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.     

The outcomes of a longitudinal study of non‐organic failure‐to‐thrive

Individuals who had failed‐to‐thrive for non‐organic reasons received psychosocial intervention which was tailor‐made to their particular needs during childhood. Their progress was followed up over 20 years later, including their physical growth and social and cognitive functioning. Not all clients showed the same outcomes. The quality of the parental relationship and the reason for the growth‐faltering were found to be related to the outcomes at 20 years. Unless they experienced a positive and sustained change in their life or circumstances, individuals who had experienced abuse showed poorer outcomes than those whose growth‐faltering had been thought due to neglect, lack of parenting or feeding dif?culties. Abuse tended to be a contributing factor to growth‐faltering more frequently in families where the parents were observed to have a poor relationship with each other. However, a signi?cant change in the quality of care given to the child and the emotional environment experienced by them resulted in positive outcomes 20 years later despite experiencing abuse during childhood. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Relationship Between Nonsuicidal Self‐Injury and Family Functioning: Adolescent and Parent Perspectives

We explored parent and adolescent reports of family functioning, how this differed if the parent was aware that their child self‐injured, and how parental awareness of self‐injury was related to self‐injury frequency, self‐injury severity, and help seeking. Participants were 117 parent–adolescent dyads, in 23 of which the adolescent self‐injured. Adolescents who self‐injured reported poorer family functioning than their parents, but parents who did not know about their child's self‐injury reported similar functioning to parents whose children did not self‐injure. Parents were more likely to know that their child self‐injured when the behavior was severe and frequent. Help‐seeking was more likely when parents knew about self‐injury. Family‐based interventions which emphasize perspective‐taking could be used to effectively treat self‐injury.     

Does Family Intervention for Adolescent Substance Use Impact Parental Wellbeing? A Longitudinal Evaluation

Adolescent substance abuse is a common problem and family interventions are emerging as a strategy to prevent it and assist family coping. The effectiveness of a prevention‐focussed family intervention was evaluated for its secondary impacts on improving parental mental health and family functioning. Twenty‐four secondary schools in Melbourne Victoria were randomly assigned to either a control condition or an intervention titled Resilient Families. The two intervention levels analysed were: (1) a parenting booklet only and; (2) combining the booklet with face‐to‐face parent education sessions. Parent surveys at baseline were followed up one year and four years later. Repeated‐measures analysis (n = 560) found parents attending parent education demonstrated reductions in mental health symptoms, however this had negative effects on family cohesion and no impact on family conflict. These findings were interpreted in terms of parent education assisting parent mental health by promoting assertive parenting styles that may increase adolescent‐parent tension by encouraging firmer parental boundaries and strategies to reduce adolescent substance use.     

Testing the Parent–Adolescent Acculturation Discrepancy Hypothesis: A Five‐Wave Longitudinal Study

This 2½‐year, 5‐wave longitudinal study tests the hypothesis that acculturation discrepancies between Hispanic immigrant parents and adolescents would lead to compromised family functioning, which would then lead to problematic adolescent outcomes. Recent‐immigrant Hispanic parent–adolescent dyads (N = 302) completed measures of acculturation and family functioning. Adolescents completed measures of positive youth development, depressive symptoms, problem behavior, and substance use. Results indicated that Time 1 discrepancies in Hispanic culture retention, and linear trajectories in some of these discrepancies, negatively predicted adolescent positive youth development, and positively predicted adolescent depressive symptoms and binge drinking, indirectly through adolescent‐reported family functioning. The vast majority of effects were mediated rather than direct, supporting the acculturation discrepancy hypothesis. Implications for further research and intervention are discussed.     

Impact of Adolescents' Filial Self‐Efficacy on Quality of Family Functioning and Satisfaction

In this prospective study, we tested a structural model in which adolescents' perceived self‐efficacy to manage parental relationships affected their satisfaction with family life both directly, and indirectly, through its impact on family practices. Findings based on 380 Italian adolescents showed that perceived filial self‐efficacy was linked directly and indirectly to satisfaction with family life, and that these relations held both concurrently and longitudinally. In particular, the greater adolescents perceived their self‐efficacy, the more they reported open communication with their parents, the more accepting they were of their parents' monitoring of their own activities outside the home and the less inclined they were to get into escalative discord over disagreements. Regardless of whether perceived filial self‐efficacy was placed in the conceptual structure as a contributor to the quality of family interactions or as a partial product of family functioning, it consistently predicted satisfaction with family life.     

The Bowl of Terror: A Case Study of an Adolescent Perpetrator of Sexual Abuse

This article describes a complex multimodal intervention with a family where inappropriate sexual contact had occurred between Taro and his younger sister Lara, when they were young children. The family presented to clinical services when Lara was brought to hospital with suicidal ideation, traumatic flashbacks and regressed behaviour at 13 years of age. Treatment involved multiple components: family work with all members of the family individual work with Lara, joint work with Lara and Taro, and finally, a brief intervention with Taro. This article focuses primarily on the therapist's work with Taro, the perpetrator of the inappropriate sexual contact. The Adult Attachment interview (AAI), a semi‐structured interview, was used by the therapist to assess Taro's developmental experiences and psychological functioning. Information from the AAI helped the therapist identify both the relationship factors that had contributed to the perpetration of sexual abuse and the self‐protective strategies Taro had come to use in order to elicit maximum comfort and protection from neglectful attachment figures. The therapist used the functional formulation derived from the AAI to structure a time‐limited intervention.     

The Effects of Parent‐Adolescent Relationships and Parental Separation on Adolescent Well‐Being

This article uses data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) to investigate the short‐term effects of parental separation on adolescent delinquency and depression. Findings indicate that parent‐adolescent relationships prior to marital dissolution moderate the effects of parental separation on adolescent delinquency. The higher adolescents' satisfaction with their relationship with the same‐sex parent prior to residential separation the greater their increases in delinquent behavior when they are separated from this parent at Wave 2. These results highlight the importance of interpersonal relationships within the family prior to parental separation. Opposite‐sex parents constitute a significant influence on adolescents' depression regardless of family structure. These findings suggest that research on parental influences on children's well‐being needs to pay more attention to gender‐specific effects.     

‘Let's Talk About Children’: Investigating the Use of a Family‐focused Intervention in the Gambling Support Services Sector

The family‐focused mental health intervention, ‘Let's Talk About Children,’ has positively influenced the lives of families affected by parental mental illness. This paper outlines the use of this brief, strengths‐based intervention for parents with gambling and other co‐occurring issues from the gamblers’ support services sector. Over a six‐month period, a training manual and accompanying resources were adapted for the gamblers’ support services sector and a targeted training session developed. Nine problem gambling counsellors from three Victorian gambling support services trialled the Let's Talk About Children intervention over a four‐month period. Qualitative data were gathered through focus groups, interviews, and practice enquiry groups to determine the impact of the Let's Talk About Children model for gambling support services. The results are presented as ‘practice wisdoms and recommendations’ reporting on the impact of the trial and to provide some guidance to support others in the implementation of a specific family‐focused intervention. This paper reports on the first exploratory trial of Let's Talk About Children for the gambler's support services sector in Australia.     

The Role of Emotion Processing in the Association between Parental Discipline and Adolescent Socio‐Emotional Development

This research investigated whether biases in processing threatening emotional cues operate as an indirect pathway through which parental harsh discipline is associated with adolescent socio‐emotional functioning. Participants were 192 adolescents (M age = 12.4), and their parents assessed over two years. Findings revealed two significant indirect pathways involving fear processing. Greater parental harsh discipline was linked to more emotional response inhibition difficulty for fear, which was linked to more depressive symptoms in the following year. Greater parental harsh discipline was also associated with more emotional response inhibition difficulty for fear, and thereby, more peer problems later. Findings suggest that adolescent emotional processing operated as an indirect pathway linking parental harsh discipline and adolescent socio‐emotional functioning within the broader social context.     

Unsociable Work? Nonstandard Work Schedules,Family Relationships,and Children’s Well‐Being

Many children live in families where one or both parents work evenings, nights, or weekends. Do these work schedules affect family relationships or well‐being? Using cross‐sectional survey data from dual‐earner Canadian families (N= 4,306) with children aged 2 – 11 years (N= 6,156), we compared families where parents worked standard weekday times with those where parents worked nonstandard schedules. Parents working nonstandard schedules reported worse family functioning, more depressive symptoms, and less effective parenting. Their children were also more likely to have social and emotional difficulties, and these associations were partially mediated through family relationships and parent well‐being. For some families, work in the 24‐hour economy may strain the well‐being of parents and children.     

Adolescent Triangulation Into Parental Conflicts: Longitudinal Implications for Appraisals and Adolescent‐Parent Relations

Although triangulation into parental conflict is a risk factor for child and adolescent maladjustment, little is known about how triangulation affects adolescents' functioning or the factors that lead children to be drawn into parental disagreements. This prospective study examined the relations between triangulation, appraisals of conflict, and parent‐child relations in a sample of 171 adolescents, ages 14 to 19 years, at 2 time points. Cross‐lagged path analyses revealed that youths who experienced greater threat in response to conflict reported increases in triangulation over time, and triangulation was associated with increased self‐blame and diminished parent‐adolescent relations. This study highlights links between intrapersonal, dyadic, and triadic processes and suggests a mechanism by which interparental discord spills over into parent‐adolescent relations.     

Parental Education and Family Dissolution: A Cross‐National and Cohort Comparison

This is the first study to systematically analyze whether the association between parental education and family dissolution varies cross‐nationally and over time. The authors use meta‐analytic tools to study cross‐national variation between 17 countries with data from the Generations and Gender Study and Harmonized Histories. The association shows considerable cross‐national variation, but is positive in most countries. The association between parental education and family dissolution has become less positive or even negative in six countries. The findings show that the association between parental education and family dissolution is generally positive or nil, even if the association between own education and family dissolution is in many countries increasingly negative. The authors find suggestive evidence that the association is related to the crude divorce rate, but not to the generosity of the welfare state in these countries. The implications of these findings for understanding the stratification in family dissolution are discussed.     

Family Structure and Child Well‐Being: The Significance of Parental Cohabitation

Data from the 1999 National Survey of America's Families (N = 35,938) were used to examine the relationship between family structure and child well‐being. I extended prior research by including children in two‐biological‐parent cohabiting families, as well as cohabiting stepfamilies, in an investigation of the roles of economic and parental resources on behavioral and emotional problems and school engagement. Children living in two‐biological‐parent cohabiting families experience worse outcomes, on average, than those residing with two biological married parents, although among children ages 6–11, economic and parental resources attenuate these differences. Among adolescents ages 12–17, parental cohabitation is negatively associated with well‐being, regardless of the levels of these resources. Child well‐being does not significantly differ among those in cohabiting versus married stepfamilies, two‐biological‐parent cohabiting families versus cohabiting stepfamilies, or either type of cohabiting family versus single‐mother families.     

Intergenerational Processes,Attachment and Unexplained Medical Symptoms

Children organise self‐protectively in response to anxiety‐provoking or dangerous parental behaviours. When children's self‐protective responses are extreme and persist over time, they may come to the attention of health professionals in the guise of emotional, behavioural or somatic symptoms. A parallel phenomenon is that harmful parental behaviours may be embedded in the emotional processes of the inter‐generational family unit, reflecting the parents' own experiences of comfort and danger, as well as the particular manner in which these experiences have been integrated into the parents' current functioning. Using a case study of a three‐year‐old girl with medically unexplained urinary retention, the article explores how information about attachment relationships and unresolved parental loss or trauma can inform our understanding of implicit, anxiety‐driven processes within the family, and to facilitate family interventions and symptom alleviation. The case shows that the Dynamic‐Maturational Model of attachment has significant applications in the areas of family therapy theory and practice, psychosomatic medicine and consult‐liaison psychiatry.     

Out‐of‐Home Placement of Children Exposed to Violence

There is growing concern about the increasing number of children in the USA who are exposed to community violence and the need to remove some of them from their families. This study examines risk factors for out‐of‐home placement among a large pool of children and adolescents who were referred for general clinical assessment following exposure to violence and/or psychological trauma in their communities or homes. Children with greater familial and environmental support and children exposed to incidents involving a non‐parental personal threat were associated with a significantly lower risk of out‐of‐home placement. A greater likelihood of being placed out of home was associated with older age (adolescents), history of mental health service use, involvement with law enforcement agencies, higher clinical ratings of depression or impaired thought processes, lower clinical functioning and greater exposure to traumatic events. Evidence of maltreatment and a threat to life was associated with 13.6 times greater likelihood of being placed out of the home. This study raises an important issue in respect to the children's past use of mental health service and current symptoms. It is not just the risk of violence but also evidence of psychiatric problem that trigger out‐of‐home placement. Further studies are needed to assess the quality and effectiveness of mental health services provided to children exposed to violence. © 2007 The Author(s). Journal compilation © 2007 National Children's Bureau.     

Temperamental Susceptibility to Parenting among Preterm and Full‐Term Infants in Early Cognitive Development

The current study examined the interaction between premature birth, temperamental reactivity, and parenting in early cognitive development. Participants were 142 infants (80 preterm; 62 full term) and their parents. Parent–child interactions (maternal, paternal, and co‐parental) were observed at age 6 months to assess parental structuring behaviors. Additionally, both parents reported on infants' temperamental reactivity. At 12 months of age, infants' cognitive abilities were assessed. Consistent with the diathesis–stress model, preterm infants had lower cognitive outcomes than full‐term infants when exposed to low levels of co‐parental structuring, but functioned similarly when exposed to high levels of co‐parental structuring. However, temperamental reactivity moderated this effect: Infants who carried one susceptibility factor (i.e., premature birth or reactive temperament) were similarly affected by co‐parental structuring, whereas infants who carried two or no susceptibility factors were not. Furthermore, consistent with the differential susceptibility hypothesis, infants with highly reactive temperaments had lower cognitive functioning when exposed to low maternal structuring, but higher cognitive functioning when exposed to high maternal structuring compared to infants with lower reactivity. Results from this study highlight the importance of considering both temperamental reactivity and quality of parenting in understanding preterm infants' early cognitive vulnerability.     

Long‐Term Physical Health Consequences of Adverse Childhood Experiences

This study examined associations between adverse childhood family experiences and adult physical health using data from 52,250 U.S. adults aged 18 to 64 from the 2009 to 2012 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. We found that experiencing childhood physical, verbal, or sexual abuse, witnessing parental domestic violence, experiencing parental divorce, and living with someone who was depressed, abused drugs or alcohol, or who had been incarcerated were associated with one or more of the following health outcomes: self‐rated health, functional limitations, diabetes, and heart attack. Adult socioeconomic status and poor mental health and health behaviors significantly mediated several of these associations. The results of this study highlight the importance of family‐based adverse childhood experiences on adult health outcomes and suggest that adult socioeconomic status (SES) and stress‐related coping behaviors may be crucial links between trauma in the childhood home and adult health.     

Family‐of‐Origin Influence on Career Thoughts

The family can exert an important influence on career decision making. This study investigated the impact of adaptability and cohesion in family‐of‐origin relationships on dysfunctional career thoughts in 269 college students (221 women, 48 men). The Career Thoughts Inventory and the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scales–IV were used to assess family dynamics and dysfunctional career thoughts. The study addressed the following research question: What is the impact of family cohesion and adaptability in the participant's family of origin on dysfunctional career thoughts, specifically decision‐making confusion, commitment anxiety, and external conflict? Results revealed that higher levels of family cohesion were associated with lower levels of decision‐making confusion, commitment anxiety, and external conflict and that higher levels of family adaptability were associated with lower levels of external conflict.