Parental divorce, parent–child bonds, and adult attachment orientations among college students: A comparison of three racial/ethnic groups.

Despite evidence indicating that race/ethnicity and parental divorce may respectively affect perceptions of family and other intimate relationships, the conjoint influences of these sociodemographic variables on self-reports of both early (parent–child) and current (intimate adult) attachment relationships have not been investigated. In the present study, the authors examined (a) the contributions of parental marital status and race/ethnicity to scores on these measures and (b) the relative abilities of parental bonds to predict adult attachment orientations among students from different family backgrounds (i.e., intact and divorced) and from different racial/ethnic groups (i.e., White, Black, and Hispanic/Latino). Results indicated that race/ethnicity and parents' marital status had significant effects on the attachment measures, and that the extent to which parental bonds predicted adult attachment orientations varied among students with different family backgrounds and race/ethnicity. Implications of these findings to the conceptualization of college students' psychosocial development are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Risk, resistance, and psychological distress: A longitudinal analysis with adults and children.

The link between risk and resistance factors and psychological and physical distress was examined cross-sectionally and longitudinally over a 1-year period. Risk factors are negative life events and avoidance coping strategies and, for children, parental emotional and physical distress. Resistance factors include self-confidence, an easygoing disposition, and family support. We studied a community sample of over 400 adults and their children. Each of the predictor variables was significantly associated with concurrent and future psychological and physical distress among adults. Moreover, the sets of risk and resistance variables predicted both current and subsequent distress among adults even when the stable component in distress was controlled. Parental risk and resistance—especially family support and maternal dysfunction—also predicted concurrent psychological and, less strongly, physical distress among the children. The associations involving family support and maternal distress and avoidance coping held in cross-sectional analyses even when the stable component in children's distress was controlled. Although family support was associated with children's future psychological and physical distress in zero-order correlations, the relation did not hold when children's initial distress was controlled. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attachment relationships among children with aggressive behavior problems: The role of disorganized early attachment patterns.

Reviews attachment-related studies of early aggression to show that aggressive behavior toward peers is related to disorganized or controlling patterns of attachment behavior toward parents but not to avoidant or ambivalent patterns. Longitudinal attachment studies indicate that risk factors identified in cross-sectional studies of aggressive school-age children, such as family adversity, parental hostility, parental depression, and child cognitive deficits, are already evident in infancy and predictive of later aggression, before the onset of coercive child behavior. In infancy, these risk factors are associated with disorganized attachment behaviors toward the caregiver characterized by signs of fear or dysphoria, irresolvable conflict between opposing behavioral tendencies, and elevated cortisol levels after separation. Disorganized attachment behaviors, in turn, predict aggression in school-age children with other family factors controlled. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clarifying the effects of parental substance abuse, child sexual abuse, and parental caregiving on adult adjustment.

Parental alcoholism, childhood sexual abuse, and other forms of child maltreatment are generally viewed as contributing to adult adjustment problems. The long-term effects of these various factors, however, are actually not well understood. The present study found that the largest amount of variance in 255 college students' psychological distress was explained by parental emotional abuse and neglect, with child sexual abuse, parental substance abuse, and other factors explaining additional but smaller amounts of variance in distress. This suggests that comprehensive conceptualizations of family influences on development will result in a more complete understanding of long-term adjustment outcomes than merely focusing on particular childhood risk factors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relation entre l'attachement et les interactions mère-enfant en milieu naturel et expérimental à l'age scolaire.

The purpose of the present study is to examine the relation between quality of mother-child interaction in a lab and home setting, and quality of attachment of school-age children. A second objective of the study is to evaluate the associations between quality of mother-child interactions, attachment and maternal psychosocial measures (social support, depression, and parental stress). Security of attachment (Separation-Reunion procedure, Main & Cassidy, 1988) and the quality of mother-child interaction was evaluated for a sample of 38 children (mean age = 6 years). Mothers also completed self-report measures for depression, stress, and social support. Concurrent to the lab assessment, quality of mother-child interaction was also evaluated during a home visit. Results indicated a strong association between interactive patterns in both settings. Moreover, interactive patterns differed in terms of attachment classification with secure children showing the most harmonious patterns and disorganized/controlling children showing the most dysfunctional patterns. Maternal psychosocial measures were not related to child security of attachment, but mothers of insecure children reported marginally more stress related to the child. Maternal psychosocial adjustment was, in part, related to dyadic mother-child interaction in the home and lab setting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychosocial factors in children with idiopathic musculoskeletal pain: a prospective, longitudinal study

To explore the role of psychosocial factors in the development and persistence of idiopathic musculoskeletal pain (IMP) in children, 23 children with IMP and 52 children with juvenile chronic arthritis (JCA) were compared at first admission to hospital and at 9 y follow-up. Semistructured interviews were performed at both assessments. At first admission, the prevalence of psychiatric diagnoses was high both in patients with IMP and patients with JCA, but patients with IMP more often had pain models, reported more school stress and more often lived with one biological parent. At follow-up, overall psychosocial functioning and level of chronic family difficulties were improved in both groups, but patients with IMP had a higher prevalence of psychiatric diagnoses and more chronic family difficulties and life events than patients with JCA. The persistence of IMP at follow-up was related to pain models, school stress, less parental education and more chronic family difficulties at first admission. Findings support the association between psychosocial factors and childhood IMP.     

Temporal associations of cigarette smoking with social influences, academic performance, and delinquency: A four-wave longitudinal study from ages 13-23.

This study examined the temporal associations of cigarette smoking with prosmoking social influences, academic performance, and delinquency in a cohort of 6,527 adolescents surveyed at ages 13, 16, 18, and 23 years. Prosmoking peer and family influences were risk factors for future smoking throughout adolescence, with family influences perhaps also operating indirectly through the adolescent's exposure to prosmoking peers. There were reciprocal associations of youth smoking with parental approval, peer smoking, and poor grades (but not delinquency), with youth smoking emerging as a stronger antecedent than consequence of these psychosocial factors. Few gender differences in these associations were observed. Implications of these findings for efforts to prevent youth smoking are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Commentary: Some focus and process considerations regarding effects of parental depression on children.

Six main questions are considered: How does depression affect parent-child interaction? Are the effects of parental depression uniform? Do they stem specifically from depressions as such? Do the risks derive from alterations in parent-child interaction? Which psychological functions in the child are affected? and Why do children differ in their responses to parental depression? The main challenges include the need (a) to study aspects of parenting that extend beyond styles of immediate interaction, (b) to differentiate varieties of parental psychopathology, (c) to consider the extent to which effects on children derive from parental depression per se rather than associated risk factors, (d) to differentiate between varied types of psychological dysfunction in the children, (e) to consider genetic as well as environmental transmission, (f) to examine mediating risk and protective mechanisms, and (g) to investigate the processes involved in individual differences in children's responses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Intergenerational Transmission of Perfectionism: Parents' Psychological Control as an Intervening Variable.

The present study investigated the role of parental (adaptive and maladaptive) intrapersonal perfectionism as a predictor of parental psychological control and the role of parents' psychological control in the intergenerational transmission of perfectionism in a sample of female late adolescents and their parents. First, parental maladaptive perfectionism, but not parental adaptive perfectionism, significantly predicted parents' psychological control even when controlling for parents' neuroticism. This relationship was found to be stronger for fathers than for mothers. Second, a significant direct relationship was found between mothers' and daughters' maladaptive perfectionism but not between fathers' and daughters' maladaptive perfectionism. Third, process analyses showed that, for both mothers and fathers, psychological control is an intervening variable in the relationship between parents' and daughters' maladaptive perfectionism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Typical configurations of psychosocial stress factors of psychiatrically conspicuous children and adolescents

Typical configurations of psychosocial stressors in children and adolescents with psychiatric disorders. Abnormal psychosocial situations are strongly associated with psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents. They are significant risk factors, and sometimes play a causative role. Information about such situations can therefore serve as a basis for planning and implementation of therapeutic interventions. Up till now, however, there has been little evidence for the specificity of the relationship between psychosocial factors and psychiatric disorders. Therefore, in the present study cluster analysis was used to group a psychiatric population of children and adolescents by typical configurations of psychosocial stressors, and the subjects in these clusters were then compared with regard to age, gender, psychiatric disorders and level of intelligence. Five clusters were formed, with qualitative and quantitative differences. One cluster consists of cases with various psychiatric disorders but few psychosocial stressors or none at all. In the other four clusters, "parental handicap, mental disorder or deviation" and "anomalous parenting situation" are variables of key importance as one of them occurs in each cluster, together with different combinations of other psychosocial factors. In the one cluster where both of the previously mentioned key variables occur all of the additional factors also occur.     

Neuropsychological testing: Relevance for assessing children's learning disabilities.

The traditional concept of learning disabilities makes two presumptions of direct relevance to neuropsychological assessment. The first is that deficits in psychological processes are responsible for learning problems in children who should otherwise be able to learn. The second is that these processing deficits are a reflection of biological-genetic factors. A review of the literature on neuropsychological test batteries suggests that both presumptions are credible. Although the neurological validity of these batteries is uncertain, there is at least indirect evidence for biological influences on performance. The psychological significance of test deficits has been more clearly established. Cognitive dimensions tapped by neuropsychological batteries discriminate disabled from nondisabled learners, appraise different sources of learning failure, help to identify the children most likely to develop these disabilities, and are useful in making treatment recommendations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A review of children's reports of parent behaviors.

Analyzed the literature on children's reports of parent behaviors in terms of a model combining features from E. S. Schaefer and M. Seigelman. 3 orthogonal factors loving (acceptance-rejection), demanding (psychological control), and punishment and the intersecting planes of the 1st 2 factors describe the traditional domain of parent-child interactional variables as reported by children. However, process variables such as perceived parental consistency, delay of reward, etc., and noninteractional variables such as parental social sex role, etc., are not described by the combined model. The model was applied to empirical findings, and the children's reports of parent behaviors were shown to be different for mother-report and father-report and to be related clearly to the sex, social class, and behavior of the children. Suggestions are presented for additional research which is relevant to both theoretical and applied goals. (2 p. ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parents, peers, and prototypes: Antecedents of adolescent alcohol expectancies, alcohol consumption, and alcohol-related life problems in rural youth.

Most research on alcohol consumption has considered the impact of social influences, such as parental and peer factors, separately from more cognitive factors, such as alcohol expectancies. No research to date has prospectively considered the antecedents to alcohol expectancies and how they may relate to other alcohol-related cognitions (e.g., risk images). Using a recently developed model of health behavior in a longitudinal study with a sample of 357 adolescents and their parents, the current study investigated the combined impact of social, parental, and cognitive factors on alcohol expectancies, consumption, and alcohol-related life problems. Results suggest that parental and social factors are antecedents to expectancies and that cognitive factors mediate the impact of parental influence on consumption. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A behavior-genetic study of parenting quality, infant attachment security, and their covariation in a nationally representative sample.

A number of relatively small-sample, genetically sensitive studies of infant attachment security have been published in the past several years that challenge the view that all psychological phenotypes are heritable and that environmental influences on child development--to the extent that they can be detected--serve to make siblings dissimilar. Using the twin subsample (N = 485 same-sex pairs) of the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study--Birth Cohort, the authors provide evidence that parenting quality and infant attachment security observed at 24 months, as well as their covariation, are a product of shared and nonshared environmental (but not genetic) variation among children. In contrast, genetic differences between infants played a prominent role in explaining observations of temperamental dependency. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parental attachment, parental control, and early development of alcohol use: A longitudinal study.

The authors explored the predictive influence of both parental attachment and parental control on early onset of alcohol consumption in adolescence by use of a longitudinal sample of 1,012 young adolescents. Whether the relationship between parental control and adolescents' drinking is moderated by parental attachment was also examined. Consistent with other studies, attachment and strict control were cross-sectionally related to adolescents' alcohol use at all 3 measurements. However, the longitudinal results of structural equation modeling analyses suggest that a good attachment relationship between parent and child does not prevent adolescents from drinking. In addition, strict control was related to lower engagement in alcohol use. Furthermore, with regard to the moderating effect, parental attachment did not moderate longitudinally the association between parental control and an early development of alcohol use. Implications for further research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Boys will be girls, girls will be boys: Children affect parents as parents affect children in gender nonconformity.

There are transformational possibilities in the family when presented with a child who is transgender or gender nonconforming. Challenging orthodox psychoanalytic thinking that these children's gender presentations are a consequence of poor parental rearing, trauma, or attachment disruptions, it is proposed that gender nonconformity is healthy rather than pathological and that typically these children initially just show up in their families, rather than being shaped by them. Looking at the metabolism of transphobia and the transformational possibilities within the family when boys will be girls and girls will be boys, 3 family types that either support or impede their children's creative gender development are presented: the transformers, the transphobic, and the transporting, with case material to illustrate each of the family types. A psychological construct is developed to explain the feedback loop between family and child: The transgender or gender nonconforming child who transgresses binary gender norms may face culturally imbued transphobia and psychological trauma within the family while simultaneously facilitating the family's transcendence of transphobia through transformative experiences with the child as he or she transitions from the gender assigned at birth to his or her authentic and affirmed gender identity or expression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Type A behavior pattern, parental history of hypertension, and cardiovascular reactivity in college males.

Examined 2 risk factors for cardiovascular disorders—parental history of hypertension and the Type A (coronary prone) behavior pattern—with respect to cardiovascular reactivity to challenging situations. 64 college males completed a structured interview (SI), Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS), and family health questionnaire. Ss were monitored for blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR), and pulse transit time response to 4 tasks. Type As based on SI classification had significantly higher HR levels across all tasks than did Type Bs (noncoronary prone), as well as higher diastolic BP levels in the cold pressor task. No main effects for Type A-B using JAS classification were found. Type A and parental history did interact in a limited way on some tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prenatal and perinatal factors in child development: A commentary.

School adjustment and achievement are at the heart of a child's development. Both are influenced by a myriad of factors that are complex and interconnected. For children with difficulties, school psychologists are integral to the assessment of those diverse factors and to the implementation of intervention strategies that help those children reach their potential. The traditional role of the school psychologist as an evaluator has often required a focus on the immediate results of psychological and emotional assessment and an interpretation of those results for placement. Nonetheless, environmental factors affect learning and behavior and influence children throughout their lives--even from before birth. Those variables interact during critical developmental periods, thereby affecting the youngster's function in substantial ways. This set of articles addresses some of the varied preconceptional and perinatal influences that may affect a child's performance in school, at home, and in his community--the knowledge of which will assist the school psychologist in helping the child and family. The articles combine concern for individual functioning with a public health model, addressing broader population-based data. The intersection of school psychology and public health has been too little explored, and this volume helps to close that gap. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of adolescent–parent relationships in college student development and adjustment.

Tested the hypothesis that the conjoint variance of psychological separation and parental attachment is more strongly related to college student development and adjustment than either set of variables in isolation. Measures of college student development, college student adjustment, psychological separation, and parental attachment were administered to 73 female and 66 male students (mean age 19.1 yrs) attending a large state university in the Northeast. For college student development, there was support for the conjoint hypothesis for the women but not for the men. For college student adjustment, there was no support for the conjoint hypothesis for the women and limited support for the men. The implications of these findings for theory, practice, and future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychosocial adjustment of children treated for anorectal anomalies

The psychosocial adjustment of 160 children with anorectal malformations was assessed at 6 to 17 years of age in relation to levels of continence (Kelly score). Five measures of emotional and behavioural adjustment were used to assess a number of domains of child/adolescent functioning and to include measures from multiple perspectives. The psychiatric assessment of the child identified a disorder in 29% of the group overall. Based on parental assessments, behavioural maladjustment was shown in 27% of the children, and on the basis of a self-report questionnaire 24% of the children were depressed. Behavioural adjustment as rated by teachers was similar to the norms. The level of continence achieved (total Kelly score) did not appear to influence psychological adjustment, with the exception of the incontinent young girls (6 to 11 years) who were shown to be less well adjusted than the continent young girls. Differences between children showing positive versus negative adjustment were dependent on the perspective of the respondent and were also related to the child's age and gender, age of achieving continence, frequency of accidents, and parental factors.