Answering Back: Parental Perspectives on the Children's Hearings System

Correspondence address: Social Work Research Centre, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, Scotland Summary The potential of client evaluation is explored through a casestudy of the parental response to the children's hearings system.In particular, drawing upon a tradition which has sought toidentify the ideologies of different participants, a numberof elements which contribute to individual ideology are specified.It is shown that for many parents the pattern is not of a consistentideology but of a multiplicity of beliefs, invoked as requiredand not necessarily coherent. Previous assertions that parentswill respond only to a system based on principles of justiceare shown to be misplaced.     

Marital Conflict and Children's Adjustment: Parental Hostility and Children's Interpretations as Mediators

The associations between marital conflict, maternal and paternal hostility, children's interpretations of marital conflict, and children's adjustment were examined in a sample of 136 school‐aged children and their parents. Observational measures were collected from videotapes of marital interaction and family interaction. Self‐report data were collected from parents and children. Results showed that mothers’ and fathers’ hostility mediated the association between martial conflict and children's internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Children's feelings of being to blame for marital conflict and being threatened by it mediated between marital conflict and children's internalizing problems but not their externalizing problems.     

A Short-term Longitudinal Study of Children's Playground Games in Primary School: Implications for Adjustment to School and Social Adjustment in the USA and the UK

In this study we described development of boys’ and girls’ games on the school playground at recess as they progressed across the first year of primary school in London (UK) and Minneapolis (USA) in order to document age‐related trends in games during this period and to examine the predictive role of games in children's adjustment to school and more general social adjustment. Consistent with expectations, games accounted for a significant portion of children’s, but especially boys’, behavior during recess. American children played games more frequently, especially simple games, relative to English children. Consistent with expectation, the complexity of games increased, especially for boys, across the school year for children in both countries. We also examined the extent to which facility with games forecasted adjustment to school and social adjustment. Games predicted both, but only in the USA sample. Results are discussed in terms of games being an important developmental task for children of this age. Implications for future research and educational policy are discussed.     

Mothers' Self-Reported Control of Their Preschool Children's Emotional Expressiveness: A Longitudinal Study of Associations with Infant–Mother Attachment and Children's Emotion Regulation

In the present longitudinal study we examined the associations between mothers’ self‐reported control of their preschoolers’ emotional expressiveness and two other key facets of early socioemotional development: the quality of the infant–mother attachment and children's emotion regulation. Seventy‐six white preschool‐aged children (46 boys and 30 girls) and their mothers participated. Principal assessments included the Parent Attitude Toward Child Expressiveness Scale (PACES; Saarni, 1985 ), the infant Strange Situation, and ‘Beat the Bell,’ a measure designed for this study to elicit children's emotional expression, sharing, and suppression in the presence of their mothers. Mothers’ control of their children's expressiveness was associated with both attachment and children's emotion regulation in theoretically predicted ways. First, mothers of children who had been classified insecure‐avoidant in the Strange Situation reported greater control of their children's negative expressiveness than other mothers, and mothers of children who had been classified insecure‐ambivalent reported less control of their children's negative expressiveness than other mothers. Second, mothers who reported greater control of their children's expressiveness had children who were less likely to express and share their feelings and more likely to suppress their anger in the ‘Beat the Bell’ emotion regulation assessment. Findings are discussed in terms of the role of maternal emotion socialization in children's early socioemotional development.     

Marital Conflict in the Context of Parental Depressive Symptoms: Implications for the Development of Children's Adjustment Problems

Relations among parental depressive symptoms, overt and covert marital conflict, and child internalizing and externalizing symptoms were examined in a community sample of 235 couples and their children. Families were assessed once yearly for three years, starting when children were in kindergarten. Parents completed measures of depressive symptoms and children's internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Behavioral observations of marital conflict behaviors (insult, threat, pursuit, and defensiveness) and self report of covert negativity (feeling worry, sorry, worthless, and helpless) were assessed based on problem-solving interactions. Results indicated that fathers' greater covert negativity and mothers' overt destructive conflict behaviors served as intervening variables in the link between fathers' depressive symptoms and child internalizing symptoms, with modest support for the pathway through fathers' covert negativity found even after controlling for earlier levels of constructs. These findings support the role of marital conflict in the impact of fathers' depressive symptoms on child internalizing symptoms.     

Social Dominance in Romantic Relationships: A Prospective Longitudinal Study of Non-verbal Processes

The study of social dominance has a long tradition within the peer relationships literature, but rarely has the topic been investigated observationally and longitudinally within other salient close relationships. The present study investigated the role of experiences in social relationships and adjustment indices in childhood in predicting later observed non‐verbal social dominance behaviors in the context of romantic relationships in emerging adults. Analyses from a subsample (N = 70) from a 29‐year prospective longitudinal study revealed links between early peer behavior and subsequent romantic relationship interactions for men and women. Non‐verbal social dominance behaviors were concurrently associated with poor romantic relationship quality, conflict, and physical and verbal aggression within the dyad. Both childhood externalizing and internalizing behaviors significantly predicted non‐verbal social dominance behaviors in the romantic partner interactions.     

Longitudinal trajectories of maternal parenting stress in Korean families: Children's executive function and school adjustment

A majority of mothers experience parenting stress in daily life; however high levels of maternal stress have been recognized as a risk factor for children's developmental outcomes. We examined trajectories of maternal parenting stress across childhood, and their longitudinal relations to children's executive function and school adjustment. Data were drawn from the Panel Study on Korean Children (PSKC), which included 1754 mothers across five waves measured at children ages 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 (boys = 51%). Results of Latent Growth Curve Modeling (LGCM) revealed that, on average, maternal parenting stress decreased over time, but there were significant variabilities in the initial levels at age 3 and changes across early through middle childhood. High initial levels of stress and an increase in maternal parenting stress over time were associated with lower executive function at age 7 in planning-organizing and attention concentration. An increment in maternal parenting stress over time was related to poorer school adjustment at age 7, measured by classroom behavior, positive approach to learning, and child-peer and child-teacher relationships. These findings support cultural commonality and may contribute to the instantiation of culturally universal, early preventions and interventions to support mothers’ mental health. Efforts aimed at reducing maternal parenting stress early in development may promote better long-term developmental outcomes, including executive functioning and school adjustment of children in their first year of elementary school.     

区域文化对婚姻稳定性的影响:基于跨省流动人口的研究

本文利用2013—2015年我国跨省流动人口数据,从动态的视角考察了流入地文化和流出地文化对流动人口婚姻稳定性的影响。数据结果显示,高离婚率地区形成了一种强势的离婚文化,无论是从低离婚率地区流入到高离婚率地区,还是从高离婚率地区流入到低离婚率地区,曾在高离婚率地区生活过的跨省流动人口都会保持较高的离婚概率。离婚文化对个人行为的影响表现为继承效应和浸染效应：继承效应即人们迁移到一个新的文化环境中,原有的离婚文化会持续产生影响;浸染效应即人们迁移到一个新的区域,会受到新接触的离婚文化的影响。年轻人更容易受到新迁入地文化浸染效应的影响,而年龄较大的人更容易受到流出地文化继承效应的影响。在新环境中,男性更容易接受新的文化,而女性则更多地保留了原有文化特征。     

A Longitudinal Study of Mother-Child Relationships and Theory of Mind in the Preschool Period

To investigate individual differences in theory of mind acquisition, this study examined whether different aspects of early mother-child relationships contributed to the development of false belief understanding at the close of the preschool period. Forty-six mother and child pairs were seen when children were two and again at five years of age. At age two, home-based Q-sort observations of attachment security and maternal sensitivity were made, and mothers completed a number of self-report measures to create an aggregate of maternal emotional distress. At age five, attachment security and maternal distress were reassessed, and false belief tasks were administered that were based on unexpected identities and locations of objects. In addition, attachment-relevant false belief tasks involving separation from caregivers were also used, which children found significantly more difficult than tasks involving objects. Age five security predicted object location task performance. Maternal sensitivity and emotional distress at age two predicted later caregiver location task performance, even controlling for age five measures. These results support a growing literature on the importance of relationship processes and parenting context to theory of mind acquisition.     

Children's Interpretations of Ambiguous Provocation From Their Siblings: Comparisons With Peers and Links to Relationship Quality

This study investigated how six‐ to eight‐year‐old children interpret ambiguous provocation from their siblings. In particular, we examined how children's attributions of their siblings' intent (1) differed from those for their peers, (2) varied as a function of the structural features of the sibling relationship, and (3) were associated with the affective qualities of the sibling relationship. A total of 121 children were presented with ambiguous provocation scenarios in which three groups of agemates were described as the perpetrators of harm (siblings, friends, and disliked peers). Scenarios were designed to assess children's attributions of hostile, instrumental, and accidental intent. Children attributed more hostile intent to disliked peers than to siblings and less hostile intent to friends than to siblings. Accidental and instrumental intent attributions were equally likely for friends and siblings but less common for disliked peers. Children attributed more hostile intent to older siblings, and more instrumental intent to laterborn siblings who were chronologically younger. Children's attributions of siblings' intent were related to both parents' and children's reports of the affective features of siblings' interactions. Results provide new insight into how children's construals of others' actions are grounded in the unique features of their relationships with particular interaction partners.     

Children's Appraisal of Peer Rejection Experiences: Impact on Social and Emotional Adjustment

In the current study, 95 children of different social status classifications (rejected, neglected, average, and popular) were exposed to hypothetical vignettes designed to assess their ‘generalized’ rejection sensitivity (GRS) and a mild social rejection experience designed to assess their ‘on‐line’ rejection sensitivity (ORS). Measures of internalizing and externalizing problems were assessed through a composite of peer‐ , parent‐ , and self‐reports. As expected, sociometric rejection was associated with more internalizing and externalizing problems. More importantly, both types of rejection sensitivity were associated with internalizing and externalizing problems after controlling for the effect of peer rejection. High levels of GRS were associated with more internalizing problems for both boys and girls. In addition, rejection sensitivity emerged as a significant moderator of the relation between rejection and externalizing problems. The nature of the moderating effect varied as function of type of rejection sensitivity and gender. Rejected girls with low GRS and rejected boys with high ORS displayed the highest levels of externalizing behavior problems.     

Forms and Functions of Aggression in Adolescent Friendship Selection and Influence: A Longitudinal Social Network Analysis

Aggressive children are known to have friends. However, less is known about the impact of aggression on friendship development and how this can differ for overt and relational (i.e., the forms) and instrumental and reactive (i.e., the functions) aggression. This longitudinal study utilized the forms and functions perspective on aggression to assess social selection and influence in adolescents' (N = 337, 12–14 years) friendship networks. Instrumentally and relationally aggressive peers became mutual friends with similar peers. Influence effects were observed in all types of aggression except overt aggression, suggesting that instrumental, reactive, and relational aggression may be the most susceptible to social influence. The findings are discussed in terms of theoretical and methodological implications for the study of aggression and adolescent friendships.     

Consistency and Change in Children's Tattling on their Siblings: Children's Perspectives on the Moral Rules and Procedures of Family Life

Children's tattling on their siblings was observed in 39 families when children were 2- and 4- and 4- and 6-years of age. Tattling was more frequent among older siblings, and increased across time, despite a corresponding decrease in sibling transgressions against one another and an increase in parents' negative reactions to tattling. Tattling was largely truthful, implicit in form, and more likely to concern transgressions of what parents also regarded as more important standards. Among 4- and 6-year-olds, tattling was related to children's negative behaviour to one another and equally likely when children faced ongoing conflict issues and when they merely wished to inform parents of sibling wrongdoing. Parents generally allowed their children to tattle on one another, rarely reprimanded tattlers, but responded to the information contained in the tattlers' reports. The parents' responses were related to the quality of their children's tattling, but the children's tattling was unrelated to the likelihood that parents would react either positively or negatively to it. Results are discussed in terms of the place of tattling within the family system, with emphasis on the children's understanding of the implications of their parents' involvement in their own disputes.     

The Role of Mother–Child Joint Play in the Early Development of Children's Conduct Problems: A Longitudinal Observational Study

This observational study examined the relationship between mother–child spontaneous joint play and the development of conduct problems in preschoolers, using a short‐term longitudinal design. The sample consisted of 60 children showing a range of levels of conduct problems, recruited at their third birthday through community health services in low SES areas. Spontaneous joint play and other mother–child activities were coded from naturalistic, unstructured observations in the home. Amount of time spent in joint play at age 3 predicted individual improvement in conduct problems at age 4, and importantly, this association was independent of initial level of child conduct problems and hyperactivity, social class, maternal depression, and frequency of negative mother–child interactions. The amount of time the child spent unoccupied and not interacting with mother independently predicted worsening conduct scores over time. However, time spent in other activities, including joint conversation and solitary play did not predict change in conduct scores over time. The results suggest that positive and proactive parenting processes such as joint play may make a unique contribution to the very early development of conduct problems, independent of other risk factors. There was no evidence that this association was mediated by child factors such as hyperactivity and poor attention skills.     

Aggressive and Prosocial Peer Group Functioning: Effects on Children's Social,School, and Psychological Adjustment

This study examined the effects of aggressive and prosocial contexts of peer groups on children's socioemotional and school adjustment. Data on informal peer groups, social functioning, and different aspects of adjustment were collected from multiple sources in a sample of elementary school children (149 boys, 181 girls; M age = 10 years). Multilevel analyses indicated that group aggressive and prosocial orientations made direct contributions to children's social, school, and psychological functioning. Group contexts also moderated the individual‐level relations between social behavior and self‐perceptions; prosocial behavior was associated with social or scholastic self‐perceptions more evidently in low prosocial and high aggressive groups. The results suggest that the peer group is an important context for children's performance and adjustment in various domains.     

Future Directions in the Study of Close Relationships: Conflict Is Bad (Except When It's Not)

Beneficial and detrimental correlates of interpersonal disagreement have been postulated and documented. The conclusion: conflict is both bad and good. The evidence for these paradoxical effects is summarized. In this article, we argue that the consequences of conflict for individuals depend on its frequency, the way in which it is managed, and the quality of the relationship in which it arises. Non‐linear patterns of association are hypothesized such that constructive conflicts, particularly those arising in supportive relationships, should (up to a limit) predict more beneficial and fewer detrimental outcomes. In contrast, coercive conflicts, particularly those arising in unsupportive relationships, should predict more adverse and fewer favorable outcomes.     

中越婚姻制度比较研究

随着中国—东盟自由贸易区的建立,两国的经贸、人员交往日益密切,跨国婚姻迅猛增长。在此背景下,对中越两国婚姻法进行系统的比较研究,概括两国婚姻法异同及借鉴成功的立法经验,着重对不同之处进行析评,以期方便两国人民的交往。