Family Functioning and Children's Adjustment: Associations Among Parents' Depressed Mood, Marital Hostility, Parent-Child Hostility, and Children's Adjustment.

Relations between parents' depressed mood, marital conflict, parent-child hostility, and children's adjustment were examined in a community sample of 136 ten-year-olds and their parents. Videotaped observational and self-report data were used to examine these relations in path analyses. A proposed model was tested in which mothers' and fathers' depressed mood and marital hostility were associated with children's adjustment problems through disruptions in parent-child relationships. Results showed that both mothers' and fathers' marital hostility were linked to parent-child hostility, which in turn was linked to children's internalizing problems. Fathers' depressed mood was linked to children's internalizing problems indirectly through father-child hostility. Fathers' depressed mood was directly linked to children's externalizing problems and indirectly linked through father-child hostility. For mothers, marital hostility was directly linked to children's externalizing problems, and marital hostility in fathers was indirectly linked to children's externalizing problems through father-child hostility. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Child Personality and Parental Behavior as Moderators of Problem Behavior: Variable- and Person-Centered Approaches.

Parenting × Child Personality interactions in predicting child externalizing and internalizing behavior were investigated in a variable-centered study and a person-centered study. The variable-centered study used data from a 3-year longitudinal study of 600 children 7 to 15 years old at Time 1 and 512 children 10 to 18 years old at Time 2. Parents rated child personality (five factor model), negative control, positive parenting, and child problem behavior, whereas children rated parental behavior. Hierarchical moderated regression analyses showed significant Parenting × Child Personality (benevolence and conscientiousness) interactions, principally for externalizing behavior. The interactions were largely replicable across informants and across time. The person-centered study, which classified participants into 3 types, showed that negative parental control was more related to externalizing behavior for undercontrollers than for resilients. Negative parental control enhanced internalizing behavior for overcontrollers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parental Illness, Family Functioning, and Adolescent Well-Being: A Family Ecology Framework to Guide Research.

A family ecology model for understanding adolescents' reactions to parental illness is presented and used to (a) critically evaluate existing research that examines direct effects of parental illness on family functioning and youth well-being and (b) provide a blueprint for future research in the area. Theoretical, clinical, and empirical literature is reviewed for each mediational and moderational pathway in the model, and limitations of the existing research are discussed. The blueprint for future research emphasizes a greater understanding of the mediational pathways in the model, which is essential for developing effective interventions for families experiencing parental illness. In addition, greater elucidation of moderator variables, such as the youth's developmental stage, social support, and cultural norms will provide critical information on contextual factors that enhance or impede adolescents' adaptation to serious parental illness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parent Functioning in Families of Preadolescents With Spina Bifida: Longitudinal Implications for Child Adjustment.

The purpose of this study was to test a strength-of-association model regarding possible longitudinal and bidirectional associations between parent functioning and child adjustment in families of children with spina bifida (n = 68) and families of able-bodied children (n = 68). Parent functioning was assessed across 3 domains: parenting stress, individual psychosocial adjustment, and marital satisfaction. Child adjustment was indexed by teacher-reported internalizing and externalizing symptoms, self-reported depressive symptoms, and observed adaptive behavior. Findings revealed that all 3 parent functioning variables predicted child adjustment outcomes, and that such results were particularly strong for externalizing symptoms. Associations between parent functioning and child adjustment tended to be in the direction of parent to child and were similar across both groups. These findings have implications for potential interventions targeted at helping families manage the transition into early adolescence in families of children with spina bifida as well as families of healthy children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parental drinking as a risk factor for children's maladjustment: The mediating role of family environment.

In the present study, the relationships among parental drinking, family environment, and child adjustment is investigated in a community sample of 207 10-14-year-olds. Multiple aspects of perceived family environment (e.g., cohesion, organization, conflict) as well as multiple indicators of adjustment (e.g., negative affect, feelings of competence, self-esteem) are taken into consideration. Parental alcohol problems are found to be associated with low family cohesion, poor family organization, and low global self-worth of the child. A mediational analysis reveals that the relation between parental drinking and low global self-worth is mediated by family cohesion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parental drinking problems and children's adjustment: Vagal regulation and emotional reactivity as pathways and moderators of risk.

Children's emotional regulation (as indexed by vagal suppression) and children's emotional reactivity during an argument were examined as moderators and mediators of parental problem drinking and children's adjustment in a sample of 6- to 12-year-olds. Cardiac vagal tone was assessed during both a baseline condition and exposure to an audiotaped argument. Vagal suppression was calculated by subtracting vagal tone during the baseline from that recorded during the argument, with a higher number representing increased suppression of vagal tone during the argument. Emotional reactivity was based on both observations of overt behaviors of children and their reported feelings during the argument. A higher level of vagal suppression was a protective factor against children's externalizing, internalizing, and social problems associated with exposure to parental problem drinking. Emotional reactivity was a vulnerability factor, and children's increased anger and fear, and to a lesser degree sadness, each moderated and exacerbated the effects of parental problem drinking on child outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parental Socialization of Emotion Expression: Gender Differences and Relations to Child Adjustment.

The present study examined gender differences in children's submissive and disharmonious emotions and parental attention to these emotions. Sixty children and their mothers and fathers participated when children were 4 and 6 years old. Children's emotion expression and parental responses during a game were coded. Girls expressed more submissive emotion than boys. Fathers attended more to girls' submissive emotion than to boys' at preschool age. Fathers attended more to boys' disharmonious emotion than to girls' at early school age. Parental attention at preschool age predicted later submissive expression level. Child disharmonious emotion predicted later externalizing symptoms. Gender differences in these emotions may occur as early as preschool age and may be subject to differential responding, particularly by fathers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Marital Violence, Co-Parenting, and Family-Level Processes in Relation to Children's Adjustment.

Amultimethod approach was used to examine relations between marital violence, coparenting, and family-level processes and children's adjustment in a community-based sample of marital violence. Two hypotheses were tested, one in which family-level and co-parenting processes mediate relations between marital violence and child functioning and one in which marital violence and family-level/co-parenting processes function relatively independently in influencing children's adjustment. Observations of family processes were made within a triadic parent-child interaction, and several dimensions of children's socioemotional adjustment (i.e., peer relations, behavior problems) were examined. Results indicated that hostile-withdrawn co-parenting mediated the relations between marital violence and children's anxiety and depression. Marital violence, co-parenting, and family-level processes also functioned independently in predicting child outcome. Findings are discussed in terms of the family dynamics present in maritally violent homes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological Adjustment of Children With Sickle Cell Disease: Family Functioning and Coping.

Objective: Using a risk and resistance model (J. L. Wallander, J. W. Varni, L. Babani, H. T. Banis, & K. T. Wilcox, 1989) to determine the effects of coping style and family functioning on children's adjustment to sickle cell disease (SCD). Participants: A sample of 73 caregivers and 23 children (ages birth to 18 years) admitted to a hematology acute care unit for pain or fever associated with SCD. Setting: A children's hospital on the East Coast of the United States. Outcome Measures: Disability stress, disease severity, child and parent coping, family functioning, and child adjustment were assessed with standard paper-and-pencil measures. Results: Results provide partial support for J. L. Wallander et al.'s (1989) risk-resistance model. Disability stress did not mediate the relation between disease severity and child adjustment, and severity of medical condition and medical stress did not predict adjustment. Child gender and child age predicted family functioning and child adjustment to SCD. Child or parent coping strategies did not moderate the association of disability stress and child adjustment. Conclusions: Individuals working with patients should be aware of other factors that may affect child outcome above disease severity; specifically, concerns of boys and girls with SCD and their caregivers should be assessed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family Income and Its Relation to Preschool Children's Adjustment for Families in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care.

The current study examines relations of mean-level estimates, linear changes, and instability in income and family processes to child outcomes and addresses whether income, through its impact on family functioning, matters more for children living in poverty. Temporal changes and instability in family processes, but not income, predicted children's adjustment. Cross-sectional mediational analyses indicated that for families living at the poverty threshold, family processes fully mediated the effect of average income over the study period on social behavior but only partially mediated its effect on cognitive-linguistic development. The strength of these associations diminished as average income exceeded the poverty threshold. That is, income had a greater impact on the family functioning and development of poor children than of nonpoor children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Relations of Parental Expressivity and Support to Children's Coping With Daily Stress.

The relations of parents' emotional expressivity, mothers' support, and children's daily stress to children's constructive coping were examined in a sample of ninety-four 7- to 12-year-old children. For 2 weeks, children, together with their mothers, completed daily diaries of their stressful events. Mothers and fathers reported on their expression of positive, negative submissive, and negative dominant emotion. Although fathers' expressivity was not related to children's constructive coping, mothers' expression of negative emotion, particularly negative dominant emotion, was negatively related to children's constructive coping. Children's stress was negatively related to their constructive coping, and this relation was stronger for children exposed to low levels of parents' positive emotion and mothers' expression of negative submissive emotion. Children's constructive coping was positively related to mothers' supportive strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's perceptions of the fairness of parental preferential treatment and their socioemotional well-being.

Being the recipient of favored parental treatment has been identified as a correlate of enhanced socioemotional well-being. However, knowledge of children's perceptions of the legitimacy of preferential treatment may provide a more complete understanding of associations between preferential treatment and children's socioemotional well-being. The current study investigated whether children's well-being varies in accordance with their views about the fairness of preferential parental treatment. One hundred thirty-five children (M=11.74 years) and their older siblings (M=14.64 years) were interviewed independently about parents' distribution of affection and control. Although the amount of preferential control children reported experiencing was related to more externalizing behavior problems, lower levels of internalizing behavior problems and greater global self-esteem were indicated when children perceived that such preferential behaviors were fair. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Linking Changes in Whole Family Functioning and Children's Externalizing Behavior Across the Elementary School Years.

This study used observational assessments of 57 2-parent families working and playing together when their eldest child was in kindergarten and again in Grade 4 to identify distinct patterns of family functioning derived from structural family systems theory for (a) cohesive, (b) separate, and (c) triangulated families. Little consistency in family type from early to middle childhood was indicated. No significant mean differences were found in teacher reports of children's externalizing behavior in their Grade 1 classrooms for children in cohesive or triangulated families. Fourth graders in triangulated families were seen as more aggressive at school than were their peers in cohesive or separate families. Changes in observed family functioning across a 4-year period (kindergarten to Grade 4) were also systematically linked to changes in teachers' ratings of children's externalizing behavior from Grades 1 to 4. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does Poor Vagal Tone Exacerbate Child Maladjustment in the Context of Parental Problem Drinking? A Longitudinal Examination.

Children's vagal tone was examined as a vulnerability factor in the longitudinal relation between mothers' (MPD) and fathers' (FPD) problem drinking and children's adjustment. At T1, MPD and FPD were examined, and children's vagal tone was assessed. Two years following initial participation, child adjustment problems were evaluated. A lower level of vagal tone was a vulnerability factor for internalizing problems associated with MPD and FPD and for externalizing difficulties associated with MPD. In the context of a higher level of MPD or FPD, a lower level of vagal tone was a vulnerability factor for increases in externalizing problems over time. Results are supportive of the importance of biopsychosocial perspectives in which child characteristics interact with family risk to predict psychopathology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Couples at Risk Following the Death of Their Child: Predictors of Grief Versus Depression.

This longitudinal study examined the relative impact of major variables for predicting adjustment (in terms of both grief and depression) among bereaved parents following the death of their child. Couples (N = 219) participated 6, 13, and 20 months postloss. Use of multilevel regression analyses enabled assessment of the impact of several predictors and facilitated analysis of factors that were either shared by parents or individual. Grief was predicted mainly by shared parent factors: child's age, cause and unexpectedness of death, and number of remaining children. By contrast, depression was predicted by individual parent factors: gender, religious affiliation, and professional help seeking. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's Achievement in Early Elementary School: Longitudinal Effects of Parental Involvement, Expectations, and Quality of Assistance.

In this prospective, longitudinal study, the authors examined the relations among parental behaviors, parental expectations, and children's academic achievement. Participants were 187 low-income children and their mothers, studied from birth of the child through 3rd grade. Mothers' quality of instruction prior to school entry had significant direct effects on IQ and indirect effects on achievement in 1st and 3rd grades. Parental expectations in 3rd grade had significant direct effects on parental involvement in 3rd grade. Children's achievement in 1st grade had significant direct effects on parental involvement and expectations in 3rd grade. Parental involvement in 3rd grade had a significant direct effect on achievement in 3rd grade. Results suggest that early parenting factors are important for children's academic achievement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attachment at Early School Age and Developmental Risk: Examining Family Contexts and Behavior Problems of Controlling-Caregiving, Controlling-Punitive, and Behaviorally Disorganized Children.

Preschool to school-age trajectories of 242 children, including 37 with insecure-disorganized and 66 with insecure-organized attachment patterns, were examined. Child attachment and stressful life events (the latter retrospectively) were measured at ages 5-7, and mother-child interactive quality, parenting stress, marital satisfaction, and teacher-reported behavior problems were evaluated concurrently and 2 years earlier. Results indicated that all three disorganized subgroups had poorer mother-child interactive patterns and more difficult family climates than secure or insecure-organized children. The controlling-punitive group showed significant increases in maternal reports of child-related stress between preschool and school age. The controlling-caregiving group showed greater likelihood of loss of a close family member, and mothers of the insecure-other group reported lower marital satisfaction and greater likelihood of their own or a spouse's hospitalization. Controlling-punitive children had higher externalizing scores, and controlling-caregiving children higher internalizing scores, than secure children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Child-care and family predictors of preschool attachment and stability from infancy.

This study used multinomial logistic regression to examine relationships between child-care experience (in the context of overall family functioning) and preschool attachment. Attachment behavior was assessed at 36 months with the Strange Situation, and A, B, C, and D attachment classifications were assigned using the MacArthur coding system. Maternal sensitivity was the strongest predictor of preschool attachment classification. With respect to child-care effects, as at 15 months, no child-care factors (quantity, quality, or type) predicted, in and of themselves, attachment security at 36 months. However, 1 of 3 interactions involving child care that were detected at 15 months reemerged at 36 months: When maternal sensitivity was low, more hours per week in care somewhat increased the risk of the insecure-ambivalent (C) classification. There was significant but modest stability of attachment classifications from 15 to 36 months, especially for children with A and C classifications. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Influence of Parent Education and Family Income on Child Achievement: The Indirect Role of Parental Expectations and the Home Environment.

This study examined the process of how socioeconomic status, specifically parents' education and income, indirectly relates to children's academic achievement through parents' beliefs and behaviors. Data from a national, cross-sectional study of children were used for this study. The subjects were 868 8-12-year-olds, divided approximately equally across gender (436 females, 433 males). This sample was 49% non-Hispanic European American and 47% African American. Using structural equation modeling techniques, the author found that the socioeconomic factors were related indirectly to children's academic achievement through parents' beliefs and behaviors but that the process of these relations was different by racial group. Parents' years of schooling also was found to be an important socioeconomic factor to take into consideration in both policy and research when looking at school-age children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)