Widening spheres of impact: The role of forgiveness in marital and family functioning.

This study examined relations between aspects of family functioning and positive and negative dimensions of forgiveness. Increased understanding of one's partner and decreased anger about betrayal characterize positive forgiveness, whereas experiences such as holding a grudge and desiring revenge indicate negative forgiveness. The sample included 87 wives and 74 husbands who reported experiencing a significant betrayal, their partners, and their adolescent children. Analyses of reported forgiveness revealed that more negative forgiveness was associated with lower marital satisfaction for husbands and wives; trust partially mediated this relationship for husbands and wives. Greater positive forgiveness reported by husbands and wives predicted their own reports of a stronger parenting alliance, whereas greater negative forgiveness reported by husbands and wives predicted their spouses' reports of a weaker parenting alliance. For wives, more negative forgiveness also predicted higher levels of children's perceived parental conflict, and parents' reported conflict mediated this association for wives. Findings suggest that forgiveness of a marital betrayal is significantly associated with marital satisfaction, the parenting alliance, and children's perceptions of parental marital functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relation of childhood abuse and early parenting experiences to current marital quality in a nonclinical sample

This study examines the relation between adults' reports of the nature of the early parenting they received, including abuse, and the quality of their marital relationship. This community sample of 159 married women and men experienced relatively low levels of abuse. The regression analyses indicated that for women verbal abuse in childhood was predictive of marital conflict, and the caring parenting they experienced predicted the depth of their marital relationship. For men, the abuse variables did not predict any dimension of their current marital relationship. Of the parenting variables, overprotection was significantly predictive of conflict in their marriage. No demographic variable--income, education, and number of siblings--predicted any dimension of marital quality for either men or women. Given the skew of the abuse data for this nonclinical sample, log transformations were performed on the data and the regression analyses were reported. One change was noted: that for men, physical abuse and overprotection were equally predictive of marital conflict. The results suggest that abuse and early parent experiences are predictive of marital functioning in a nonclinical sample, but that differences exist in the pattern for men and women.     

Maternal employment and development of the father–infant relationship in the first year.

This study investigated links between maternal employment and fathers' parenting quality when their infants were 4 and 12 months old. Sixty-three fathers were videotaped interacting with their infants and completed questionnaires regarding their involvement in caregiving, parenting stress, and marital quality, and mothers reported on children's temperament. Fathers whose wives either did not work outside the home or worked part time were more sensitive and responsive to their children when they were more involved in caregiving; men whose wives worked full time exhibited more negative affect and behavior when they participated more in child care. Men whose wives were not employed also were more positive in their interactions when they were happier with their marriage, whereas men whose wives worked either part time or full time exhibited a negative relation between parenting behavior and marital quality. Maternal work circumstances were not related to fathers' parenting stress; rather, marital quality and child temperament predicted parenting stress at 4 and 12 months for all fathers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prospective predictors of parenting satisfaction for fathers and mothers with young children.

Data from husbands and wives from 48 couples with young children (mean age?=?2.71 years) were used to assess whether each spouse's parenting satisfaction assessed 8 years after marriage (Year 8) was predicted by parents' personality characteristics, marital quality, and social support assessed at the beginning of the marriage (Year 1). With controls for all other variables, fathers' Year 8 parenting satisfaction was predicted by their own Year 1 instrumentality, whereas mothers' Year 8 parenting satisfaction was predicted by their own Year 1 expressiveness. These prospective relations were not moderated by child-related characteristics and persisted with controls for Year 8 marital satisfaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hitting home: Relationships between recent deployment, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and marital functioning for Army couples.

Using a sample of 434 couples consisting of active duty Army husbands married to civilian wives, relationships between recent deployment, current posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and a range of marital outcomes were investigated. Self-reports from both husbands and wives regarding relationship functioning did not differ between couples who were and were not separated due to deployment in the prior year. However, deployment in the past year was related to higher levels of current PTSD symptoms for husbands, and husbands' current PTSD symptoms were associated with lower marital satisfaction, confidence in the relationship, positive bonding between the spouses, parenting alliance, and dedication to the relationship for both husbands and wives. In addition, husbands' current PTSD symptoms were associated with higher levels of negative communication for both husbands and wives, and lower satisfaction with sacrifice for the relationship for husbands. Once positive bonding, negative communication, and parenting alliance were controlled, husband PTSD symptoms no longer significantly predicted marital satisfaction for wives. Husband PTSD symptoms continued to exert a significant, but reduced, unique effect on husband marital satisfaction once these variables were accounted for. The results provide greater understanding of the relationship of deployment/PTSD symptoms and marital functioning and suggest areas for intervention with military couples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differential susceptibility to parenting and quality child care.

Research on differential susceptibility to rearing suggests that infants with difficult temperaments are disproportionately affected by parenting and child care quality, but a major U.S. child care study raises questions as to whether quality of care influences social adjustment. One thousand three hundred sixty-four American children from reasonably diverse backgrounds were followed from 1 month to 11 years with repeated observational assessments of parenting and child care quality, as well as teacher report and standardized assessments of children’s cognitive-academic and social functioning, to determine whether those with histories of difficult temperament proved more susceptible to early rearing effects at ages 10 and 11. Evidence for such differential susceptibility emerges in the case of both parenting and child care quality and with respect to both cognitive-academic and social functioning. Differential susceptibility to parenting and child care quality extends to late middle childhood. J. Belsky, D. L. Vandell, et al.’s (2007) failure to consider such temperament-moderated rearing effects in their evaluation of long-term child care effects misestimates effects of child care quality on social adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of marital quality in toddler development.

Examined associations among contemporaneous measures of marital quality, parenting attitudes and behavior, and toddler development in 75 2-parent families with a 20-mo-old child. Child–mother and child–father attachment was assessed in the Strange Situation procedure, and child task behavior was rated during a problem-solving task. Parents completed the Dyadic Adjustment Scale and questionnaires concerning parenting attitudes and perceptions. Independent observations were conducted for parental behavioral sensitivity and couple marital harmony. Findings support the hypothesis that good marital quality would be associated with optimal toddler functioning and sensitive parenting. The magnitude of effect was greater for marriage–parenting associations than for marriage–child associations. Differences in patterns of intercorrelation for mothers and fathers were found and direct and indirect associations between marital quality, parenting, and child development are discussed. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pretreatment social relations, therapeutic alliance, and improvements in parenting practices in parent management training.

The authors examined the parent-therapist alliance in parent management training for children (N = 218; 53 girls and 165 boys, ages 2-14) referred clinically for oppositional, aggressive, and antisocial behavior. The interrelations of pretreatment parent social relationships, the parent-therapist alliance over the course of treatment, and improvements in parenting practices at the end of treatment were evaluated by different raters. As expected, the better the quality of the parent-therapist alliance, the greater the improvements in parenting practices by the end of treatment. Social relations of the parents prior to treatment were associated with the parent-therapist alliance during treatment and parental improvements at the end of treatment. The relation between the therapeutic alliance and improvement in parenting practices was partially explained by pretreatment parent social relations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Understanding the role of personality in explaining associations between marital quality and parenting.

Analyses assessed the degrees to which personality accounts for associations between marital quality and parenting and mediates genetic contributions to these relationships. Participants included 318 male and 544 female same-sex twin pairs from the Twin and Offspring Study in Sweden. All twins completed self-report measures of marital quality and personality (anxiousness, aggression, sociability). Composite measures of parent negativity and warmth were derived from the twins’ and their adolescent children’s ratings of the twins’ disciplinary styles and the emotional tone of the parent–child relationship. Observational ratings of marital quality and parenting were also obtained for a subset of twins. Personality characteristics explained 33% to 42% of the covariance between reported marital quality and parenting and 26% to 28% of the covariance between observed marital quality and parenting. For both sets of analyses, personality accounted for more than half of the genetic contributions to covariance between marital quality and parenting. Results indicate that personality significantly contributes to associations between marital quality and parenting and that personality is an important path through which genetic factors contribute to family relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impact of a two-generation early education program on parenting processes at age 18.

The Infant Health and Development Program is a two-generation early education model designed to improve parenting competence and child well-being. As part of an 8-site randomized clinical trial involving low birthweight premature children, assessments of children and parents were gathered at the time of program completion (age 3), with follow-up at ages 5, 8, and 18. Two key parenting processes were assessed at age 18 based on theory stipulating the centrality of parenting to long-term development in children. Analyses based on 283 control group and 178 Infant Health and Development Program treatment group participants revealed that treatment group mothers scored higher on one, the provision of enriching experiences. Evidence of sustained impacts on parenting suggests that carefully structured two-generation early education programs may prove good investments for promoting competence and adaptive functioning in high-risk children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A genetically informed study of associations between family functioning and child psychosocial adjustment.

Research has documented associations between family functioning and offspring psychosocial adjustment, but questions remain regarding whether these associations are partly due to confounding genetic factors and other environmental factors. The current study used a genetically informed approach, the Children of Twins design, to explore the associations between family functioning (family conflict, marital quality, and agreement about parenting) and offspring psychopathology. Participants were 867 twin pairs (388 monozygotic; 479 dizygotic) from the Twin and Offspring Study in Sweden, their spouses, and children (51.7% female; M = 15.75 years). The results suggested associations between exposure to family conflict (assessed by the mother, father, and child) and child adjustment were independent of genetic factors and other environmental factors. However, when family conflict was assessed using only children's reports, the results indicated that genetic factors also influenced these associations. In addition, the analyses indicated that exposure to low marital quality and agreement about parenting was associated with children's internalizing and externalizing problems and that genetic factors also contributed to the associations of marital quality and agreement about parenting with offspring externalizing problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological predictors of parents' sense of confidence and control and self- versus child-focused gratifications.

23 mothers and 16 fathers (age range of mothers and fathers 25–31 yrs) of 1–4 young children (oldest child mean age 3.4 yrs, youngest child mean age 2.3 yrs) completed an interview about their parenting experiences. In addition to gender, measures of psychological differentiation (e.g., the Washington University Sentence Completion Test), perceptions of the marital relationship, and occupational identity status were used to predict the parents' feelings of confidence and control and self- vs child-focused gratifications. Findings indicate that as expected, mothers reported less confidence and control and more self-focused gratifications. Greater marital harmony and more advanced occupational identity statuses predicted more confident parenting; better marital relationships predicted a greater sense of control; and occupational identity status interacted with gender to predict gratifications. Although the direct effects of psychological differentiation were not significant, this variable indirectly affected parenting via its relationship to marriage and work. (48 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Triangles in the family circle: Effects of family structure on marriage, parenting, and child adjustment.

Mothers, fathers, and 6- to 10-year-old children used the Family Cohesion Index to type their family system as cohesive (all close), separate (all distant), triangulated (cross-generational coalitions), or detouring (child excluded from the parental sub-system). Family members agreed modestly with one another. Multivariate analyses of variance showed that parents in triangulated families were higher in marital conflict and dissatisfaction than were cohesive and detouring parents. Children in triangulated families reported more interparental conflict and more negative affect in the family. Children in detouring families rated themselves higher in self-blame for their parents' conflicts, and their parents rated them highest in internalizing problems. Parents in separate families rated their children highest in externalizing problems. Implications for the integration of family systems perspectives with research on marriage and parenting are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parental factors and the young child's postdivorce adjustment: A meta-analysis with implications for parenting arrangements.

A model-based meta-analytic review highlighted relationships critical for understanding the young child's postdivorce adjustment when planning parenting arrangements. This review confirmed the utility of an interactional model that includes preseparation information and information about father, mother, and the parental alliance. Interactions among the quality and frequency of father's involvement in relation to postdivorce child adjustment that were not clear in studies looking only at direct effects of father-access variables were identified. Results indicated that maternal variables should not be viewed in isolation from the parental alliance or from the father-child relationship. The review discusses variables promoting developmental competence as well as risk factors that clearly interfere with both parental and child functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting marital and parent functioning in dyads and triads: A longitudinal investigation of marital processes.

This study assessed longitudinally whether couples' dysregulated negative affect before parenthood is predictive of conflict, as well as diminished affective quality, in family relationships 5 years later. Observations of 25 couples' marital communication were made before parenthood and again 5 years later, when data also were collected on parent–child and family interactions. Husbands' prechild marital behavior and couples' prechild negative escalation were predictive of husbands' conflict and triangulation of the child into marital conflict. Family-level functioning (e.g., coalition formation) was predicted by prechild negative escalation. Parenting behavior was not predicted by prechild marital functioning but was related to current marital functioning. The data provide support for the hypothesis that how couples regulate negative affect early on in marriage sets the tone for future interactions involving parents and their child. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interdependence of parenting of mothers and fathers of infants.

This study examined the relations among parenting behaviors of 97 coresident mothers and fathers of infants during a dyadic free-play setting. The authors examined the extent to which observed sensitive and intrusive parenting behaviors in mother-child and father-child dyads were related and how perceived marital quality may be associated with the similarity between maternal and paternal parenting behaviors. The authors found support for interdependence of parenting by mothers and fathers. High perceived marital quality was associated with interdependence of sensitive parenting behaviors in mother-infant and father-infant interactions. Negative parenting behaviors by mothers and fathers were interrelated regardless of marital quality. The findings highlight the importance of studying parenting by mothers and fathers as embedded within particular family systems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of marital conflict on subsequent triadic family interactions and parenting.

This study examined marital conflict's indirect effects on children through disruptions in family alliances and parenting. Forty married couples were observed interacting with their 6–8-year-old sons after pleasant and conflictual discussions. After conflictual discussion, fathers showed lower support/engagement toward sons, and coparenting styles were less democratic. Couple negativity was correlated with family negativity, regardless of the topic of discussion, which suggests continuity in the affective quality of the two family subsystems. Mothers' marital satisfaction moderated families' responses to the experimental manipulation. The results provide stronger evidence than previously available of a causal link between conflict and disrupted parenting. Further research is needed to identify which conflict-related disruptions in parenting influence the development of children's problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

In vitro fertilization and the family: Quality of parenting, family functioning, and child psychosocial adjustment.

This study examined associations between homologous in vitro fertilization (IVF) and quality of parenting, family functioning, and emotional and behavioral adjustment of 3–7-year-old children. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Taiwan with 54 IVF mother–child pairs and 59 mother–child pairs with children conceived naturally. IVF mothers reported a greater level of protectiveness toward their children than control mothers. Teachers, blind to condition, rated IVF mothers as displaying greater warmth but not overprotective or intrusive parenting behaviors toward their children. Teachers scored children of IVF as having fewer behavioral problems than control children. In contrast, IVF mothers reported less satisfaction with aspects of family functioning. Family composition moderated parenting stress: IVF mothers with only 1 child perceived less parenting stress than did those in the control group. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Examining the process by which marital adjustment affects maternal warmth: The role of coparenting support as a mediator.

This study assessed the longitudinal process by which marital adjustment affects change in maternal warmth over time. Change in coparenting support was examined as the potential mechanism by which the marriage affects parenting. Self-report data were gathered from 148 married mothers of first-born 4th graders at 3 time points, over the transition to early adolescence. Path analyses supported the proposed hypothesis, indicating that marital adjustment leads to increased coparenting support, which then leads to increased maternal warmth. Two alternative models of the time-ordered direction of effects among the study variables were ruled out. This study has important implications for the development of parenting interventions targeting the promotion of maternal warmth. (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)