Family involvement in school and low-income children's literacy: Longitudinal associations between and within families.

Longitudinal data from kindergarten to 5th grade on both family involvement in school and children's literacy performance were examined for an ethnically diverse, low-income sample (N = 281). Within families, increased school involvement predicted improved child literacy. In addition, although there was an achievement gap in average literacy performance between children of more and less educated mothers if family involvement levels were low, this gap was nonexistent if family involvement levels were high. These results add to existing evidence on the value of family involvement in school by demonstrating that increased involvement between kindergarten and 5th grade is associated with increased literacy performance and that high levels of school involvement may have added reward for low-income children with the added risk of low parent education. As such, these results support arguments that family involvement in school should be a central aim of practice and policy solutions to the achievement gap between lower and higher income children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reuniting the psychic couple in analytic training and practice: Theoretical reflections.

The author discusses the problematic dichotomy that has evolved between "paternal" and "maternal" approaches enacted in psychoanalytic training and practice. He argues that this dichotomy stems not only from reasoned theoretical debate, but also from the need for analysts to do further emotional work in reuniting the 'primal psychic couple' and integrating the "law of the father" with the 'love of the mother.' Because much of this work is done unconsciously, it is further discussed in terms of a collaboration between the conscious ego and the 'Unconscious Other,' and contextualized by examining how the concept of the "unconscious" has evolved from a 'seething cauldron of impulses' that must be tamed, to an "organ of perception" from which much can be learned. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stepchildren's Perceptions of Noncustodial Mothers and Noncustodial Fathers: Differences in Socioemotional Involvement and Associations With Adolescent Adjustment Problems.

Caucasian stepchildren (aged 10-18) in the Nonshared Environment and Adolescent Development (NEAD) project rated noncustodial (NC) parents' socioemotional involvement. Stepfamilies had been together at least 5 years. Adolescents with NC mothers (n = 56) reported more phone calls, mail, overnight visits, and social support than adolescents with NC fathers (n = 143). The association between perceived social support and adolescent adjustment was compared for NC mothers versus NC fathers by using structural equation modeling; the association was stronger for NC mothers. No effects for sex of child or interactions of sex of child/sex of NC parent were obtained. NC fathers might increase their influence in adolescents' lives by behaving more like NC mothers (more frequent phone calls, overnights, etc.). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contribution of infants' sleep and crying to marital relationship of first-time parent couples in the 1st year after childbirth.

This study investigated the influence of infants' sleep and crying on marital relationship in first-time parent couples (N = 107) during the 1st year after birth. Control variables are parents' insomnia and parental self-efficacy in handling the baby. Questionnaires were administered to both parents before birth, at 2 and 7 weeks after birth, and at 1 year after birth. Results show that marital problem-solving ability did not change but that marital satisfaction diminished significantly over time. Crying was the main child variable that affected marital satisfaction. Fathers' self-efficacy contributed positively to marital problem solving and negatively to paternal insomnia. Both maternal and paternal insomnia affected spouses' insomnia. As infant sleep problems may worsen preexisting parental insomnia, it is recommended that first-time parents be informed about treatments of insomnia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptions of Parental Involvement and Support as Predictors of College Students' Persistence in a Science Curriculum.

As technological and scientific skills are increasingly needed, finding that science students encounter significant problems in their academic program causes serious concern. The authors examined how perceived parental involvement and support predict college students' persistence in science based on J. P. Connell and J. G. Wellborn's (1991) theoretical model: Perceived parental involvement and support should foster student persistence by promoting students' competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Results suggest that perceived parental autonomy supports predicted scientific persistence partly through students' autonomy. Perceived parental involvement, although unrelated to persistence, was a significant predictor of autonomy and relatedness. Results suggest that perceived parental involvement and support have specific roles in predicting student self-processes and achievement, highlighting the importance of sustaining parents' contribution for college students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attachment insecurity and perceptions of housework: Associations with marital well-being.

This exploratory study examines the interactive effects of attachment insecurity and perceptions of housework on 2 dimensions of marital well-being--satisfaction and perceptions of fairness. Participants were 148 married couples obtained from an area probability sample as part of a larger study. Multilevel modeling analyses with the couple as the unit of analysis showed that women who scored high and men who scored low on the dimension of attachment anxiety and reported that their spouses performed more routine housework (i.e., prepares meals) also reported being over-benefited. Women who scored high and men who scored low on the dimension of attachment avoidance and reported that their spouses performed more intermittent housework (i.e., yard work) reported greater marital satisfaction. These results highlight the role of attachment orientations in explaining why perceptions of housework may have more or less prominent effects on marital well-being. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pathways to paternal engagement: Longitudinal effects of risk and resilience on nonresident fathers.

This article assesses the longitudinal effects of risk and resilience on unmarried nonresident fathers’ engagement with children across the first 3 years of their lives. The authors used a subsample of 549 men from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study who were unmarried and noncohabiting at the time of the child’s birth. They found not only that risk and resilience factors had a direct effect on paternal engagement but also that their association with engagement was mediated by fathers’ continued nonresidence and mother–father relationship quality. Men who leave trajectories of high risk behind during the transition to fatherhood and who have a trajectory characterized by resilience factors are more likely to experience better relationships with the mother of their children, more likely to establish subsequent coresidence with their children, and more likely to remain involved in their children’s lives on a daily basis. Implications for policy and programs serving fathers and families are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptions of the Parent-Adolescent Relationship: A Longitudinal Investigation.

Aself-report measure of conflict and aspects of warmth in the parent-child relationship was completed by 1,330 11-year-old twins, 1,176 of whom completed the inventory again 3 years later. On average, adolescents' perceptions of the quality of the parent-child relationship declined consistently and moderately between age 11 and age 14. Conflict with parents increased, whereas all aspects of warmth decreased; changes were significantly greater for girls than boys. Variances increased with age, primarily because of increases in the magnitude of genetic effects. Heritability estimates ranged from .09 to .31 at intake and .35 to .45 at follow-up and tended to be higher for boys than girls. Changes in the parent-child relationship are interpreted as reflecting genotype-environment correlation processes whereby adolescents increasingly influence their relationships with their parents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptions of and satisfaction with retirement: A comparison of six European Union countries.

The main aim of this study was to assess perceptions of and satisfaction with retirement among 1,686 recently retired people from 6 European Union countries. The authors compared their responses to a set of questions taken from the Retirement Satisfaction Inventory (F. J. Floyd et al., 1992). The first significant result was that Belgian, British, Finnish, French, and Spanish retirees all expressed very similar assessments of life satisfaction, whereas Portuguese retirees expressed a lower level of satisfaction. The 2nd result was that the major determinants of overall satisfaction in the 6 countries were (a) health and resources and (b) anticipated satisfaction. Finally, the data revealed that cultural background only accounted for a limited amount of variance in overall satisfaction with retirement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predictors of paternal involvement for resident and nonresident low-income fathers.

In a sample of low-income families (N = 239), structural equation models assessed predictors of fathers' involvement with preschool-aged children in instrumental, behavioral, and emotional realms. Results suggest that parental conflict has a strong negative relation with father involvement. Fathers' human capital characteristics, healthy psychosocial functioning, and past stability in family relationships all predicted greater father involvement directly and/or indirectly through parental conflict. Numerous differences emerged in the predictive models between resident and nonresident fathers, although few differences were statistically significant. Results suggest that policy efforts aimed at enhancing fathers' responsible parenting should focus both on increasing fathers' human and social capital and on supporting positive family processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Workload and the trajectory of marital satisfaction in newlyweds: Job satisfaction, gender, and parental status as moderators.

Stress, on average, is bad for relationships. Yet stress at work is not always associated with negative relationship outcomes. The premise of the current study was that associations between workload and trajectories of marital satisfaction depend on circumstances that may constrain or facilitate partners' ability to negotiate their multiple roles. We hypothesized that the covariance between changes in workload and marital satisfaction over time should be moderated by (a) the extent to which spouses like their work, (b) their parental status, and (c) their gender. Analyses drawing upon eight waves of data on workload, work satisfaction, and marital satisfaction from 169 newlywed couples assessed over four years confirmed these predictions. Specifically, across couples, demands at work covaried positively with marital satisfaction for spouses who were more satisfied with their jobs. For nonparent couples, increases in husbands' workload covaried with increases in marital satisfaction for both spouses. For parent couples, however, increases in husbands' workload covaried with declines in marital satisfaction for both spouses. Unexpectedly, for parent couples, increases in wives' workload corresponded with increased marital satisfaction. Finally, consistent with predictions, wives were more affected by their husbands' workload than vice versa. Thus, tension between work and marriage is not inevitable, instead depending on circumstances that facilitate or impair performance in multiple roles. Couples, employers, and practitioners should recognize the role that external circumstances play in determining how work and marital life interact. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's Achievement in Early Elementary School: Longitudinal Effects of Parental Involvement, Expectations, and Quality of Assistance.

In this prospective, longitudinal study, the authors examined the relations among parental behaviors, parental expectations, and children's academic achievement. Participants were 187 low-income children and their mothers, studied from birth of the child through 3rd grade. Mothers' quality of instruction prior to school entry had significant direct effects on IQ and indirect effects on achievement in 1st and 3rd grades. Parental expectations in 3rd grade had significant direct effects on parental involvement in 3rd grade. Children's achievement in 1st grade had significant direct effects on parental involvement and expectations in 3rd grade. Parental involvement in 3rd grade had a significant direct effect on achievement in 3rd grade. Results suggest that early parenting factors are important for children's academic achievement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Maternal depression, paternal psychopathology, and adolescent diagnostic outcomes.

The authors examined the relationship between maternal depression, paternal psychopathology, and adolescent diagnostic outcomes in a community sample of 522 Australian families. They also examined whether chronic family stress, father's expressed emotion, and parents' marital satisfaction mediated the relationship between parental psychopathology and adolescent outcomes. Mother's education, child's gender, and family income were covaried in all analyses. Results revealed that maternal depression and paternal depression had an additive effect on youth externalizing disorders. In addition, maternal depression interacted with both paternal depression and paternal substance abuse in predicting youth depression but not youth nondepressive disorders. Chronic family stress and father's expressed emotion appeared to mediate the relationship between parental psychopathology and youth depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Longitudinal associations of marital quality and marital dissolution with the incidence of DSM-III-R disorders.

This study examined whether getting divorced was related to the subsequent incidence of DSM-III-R disorders across a 2-year period, controlling for the perceived quality of the marriage prior to the divorce. Data were used from 4,796 adults aged 18 to 64, who had participated in 3 waves (i.e., 1996, 1997, and 1999) of a large-scale epidemiological study conducted in The Netherlands. Results showed that getting divorced was prospectively linked to both the total and new case incidence of alcohol abuse and dysthymia, as well as to the new case incidence of social phobia. Adults who had divorced, however, were not more likely to develop a mental disorder if they had reported low levels of marital quality prior to the divorce. Thus, the marital discord underlying a divorce rather than divorce itself appeared to determine the onset of clinically relevant mental health problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accounting for Subordinate Perceptions of Supervisor Power: An Identity-Dependence Model.

The authors present a model that explains how subordinates perceive the power of their supervisors and the causal mechanisms by which these perceptions translate into subordinate outcomes. Drawing on identity and resource-dependence theories, the authors propose that supervisors have power over their subordinates when they control resources needed for the subordinates' enactment and maintenance of current and desired identities. The joint effect of perceptions of supervisor power and supervisor intentions to provide such resources leads to 4 conditions ranging from highly functional to highly dysfunctional: confirmation, hope, apathy, and progressive withdrawal. Each of these conditions is associated with specific outcomes such as the quality of the supervisor-subordinate relationship, turnover, and changes in the type and centrality of various subordinate identities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Understanding the relationship between religiosity and marriage: An investigation of the immediate and longitudinal effects of religiosity on newlywed couples.

The association between religiosity and marital outcome has been repeatedly demonstrated, but a complete understanding of this relationship is hindered by limitations of theory and method. The purpose of the current study was to test 3 explanatory models by assessing 2 samples of newlywed couples. Findings indicated that religiosity was associated with attitudes toward divorce, commitment, and help seeking cross-sectionally. Longitudinal effects, however, were most consistent with a moderating model, wherein religiosity had a positive impact on husbands' and wives' marital satisfaction for couples with less neurotic husbands and a negative impact for couples with more neurotic husbands. Overall, the impact of religiosity was weak over the first 4 years of marriage. Theoretical propositions are offered to guide future research in delineating the types of marriages that may be most affected by religiosity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What Gets Dad Involved? A Longitudinal Study of Change in Parental Child Caregiving Involvement.

Predictors of change in fathers' and mothers' perceptions of child caregiving involvement were examined. Middle-class 2-parent families (131 mothers and 98 fathers) with a target school-age child participated. Fathers and mothers completed annual questionnaires for 3 consecutive years. Latent growth curve modeling suggested that fathers were likely to increase their relative contribution to child caregiving over the course of 3 years when they had a greater proportion of male children in the family and when life events-particularly changes in employment and financial status-were experienced by the family. Although mothers were responsible for more of the caregiving, their relative level of involvement tended to decrease when there were no young children in the family. Two-parent families may adapt to varying family contexts and life circumstances by shifting caregiving roles and responsibilities over the course of years. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Longitudinal associations between parents' hostility and siblings' externalizing behavior in the context of marital discord.

This study examined longitudinal associations between parents' hostility and siblings' externalizing behavior in the context of interparental discord. The sample included 116 families (mothers, fathers, 2 siblings) assessed in middle childhood, when siblings were, on average, 8 and 10 years old, and in adolescence, at average ages of 14 and 16 years. Parents reported on their hostility toward each child and on each child's externalizing problems. Raters observed interparental hostility, and parents rated their marital quality. Results indicated both within-family and between-families effects. Specifically, the child who received more parental hostility than his or her sibling showed greater increases in externalizing problems than his or her sibling; this association was moderated by marital discord. In addition, the child who exhibited more behavioral problems than his or her sibling received greater increases in hostile mothering than did his or her sibling. Between-families effects were evident, in that children's externalizing problems were associated with increases in mothers' hostility toward both children in the family. Results support transactional models of development and family systems theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marital conflict, maternal and paternal parenting, and child adjustment: A test of mediation and moderation.

Parenting was examined as a mediator of associations between marital and child adjustment, and parent gender was examined as a moderator of associations among marital, parental, and child functioning in 226 families with a school-age child (146 boys). Parenting fully mediated associations between marital conflict and child internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Parent gender did not moderate associations when data from the full sample or families with girls only were evaluated. Parent gender did moderate associations when families with boys were evaluated, with the association between marital conflict and parenting stronger for fathers than mothers. A trend suggested fathers' parenting may be more strongly related to internalizing behavior and mothers' parenting may be more strongly related to externalizing behavior in boys. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Direct and Indirect Longitudinal Effects of Parental Involvement on Student Achievement: Second-Order Latent Growth Modeling Across Ethnic Groups.

The present study on the influence of parental involvement on students' academic achievement overcame limitations in current research by including simultaneous considerations of multidimensional, longitudinal, mediational, and ethnic factors. Results indicated (a) significant ethnic differences in the direct effects of parental involvement on academic achievement; (b) consistent indirect effects, mediated by student educational aspiration, across all 4 ethnic groups for initial status and subsequent academic growth; (c) consistent indirect effects, mediated by student locus of control, across all 4 ethnic groups for initial achievement status only; and (d) greater parental involvement, in terms of communication and educational aspiration for children to enhance students' educational aspiration and students' locus of control. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)