Psychosocial Well‐Being and the Relationship Between Divorce and Children's Academic Achievement

As an unprecedented number of children live in families experiencing divorce, researchers have developed increasingly complex explanations for the consequences associated with marital dissolution. Current accounts focus on changes to family finances, destabilized parenting practices, elevated parental conflict, and deterioration of the parent–child relationship, to explain the impact of divorce. A less studied explanation draws attention to children's diminished psychosocial well‐being following divorce. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten cohort (ECLS‐K) (N = 10,061), I examined the role of psychosocial well‐being in the relationship between divorce and children's outcomes. The results suggest that divorce is associated with diminished psychosocial well‐being in children, and that this decrease helps explain the connection between divorce and lower academic achievement.     

Parenting Practices,Child Adjustment,and Family Diversity

The authors used data from Waves 1 and 2 of the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) to test the generality of the links between parenting practices and child outcomes for children in two age groups: 5–11 and 12–18. Parents' reports of support, monitoring, and harsh punishment were associated in the expected direction with parents' reports of children's adjustment, school grades, and behavior problems in Wave 1 and with children's reports of self‐esteem, grades, and deviance in Wave 2. With a few exceptions, parenting practices did not interact with parents' race, ethnicity, family structure, education, income, or gender in predicting child outcomes. A core of common parenting practices appears to be linked with positive outcomes for children across diverse family contexts.     

Maternal Cohabitation and Child Well‐Being Among Kindergarten Children

Using data collected from 10,511 kindergarten children and their parents from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten Cohort, this study examines child well‐being across cohabiting 2‐biological‐parent families; cohabiting stepfamilies; married stepfamilies; and married 2‐biological‐parent families. Findings indicate no differences in child well‐being for children living in cohabiting stepfamilies and cohabiting 2‐biological‐parent families. Multivariate models controlling for child characteristics, economic resources, maternal depressive symptoms, stability, and parenting practices show no significant differences across family types in child well‐being indicators, with the exception of reading skills. Important factors in explaining the link between cohabitation and child well‐being include economic resources, maternal depressive symptoms, and parenting practices.     

Changes in Parenting and Youth Adjustment Across the Military Deployment Cycle

This study examined how changes in at‐home parents' mental health and parenting practices related to changes in their children's adjustment throughout the course of a service members' military deployment. Participants included at‐home parents from 114 National Guard families who were interviewed at four different occasions across the deployment cycle. The results revealed changes across the deployment cycle among the following three indicators: parental warmth, depressive symptoms, and children's externalizing behaviors. Changes in parental warmth were associated with changes in children's adjustment. Overall, these findings indicate that during parental separation, at‐home parents' responses to children have important implications for children's adjustment.     

Family Communication as a Mediator of Child Adjustment to Divorce

Abstract

Reduced family conflict, consistency in roles and parenting, and limited negative life changes seem to be particularly important variables in promoting children's adjustment to divorce.

The impact of family functioning on child adjustment was investigated in a sample of 22 recently separated or divorced families with a total of 32 children. A series of multiple regression analyses using factors on the Family Assessment Device to predict Child Behavior Checklist scores indicated that family functioning is a significant predictor of children's Externalizing behavior problems. The Communication factor accounted for a significant portion of unique variance in the externalizing scores that was unaccounted for by the other factors. When separated parents can communicate with each other to co-parent their children, as well as communicate affective limit-setting messages to their children, the children exhibit less behavioral problems.     

Ethical Issues in Child Custody and Dependency Cases

Abstract

The emotional and psychological risks to children of high conflict divorce have led to the increased involvement of mental health professionals in child custody cases. Numerous service models (Greenberg & Gould, 2001; Johnston, 2000; Johnston & Roseby, 1997) have been developed to assist divorcing families in minimizing family conflict and supporting children'S needs. This underscores the need for judges and attorneys to understand the ethical and professional standards that underlie competent mental health practice in forensic cases. The practices of mental health professionals providing court-related services may have a substantial impact on the validity of their professional opinions, the effectiveness of services provided to children and families, and children'S development and adjustment. The authors suggest core ethical and clinical issues to be considered by all psychologists who work in the context of custody disputes. It is hoped that these professional practice suggestions will also be useful to attorneys and judicial officers in assessing the quality of mental health professionals' opinions.     

Planned Gay Father Families in Kinship Arrangements

The current study examined whether there are differences between gay father families (n = 36) and heterosexual families (n = 36) on father‐child relationship, fathers' experiences of parental stress and children's wellbeing. The gay fathers in this study all became parents while in same‐sex relationships. They donated sperm to lesbian couples and then shared the child‐rearing with them in kinship arrangements. It was also examined whether aspects that are related specifically to gay fathers (i.e., experiences of rejection, having to defend their family situation, with whom the children live, and conflicts with the children's mothers) are also related to the father‐child relationship, parental stress and children's wellbeing. Data were collected by means of questionnaires filled in by the fathers. No significant differences between the family types were found on emotional involvement and parental concern in the father‐child relationship, parental burden (as an aspect of parental stress) or the children's wellbeing. However, gay fathers felt less competent in their child‐rearing role than heterosexual fathers. For gay fathers especially, experiences of rejection and the feeling that they have to defend their situation were significantly related to father‐child relationship, parental stress and children's wellbeing.     

Parental Discipline and Abuse Potential Affects on Child Depression,Anxiety, and Attributions

The current study investigated differences in children's emotional functioning as a product of their parents' reported disciplinary practices and child abuse potential. Families with no known history of abuse were recruited to ascertain whether depressogenic attributional style and depressive or anxious symptomatology was evident in children of parents who used harsher physical punishment and who had higher abuse potential. Forty‐two New Zealand children ages 8–12 participated with their parents. Child‐report measures of depression, anxiety, and attributional style were compared with parents' responses on physical discipline scenarios and child abuse potential. Children's anxiety symptoms were higher in those children whose parents obtained higher abuse potential scores and had harsher discipline practices. Children's depressive symptoms and some components of maladaptive attributional style were also found in families with higher abuse potential. Results suggest emotional difficulties similar to those of maltreated children even without identifiable abuse.     

Mothers' Time,the Parenting Package,and Links to Healthy Child Development

Studies show that mothers' time in particular activities with children is positively associated with child well‐being, but results are mixed regarding associations between child outcomes and the sheer amount of time that mothers spend with children. Using data from three waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics Child Development Supplement (N = 2,622), the authors assess whether gains from mothers' total time with children vary by the quality of mothers' other investments in children or the “parenting package.” Mother–child shared time was associated with children's broad reading scores and adolescents' externalizing behavior, but mothers' other parenting investments did not moderate these associations. Results were robust to alternative measures of mothers' time and to the incorporation of earlier assessments of child academic and behavior problems. Parenting investments may be indicative of the quality of children's home environments, but do not magnify gains from mother–child shared time.     

A multi-site study of the ACT Raising Safe Kids program: Predictors of outcomes and attrition

The present study examined the factors related to attrition and treatment outcomes in the ACT-Raising Safe Kids (ACT-RSK) program. ACT-RSK is a family violence and child abuse prevention program for parents and caregivers of young children. Sixty parents or caregivers of children aged 9 years or younger completed the ACT-RSK group program and the research measures. The study took place at 7 community-based sites in the midwestern United States. Program completers were significantly older than noncompleters, suggesting that parent age relates to attrition from this program. Pre/post comparisons indicated increased nurturing behavior, decreased harsh parenting, and decreased negative discipline, as well as decreased child behavior problems following completion of the ACT-RSK program. Parent age predicted children's outcomes, indicating better results for the children of older parents/caregivers. In addition, pre-test harsh parenting scores predicted children's outcomes, suggesting that families with relatively higher initial levels of parental psychological aggression and corporal punishment had more robust child outcomes following completion of the program.     

Marital Conflict and Children’s Adjustment: Evaluation of the Parenting Process Model

This investigation tested whether parenting mediates longitudinal associations between marital conflict and children’s adjustment. Data were drawn from a three‐wave study of 283 families with children aged 8 – 16 years at Wave 1. Relations among marital conflict, parenting (behavioral control, psychological autonomy, and warmth), and children’s adjustment (externalizing and internalizing) were examined. Structural equation models indicated multiple dimensions of parenting mediated relations between marital conflict and children’s adjustment. When including controls for earlier adjustment, behavioral control continued to mediate relations between marital conflict and change in children’s internalizing symptoms over time. These results advance parenting process models for relations between marital conflict and child adjustment and provide impetus for study of other pathways, including direct and child effects.     

Within‐ and Between‐Family Associations of Marital Functioning and Child Well‐being

This study clarifies within‐family and between‐family links between marital functioning and child well‐being. Expanding on existing prospective research, this study tests whether changes in parents' marital functioning are associated with corresponding changes in their children's well‐being, independent from associations that exist when comparing different families. Participants (N = 1,033) were members of married, opposite‐sex couples with children who participated in five waves of a larger study of marriage in the U.S. Army. Spouses' constructive communication, verbal conflict, and marital satisfaction each showed between‐family associations with parent‐reported child internalizing and externalizing problems. In contrast, within‐family associations were significant only for parents' communication behaviors. That is, parents who reported lower levels of marital satisfaction also reported lower child well‐being, whereas change in parents' communication was associated with change in child well‐being over time. Isolating within‐family effects is important for understanding marital and child functioning and for identifying potential targets for effective intervention.     

Time for work,commuting, and parenting? Commuting parents' involvement with their children

For most Australian parents, there is continuing tension between work and family commitments. This tension is exacerbated by the need not only to have sufficient time available to children in the family but also for that time to be characterized by nurturance and guidance. This article reports on a qualitative study that explored how 21 part-time or full-time working parents, who also commute 10–15 hours a week to work, manage both the quantity and quality of their time with their young children (0–5 years). The study revealed the difficult conditions of commuting and the importance of social support to parents' well-being, as well as a significant pattern of parent–child interaction which we have described as ‘attentive parenting.’ Parents felt these activities contributed to the parent–child bond and their children's well-being in spite of an acknowledged lack of interactive time.     

Parents' Relationship Quality and Children's Behavior in Stable Married and Cohabiting Families

Although an extensive literature has shown that family structure is linked with child well‐being, less well understood is how the dynamics within families affect children, in particular the extent to which positive mother–father relationship quality is linked with children's outcomes. In this study the authors used data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 773) to examine how couple supportiveness in stable coresident families is related to children's externalizing and internalizing behavioral problems over ages 3 through 9. Using latent growth curve and fixed effects models, they found that parents' greater supportiveness has a slight association with lower levels of children's behavioral problems. Using cross‐lagged structural equation models to examine the direction of the association, they also found some evidence that parents' relationship quality and children's behavioral problems are reciprocally related. Overall, this study suggests that more positive couple interactions are beneficial for children residing with both of their biological parents.     

How Does the Gender of Parents Matter?

Claims that children need both a mother and father presume that women and men parent differently in ways crucial to development but generally rely on studies that conflate gender with other family structure variables. We analyze findings from studies with designs that mitigate these problems by comparing 2‐parent families with same or different sex coparents and single‐mother with single‐father families. Strengths typically associated with married mother‐father families appear to the same extent in families with 2 mothers and potentially in those with 2 fathers. Average differences favor women over men, but parenting skills are not dichotomous or exclusive. The gender of parents correlates in novel ways with parent‐child relationships but has minor significance for children's psychological adjustment and social success.     

Postdivorce Relationships in Families and Children's Psychosocial Adjustment

Divorced mothers and their school-aged children in 50 single-mother families and 37 stepfather families reported on mothers' ex-partner relationships, children's relationships with both parents, and children's well-being. A 2 (family structure) × 2 (gender) multivariate analysis of variance revealed a main effect of gender: Mothers with sons report higher levels of ex-partner relationship satisfaction. An interaction effect was also found: Boys in single-mother families report more acceptance and fewer conflicts than boys in stepfather families. Multiple regression analysis revealed that mother–ex-partner relationships are associated with children's problem behavior, whereas child–nonresidential father relationships are associated with positive aspects of children's well-being. The results indicate that family structure itself is not associated with child adjustment. What matters most is the quality of family relationships.     

Positive Marital Quality,Acculturative Stress,and Child Outcomes Among Mexican Americans

Previous research suggests that the quality of parents' relationships can influence their children's adjustment, but most studies have focused on the negative effects of marital conflict for children in White middle‐class families. The current study focuses on the potential benefits of positive marital quality for children in working‐class first generation Mexican American families using observational and self‐report data. This study examined the links between positive marital quality and child internalizing and externalizing behaviors 1 year later when the child was in sixth grade (N = 134 families). Positive marital quality was negatively correlated with child internalizing behaviors. Parent acculturative stress was found to mediate the relationship between positive marital quality and child internalizing behaviors in sixth grade.     

Academic and Behavioral Outcomes Among the Children of Young Mothers

In this article, we use newly available data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to investigate the effects of early motherhood on academic and behavioral outcomes for children born to early child bearers. We find that early motherhood's strong negative correlation with children's test scores and positive correlation with children's grade repetition is almost entirely explained by prebirth individual and family background factors of teen mothers themselves. However, early childbearing is associated indirectly with reduced children's test scores through its linkage to family size (and thus to child birth order). We find a different pattern in predicting fighting, truancy, early sexual activity, and other problem behaviors among adolescent and young adult offspring. For these behaviors, maternal age at first birth remains an important risk factor even after controlling for a wide range of background factors and maternal characteristics. These results highlight the diverse pathways through which teen parenting might influence subsequent child well‐being and social performance.     

Marital Conflict,Ineffective Parenting,and Children's and Adolescents' Maladjustment

Data from the 1988 National Survey on Families and Households were analyzed to examine the associations among marital conflict, ineffective parenting, and children's and adolescents' maladjustment. Parents' use of harsh discipline and low parental involvement helped explain the connection between marital conflict and children's maladjustment in children aged 2 through 11. Parent‐child conflict was measured only in families with a target teenager and also was a significant mediator. Although ineffective parenting explained part of the association between marital conflict and children's maladjustment, independent effects of marital conflict remained in families with target children aged 2 through 11 (but not for families with a teenager). With a few exceptions, this pattern of findings was consistent for mothers' and fathers' reports, for daughters and sons, for families with various ethnic backgrounds, and for families living in and out of poverty.