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)     

Father contributions to cortisol responses in infancy and toddlerhood.

The current study is one of the first prospective examinations of longitudinal associations between observed father caregiving behaviors and child cortisol reactivity and regulation in response to emotional arousal. Observations of father and mother caregiving behaviors and child cortisol levels in response to challenges at 7 months and 24 months of child age were collected. Analyses were based on a subsample of children from the Family Life Project who lived with both their biological mothers and fathers and for whom there was at least partial cortisol data (7 months: n = 717; 24 months: n = 579). At the challenge conducted at 7 months of child age, 49.0% of the sample were girls; racial composition of the sample was 25.8% African American and 74.2% European American. At the challenge conducted at 24 months of child age 49.9% of the sample were girls; racial composition was 24.7% African American and 75.3% European American. We conducted analyses across assessment points simultaneously using mixed linear modeling for repeated measures data to test for differential effects of fathering across infancy and toddlerhood. Concurrent measures of father negativity were positively associated with greater increases in child cortisol levels in response to emotion challenge at 7 months (p = .01) and with higher overall levels of cortisol at 24 months (p     

Intimate partner violence moderates the association between mother–infant adrenocortical activity across an emotional challenge.

This study examined the relationship between mother and infant adrenocortical levels and reactivity to an emotion eliciting task. The impact of intimate partner violence (IPV) on these relationships was assessed as a moderator. The sample (n = 702 mother–infant dyads) was racially diverse and from predominantly low-income, rural communities. During a home visit, the dyad’s saliva was sampled before, 20 min, and 40 min after standardized tasks designed to elicit the infant’s emotional arousal and later assayed for cortisol. Mothers completed self-report measures of their partner’s violence, and parenting behaviors were assessed via structured interview and mother–child interactions. In response to the task, infants had positive, and mothers had negative, cortisol slopes. Contrary to expectations, there were no IPV-related differences in mean pretask cortisol levels or reactivity in the mothers or infants. Mother–infant dyads from households characterized by either (1) violence or (2) restrictive and punitive parenting behaviors exhibited correlated cortisol reactivity measured in response to the infant challenge task. The findings suggest that social contextual features of the early caregiving environment may influence individual differences in the coordination between maternal and infant adrenocortical reactivity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Caregiving outcomes for older mothers of adults with mental retardation: A test of the two-factor model of psychological well-being.

A two-factor model of caregiving appraisal and psychological well-being, based on previous findings with caregiving spouses (M. P. Lawton et al; see record 1991-34214-001) was tested with 225 older mothers who provided care at home to an offspring with mental retardation The effects of objective caregiving stressors, caregiver resources, and subjective appraisals (caregiving satisfaction and burden) on the positive and negative dimensions of psychological well-being were examined. LISREL 8 analyses revealed that the model differed in two key ways for caregiving mothers: (a) Positive psychological well-being appeared to diminish subjective burden, and (b) both objective stressors and resources were unrelated to subjective burden. These findings suggest the need for future research into how caregiving dynamics are influenced by the specific nature of the relationship between the caregiver and the recipient. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parental beliefs, infant temperament, and marital quality: Associations with infant–mother and infant–father attachment.

The present research examined parental beliefs about the importance of the paternal caregiving role, mothers’ and fathers’ reports of infant temperament, and observed marital quality as predictors of infant–mother and infant–father attachment security, over and above the effects of parental sensitivity. Infants’ attachment security to mothers and fathers were observed in the Strange Situation at 12 and 13 months, respectively (N = 62 two-parent families). Hierarchical regression models revealed that mothers who viewed the paternal caregiving role as important were less likely to have securely attached infants, but only when infant fussiness was high. In addition, fathers who viewed the paternal caregiving role as important were more likely to have securely attached infants, but only when infants’ fussiness or marital quality was high. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Compound caregiving: When lifelong caregivers undertake additional caregiving roles.

Objective: Lifetime parental caregivers of adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) may also become caregivers to other family members. This study investigated caregiver experiences of compound caregiving (i.e. additional caregiving roles) and its association with caregiver quality of life. Participants: Ninety-one older caregivers living with their adult son/daughter with ID were interviewed. Mean age of the caregivers was 60 years and their sons'/daughters' mean age was 29 years. Main Outcome Measures: Compound caregiving status, physical and mental health, life satisfaction, depressive symptomatology, and desire for alternative residential placement for their co-residing son/daughter. Results: Thirty-four (37%) reported being current compound caregivers to an additional care recipient, predominantly a mother, father, or spouse. Caregivers averaged 39 hours per week fulfilling their primary caregiving tasks, an additional 12 hours per week on the compound caregiving role, and the median duration of compound caregiving was 3 years. Compared with the non-compound caregivers, the compound caregivers had increased desire to place their son/daughter into residential care, though no group differences were apparent in life satisfaction, depressive symptomatology, physical health, or mental health. The most problematic issues reported by compound caregivers were having little personal time and a lack of adequate help from others. Conclusion: Compound caregiving was often experienced, and may galvanize these lifetime caregivers to start making future plans for their sons/daughters. Future research is warranted to refine more homogeneous groupings of compound caregivers, who may be at greater risk for adverse outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social network relationships as sources of maternal support and well-being.

Explored the social networks available to mothers of infants, focusing on the contribution of specific relationships to maternal well-being. 43 mothers (aged 21–39 yrs) of 13-mo-old infants were asked to position individuals who were close to them in a network diagram and to indicate which of those individuals provided support. The mother's relationship with her husband and with the infant's maternal grandparents, mother's well-being in terms of affect and life satisfaction, and infant temperamental difficulty and infant–mother attachment security were assessed. Results reveal that mothers reported an average of 13 persons in their networks, but support was provided primarily by the husband, followed by the infant's maternal grandmother (particularly when there was more than 1 child), and 1 or 2 other family members and friends. Maternal affect and life satisfaction were related to infant difficulty and to support from and satisfaction with the spouse. Negative maternal affect was related to anxious/resistant attachment. Results affirm the importance of spousal support for mothers of infants in intact families. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The psychosocial impact of caregiving on young people who have a parent with an illness or disability: Comparisons between young caregivers and noncaregivers.

Objective: To investigate the psychosocial impact of young caregiving by empirically validating prominent qualitative themes. This was achieved through developing an inventory called the Young Caregiver of Parents Inventory (YCOPI) designed to assess these themes and by comparing young caregivers and noncaregivers. Method: Two hundred forty-five participants between 10 and 25 years completed questionnaires: 100 young caregivers and 145 noncaregivers. In addition to the YCOPI, the following variables were measured: demographics, caregiving context, social support, appraisal, coping strategies, and adjustment (health, life satisfaction, distress, positive affect). Results: Eight reliable factors emerged from the YCOPI that described the diverse impacts of caregiving and reflected the key themes reported in prior research. The factors were related to most caregiving context variables and theoretically relevant stress and coping variables. Compared with noncaregivers, young caregivers reported higher levels of young caregiving impact, less reliance on problem-solving coping, and higher somatization and lower life satisfaction. Conclusions: Findings delineate key impacts of young caregiving and highlight the importance of ensuring that measures used in research on young caregivers are sensitive to issues pertinent to this population. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Positive aspects of caregiving as a moderator of treatment outcome over 12 months.

The authors examined the influence of positive aspects of caregiving (PAC) as a moderator of treatment outcome across 12 months in 1 of the original sites of the Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health I project. They used multilevel random coefficients regression analysis to predict time-varying PAC, depression, behavioral bother, and daily care burden in Alzheimer's caregivers (N = 243; mean age = 60.89, SD = 14.19). They found that time-varying PAC was predicted by time-varying daily care burden. They also found significant effects of time-varying PAC for depression, behavioral bother, and daily care burden. Notably, a PAC × Phase × Treatment effect was found for daily care burden, such that individuals who endorsed less PAC benefited most from the intervention across 12 months. The tendency to positively appraise the caregiving experience (i.e., PAC) in response to chronic stressors such as Alzheimer's caregiving may affect individuals' responsiveness to, and benefit from, interventions, whereas only daily care burden affected the tendency to find enjoyment in caregiving across 12 months. Future intervention research should assess individual PAC in order to better tailor interventions to caregiving needs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A rearrangement of the CDD gene at the 5'' UTR produces two types of transcripts that contain a natural antisense region

BACKGROUND: Mothers with multiple sclerosis (MS) often face fatigue and episodic exacerbations during their child-rearing years. These problems affect their support of their children, including physical affection. Children, depending on their age and gender, may or may not understand the changes. OBJECTIVES: To increase knowledge about mothers with MS concerning the relationship of fatigue and functional status to the perception of physical affection with their children, their perceptions of physical affection with their children in relation to exacerbation of their symptoms and the age and gender of their children, and the children's perceptions of their mothers' physical affection in relation to the children's age and gender and exacerbations in their mothers' symptoms. METHOD: Thirty-five mothers with relapsing-remitting MS and a child of each mother were studied, using interviews and questionnaires. RESULTS: Functional status and fatigue were not significant predictors of physical affection during an exacerbation. When the mothers' symptoms were stable, perceptions of mothers and children with respect to maternal physical affection were similar. Significant changes were reported in both the mothers' perceptions of their physical affection and the children's perceptions of their mothers' physical affection during exacerbations. There was a significant difference between the perceptions of the mothers and children regarding the magnitude of that change. Mothers significantly underestimated changes in their physical affection. CONCLUSIONS: Physical affection was selected as an important aspect of family functioning that could be affected by characteristics of illness, including exacerbations, fatigue, and functional status. However, fatigue and functional status did not explain the perception of physical affection during an exacerbation.     

Longitudinal analysis of midlife generativity, intergenerational roles, and caregiving.

Items from California Adult Q-Sort (CAQ) were used to assess psychosocial generativity (E. H. Erikson, 1950) in a sample of educated women at midlife. CAQ scores measured at age 43 demonstrated convergent validity with an inventory measure of generativity assessed at age 53. According to other longitudinal analyses, women who attained a generative stance at age 43 reported greater investment 10 years later in intergenerational roles (e.g. daughter, mother) but not nonintergenerational ones (e.g. friend, sister). Generative women also reported less subjective burden in caring for aging parents and more knowledge about community elder care programs. Further evidence suggests that participants felt embedded in a reciprocal caregiving network in which they themselves are recipients of care. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mothers' and Fathers' Behaviors Toward Their 3- to 4-Month-Old Infants in Lower, Middle, and Upper Socioeconomic African American Families.

African American mothers' and fathers' availability, caregiving, and social behaviors toward their infants in and around their homes were examined. Twenty lower, 21 middle, and 21 upper socioeconomic families and their 3- to 4-month-old infants were observed for 4 3-hr blocks between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. on 4 different weekdays. With increasing economic resources, children's exposure to multiple caregivers and nonresident fathers declined. Mothers were more available to infants than fathers were, regardless of socioeconomic status. Mothers fed infants more than fathers did, whereas fathers vocalized more and displayed more affection to infants than mothers did when they were examined in proportion to caregiver presence. Mothers and fathers interacted with male and female infants quite similarly, although, in the upper socioeconomic families, fathers of daughters were more available than fathers of sons. Fathers and mothers in the different socioeconomic groups held, displayed affection to, and soothed their infants differently. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavior of Swedish primary and secondary caretaking fathers in relation to mother's presence.

Parents from 27 Swedish families were observed at home interacting with their infants (aged 8–12 mo) in 2 different social situations—(a) with the father, mother, and infant present and (b) the father alone with infant. 12 of the fathers had been primary caretakers for more than 1 mo (mean?=?3 mo); these families were designated as shared childcare. Men who took little or no parental leave and were never primary caretakers were from families designated as traditional. Results indicate that in the 3-person social context mothers were more likely to engage in distal bidding with their infants (vocalize, smile, laugh) and display affection toward their infants than fathers, regardless of the fathers' past histories of caregiving. By contrast, when the fathers were alone with their infants, effects of the fathers' caregiving histories did occur. In this situation, fathers from traditional families were more likely to display affection toward and play with their infants. In contrast to previous studies, it is suggested that differential involvement in childcare has significant effects in fathers' behavior. (6 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The economic impact of work and family issues: Child care satisfaction and financial considerations of employed mothers.

This article introduces the role of financial considerations into work–family research by considering the costs and benefits of employed mothers’ child care satisfaction. Data from 2 samples offer empirical support for the addition of a fourth factor to a current measure of child care satisfaction so that the measure reflects mothers’ satisfaction not only with caregiver attentiveness, communication, and dependability but also with child care-related financial considerations. This article also discusses relationships between child care satisfaction and work–family conflict and job satisfaction for this population. The results of this study provide both organizations and child care providers with a broader picture of the concerns that employed mothers face as they search for reliable, affordable child care. (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)     

The relations of maternal social support and family structure with maternal responsiveness and child outcomes among African American families.

The social support networks and family structure of 62 low-income African American mothers were related to proximal and distal measures of the mother's parenting style and to the children's social and cognitive development. Women with larger support networks tended to be more responsive in interactions with their infants and to provide more stimulating home environments than mothers with smaller social networks. Activity level was the only infant outcome significantly related to social support. Family structure was not associated with either maternal or child outcomes in these analyses. These results support a systems model of parenting behavior and child development by indicating that maternal caregiving may be positively influenced by supportive social networks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of daily stress at work on mothers' interactions with preschoolers.

Thirty mother–preschooler dyads were studied for 5 consecutive weekdays. In addition to daily maternal reports of job stressors and parent–child interaction, a subsample of 13 dyads was videotaped during the parent–child reunion at the end of each workday. Mothers were much more likely to respond to an increase in job stressors by withdrawing than by becoming more irritable. Both mothers and independent observers described mothers as more behaviorally and emotionally withdrawn (e.g., less speaking and fewer expressions of affection) on days when the mothers reported greater workloads or interpersonal stress at work. Job stressors may have their strongest impact on the daily parenting behavior of mothers who generally experience higher levels of emotional distress (depressed or anxious mood) and, in particular, mothers who report more Type A behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Amount of care given and caregiving satisfaction: a latent growth curve analysis

We examined the wear-and-tear hypothesis using data from 4 annual interviews with 130 (128 White) middle-aged daughters caring for their physically impaired, elderly mothers. We formulated a latent growth curve model hypothesizing that increases in the amount of care given by daughters caused a decrease in caregiving satisfaction, independent of caregiving duration. We found considerable individual variability and change in both caregiving satisfaction and the amount of care given in univariate latent growth curve analyses. Contrary to the wear-and-tear hypothesis, a multivariate latent growth curve analysis revealed duration of caregiving had no effect on either initial caregiving satisfaction or change in satisfaction. An elaborated wear-and-tear model was supported, however. The mechanism for decline in satisfaction is an increase in the amount of care given.     

A longitudinal investigation of the affective environment in families with young children: From infancy to early school age.

We examined the affective environment in 102 families studied longitudinally when children were 7, 15, 25, 38, 52, and 67 months of age. At each assessment, every mother–child and father–child dyad was observed in typical daily contexts. Each person's emotions of affection, joy, and anger were coded. Both parents rated marital satisfaction when children were 15, 52, and 67 months. Growth curve analyses, using Actor-Partner Interdependence Modeling, examined (a) developmental changes in emotions, (b) within-relationship influences of the partner's emotions, (c) across-relationship influences of emotions in other parent's interactions with the child, and (d) associations between marital quality and emotions over time. Parents' emotional expressiveness was highest early in the child's development, and declined thereafter. Children's anger was highest at 15 months of age, and declined thereafter, and their positive emotions, particularly with mothers, increased over time. Generally, one's positive emotions and better marital quality were associated with greater positive emotion within- and across-relationships, whereas one's anger was associated with greater anger within- and across-relationships. However, any emotion expression elicited greater affection in the interaction partner. Parents' neuroticism did not account for the convergence of emotions across relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stress, coping, and perceptions of child behavior in parents of preschoolers with cerebral palsy.

This study explored the relationships among stress, coping, and perceptions of child behavior in parents of preschoolers with cerebral palsy. Parents (62 mothers and 22 fathers) completed measures of parenting stress, depression, parenting satisfaction, social support, and child behavior problems. For mothers, only parenting self-efficacy was a significant predictor of maternal perceptions of child adjustment. High levels of maternal social support satisfaction were related to low levels of depression and parenting stress and to high levels of parenting satisfaction. High levels of depression were related to high levels of parenting stress and low levels of parenting satisfaction. For fathers, high levels of distress were related to low levels of parenting satisfaction and high levels of child maladjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)