, preconscious and unconscious--referred to as "the system unconscious." Fayek (see record 2006-00627-005) addresses the fate of this construct, pointing out that it is no longer used as Freud construed it. Fayek gives reasons for this eventuality: assertions I question. I offer an alternative explanation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Validating the Marschak Interaction Method Rating System with adolescent mother-child dyads.

The authors investigated the reliability and construct validity of the Marschak Interaction Method Rating System (MIMRS), a new observational scoring system for the play-based Marschak Interaction Method (MIM), particularly its ability to capture high-risk parenting in adolescent mother-child dyads. The MIMRS demonstrated high interrater reliability and high internal consistency. Convergent validity was supported by moderately negative correlations between the MIMRS and the Parenting Stress Index/Short Form. The MIMRS demonstrated good contrasted groups validity, differentiating between 15 adolescent-child dyads and 16 adult- child comparison dyads, even after adjustment for differences in children's age. These results suggest that the MIMRS has the potential be a valuable rating system for research and practice with the MIM, as well as understanding and assessing parent-child relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The intergenerational transmission of parenting: Introduction to the special section.

Long-standing interest in the intergenerational transmission of parenting has stimulated work focused on child maltreatment, harsh parenting, and warm–supportive rearing. In addition to documenting significant, even if modest, continuity in parenting across generations, research in this area has addressed questions of mediation and moderation. This special section extends work in this general area, with 2 studies further chronicling intergenerational transmission and 3 further illuminating mechanisms through which parenting in 1 generation is repeated in a subsequent generation. Lacking, however, is high-quality work highlighting the conditions under which parenting is not transmitted across generations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The roles of respect for parental authority and parenting practices in parent-child conflict among African American, Latino, and European American families.

In this study, the authors examined whether parent-child conflict during the middle childhood years varied among families characterized as having different cultural traditions regarding issues of respect for parental authority and parenting practices. The sample included 133 African American, European American, and Latina girls (M age = 8.41 years) and their mothers. African American and Latina girls showed significantly more respect for parental authority than did European American girls. Furthermore, African American and Latina mothers reported significantly more intense arguments when respect was low than did European American mothers. Higher levels of discipline and better communication by mothers were both associated with reports of lower frequency of conflict; ethnicity did not moderate this association. Thus, respect for authority was most salient to group differences in conflict. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Personality: Current Theory and Research.

Reviews the book, Personality: Current Theory and Research by Janet Beavin Bavelas (1978). Personality is not the easiest topic to teach well. Even the question of what content to include and emphasize is problematic. The majority of introductory texts adopt a stance whereby the study of personality largely becomes identified with the study of personality theories. A problem with the theory based approach to personality is that many such theories are of declining importance in contemporary psychology. In this text, Janet Bavelas adopts a theory oriented perspective. However, she is not content merely to describe and evaluate the various theories selected for inclusion. She places the theories within a historical context and attempts to show how critical and empirical appraisal led to the decline of one class of theory and the elevation of another class. The book possesses many positive features. Introductory students find personality theories interesting and the historical context adds to the interest. The coverage is broad and zeros in on many central issues that preoccupy the present generation of personologists. Whether or not to adopt the Bavelas book for an introductory personality course would depend on the orientation of the instructor. For those who teach a traditional course, which emphasizes balanced evaluation and/or comparative analysis of the major theories, other texts might serve better. But for instructors concerned primarily with developments on the level of metatheory, the text probably has no equal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Helping the Noncompliant Child: A Clinician's Guide to Parent Training.

Reviews the book, Helping the Noncompliant Child: A Clinician's Guide to Parent Training by Rex L. Forehand and Robert J. McMahon (1981). Clinicians working with families will find Helping the noncompliant child an invaluable book. The six chapters and four appendices provide a comprehensive program for training parents to engage in behaviours that will improve parent-child relationships. The treatment program consists of two phases. In the first phase parents are taught to increase their child's appropriate behaviours through the use of differential attention and rewards. This phase has two main purposes: teaching appropriate behaviours and increasing the "quality" time between parents and their children. These effects should increase the positiveness of the parent-child relationship, and help prevent a return to a coercive relationship. The second phase teaches parents to reduce the frequency of inappropriate behaviours through the use of appropriate commands and the use of time-out. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Optimism: An enduring resource for romantic relationships.

This study extends research on the adaptive aspects of dispositional optimism to romantic relationships. We hypothesized that optimism would be positively linked to cooperative problem solving in romantic relationships, given previous research indicating that optimists are likely to use approach coping strategies. Results indicated that optimism was linked to satisfying and happy romantic relationships, and a substantial portion of this association was mediated by reports of cooperative problem solving. Moreover, optimism predicted relative increases in relationship satisfaction over a 2-year interval. All told, these results suggest that optimism may serve as an enduring resource for romantic unions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotion dysregulation in the intergenerational transmission of romantic relationship conflict.

The role of emotion dysregulation in the intergenerational transmission of romantic relationship conflict was examined using multimethod and multiagent prospective longitudinal data across 21 years for 190 men and their mothers and fathers. As predicted, an individual’s emotion dysregulation was a key mediator in the transmission of relationship conflict, along with poor parenting skills. Parents’ emotion dysregulation was directly related to their son’s emotion dysregulation, which was in turn associated with the son’s later relationship conflict. Additionally, parents’ emotion dysregulation was significantly related to their poor discipline skills, which were linked to the son’s emotion dysregulation and eventual relationship conflict. Findings highlight emotion dysregulation as a significant mechanism explaining the continuity of romantic relationship conflict across generations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children with lesbian parents: A community study.

Existing research on children with lesbian parents is limited by reliance on volunteer or convenience samples. The present study examined the quality of parent-child relationships and the socioemotional and gender development of a community sample of 7-year-old children with lesbian parents. Families were recruited through the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, a geographic population study of 14,000 mothers and their children. Thirty-nine lesbian-mother families, 74 two-parent heterosexual families, and 60 families headed by single heterosexual mothers were compared on standardized interview and questionnaire measures administered to mothers, co-mothers/fathers, children, and teachers. Findings are in line with those of earlier investigations showing positive mother-child relationships and well-adjusted children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social information processing mediates the intergenerational transmission of aggressiveness in romantic relationships.

This study explored the K. A. Dodge (1986) model of social information processing as a mediator of the association between interparental relationship conflict and subsequent offspring romantic relationship conflict in young adulthood. The authors tested 4 social information processing stages (encoding, hostile attributions, generation of aggressive responses, and positive evaluation of aggressive responses) in separate models to explore their independent effects as potential mediators. There was no evidence of mediation for encoding and attributions. However, there was evidence of significant mediation for both the response generation and response evaluation stages of the model. Results suggest that the ability of offspring to generate varied social responses and effectively evaluate the potential outcome of their responses at least partially mediates the intergenerational transmission of relationship conflict. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptions of Conflict and Support in Romantic Relationships: The Role of Attachment Anxiety.

Guided by attachment theory, a 2-part study was conducted to test how perceptions of relationship-based conflict and support are associated with relationship satisfaction/closeness and future quality. Dating partners completed diaries for 14 days (Part 1) and then were videotaped while discussing a major problem that occurred during the diary study (Part 2). Part 1 reveals that more anxiously attached individuals perceived more conflict with their dating partners and reported a tendency for conflicts to escalate in severity. Perceptions of daily relationship-based conflicts negatively impacted the perceived satisfaction/closeness and relationship futures of highly anxious individuals, whereas perceptions of greater daily support had positive effects. Part 2 reveals that highly anxious individuals appeared more distressed and escalated the severity of conflicts (rated by observers) and reported feeling more distressed. The authors discuss the unique features of attachment anxiety and how changing perceptions of relationship satisfaction/closeness and stability could erode commitment over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)