The Dyadic Effects of Supportive Coparenting and Parental Stress on Relationship Quality Across the Transition to Parenthood

The transition to first‐time parenthood can be challenging for couples. Using a sample of 848 ethnically diverse couples from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study across the first 3 years of parenthood, we investigated the longitudinal and dyadic associations of each parents’ parental stress, supportive coparenting, and relationship quality. Results from an actor–partner interdependence model indicated that supportive coparenting significantly predicted higher relationship quality for both mothers and fathers. Fathers’ supportive coparenting significantly buffered the effects of mothers’ parental stress on relationship quality. Also, the unique dyadic contexts of each parents’ supportive coparenting, and also both partners’ parental stress were significantly associated with relationship quality. Clinical implications from these findings are discussed through commonly used clinical theories.     

Single Mothers' Religious Participation and Early Childhood Behavior

Using data on 1,134 single mothers from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, this study examined trajectories of religious participation among single mothers and whether these trajectories were associated with early childhood behavior. The results suggested that single mothers experienced diverse patterns of religious participation throughout their child's early life; some mothers maintained a consistent pattern of religious participation (or nonparticipation), and other mothers increased their participation. The results also suggested that religious participation was associated with greater involvement with children, reduced parenting stress, and a lower likelihood of engaging in corporal punishment. Young children raised by mothers who frequently attended religious services were less likely to display problem behaviors, and this relationship was partially mediated by increased child involvement, lower stress, and less frequent corporal punishment. Overall, religious participation may provide resources for single mothers that encourage them to engage in parenting practices that promote positive child development.     

Patterns of Shared Religious Attendance and Positive Stepfamily Functioning

This study used data from Add Health to examine the relationship between shared participation in religious activities and positive stepfamily functioning as indicated by the closeness of the stepfather–stepchild bond, the closeness of the mother–child bond, the quality of the mother–stepfather relationship, the adolescent's perception of family belonging, and the stability of the mother–stepfather marriage. The study incorporated information on shared religious participation between adolescents and their mothers and stepfathers by examining whether adolescents reported frequently attending religious services or church‐related events with both parents, with one parent, or with neither parent. Shared religious attendance was positively associated with several aspects of stepfamily functioning above and beyond the positive association of family members’ engagement in other types of shared activities.     

The United States Economic Crisis: Young Adults’ Reports of Economic Pressures, Financial and Religious Coping and Psychological Well-Being

Using a sample of 222 young adults attending college, the present study examined the relative contribution of young adults’ perceived economic pressures, financial coping and religious meaning-making coping strategies in accounting for variation in their reports of psychological well-being within the context of the United States economic crisis. Results suggest a direct relationship between perceived economic pressure and psychological well-being such that young adults who reported having to make more economic adjustments as a result of economic crisis also reported higher levels of depressed mood and anxiety. Young men and women who reported having to make fewer economic adjustments and being able to meet their material needs reported higher levels of life satisfaction. Regardless of young adults’ self-reported level of economic pressures, the use of education and communication financial coping strategies was related to lower levels of self-reported anxiety and depressed mood and greater life satisfaction. Viewing the financial crisis as a punishment from God was generally associated with young adults’ reports of greater depressed mood and less life satisfaction. Implication of findings for research and practice are discussed.     

Atheistic, agnostic, and religious older adults on well-being and coping behaviors

Previous research reports relationships between religion and both well-being and positive coping, especially among the older adult age group. However, researchers have failed to consider the non-religious when comparing groups categorized by religious belief, ignoring possible differences between those with a belief and the non-religious, atheists, and agnostics. To explore possible differences, we gathered data from a sample of 134 religious and non-religious older adults (55 years old plus) who completed an online questionnaire assessing relationships between religiosity and well-being, social support, locus of control, and meaning in life. Belief groups, including atheists, agnostics, and those high and low on religious beliefs, were compared on coping behaviors. The religious groups did not significantly differ from atheists and agnostics on well-being, satisfaction with social support, or locus of control; however, the high religiosity group did endorse higher levels of presence of meaning in life than the atheists and a greater number of social supports compared to the non-religious groups. The groups significantly differed on their use of religious coping (p < .05), and differences approached significance on the groups utilization of humor and substances as coping mechanisms (p = .07). The religious groups endorsed religious-oriented coping at significantly greater rates, whereas the atheists endorsed a greater use of substances to cope than the other three groups. Additionally, atheists endorsed humor for coping more so than their low religiosity counterparts.     

Responsiveness in Parent‐Adolescent Relationships: Are Influences Conditional? Does the Reporter Matter?

This paper examines conditional and reporter effects of parental responsiveness using survey data from White 8th to 12th graders (N = 440) and their parents (N = 511). Adolescent reports of maternal and paternal responsiveness predicted higher GPAs, fewer delinquent behaviors, and less internal distress. Mothers’ and fathers’ reports of responsiveness were positively associated with adolescent responsibility. Looking within families, the more dissimilar mother and adolescent reports were, the more internal distress daughters reported. Looking across families, mothers’ responsiveness was associated with higher GPAs and fathers’ responsiveness was associated with lower substance use, but only for adolescents who reported less responsiveness than their parents and peers. The findings suggest using a single reporter to describe a relationship property is incomplete.     

Looking Behavior and Smiling in Down Syndrome Infants

We studied the relation between direction of gaze and smiling in 15 typically developing infants and 15 infants with Down syndrome. All of them were videotaped during face-to-face interaction with their mothers at home, and while having access to their familiar toys. Results showed that mothers in the two groups behaved in a similar way; that Down syndrome infants looked at their mother's face for longer than typically developing children; and that the relationship between looking and smiling was similar in the two cases and reflected as an increase in the time the infant looked at its mother's face and a decrease in the time the infant looked at toys. It was deduced that Down syndrome infants are capable of distinguishing the differential significance of faces and toys, so that, in the same way as typically developing infants, they direct their affective behavior fundamentally towards the social element, which leads us to consider the affiliative function implied by this expression.     

History of Childhood Abuse and Intergenerational Support to Mothers in Adulthood

The authors examined the association between maternal childhood abuse and the frequency of providing social support to mothers when the victim is an adult and investigated the mediating effects of internal working models (self‐esteem, positive relations with others) and maladaptive coping. Using data from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States II, they analyzed a sample of 887 adult children using a structural equation modeling approach. The results showed that maternal childhood abuse was associated with providing less frequent emotional support to mothers, although the authors did not find significant mediating effects of internal working models and maladaptive coping in the association between child abuse and intergenerational support giving. The findings suggest implications for theory, practice, and policy to address specific concerns and possible challenges that adults with a history of childhood abuse may experience in the relationship with their mothers.     

Depression, anxiety, and religious life: a search for mediators

We examine several potential mechanisms linking religious involvement to depressive symptoms, major depression, and anxiety. Logistic and OLS regression estimations test five sets of potential psychosocial religion mediators: perceived attitudes toward and motivations for attendance; positive and negative religious coping; religious attitudes, beliefs, and spirituality; congregational support and criticism; and interpersonal and self-forgiveness. Compared to attending services less than once a month or never, attending services once a week but no more is associated with fewer depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms. Hypothesized mediators, including meaning, interpersonal and self-forgiveness, congregational criticism, social attendance beliefs, and negative coping are independently associated with one or more mental health outcomes.     

Religious Coping and Glycemic Control in Couples with Type 2 Diabetes

This study examines the role of religious coping in couples’ diabetes management processes. Eighty‐seven couples where one spouse had type 2 diabetes were surveyed. The relationships between religious coping (positive and negative), shared glycemic control activities (e.g., planning a healthy diet), and glycemic control were examined using repeated measures ANOVA and SEM. Findings show spousal engagement in shared activities is significantly associated with glycemic control. Furthermore, the use of negative religious coping by the diabetic spouse, and positive religious coping by the nondiabetic spouse, related to lower levels and higher levels of shared glycemic control activities, respectively. Religious coping and shared glycemic control activities appear integral to couples managing type 2 diabetes and, may serve as useful points of intervention.     

Occupational and Religious Mobility in a Small City

Previous studies have suggested a relationship between occupational and religious mobility, namely, that the later should follow upon the former in order to provide the mobile individual with a more socially congruent context. The greater the distance of occupational mobility, therefore, the more likely is religious mobility to occur. Analysis of data from a telephone survey of a small Midwestern city reveals that occupational and religious mobility are not related per se; there is, however, a significant relationship between occupational mobility distance and religious mobility. Education is also significantly and positively related to occupational mobility. Highly educated individuals who are occupationally mobile across a great distance are the most religiously mobile group of all. There is also a tendency for the religiously mobile to move into high status Protestant denominations or out of the Christian religion altogeher; this pattern is intensified among those who are highly mobile occupationally. The results suggest that religious mobility is a coping mechanism rather than a search for a more socially congruent context.     

How mothers perceive their own domestic violence victimization and how it impacts their children

Children’s exposure to domestic violence has been associated with various negative outcomes. This study explores the effects of children’s exposure to domestic violence through the lenses of the primary victims of abuse. Specifically, the consequences associated with their children’s exposure to domestic violence, the coping mechanisms employed, and identified preventative measures to address this social problem. Semistructured interviews were conducted to obtain the mother’s perspective. Participants for this study were randomly obtained from the database of the Legal Aid and Advisory Authority. Findings revealed that children are used as a bargaining tool by both mothers (to prevent DV) and perpetrators (to exert control). The coping mechanisms that mothers believed their children used included listening to music, adopting care taking roles, and positioning themselves away from the violence.     

Together Forever? Romantic Relationship Characteristics and Prenatal Health Behaviors

Using Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Data (N= 4,871), this paper examines why relationship status matters for prenatal health behaviors. The paper argues that a mother’s potential investments in her child’s health are conditioned by socioeconomic and interpersonal resources, including the quality of her relationship with the child’s father. Mothers in strained relationships may experience more stress, which is associated with poor prenatal health behaviors. Results show that married mothers exhibit the healthiest prenatal behaviors and that relationship characteristics and dynamics measures, including physical abuse and relationship conflict, predict poor prenatal health behaviors above and beyond confounding factors. In addition, these relationship characteristics explain some of the advantage in prenatal health behaviors married mothers have over unmarried mothers.     

Protestant women in the late Soviet era: gender,authority, and dissent

At the peak of the anti-religious campaigns under Nikita Khrushchev, communist propaganda depicted women believers as either naïve dupes, tricked by the clergy, or as depraved fanatics; the Protestant “sektantka” (female sectarian) was a particularly prominent folk-devil. In fact, as this article shows, women’s position within Protestant communities was far more complex than either of these mythical figures would have one believe. The authors explore four important, but contested, female roles: women as leaders of worship, particularly in remote congregations where female believers vastly outnumbered their male counterparts; women as unofficial prophetesses, primarily within Pentecostal groups; women as mothers, replenishing congregations through high birth rates and commitment to their children’s religious upbringing; and women as political actors in the defence of religious rights. Using a wide range of sources, which include reports written by state officials, articles in the church journal, letters from church members to their ecclesiastical leaders in Moscow, samizdat texts, and oral history accounts, the authors probe women’s relationship with authority, in terms of both the authority of the (male) ministry within the church, and the authority of the Soviet state.     

Camp HOPE as an Intervention for Children Exposed to Domestic Violence: A Program Evaluation of Hope,and Strength of Character

Children exposed to domestic violence are at-risk for physical, mental, and social difficulties that have received an increased focus among researchers and policy makers. Using Snyder’s (2000) theory of Hope as a conceptual framework, Camp HOPE America is a summer camp program targeting school-aged children exposed to domestic violence. The purpose of this study is to present the changes in child hope before and after camp and correlate child hope to positive character strengths as rated by camp counselors. This study used a matched pretest posttest design to examine the change in hope, and strength of character among 229 school-aged children participating in Camp HOPE America. Results showed that hope, and psychological strengths improved from pre-test to post-test assessments. Additionally, children’s scores on hope were positively associated with the character strengths of zest, grit, self-control, optimism, gratitude, social intelligence, and curiosity obtained from counselor observations. These findings highlight hope as a coping resource for children exposed to domestic violence and provides preliminary support Camp HOPE America as an intervention within the established Family Justice Center system in the US.     

Paternal Child Care and Relationship Quality: A Longitudinal Analysis of Reciprocal Associations

This study explored reciprocal associations between paternal child‐care involvement and relationship quality by following British couples from the birth of a child until he or she reached school age. It extends the literature by distinguishing between paternal engagement in absolute terms and relative to the mother and by considering relationship quality reports of mothers and fathers and family breakdown. The analysis was based on the British Millennium Cohort Study, a representative survey of children born in 2000 and 2001 and their parents (N = 5,624 couples). The author applied ordinary least squares regression analysis with lagged dependent variables and event history modeling. Fathers' relative child‐care share was positively associated with mothers' relationship satisfaction, whereas fathers' absolute child‐care frequency was positively related to their own perceived relationship quality for most time periods. Fathers' relative and absolute child‐care contributions were positively associated with relationship stability over the preschool years. Greater perceived relationship quality of mothers, but not fathers, was associated with more frequent paternal engagement.     

Incongruent Teen Pregnancy Attitudes,Coparenting Conflict,and Support Among Mexican‐Origin Adolescent Mothers

The current longitudinal study examined whether differences between Mexican‐origin adolescent mothers and their mother figures (N = 204 dyads) in attitudes on the status attained through teen pregnancy were associated with conflict in their coparenting relationship and whether coparenting conflict was associated with adolescent mothers' perceptions of social support. Findings revealed that when adolescents held more positive attitudes than their mother figures about the status gained through teen pregnancy, they tended to report greater coparenting conflict with their mother figures. Furthermore, greater coparenting conflict was significantly associated with decreases in adolescents' perceptions of social support (i.e., emotional, instrumental, companion support) 1 year later. Findings underscore the importance of incongruent attitudes and the quality of coparenting relationships between adolescent mothers and their mother figures in relation to support processes. Findings are discussed with respect to understanding Mexican‐origin adolescent mothers' social support in the context of family subsystem attitudes and interactions.     

Linkages between mothers’ job stressors and adolescents’ perceptions of the mother–child relationship in the context of weak versus strong support networks

This study tested the hypothesis that mothers’ exposure to psychosocial job stressors would be indirectly associated with less favorable ratings of the mother–adolescent relationship, as perceived by youth, by way of mothers feeling depleted of cognitive and emotional energies after work. We also examined whether mothers’ perceptions of being socially supported with regard to work and family responsibilities moderate associations between greater psychosocial job stressors and lesser quality in the mother–adolescent relationship. The sample consisted of 169 diverse mother–early adolescent dyads. Mothers and adolescents completed surveys independently. Hypotheses were tested through structural equation modeling and multi-group comparisons. Psychosocial job stressors were indirectly related to qualities of the mother–adolescent relationship via their association with mothers’ experiences of psychological energy depletion from work to family. The most consistent evidence for these associations was found among women who felt less social support in regard to their work–family responsibilities.     

Hope as a coping resource among parents at risk for child maltreatment

This study investigated hope as a protective factor buffering the relationships between parenting stress and well-being among a sample of parents identified at moderate to high risk for child maltreatment. Two hundred parents were recruited from a nonprofit organization providing secondary and tertiary child maltreatment prevention programs. Results of the analyses showed that parental stress was negatively associated with subjective and emotional well-being. Hope was positively correlated with well-being and negatively associated with parenting stress. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that hope had a significant incremental relationship to well-being and that the negative effects of parenting stress fell below statistical significance. These findings provide preliminary support for hope as a coping resource social workers can target when working with parents in the prevention of child maltreatment.     

Hispanic Adolescent Girls’ Attitudes Toward School

Hispanic adolescent girls are at elevated risk for dropping out of school. The authors interviewed 54 Hispanic adolescent girls who were attending after-school programs in the New York metropolitan area. The study investigated how the multiple factors of mother–daughter and friend mutuality, coping, acculturation, self-esteem, depression and family environment influenced the way these girls felt about school. The final logistical regression analysis appeared to support our hypothesis that girls who have a higher degree of mutuality with their mothers will be more likely to like school a lot. In addition, girls who liked school a lot were significantly more likely to have higher overall grades and to be somewhat religious. Findings are discussed within the context of the empirical and theoretical literature and implications for prevention of school drop-out are considered.