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

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

Sibling relationships in early/middle childhood: links with individual adjustment.

The overarching goal of the study was to identify links between sibling relationship quality in early/middle childhood with children's adjustment, having accounted for the effects of parent-child relationship quality. The sample consisted of 101 working and middle-class 2-parent English families with 2 children ages 4-8 years. Parents provided reports of sibling relationship quality, the parent-child relationship, and the children's prosocial and problematic behaviors. The children also provided reports of their familial relationships with a puppet interview. Results indicated that sibling relationship quality was associated with the older siblings' adjustment, controlling for the children's relationships with parents. In addition, the pattern of findings suggested that positivity within the sibling relationship was more strongly linked with child adjustment than was sibling conflict. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Brain–behavior correlations: Relationships between mother–stranger face processing and infants' behavioral responses to a separation from mother.

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 6-month-olds (N = 30) as they looked at pictures of their mother's face and a stranger's face. Negative component (Nc) and P400 component responses from the ERP portion of the study were correlated with behavioral responses of the infants during a separation from their mothers. We measured the mother-directed infant behaviors of distress and visual search for mother during separation in order to determine if they were predictive of infants' brain responses to pictures of the mother's face versus a stranger's face. These behavioral measures are important because they likely reflect the functioning of the emerging mother–child relationship and inform debates about interactions between social experience and face processing. Infant distress and visual search for mother during separation were predictive of face processing ERPs, and this relationship differed across mother and stranger face presentations. In particular, distress was associated with larger amplitude P400 and Nc responses to the mother's face, and visual search for mother was associated with longer P400 and Nc latencies to the stranger's face. Implications for the developing mother–child relationship and face processing system are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Trajectories of perceived support in mother–adolescent relationships: The poor (quality) get poorer.

The authors examined decreases across the early adolescent years in child reports of perceived support from mothers to determine whether the rate of decline differed as a function of the initial amount of perceived negativity in the mother–child relationship. Participants included a diverse sample of 197 girls and 116 boys who were in the 1st year of middle school (6th grade, ages 11 to 13 years) at the beginning of the study. Separate growth curve models revealed associations between the rate of change in child-reported perceived support and the initial level of both child-reported perceived negativity and mother-reported perceived negativity. Over-time declines in child-reported perceived support were larger for adolescents whose initial levels of perceived negativity were greater. The findings are consistent with the claim that mothers and children with the worst relationships at the outset of adolescence experience the greatest deterioration in relations across the early adolescent years. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The differential impact of early father and mother involvement on later student achievement.

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the direct and indirect effects of early parenting on later parental school involvement and student achievement. The sample, pulled from the 1st and 2nd waves of the Child Development Supplement data set of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, consisted of 390 children age 2–5 at Time 1 and their families. Fathers' and mothers' participation in 5 dimensions of early parenting behaviors was assessed at Time 1, and later parental school involvement and student achievement were assessed at Time 2. Although early paternal and maternal parenting behaviors were not directly related to later student achievement, differences were revealed in the pattern of relationships between early parenting and later parental school involvement for fathers and mothers. In addition, fathers' later school involvement was found to be negatively related to student achievement, whereas maternal school involvement was found to be positively related to student achievement. These findings provide partial support for the hypothesized differential relationship between fathers' and mothers' early parenting and later student achievement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When fathers’ supportiveness matters most: Maternal and paternal parenting and children’s school readiness.

Data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 723) were used to test whether the effects of fathers’ supportive parenting on children’s school readiness are greater when mothers are least supportive. We distinguished between academic and social dimensions of school readiness. Mothers’ and fathers’ parenting was assessed in dyadic parent–child videotaped sessions during the preschool period. Results for both academic and social outcomes indicated that fathers’ supportiveness had larger benefits for children at lower levels of mothers’ supportiveness. In fact, fathers’ supportiveness was associated with children’s school readiness only when mothers scored average or below on supportiveness. Mothers’ supportiveness was similarly associated with children’s social school readiness when fathers scored average or below on supportiveness. However, mothers’ supportiveness was associated with children’s academic school readiness even when fathers scored above average on supportiveness. The results suggest that fathers may influence child development most as potential buffers against unsupportive mother parenting. Further research is needed to replicate these analyses in a less socioeconomically advantaged sample. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Between father and child: How to become the kind of father you want to be.

Reviews the book, Between father and child: How to become the kind of father you want to be by R. Levant and J. Kelly (1989). This book is one of the most recent books on parenting that focuses on the father's unique relationship with his son and/or daughter. It is the result of the Boston University Fatherhood Project, a skills training and group interaction/discussion support group for fathers. Written for fathers (and according to the authors, for mothers as well), it is a nontechnical, readable approach to improving communications and relationships between fathers and their children. It is an outstanding contribution to the growing list of volumes dedicated to parenting 'in the next century,' and contributes a sensitive, practical approach to relationship enhancement as well as directly confronting such issues as sexism, male socialization processes and gender role strain and conflict issues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The importance of father love: History and contemporary evidence.

This article explores the cultural construction of fatherhood in America, as well as the consequences of this construction as a motivator for understudying fathers—especially father love—for nearly a century in developmental and family research. It then reviews evidence from 6 categories of empirical studies showing the powerful influence of fathers' love on children's and young adults' social, emotional, and cognitive development and functioning. Much of this evidence suggests that the influence of father love on offspring's development is as great as and occasionally greater than the influence of mother love. Some studies conclude that father love is the sole significant predictor of specific outcomes after controlling for the influence of mother love. Overall, father love appears to be as heavily implicated as mother love in offsprings' psychological well-being and health, as well as in an array of psychological and behavioral problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Moving toward more perfect unions: Daily and long-term consequences of approach and avoidance goals in romantic relationships.

In 2 daily experience studies and a laboratory study, the authors test predictions from approach-avoidance motivational theory to understand how dating couples can maintain feelings of relationship satisfaction in their daily lives and over the course of time. Approach goals were associated with increased relationship satisfaction on a daily basis and over time, particularly when both partners were high in approach goals. Avoidance goals were associated with decreases in relationship satisfaction over time, and people were particularly dissatisfied when they were involved with a partner with high avoidance goals. People high in approach goals and their partners were rated as relatively more satisfied and responsive to a partner's needs by outside observers in the lab, whereas people with high avoidance goals and their partners were rated as less satisfied and responsive. Positive emotions mediated the link between approach goals and daily satisfaction in both studies, and responsiveness to the partner's needs was an additional behavioral mechanism in Study 2. Implications of these findings for approach-avoidance motivational theory and for the maintenance of satisfying relationships over time are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral correlates of maternal expressed emotion in interaction tasks.

Family expressed emotion (EE), a measure of emotional overinvolvement (EOI) and criticism (CRIT), is predictive of relapses and poor treatment outcomes among adults experiencing a range of psychopathology and may predict outcomes among youth with mood disorders. Although it is typically measured by an individual interview with a family member, EE is thought to index family processes and, therefore, should be reflected in family interactional behavior. We examined the association between maternal EE and interactional behavior in a sample of mothers and their 8–12-year-old children. Mother–child dyads participated in three video-recorded interaction tasks—two problem-solving tasks and one planning-fun-activity task. Maternal EE was measured by the Five Minute Speech Sample, and mothers were classified as CRIT, EOI, or low EE. Maternal interactional behavior was coded using the Living in Family Environments coding system. Repeated measures analyses of variance were used to test the hypothesis that both maternal EE and the type of task would predict maternal interactional behavior. On average, maternal critical behavior increased from the first to the second problem-solving task and decreased during the planning-fun-activity task. Mothers high in CRIT showed greater relative frequencies of critical behavior as compared to mothers high in EOI or mothers low in EE. The results suggest that maternal CRIT, as assessed by the Five Minute Speech Sample, is significantly associated with observed maternal critical behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Families created through surrogacy: Mother–child relationships and children's psychological adjustment at age 7.

Each year, an increasing number of children are born through surrogacy and thus lack a genetic and/or gestational link with their mother. This study examined the impact of surrogacy on mother–child relationships and children's psychological adjustment. Assessments of maternal positivity, maternal negativity, mother–child interaction, and child adjustment were administered to 32 surrogacy, 32 egg donation, and 54 natural conception families with a 7-year-old child. No differences were found for maternal negativity, maternal positivity, or child adjustment, although the surrogacy and egg donation families showed less positive mother–child interaction than the natural conception families. The findings suggest that both surrogacy and egg donation families function well in the early school years. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parent-child relationships, partner relationships, and emotional adjustment: A birth-to-maturity prospective study.

This study examined whether detrimental childhood relationships with parents were related to partner relationship quality and emotional adjustment in adulthood. The authors tested a theoretical model in which (a) low-quality parent-child relationships were related to conflict and low-quality communication with parents in adolescence, (b) parent-adolescent conflict and low-quality communication were linked to low-quality partner relationships in young adulthood, and (c) low-quality partner relationships in young adulthood were predictive of low-quality partner relationships as well as depression, anxiety, and dissatisfaction with life at midlife. Multi-informant data were used from 212 Swedish individuals who were followed from birth into adulthood. Results demonstrated that, as hypothesized, negative parent-child bonds were indirectly related to low-quality partner relationships and dissatisfaction with life in adulthood (but not anxiety and depression) through conflictual parent-adolescent communication and low-quality partner relationships in young adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Child and mother play in three U.S. cultural groups: Comparisons and associations.

Child and mother play (n = 113 20-month-olds) among South American Latino immigrants, Japanese immigrants, and European Americans in the United States was investigated. Culturally universal patterns of play dominated the findings. For example, no cultural differences in the prevalence of exploratory or symbolic play were found for either children or their mothers. Regardless of their culture, boys engaged in significantly more exploratory and less symbolic play than did girls when they played by themselves. Few relations were found between child play in the two play sessions. Across cultural groups, children’s exploratory play was significantly positively related to both maternal demonstrations and solicitations of exploratory play. The results identify which realms of child growth, parenting, and family function call for special attention and cultural sensitivity, as well as which do not, in the dynamics of immigrant families. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reactivity to daily stressors in adulthood: The importance of stressor type in characterizing risk factors.

This study examined daily stressors in adults ages 18 to 89 years (M = 49.6 years) over 30 days. We examined the role of individual factors (i.e., age, self-concept differentiation [SCD], perceived control) in physical and psychological reactivity to interpersonal, network, home, and health stressors. Findings were consistent with the perspective that adults were less reactive to stress on days during which they felt in control and that younger adults and adults with high SCD were more vulnerable to stress. Age, SCD, and daily perceived control, however, interacted with one another, and findings varied by stressor type. For example, age differences in reactivity were moderated by SCD whereby older adults with low SCD were particularly resilient to home stressors. In addition, whether perceived control buffered adults’ reactivity to daily stress varied by age and SCD. For example, only adults with high SCD were psychologically reactive to network stressors and this was the case only on days during which they reported experiencing low control. The findings emphasize the importance of considering the varying ways in which individual characteristics interact to influence stress reactivity to different types of stressors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relations between coparenting and father involvement in families with preschool-age children.

A sample (N = 112) composed primarily of European American and middle-class two-parent families with a resident father and a 4-year-old child (48% girls) participated in a longitudinal study of associations between coparenting and father involvement. At the initial assessment and 1 year later, fathers reported on their involvement in play and caregiving activities with the focal child, and coparenting behavior was observed during triadic family interactions. Structural equation modeling was used to test cross-lagged associations between coparenting behavior and father involvement. Overall, paths from father involvement to coparenting behavior were significant, but paths from coparenting behavior to father involvement were not. Specifically, greater father involvement in play was associated with an increase in supportive and a decrease in undermining coparenting behavior over time. In contrast, greater father involvement in caregiving was associated with a decrease in supportive and an increase in undermining coparenting behavior. Multigroup analysis further showed that these cross-lagged relations did not differ for dual-earner families and single-earner (father) families, but these relations appeared to differ for families with focal daughters and families with focal sons. These findings highlight the potential for fathering to affect coparenting and the importance of the role of contextual factors in coparenting-fathering relations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Daily stressors and memory failures in a naturalistic setting: Findings from the va normative aging study.

Laboratory studies of stress and memory have generally found that people with more stress tend to have poorer cognitive performance. The present investigation examined the relationship between stressors and memory failures in a naturalistic setting via a daily diary study of 333 older adults in the VA Normative Aging Study. Multilevel models indicated that on days when people experienced stressors, particularly interpersonal stressors, they were more likely to report memory failures. These stressors were also associated with an increase in memory failures from one day to the next. The findings may be important for preventions to mitigate age-related cognitive decline. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Daily Depression and Cognitions About Stress: Evidence for a Traitlike Depressogenic Cognitive Style and the Prediction of Depressive Symptoms in a Prospective Daily Diary Study.

The authors examined the stability and dynamic structure of negative cognitions made to naturalistic stressors and the prediction of depressive symptoms in a daily diary study. Young adults reported on dispositional depression vulnerabilities at baseline, including a depressogenic cognitive style, dysfunctional attitudes, rumination, neuroticism, and initial depression, and then completed short diaries recording the inferences they made to the most negative event of the day along with their experience of depressive symptoms every day for 35 consecutive days. Daily cognitions about stressors exhibited moderate stability across time. A traitlike model, rather than a contextual one, explained this pattern of stability best. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses showed that individuals' dispositional depressogenic cognitive style, neuroticism, and their daily negative cognitions about stressors predicted fluctuations in daily depressive symptoms. Dispositional neuroticism and negative cognitive style interacted with daily negative cognitions in different ways to predict daily depressive symptoms. (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)     

The role of emotional dysregulation in perfectionism and psychological distress.

Data from a sample of university students (N = 349) were used to test a model in which emotional dysregulation (a composite of emotional reactivity and splitting) was expected to account for the effect of perfectionism on general psychological distress. Significant positive effects were observed between maladaptive perfectionism and distress, whereas significant inverse effects were found for adaptive perfectionism. Structural equations analyses revealed support for a possibly mediational role of emotional dysregulation. Future research suggestions as well as counseling recommendations are proposed that target emotional regulatory features of the client with perfectionistic tendencies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)