Adolescent difficulties during parental deployment and anxiety: A focus on measurement and family processes

Approximately 60% of deployed service members leave behind immediate family members, and although military families tend to be adaptive and resilient, evidence suggests that deployments are challenging and difficulties can arise during transitions and family separation, especially for adolescents. Grounded in the family attachment network model and the ABC-X model of family stress, the current study utilized a sample of 204 military families with an active-duty father, civilian mother and adolescent and examined parents' perceptions of adolescents' difficulties during deployment in relation to all three family members' perceptions of the adolescents' mental health (i.e., anxiety symptoms) following deployment. First, analyses of measurement invariance indicated that service members and civilian parents were generally reporting on the same underlying construct of their adolescents' difficulties during parental deployment. Next, a structural equation model demonstrated considerable overlap in service member and civilian parent reports of their adolescents' difficulties during a parental deployment (r = 0.47). Finally, both parents' perceptions of adolescent difficulties during parental deployment were related to their own perceptions of the adolescent's current anxiety but not to the adolescents' reports of their own anxiety symptoms or to the other parent's report of the adolescents' anxiety symptoms. Findings provide support for utilizing these theories in combination, such that disruptions to the family system, and the attachment relationships within that system, in one stage of the deployment cycle, may imply that there are implications for individual-level functioning, namely, anxiety, in the next stage of the deployment cycle. Findings also underscore the importance of examining our measurement tools and collecting data from multiple family members to understand family processes.     

Exploring the promotion of youth voice in community-based youth development programmes

This constructivist grounded theory study used semi-structured interviews with 19 youth service providers in community-based youth development programmes to develop a context-specific framework of how and why youth voice promotion occurred. Factors external to the youth programmes, such as funder expectations, influenced the conceptualization of role for youth workers. The social process of meaning making in relation to role identity impacted how youth workers perceived self-efficacy when working with youth, especially when engaged with behaviours falling outside programmatic expectations or norms. Workers prioritized fostering physical and psychological safe spaces for youth participants. When conflict occurred, perceptions of efficacy guided workers in taking positions that either promoted or restricted youth voice based on their perceptions of efficacy in resolving conflict safely. Youth programmes have the capacity to resist or replicate oppression present within the educational system. The adoption and adaptation of educational models of resistance offer a strategy for community-based youth organizations to promote equity and thriving youth.     

Which therapist perceptions best predict client outcomes? A naturalistic examination

Examining associations between therapists' perceptions of therapy sessions and client-reported outcomes in naturalistic settings (real-life therapy settings) can provide valuable guidance for the assessment, treatment, and monitoring of clients. This study included data of 1334 sessions from 127 clients (86 individual and 41 couple cases) and 15 therapists, collected at a therapy training center. Clients reported their personal functioning and individual symptoms before each session. Therapists rated clients' participation, receptivity, session progress, goal progress, and therapeutic alliance at the end of each therapy session. Multilevel Structural Equation Modeling analyses revealed that therapist-rated client participation and goal progress predicted better personal functioning, beyond clients' previous personal functioning scores. In contrast, none of therapist-rated session variables predicted clients' individual symptoms, beyond previous symptom scores. Power analyses suggested sufficient statistical power to detect small effect sizes. Findings of the current study have clinical implications for treatment planning and progress monitoring.     

Answering the ethical call of the other: A test of the Strong Relationality Model of Relationship Flourishing

The philosophical framework of strong relationality has gained greater attention in scholarship and yet empirically testing models built on this important framework are rare. The present study tests predictions made by the Strong Relationality Model of Relationship Flourishing (SRM), which centers on the role of Ethical Responsiveness for relationship health. In doing so, we introduce common fate modeling as a methodological approach for strong relationality research. We used longitudinal data from 1512 couples collected as part of the German longitudinal panel study of families. Results support the Strong Relationality Model's prediction that Ethical Responsiveness (as measured by perceived partner support) positively alters the impact of stress on Gratitude-Recognition (elements of the Responsible Action domain of the SRM), which then increases couples' intimacy (an element of the Relational-Connectivity domain of the SRM). Recommendations for clinical assessment and intervention are given as well as recommendations for future research on the Strong Relationality Model.     

The development of a reliable change index and cutoff score for the SCORE-15

The Systemic Clinical Outcome and Routine Evaluation version 15 (SCORE-15) is a measure used to assess family-level change in family therapy. The SCORE-15 has been demonstrated to be a reliable and valid measure, with high clinical utility; however, the SCORE-15 lacks the ability to determine whether the change in family functioning during the course of therapy is clinically significant. This study aimed to establish a reliable change index (RCI) and clinical cutoff score so that researchers and clinicians can determine clinically significant change in family therapy. US samples of 71 clinical participants and 244 community participants completed the SCORE-15. Results indicated a cutoff score of 40.37 and an RCI of 9.52. Consequently, family members who improve their SCORE-15 score during the course of therapy by at least 9 points and who cross the threshold of 40 during the course of therapy are considered to have experienced clinically significant change.     

Is it really that important to you? How the topics of conflict and emotional reactions to conflicts explain the associations between attachment insecurities and relationship satisfaction

This study sought to examine the intermediary roles of different topics of conflict and negative emotions following conflicts in the associations between attachment insecurities and relationship satisfaction in a sample of 253 mixed-gender couples from the community. Results from path analyses based on the Actor–Partner Interdependence Model showed that attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance were associated with the perception, in both partners, of experiencing more conflicts in the relationship. In turn, the more participants perceived conflicts related to major issues and daily annoyances, the more they reported negative emotions following conflicts and lower relationship satisfaction. Participants’ report of conflicts related to major issues was also related to their partner's lower relationship satisfaction. Findings highlight the significance of accounting for the topics on which couples argue and of using an attachment-based framework to help couples deal with the negative emotions that they experience following conflicts.     

建设人口均衡型社会:条件、问题及对策

在建设资源节约、环境友好型社会的进程中,人口的均衡发展是一个关键。自上世纪70年代初开始的计划生育政策,加速了我国人口生育率下降,有效地控制了人口过快增长,促进了经济增长与人口增长的协调发展。但是,从1990年代我国进入低生育率开始已有20来年,长期的低生育率的人口非均衡发展下将产生了更为复杂的人口现象,引发了人口规模与结构、劳动供给与需求、人口流动与区域发展等之间的失衡和矛盾,成为制约未来我国经济与社会发展的人口难题,破解这些人口难题是建设人口均衡型社会的应有之意。     

中国农村老年人家庭代际交换的年龄轨迹研究

文章基于生命历程理论的研究视角,借助西安交通大学人口与发展研究所与美国南加州大学合作在巢湖农村进行的历时9年的四期纵贯调查数据,构建起代际交换变动的多层曲线增长模型,对老年人在60岁及以后的整个生命阶段中,个体年龄、出生队列和家庭生命阶段三方面因素对家庭代际交换的效应进行了分解,并描绘了代际交换的年龄发展轨迹。结果表明,代际交换的发展动力源自于社会、家庭、个体三个层面,其动态轨迹既是个体发展过程和历史过程,也是家庭策略,其水平的高低取决于个人时间、历史时间和家庭时间的同步。     

代际支持对农村老年人生活满意度影响的纵向分析

文章利用2001年、2003年和2006年安徽省农村老年人生活状况跟踪调查数据,采用个体增长模型,结合农村实际状况,考察代际支持对农村老年人生活满意度的影响。结果发现老年人获得子女提供的经济支持、代际间双向的家务帮助和情感支持提升了老年人的生活满意度;在代际支持对生活满意度的影响中,老年人获得子女提供的经济支持对获得子女提供的家务帮助具有替代作用;结果反映了农村家庭代际支持仍是以老年人的需求为中心,揭示了养儿防老的儒家孝文化在中国农村仍盛行,而老年人为子女的牺牲精神现实生活中不可被轻视,揭示了代际支持对老年人生活满意度的影响机制为主效应模型的增益作用。     

Empirical Analysis on Impacts of Migration with and without Hukou Change on China's Provincial Economy

Based on the preliminary investigation of spatial and temporal patterns of migration with and without hukou (i.e.,the household registration system ) change and drawing on panel data in the past ten years,this paper uses random coefficient models to examine the impacts of migration on provincial economy growth in China.Analytical results show that:(a) migrations with hukou change across regions have been relatively stable,while migration without hukou change has increased rapidly and continuously since2000with extreme disparities across provinces;(b) the migration and mobility of the population is a Pareto improvement for China’s overall economy;(c)hukou in developed areas plays a role as the hourglass;(d) for most central provinces and some western provinces with large-size of outmigration, the negative impact of the loss of human capital due to large-scale out-migration on local economy began to come out;although outmigration has in general a positive mi pact,its contribution to local economic development is not as obvious as we expected.