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)     

Psychological distance in the family as schematized by families of normal, disturbed, and learning-problem children.

Used a family doll placement technique to study psychological distance within 30 families with a disturbed and a nondisturbed boy. The father, mother, and 2 children each did the task individually, and then as a family group. Families were divided into 3 groups of 10 in which the S was (a) normal, (b) emotionally disturbed, or (c) had serious learning problems. Psychological distance was measured by the actual distance placed between doll dyads. As hypothesized, both groups of disturbed Ss placed greater distance between the mother doll and the doll representing himself than normal Ss in negative story themes. Unexpectedly, female siblings of disturbed Ss placed greater distance between the father doll and the doll representing herself than female siblings of normal Ss in negative story themes. These differences also appeared when the family group did the task. Teacher ratings showed the disturbed Ss to be more interpersonally distant and dependent than the normal Ss. (23 ref.) (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)     

Three-way analysis of dyadic social interactions.

Proposes a method for analyzing data from dyadic social interactions across 3 dichotomous variables. By accounting for the likely interdependency between 2 scores from a dyad, problems incurred with traditional analyses are circumvented. The analysis is demonstrated by an examination of data from 4 groups of 41 parent–child dyads: mother–daughter, mother–son, father–daughter, and father–son. The effects of sex-of-S, sex-of-partner, familial relationship between S and partner, and the interaction of these factors were tested. Results are compared to results derived from a repeated-measures ANOVA. It is shown that the latter analysis may mask important features of the data. (1 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parental support and psychological adjustment during the transition to young adulthood in a college sample.

The purpose of this study was to extend the understanding of how parental support relates to psychological adjustment during the transition from adolescence to young adulthood in a college sample. Ss were 175 college students who had relocated geographically on beginning college. Ss were followed for 2 yrs, beginning from when they were, on average, 18 yrs of age. Social support from both mother and father and a nonconflictual relationship between parents played an important adaptive role during the transition to young adulthood, as was hypothesized. Cross-sectional and prospective (controlling for initial sociable disposition and adjustment) structural equation models showed that initial parental support was associated with psychological adjustment 2 yrs later both directly and indirectly, through young adults' sociable disposition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship of employment status to mental health and family variables in Black men from single-parent families.

Reinterviewed, at a 6-yr follow-up, 90 Black males (mean age 23 yrs) reared in female-headed, single-parent households and initially interviewed at ages 16 and 17 yrs (C. B. Wilkerson and W. A. O'Connor, 1977). At interview Ss completed the SCL-90, the Life Experiences Survey, a social adjustment scale, and an ecologic assessment record. They were grouped in employment categories of superachievers, average, underemployed, and unemployed. Employment status was related to social adjustment and current life experiences ratings. Superachievers felt more competent, had higher aspirations, and were more satisfied with their lives than members of other groups. Longer father presence in the home was associated with more successful employment, as was a highly educated mother. Socioeconomic differences between the groups were slight and did not account for any direct or indirect effects. Strongest predictors of employment status were high school grades and length of father presence. Age, mother's age, and family income during the preschool and high school years also entered into the predictive equation. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What predicts good relationships with parents in adolescence and partners in adult life: Findings from the 1958 British birth cohort.

This study drew on data from the National Child Development Study to explore the role of father involvement and mother involvement at age 7 in father-child and mother-child relations at age 16, and the role of closeness to father and closeness to mother at age 16 in quality of relationship with partner at age 33. Closeness to mother was associated with closeness to father, intact family structure and academic motivation, and closeness to father with closeness to mother, early father involvement, less emotional and behavioral problems in adolescence, male gender and academic motivation. Closeness to father at age 16 was more strongly related to level of father involvement at age 7 for daughters than for sons and to closeness to mother for sons than for daughters. Marital adjustment at age 33 was related to good relationships with siblings, mother, and father at age 16; less current psychological distress; female gender; and educational attainment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A semantic differential analysis of parent-son relationships in schizophrenia.

Good and poor premorbid schizophrenics, as well as normal controls, rated words and photographs representing parental punishment, rejection, love, and affection with the semantic differential. The poor premorbid group rated the scolding and rejecting parents significantly more potent and active than did the normals. In contrast to normals, the poor premorbids tended not to discriminate between the scolding and rejecting parents and they also made the least distinction between positively and negatively toned parent-figures on the potency and activity factors. All groups made comparable ratings of the son in each scene. Although previous studies had reported systematic differences between good and poor premorbid schizophrenics in response to mother and father cues, the present investigation failed to find such differences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social schemata of emotionally disturbed boys.

2 experiments, using Kuethe's techniques were designed to demonstrate that children defined as emotionally disturbed differ predictably from normal children in the ways they organize social stimuli. When emotionally disturbed and normal boys placed pairs of felt figures on flannel boards, normals placed child figures closer to mother than to father or peer figures; emotionally disturbed children did the reverse. When disturbed and normal boys replaced pairs of human and geometric figures previously set 15 in. apart, the disturbed boys replaced the human figures farther apart than the nonhuman figures significantly more often than did the normals. Results were interpreted as reflecting a tendency for emotionally disturbed children to construe people, and especially females, more negatively than do normal children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological separation and adjustment to college.

We examined the relationship between psychological separation and adjustment to college in freshmen (N?=?130) and upperclassmen (N?=?123) samples. Psychological separation was measured with the Psychological Separation Inventory. Adjustment to college was assessed with the College Adjustment Inventory. Freshmen tended to show more psychological dependencies on mother and father, and poorer social and personal-emotional adjustment to college than did upperclassmen. A pervasive relationship was found between separation and adjustment, although separation did not predict adjustment across the board. Separation appears more strongly related to personal-emotional adjustment, particularly functional and emotional independence from mother and conflictual independence from father. Sex effects also emerged, with women showing more psychological dependencies than men. Finally, our results show that advances in separation across the four dimensions are not uniform. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Long-term effects of divorce on parent–child relationships.

100 introductory psychology students from families that had experienced divorce 7 or more years previously and 141 introductory psychology students from continuously intact families completed a series of self-report questionnaires assessing their perceptions of their relationship with their parents. Findings indicate that although there was considerable variation from person to person, Ss from divorced families perceived their relationships with their parents, and particularly their fathers, less positively than those from intact families. It was also found that these potentially negative consequences of divorce were attenuated by Ss' recall of a healthy predivorce family life, by a more successful adjustment on the part of the child before the divorce, and by a higher quality relationship between the ex-spouses after the divorce. Results support the notion that active involvement on the part of the father and added stresses placed on the mother after the divorce are the critical determinants of the perceived quality of the current parent–child relationships. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Clarke Parent-Child Relations Questionnaire: A clinically useful test for adults.

Study 1 presents the standardization of the 16-scale Clarke Parent-Child Relations Questionnaire (PCR) for adults. 3 normal and 1 clinical abnormal samples comprising 508 18-55 yr olds were used. The scales sample, separately for mother and father, retrospective reports of aggressiveness, strictness, affection, indulgence, competence, and identification. There was little bias from IQ, social desirability, or education, and 14 of the 16 scales tended to be internally consistent. Factor analysis showed a moderate convergence among the scales as well as uniqueness. Two bipolar factors emerged, 1 for mother and 1 for father. The factors contrasted aggressiveness and strictness at one pole with affection, indulgence, and identification at the other. Study 2 compared 7 sexually deviant male groups of 247 Ss with 40 normal controls (all over age 18). Homosexual groups reported significantly more hostile relationships and low identification with father, whereas deviants who preferred immature partners reported aggression, strictness, and low affection in mother relationships. The test has been computerized. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pervasive influence of social schemata.

Ss placed human figures cut from felt on a field under free response instructions and then reconstructed displays of the figures in a judgment task where the figures were presented with a fixed separation and replaced by the Ss. Next the Ss attempted to replace human statuettes while blindfolded. Finally, a word association test was administered. Those Ss who kept man and woman figures together in free placements made the largest errors of replacing man-woman pairs of figures closer together than they replaced other pairs in both the visual and nonvisual reconstructions. These Ss were significantly more likely to give "man" and "woman" as reciprocal verbal associations. The same social schema was aroused by the specific social content whether the stimuli were visual, nonvisual, or verbal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parental death and depression.

Examined the association between depression and parental loss by death by administering the Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale to 1,250 patients in general practitioners' offices. Ss were asked to indicate whether they had lost a mother or father by death and their age when this loss occurred. One-way ANOVA produced a significant father-loss effect on depression, with Ss reporting a father loss in the 0–6 yr and 10–25 yr age ranges having the highest depression scores. No significant effect for mother loss occurred. The father-loss effect remained the same when other demographic factors including city of testing, sex, marital status, occupational status, age, and education were controlled. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Internal controls in aggressive children from father-present and father-absent families.

Briefly discusses the role of the mother in providing noncontingent love and that of the father in providing performance-contingent love. 19 black 8-12 yr. olds from father-present and 19 from father-absent families who had been referred to a guidance clinic for aggressive behavior were tested on the Wiltwyck Family Interaction Apperception Test (S. Minuchin, et al.). While Ss from father-present families did not give more frequent consequences for aggression, there were significant differences between the 2 groups in perceptions of the administrator of punishment. Despite the fact that the stories routinely involved mother rather than father as punisher, Ss from father-present families related stories in which punishment came from the family more frequently (p     

Controlled prospective study of postpartum mood disorders: Comparison of childbearing and nonchildbearing women.

A controlled prospective study was undertaken to determine the extent to which pregnancy and the puerperium are associated with increased risk for minor and major depression, depressive symptomatology, and poor social adjustment. A large sample of childbearing (CB) women were recruited during the second trimester of pregnancy along with an equal sized, matched sample of nonchildbearing (NCB) women. Ss were assessed multiple times during pregnancy and after delivery by questionnaire and through personal interview on measures of depression and other mood states and marital and social adjustment. There were no differences between CB and NCB Ss with respect to rates of minor and major depression during pregnancy or after delivery. However, CB women experienced significantly higher levels of depressive symptomatology and poor social adjustment than NCB women during late pregnancy and the early puerperium. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting parent–child interactions from children's activity level.

Examined the relationship between children's activity level and parent–child (P–C) interactions in 117 preschool children and their parents. Four P–C combinations (mother–daughter, father–daughter, mother–son, and father–son) were studied. Using R. Q. Bell's (see record 1968-08747-001) conceptualization of upper and lower limit parental control behavior, it was predicted that P–C interactions involving active children would be marked by more strife and conflict than P–C interactions involving more quiescent, less active children. Parents of highly active children tended to intrude physically and could be described as getting into power struggles and competition with their children. Impatience or hostility toward active children was observed in parents of all P–C pairings except the father–son combination. In contrast, interactions involving less active children were generally peaceful and harmonious. (28 ref)-008 6504 (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Child rearing attitudes of mothers and fathers as reported by schizophrenic and normal patients.

To determine the significant aspects of family background as perceived by schizophrenics, Ss were asked to think back to the time when they were 13 or 14 and answer a questionnaire on child rearing practices as they were conceived to be reflected in the attitudes of their parents at that time. The responses of schizophrenics with good and poor premorbid backgrounds were compared with each other and to GMS patients. The results indicate that there was a significant and direct relationship between level of adjustment and degree of deviance in postulated parental attitudes. Parents, in general, are perceived to be dominating rather than overprotective or rejecting. Normals and schizophrenics differ significantly in describing familial attitudes, although all seem to perceive father as dominant, mother as over-protective. From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4JQ76G. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship between parental anger and behavior problems in children and adolescents.

Two studies examined the relationship between parental trait anger, parental symptomatology, and children's and adolescents' emotional/behavioral problems. Results of Study 1 suggested that parental trait anger did not serve as a mediator between parental symptoms and children's emotional/behavioral problems. Study 2, however, suggested that parental trait anger did serve as a mediator between parental depression and adolescents' emotional/behavioral problems. For internalizing behaviors, inward anger expression and trait anger were mediators in father–son dyads, and outward anger expression was a mediator in mother–daughter dyads. For externalizing behavior, inward anger expression was a mediator in father–son dyads, and outward anger expression was a mediator in mother–son dyads. These results suggest the importance of examining parental dispositions toward anger in relation to the psychological symptoms family members may experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)