Mealtime behavior and parent-child interaction: a comparison of children with cystic fibrosis, children with feeding problems, and nonclinic controls

Examined the role of family interaction factors in dietary compliance problems reported by parents of children with cystic fibrosis (CF). The family mealtime interactions of children with CF, children with feeding problems and nonclinic controls were observed, and parents monitored children's eating behavior at home. Parents of children with CF reported more concern about feeding problems and recorded more disruptive mealtime behavior than parents of nonclinic children. Observational data showed children with CF to display overall rates of disruptive mealtime behavior not significantly different from either comparison group. Mothers of children with CF were observed to engage in higher rates of aversive interaction with their child than did mothers of nonclinic controls. Fathers of children with CF reported lower marital satisfaction than fathers of controls. Both mothers and fathers of children with CF reported lower parenting self-efficacy than non-CF families. Clinical implications are discussed.     

Parental styles of talking about the past.

Past research indicates that mothers have different styles of reminiscing with their children (e.g., R. Fivush and F. A. Fromhoff, 1988). This study examined fathers' styles of talking about the past as well. Mothers and fathers from 24 2-parent families talked separately with their 3-yr-olds about shared 1-time events. Consistent with previous research on mothers, parents displayed 2 distinct narrative styles. The styles were not associated with gender of parent. However, parents of daughters were generally more elaborative (i.e., they provided more narrative structure and talked longer) than parents of sons. In turn, daughters participated in the conversations to a greater extent than sons, but sons and daughters had similar linguistic skills. Parents do not appear to be basing their narrative styles on the memory or language capabilities of their children. Instead, the practice of reminiscing may be a sex-typed activity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Discordant prolongation of the refractory period and repolarization time by a class III agent, E4031, in the healing phase of myocardial infarction

One hundred and ninety-eight adolescents and their mothers (N = 189) and fathers (N = 136) participated in a 4-year longitudinal study. Adolescent problem behaviour was assessed by the Youth Self-Report (YSR) and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). In addition, parental stress and marital adjustment were determined. Results showed that mothers and fathers showed high agreement, especially about their daughters, whereas parents and adolescents showed little agreement. Agreement was higher for internalising than for externalising behaviours. In general, adolescents reported more symptomatology than their parents did. However, mothers' ratings of their children's behaviours were significantly correlated with adolescents' self-ratings, but fathers' ratings were not. Statistical tests of correlations showed that mothers experiencing stress caused by marital problems perceived more problem behaviours in their children. Fathers' perceptions were relatively unaffected by personal adjustment. However, poor marital adjustment perceived by both parents showed a significant negative relation to adolescent externalising problem behaviour.     

Parent/child relationships in single-parent families.

The growing number of single-parent families has not been matched by an increase in our understanding of their family functioning. This study examined parent/child perceptions of relationships and actual interactions as a function of family structure. Participants were 28 Grade 10 adolescents and 28 parents, representing matched groups of mothers and fathers from 1- and 2-parent families. They completed a questionnaire regarding the quality of their relationship, were interviewed about their conflicts, and then participated in a parent/child discussion session. Both children and parents in single-parent families were found to be somewhat ambivalent in their relationships, with both greater intimacy and heightened conflict than evidenced in 2-parent families, as well as less adequate ego functioning when dealing with conflicts. No support was found, however, for the commonly held notion that children in single-parent families fare better in the custody of same-sex parents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A meta-analytic review of the influence of pediatric cancer on parent and family functioning.

This study used meta-analytic methods to compare the functioning of parents of children with cancer to parents of physically healthy children or normative samples. A meta-analysis using fixed effects, weighted least squares methods was conducted on 29 studies examining psychological distress and marital and family functioning among parents of children with cancer. Mothers and fathers of children newly diagnosed with cancer reported significantly greater distress than comparison samples. Mothers reported greater distress than fathers up to 12 months postdiagnosis. Mothers of children with cancer reported higher levels of family conflict than mothers of healthy children. Findings suggest that pediatric cancer impacts parents' perceptions of self- and family functioning, especially within the 1st year following diagnosis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parent–child interaction: The influence of maternal employment.

Data were collected from 40 mother–father–preschool child triads, including 20 employed and 20 nonemployed mothers. Information from the Parent-Child Activity Questionnaire, in-home unstructured observations, play task observations, and observer ratings indicated that maternal employment did not significantly alter the role specialization observed in single earner families. Mothers exhibited more caretaking, quiet play, positive affect, and speaking, whereas fathers exhibited more active play. Parents from single earner families demonstrated more speaking and quiet play than parents from dual earner families. Sons received more attention in families with nonemployed mothers, whereas daughters received more attention in families with employed mothers. Parents from families with employed mothers had more favorable attitudes toward dual roles for women. There was increased negative affect in families experiencing incongruence between parents' attitudes and the mother's employment status. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parental beliefs about managing sibling conflict.

This study examined the correspondence between parents' beliefs about the most effective ways to manage sibling conflict and their responses to their children's spontaneous sibling conflicts. Eighty-eight 2-child, 2-parent families participated in 3 home sessions. Second-born children were 3–5 years old, and firstborn children were 2–4 years older. Parents' use of a particular conflict management strategy was based, in part, on their perception of how effective the strategy was and how well they could carry out the strategy. For example, mothers' use of child-centered strategies was predicted by their belief that parental control strategies were ineffective. Fathers' use of control strategies was predicted by their low confidence in enacting child-centered techniques. Although both mothers and fathers perceived child-centered and control strategies as more effective than passive nonintervention, parents engaged in passive nonintervention most often. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mothers' and Fathers' Knowledge of Adolescents' Daily Activities: Its Sources and Its Links With Adolescent Adjustment.

To elucidate the benefits ascribed to parental monitoring, the authors examined links between parental knowledge and methods of obtaining knowledge about adolescents' activities, and links between these constructs and adolescent adjustment. The roles of parent gender, adolescent gender, and family earner status in these associations were also studied. Participants were 95 adolescents (ages 10 to 17 years, 60% male and 40% female) and their parents. Mothers knew more about adolescents' activities than did fathers and were more likely than fathers to gain information by active supervision or voluntary disclosure from the adolescent. Fathers, more than mothers, received information via spouses. Active methods of supervision predicted more knowledge among fathers and mothers from dual-earner families but not among mothers from single-earner families. More maternal knowledge predicted lower adolescent deviance. No method of gaining knowledge predicted adjustment directly. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Child extrafamilial sexual abuse: predicting parent and child functioning

OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated the emotional and behavioral adjustment of parents and children within 3 months and 1 year after the discovery of child extrafamilial sexual abuse. METHOD: Ninety-two case parents (63 mothers, 29 fathers) and 56 children were compared to a nonclinical comparison group of 136 parents (74 mothers, 62 fathers) and 75 children. Parent adjustment was assessed using self-report measures while child functioning was assessed using a combination of child-, parent- and teacher-report measures. RESULTS: Mothers, fathers and sexually abused children experienced clinically significant effects both initially and at 12 months post-disclosure. Children's perceptions of self-blame and guilt for the abuse and the extent of traumatization predicted their self-reported symtomatology at 3 months and 1 year post-disclosure. Child age and gender also significantly contributed to the prediction of many of the child outcome measures. No abuse-related variable was related to any child self-report measure. Mothers' satisfaction in the parenting role, perceived support and intrusive symptoms predicted their initial emotional functioning. Avoidant symptoms, child's internalizing behavior and mothers' initial emotional functioning were significant predictors of longer-term emotional functioning. CONCLUSIONS: Results emphasize the need to address children's abuse-related attributions and underscore the need to expand our focus beyond the child victims to the traumatized families.     

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)     

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)     

Children's classroom behavior: The unique contribution of family organization.

Sixty-three 2-parent families participated in a study examining whether family organization—cohesion, parental leadership, and strong family subsystems—is related to teachers' perceptions of children's classroom behavior in 1st grade. Independent observers assessed whole-family organization and the quality of the interaction process in marital and parent-child dyads from videotapes of mothers, fathers, and children working together on a structured (difficult puzzle) and unstructured (building a model) task. Results indicate that adaptive family organization during the difficult puzzle task makes a significant, unique contribution to the prediction of children's externalizing behavior, over and above the quality of marital interaction and parenting style. No significant relationship was found between adaptive family organization in either task and teachers' perceptions of children's internalizing behavior. (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)     

Attachment, parenting, and peer interactions of toddler children

The relation of parenting variables and attachment classification to peer relations was studied for 156 families with toddler children. Children were observed at 18 months of age in the home with their parents and from 18 to 24 months of age in peer playgroups. Playgroup teachers rated the children's ability to get along with their peers. Also when children were 18 months, they were assessed with their mothers in the Strange Situation, and an attachment classification was made. There were significant differences in peer reactions to children of different attachment classifications. Insecure-resistant children received fewer positive reactions to their positive behaviors, and both resistant and avoidant children received more negative reactions to their positive behaviors. Hierarchical regressions were computed to examine the contribution of observed parent-child interactions and the attachment classification to peer interactions.     

Parent, family, and child characteristics: Associations with mother- and father-reported emotion socialization practices.

The present research examined parental beliefs about children’s negative emotions, parent-reported marital conflict/ambivalence, and child negative emotionality and gender as predictors of mothers’ and fathers’ reported reactions to their kindergarten children’s negative emotions and self-expressiveness in the family (N = 55, two-parent families). Models predicting parents’ nonsupportive reactions and negative expressiveness were significant. For both mothers and fathers, more accepting beliefs about children’s negative emotions were associated with fewer nonsupportive reactions, and greater marital conflict/ambivalence was associated with more negative expressiveness. Furthermore, interactions between child negative emotionality and parental resources (e.g., marital conflict/ambivalence; accepting beliefs) emerged for fathers’ nonsupportive reactions and mothers’ negative expressiveness. In some instances, child gender acted as a moderator such that associations between parental beliefs about emotions and the emotion socialization outcomes emerged when child and parent gender were concordant. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marital quality and mother–child and father–child interactions with school-aged children.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 22(5) of Developmental Psychology (see record 2008-10956-001). In the article, the second author's name was misspelled in the issue's table of contents, title of the article, and page headings of the article. The entries have been corrected and are included in the erratum.] Mother–child and father–child teaching interactions of 60 families (parents aged 31–37 yrs, children aged 5.5–7.5 yrs) were videotaped, from which frequency counts of efficacious teaching behaviors were obtained for each parent–child teaching interaction. Parents completed the Scale of Marriage Problems. A dyad score of marital problems was formed by adding the husbands' and wives' scores, and a 2-level variable of marital problems was then derived by performing a median split on the marital problem dyad scores. Normative comparisons suggested that the couples whose scores fell below the median were characterized as nondistressed and the couples whose scores fell above the median were characterized as slightly discontented with their marital relationship. Few differences in teaching styles were found between mothers and fathers in the nondistressed group. Mothers in the slightly discontented group used more questions, positive feedback, informational feedback, and verbal task management and intruded less often into their children's learning effort than did the fathers in this group. Fathers with increased reports of marital problems used less positive feedback and were more intrusive; mothers in this group appeared to compensate for a less-than-satisfactory marriage by being more involved in teaching their children. In turn, children of slightly discontented mothers were more actively responsive to their teaching behaviors than were children of nondistressed mothers. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of specific emotions in children's responses to interparental conflict: A test of the model.

Mothers, fathers, and their 6-year-old children (N?=?164) participated in a study testing key tenets of the specific emotions model of marital conflict. Parents reported their marital conflict strategies, were observed interacting with their children, and rated children's behavioral adjustment. Children reported their emotional reactions to specific interparental conflicts. Results support the specific emotions model. Children's behaviors mirrored the marital or parental behaviors of same-gender parents. Indirect effects of marital aggression through parental behavior were detected, and marital and parental behaviors interacted to predict girls' externalizing. Girls' anger, sadness, and fear increased with fathers' marital aggression. Fear and the anger by fear interaction predicted girls' internalizing. Fathers' marital aggression interacted with anger to predict externalizing and interacted with fear to predict internalizing behavior in boys. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Characteristics of holding, patterns of play, and social behaviors between parents and infants in New Delhi, India.

Characteristics of holding, play, and social behaviors between 54 mothers and fathers and their 1-year-old infants were observed within the context of their extended families in New Delhi, India. Mothers picked up and held infants more than did fathers, and were more likely to feed and comfort them and to invest more time feeding and displaying affection to them than were fathers. When parents held infants they were more likely to display affection than to feed, comfort, or play with them. Fathers engaged in more rough play than did mothers, and mothers engaged in more peek-a-boo than did fathers. Mothers and fathers treated boys and girls quite similarly. Infants smiled at, vocalized to, and followed mothers more than they did fathers. Parents were generally preferred over relatives as social partners. The data point to the cultural specificity of certain parent–child activities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Maternal and paternal gentle guidance and young children's compliance from a within-family perspective.

Young children's early internalization was examined from a within-family perspective. Mothers, fathers, 16-month-old toddlers, and their older siblings from 59 families participated in a family cleanup paradigm to assess young children's compliance and parental guidance. Sibling age differences in compliant and noncompliant behavior were found, with older siblings using more committed compliance and refusal than toddler siblings. Mothers used more gentle guidance with children than did fathers, and both parents used more gentle guidance with older siblings than with toddler siblings. Examining within-family processes indicated that maternal and paternal gentle guidance interacted to predict older and toddler siblings' committed compliance and explained unique variance in the older and toddler siblings' compliance. Some support was found for differential maternal guidance as a within-family process responsible for the development of young children's early self-regulation that may also vary between families. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Marital quality and mother-child and father-child interactions with school-aged children": Correction to Brody and Pellegrini.

Reports an error in "Marital quality and mother-child and father-child interactions with school-aged children" by Gene H. Brody, Anthony D. Pellegrini and Irving E. Sigel (Developmental Psychology, 1986[May], Vol 22[3], 291-296). In the article, the second author's name was misspelled in the issue's table of contents, title of the article, and page headings of the article. The name appears correctly in this erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1986-24288-001.) Mother-child and father-child teaching interactions of 60 families (parents aged 31-37 yrs, children aged 5.5-7.5 yrs) were videotaped, from which frequency counts of efficacious teaching behaviors were obtained for each parent-child teaching interaction. Parents completed the Scale of Marriage Problems. A dyad score of marital problems was formed by adding the husbands' and wives' scores, and a 2-level variable of marital problems was then derived by performing a median split on the marital problem dyad scores. Normative comparisons suggested that the couples whose scores fell below the median were characterized as nondistressed and the couples whose scores fell above the median were characterized as slightly discontented with their marital relationship. Few differences in teaching styles were found between mothers and fathers in the nondistressed group. Mothers in the slightly discontented group used more questions, positive feedback, informational feedback, and verbal task management and intruded less often into their children's learning effort than did the fathers in this group. Fathers with increased reports of marital problems used less positive feedback and were more intrusive; mothers in this group appeared to compensate for a less-than-satisfactory marriage by being more involved in teaching their children. In turn, children of slightly discontented mothers were more actively responsive to their teaching behaviors than were children of nondistressed mothers. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)