Parental discipline as affected by the sex of the parent, the sex of the child, and the child's apparent responsiveness to discipline.

40 parents (mean age 31 yrs) were made to believe they were teaching their children (mean age 55.7 mo) a task by selecting rewarding and punishing consequences for the children's successes and errors. The children actually had been separated from their parents, and their "responding" was electromechanically controlled. Initially, responses were 50% successful on the trials, independent of their parents' disciplinary strategies. Next, successes were manipulated to be contingent on parents' selection of high, and later low, levels of punishment following errors. Finally, no successful responses were given regardless of parents' administration of discipline. The children's simulated responding was found to exert functional control over the intensities of punishments that their parents administered. Furthermore, parents' and children's gender and the children's apparent responsiveness to the parents' disciplinary strategies combined to determine the manner in which punishers and rewards were given by the parents. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The socialization of emotional expression: Relations with prosocial behaviour and competence in five samples.

To replicate and extend the findings of W. Roberts and J. Strayer (1987), this paper reports on 5 studies that investigated parents' responses to the emotional distress of their children (emotional socialization) in relation to children's prosocial behaviour and ego resilience in preschool. Meta-analytic techniques were used to combine results across samples (3 from Ontario and 2 from British Columbia). In all, 150 families participated; children's mean age?=?4.2 years. Nearly 79% of all comparisons replicated across samples. Consistent with the cognitive-emotional processing model (Roberts and Strayer, 1987), (1) children's ego-resilient and prosocial behaviours were related to parents' tolerant, non-punitive responses to emotional distress; (2) partial correlations supported the contention that emotional socialization practices affect outcomes independently of other parenting dimensions; and (3) longitudinal data (available for 1 sample of children) indicated that greater emphasis on emotional control was related to declines in boys' ego-resilient behaviours 2.5 yrs later. However, consistent with emotion regulation models, parenting practices that emphasized the control of emotional expression were sometimes positively related to contemporary measures of competence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Spouse, parent, worker: Role commitments and role-related experiences in the construction of adults' well-being.

Examined relations between adults' role strain, anxiety, and depression and 5 aspects of role-related experience: commitment, demands, satisfactions, evaluations, and social support for role-related activities. Participants were 102 men (mean age 34.6 yrs) and 194 women (mean age 32.4 yrs), all employed, in dual-earner marriages, and parenting a preschool child. High commitment to roles was not uniformly associated with greater well-being (e.g., a component of work commitment reflecting absorption in work was linked with a higher role strain in men). Diverse sources of support were linked with women's psychological states, but men's well-being was responsive chiefly to wives' support. Age and role-tenure had relatively little impact on the relations between role-related experiences and well-being. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Consequences of fathers' participation in family work: Parents' role strain and well-being.

Examined the relation of fathers' participation in child care and home chores to parents' role strain and well-being in an interview study of 160 Caucasian middle-class fathers (mean age 41.11 yrs) and mothers (mean age 39.38 yrs) of kindergarten and 4th-grade children. In half of the families, mothers were employed. Four forms of paternal participation were examined. Role-strain items referred to immediate and specific problems such as time and energy constraints and role conflicts. Well-being measures assessed self-esteem, life satisfaction, and quality of experience in the parental and marital roles. Regression analyses indicated that when the level of fathers' participation was controlled maternal employment did not condition the relation between participation and the outcome variables. Findings varied for the different forms of participation. For fathers, higher levels of participation were associated with feeling more involved and competent as a parent and with being more critical of wives' patterns and parenting. For mothers, those whose husbands were more participant praised their husbands' parenting, but they were lower in life satisfaction and were more self-critical about their balance of work and family responsibilities. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The interaction of parent and child gender in physical child maltreatment.

Assessed cross-generational patterns of physical child maltreatment taking the gender of both parents and child into consideration, and the experience of shame regarding one's own physically abusive behaviors. 1536 parents (mean age 47 yrs) and their 983 children (mean age 18 yrs) were administered the Conflict Tactics Scale (M. A. Straus, 1989) along with other questionnaires to gather information on aggressive behavior, shame experienced in abusing their children and demographic data. The parents were categorized as physically abusive or nonabusive if both parent and child ratings of the parents' behavior were in agreement. Results show that parents received more physical child maltreatment from their own same gender parent than from opposite gender parents. Among the abusive parents, the more maltreatment they received as children by the same gender parent, the less shame they felt for using such punishment on their own children. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parents' book-reading habits with their children.

Investigated the extent to which parents' teaching of children becomes less directive as a function of children's age and communicative status and relations between parents' interaction styles and children's verbal IQ. 120 families participated in the study. Each family included a target child between the ages of 3 yrs 6 mo and 5 yrs 8 mo, a mother, and a father. 60 families included a communicatively handicapped target child (CH), and 60 matched families had a noncommunicatively handicapped target child (NCH). Target children were divided into 2 age groups: 4-yr-olds and 5-yr-olds. Each parent engaged in a book-reading task with the target child. Parents' interactions with children were classified according to levels of cognitive demand and directiveness. The WPPSI was administered to all children. The Verbal IQ scale subscore was used as the criterion variable in the regression analyses. Results indicate that parents were generally more directive and less demanding with younger CH children than they were with older NCH children. Further, different types of parental interaction styles predicted CH and NCH children's IQ. Results are discussed in terms of L. Vygotsky's (1978) theory of the zone of proximal development. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parental affect and coping.

Parental affect and coping strategies have been identified as being important for the understanding of the processes involved in the socialization of children. In the present study, 24 fathers (mean age 35.21 yrs old) and 62 mothers (mean age 35.05 yrs) (unrelated) described a stressful incident with one of their children and completed questionnaires addressing their appraisal of the event, their affect, and consequent coping strategy. Both child characteristics (age, birth order, and gender) and parent characteristics (gender, affect intensity, and ego level) were examined in relation to parents' appraisal of the cause of the event, their affect, and their coping strategy. Feelings of being angry, afraid, sad, and guilty, and use of coping strategies are discussed in light of the need for further research on emotion in parenting situations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Congruence of parental perception, marital satisfaction, and child adjustment.

Fathers and mothers of 95 children 5–7 yrs old completed the Short Marital Adjustment Test, Interpersonal Checklist, and the Children's Behavior Checklist to assess marital satisfaction, congruence of self- and mate-perceptions, and agreement in parents' perceptions of their child and child adjustment, respectively. All variables were significantly, positively intercorrelated. Strongest association was between congruence in parents' perceptions of the child and child adjustment. Similarity in partners' self-concepts and psychological empathy were significantly associated with marital satisfaction and child adjustment. A general dimension of family harmony (vs conflict) is seen as contributing to children's social adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multimodal assessment of impulsiveness in abusing, neglecting, and nonmaltreating mothers and their preschool children.

Three groups of 12 mothers who had a history of child abuse (mean age 26.67 yrs), child neglect (mean age 25.75 yrs), or no known history of child maltreatment (mean age 29.08 yrs) and their 48–70 mo old children were compared on the nature and extent of their impulsiveness in a multimodal assessment procedure. Children were also rated by their mothers on the Revised Conners Parent Rating Scale and by their teachers on the Conners Teacher Rating Scale. Results indicate that comparison mothers performed better than did abusing mothers on 2 measures of motor inhibition, a modified Matching Familiar Figures Test and the Stroop Color and Word Test. Neglectful mothers rated their children as having more conduct problems than did comparison mothers. No significant differences were found on the other child measures of impulsiveness. Implications for assessing and treating child maltreatment are discussed. (48 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Physical contact in interactions between clinicians and young children.

51 child-clinicians reported judged intervention outcomes and frequency of occurrence of 4 types of physical contact (touching, holding hands, sitting on lap, and hugging) for 368 children (mean age 7.71 yrs). Although contact frequencies varied markedly from 89% for touching to 22% for sitting on lap, they were moderately intercorrelated. Girls had more physical contact than boys, especially for hugging. Younger, compared to older, children had significantly more physical contact and more positive outcomes. Female, compared to male, clinicians had more physical contact with children. Doctoral-level clinicians reported fewer physical contacts with children than nondoctoral clinicians. Clinicians in private practice reported fewer physical contacts and more positive outcomes than those in the public sector. Psychiatrists touched children less often than social workers or psychologists. There were no relationships between the frequencies of any physical-contact variable and judged intervention outcome. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prospective study of postpartum depression: 4?-year follow-up of women and children.

The consequences of maternal postpartum depression for mothers and children were investigated in a 4?-yr follow-up study, which included 70 of 99 women who had participated in an earlier study of postpartum depression. Information about maternal adjustment and depression during the follow-up period and child adjustment at age 4? yrs was obtained. Women who had experienced a postpartum depression were predicted to be at increased risk for subsequent depression and poor adjustment of their child. Postpartum depression was directly related to subsequent depression but not child problems. Later depression was related to child problems at 4? yrs. We concluded that postpartum depression may increase risk for later maternal depression and in turn increases risk for child behavior problems. Intervening with women who have experienced a postpartum depression may reduce likelihood of future depressions and child behavior problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Long-term adjustment to physical disability: The role of social support, perceived control, and self-blame.

100 40–73 yr olds with spinal cord injuries were interviewed an average of 20 yrs after the disability occurred. Ss answered questions concerning perceived control, attributions of blame, and the nature of the social comparisons they made. Adjustment was measured by an index of psychological well-being, a life satisfaction index, and a depression scale. For all 3 outcome measures, Ss reported levels of well-being only slightly lower than population means of nondisabled persons of similar age. Controlling for health status and current income, it was found that persons who had high levels of social support, who were satisfied with their social contacts, and who felt they had high levels of perceived control reported high levels of well-being. Self-blame and the perceived avoidability of the cause of the disability correlated only moderately with the measures of adjustment, suggesting that there are important differences between coping successfully immediately after a traumatic event has occurred and coping successfully many years later. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

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

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

Anxiety and depression in children and adolescents: Negative affectivity and the utility of self-reports.

Self-reported depression and anxiety were examined in 233 inpatient children (aged 6–17 yrs) diagnosed with either an anxiety disorder or a depressive disorder. Depressed children reported more problems related to a loss of interest and low motivation, and they had a more negative view of themselves. Anxious children reported more worry about the future, their well-being, and the reactions of others. The groups did not differ in the degree of depressed affect reported in terms of being sad, lethargic, bothered by things, or feeling alone and isolated. Findings suggest that a general negative affectivity component is common to both anxiety and depression disorders and measures. Results demonstrate that anxiety and depression in children have distinguishing features that can be measured by common self-report instruments, and the findings indicate that one factor that may distinguish between anxiety and depression in children is positive affectivity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family life-styles and child behaviors: A study of direction of effects.

Examined the direction of effects between slow-learning children and their families in 3 family types: learning-oriented (LO), high residential quality; achievement-oriented (AO), low residential quality; and outer-directed (OD), with little achievement orientation. Child variables examined were measures of adjustment and adaptive behavior. Family variables (assessed on measures including the Family Environment Scale) included levels of community and recreational participation, expressiveness, achievement orientation, provision of learning materials, harmony, quality of the residential environment, and openness with the interviewer. There were 56 LO children (mean age 12.6 yrs [mean IQ 69.6]), 37 AO children (mean age 12.2 yrs [mean IQ 68.5]), and 32 OD children (mean age 12.7 yrs [mean IQ 69.5]). Cross-lagged panel analysis revealed different directions of effect in the 3 family types. In LO families, the child influenced the family for all variables except for expressiveness; in AO families, parents influenced the child; and in OD families, there were bidirectional effects whereby the child's self-help skills influenced parents, but parents influenced the child in higher-level skills such as social adjustment, motivation, and competency in community living. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Shyness and symptoms of illness in young children.

Investigated the association between shyness and symptoms of illness in young children and the types of symptoms differentiating shy and nonshy children. 16 shy children and 16 nonshy children (mean age 7 yrs 3 mo) were matched on sex, parental education, familial stress, and height-weight ratio. For 4 wks, parents recorded their children's health complaints and their own observations and conclusions of their children's health. There were more days on which shy children complained of unwellness and parents observed symptoms of unwellness than for nonshy children. Shy children made more affective complaints and were observed to experience more gastrointestinal upset. Several interpretations of the results are presented including the possibilities that lower thresholds for arousal in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axes of shy children affected their immunocompetence, that parents of shy children and the children themselves were more sensitive to symptoms of illness, and that feeling unwell may contribute to shy behaviour. Results suggest that the health of shy children merits further study. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sibling relationships of children with disabled and nondisabled brothers and sisters.

Goals were to compare children with and without mentally retarded (MR) siblings in terms of their sibling relations and adjustment and to examine the links between these constructs. Ss were 62 children (M age?=?12 years), half with and half without a younger MR sibling. Children and mothers evaluated children's adjustment and sibling relations in home interviews and in 7 telephone calls described the child's sibling activities, household tasks, and negative maternal and sibling interactions that day. Children with MR siblings reported more caregiving, more maternal negativity, and poorer adjustment. Caregiving, sibling and maternal negativity, and child's satisfaction with parents' differential treatment of self compared with sibling were associated with adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teachers' perceptions of their relationships with students: Effects of child age, gender, and ethnicity of teachers and children.

This study assessed the extent to which teachers' perceptions of their relationships with young students varied as a function of child and teacher characteristics in a large, demographically diverse sample of 197 preschool and kindergarten teachers and 840 children (mean age 4 yrs 7 mo old). Children were approximately evenly divided between boys and girls. Regression analyses were conducted to examine the relation between teachers' perceptions of their relationships with students and (a) teacher ethnicity, (b) child age, ethnicity, and gender, and (c) the ethnic match between teacher and child. Child age and ethnicity and teacher–child ethnic match were consistently related to teachers perceptions, explaining up to 27% of the variance in perceptions of negative aspects of the teacher–child relationship, specifically teacher–child conflict. When child and teacher had the same ethnicity, teachers rated their relationships with children more positively. The results are discussed in terms of classroom social processes related to children's adjustment and the measurement of teacher–child relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Childhood molestation: Variables related to differential impacts on psychosexual functioning in adult women.

To examine factor contributing to the differential adjustment of women sexually molested as children, 3 groups of 30 women aged 18–65 yrs each were recruited to participate in this study: (a) a clinical group consisting of women seeking therapy for problems associated with childhood molestation, (b) a nonclinical group of women molested as children who had never sought therapy and considered themselves to be well adjusted, and (c) a control group who had not been molested. The clinical group was significantly less well adjusted than either the nonclinical or control group on measures of psychosexual functioning and the MMPI. In addition, clinical Ss differed significantly from nonclinical group Ss in terms of (a) age at which last molestation occurred and (b) frequency and duration of molestation. It is proposed that differences in adult adjustment may be mediated by emotional responses evoked at the time of the incident(s), which in turn can be linked to the frequency and duration of molestation and to developmental factors associated with the age of last molestation. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Filial therapy with nonoffending parents of children who have been sexually abused.

Examined the effectiveness of a 10 wk filial therapy training model as a method of intervention for nonoffending parents (24–56 yrs old) and their children (4–10 yrs old) who have experienced sexual abuse. Ss were assigned to either an experimental or control group and were given pretraining sessions and assessments. The parents in the experimental group then conducted weekly 30 min special play sessions with their children, as recommended by Landreth (1991). One session was videotaped. The parents received constructive feedback and support from the facilitator and group members during meetings. A posttest battery of instruments was administered to parents and children following the training sessions. Analyses of covariance revealed that the nonoffending parents in the experimental group significantly increased their level of empathy in their interactions with their children, significantly increased their attitude of acceptance toward their children, and significantly reduced their level of stress. Measures of the children's behavior, anxiety, emotional adjustment, and self-concept indicated positive trends. The authors maintain that this study supports filial therapy as an effective intervention for nonoffending parents and their children who have experienced sexual abuse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)