Preschool-Age Adopted Chinese Girls’ Behaviors That Were Most Concerning to Their Mothers

Children's behavioral difficulties are a major source of parental concern. The goals of the current study were to (1) describe preschool-age adopted Chinese girls’ behaviors that were most concerning to their adoptive mothers and (2) examine the relation between children's concerning behaviors and parent/child demographics. Qualitative data from 422 mothers on 480 adopted Chinese girls (M = 44.2 months, SD = 15.2) were collected using three sequenced methods (i.e., open-ended question, follow-ups, and a focus group discussion). These girls were adopted at 3 to 60 months of age (M = 13.8, SD = 8.0) and had lived in the adoptive homes for at least 6 months (M = 30.2, SD = 14.4). Data analysis showed that 242 (57.3%) mothers (representing 274 girls) reported one to three concerning behaviors per child (total = 323 concerns), including behaviors that indicated attachment problems (107 or 33.1%), poor social skills (46 or 14.2%), language/speech problems (42 or 13%), sleep problems (29 or 9%), health/physical problems (24 or 7.4%), and problems in other areas (e.g., potty training) (75 or 23.2%). Further analysis showed that the mothers with prior experience of raising adopted children, but not biological children, were more likely to report concerning attachment behaviors than first-time mothers.     

Young Adults' Perceptions of Parents' Responses in Stepfamilies

Abstract

Stepfamily relationship research has emphasized the stepparent role and relationships between stepparents and stepchildren, neglecting the study of bioparent-child relationships in stepfamily households. In this study, 28 young adults from stepfamilies participated in group interviews, that focussed on their perceptions of parental responses in childhood stepfamily situations. A number of themes emerged around parental responses experienced as hurtful or helpful. These included the importance for children of parental attention and communication, perceptions of loyalty, discipline issues, parental decisions related to transitions and the ongoing relationship with the non-resident parent. It is argued that the bioparent-child relationship may be more important to child wellbeing than the stepparent-stepchild relationship; and that increased research emphasis on this biological dyad will contribute significantly to an understanding of healthy stepfamily adjustment.     

The Take Over of Parent-Child Dynamics in a Supervisory Relationship: Identifying the Role Transformation

The literature on supervision discusses processes occurring in the supervisor-supervisee relationship that are similar to, and have parallels in, a parent-child relationship. This slipping from the one type of relationship into the other can interfere with the process of supervision. This shift to the supervisee feeling like a child and the supervisor like a parent is liable to be the natural outcome of transference and counter-transference. The aim of this paper is to examine the pseudo-parental role of the supervisor, in order to make supervisors more aware of, and alert to, the possibility that their supervision of young workers may slip into a parent-child mode, to identify critical points where parental feelings may intrude on supervision, and to suggest a useful support model that can help prevent this intrusion.     

Attachment in the Indonesian Caregiving Context

The quality of the mother-child attachment relationship, the quality of support mothers provide to their children, and characteristics of the caregiving context were examined in 46 Indonesian mother-child dyads. The distribution of attachment patterns, as assessed with the Strange Situation, showed the proportion of children classified as secure and insecure-disorganized to be comparable to the global distribution as reported in two meta-analyses. An over-representation of resistant children was found within the insecure group, which was comparable to the distribution in Japanese samples. The quality of maternal support, measured in two settings, was highest for secure dyads and lowest for insecure-disorganized dyads. Contextual characteristics were not found to differentiate secure from insecure dyads but were found to discriminate between different types of insecure attachment.     

Maternal Mental State Language and Preschool Children's Attachment Security: Relation to Children's Mental State Language and Expressions of Emotional Understanding

Mothers’ mental state language in conversation with their preschool children, and children's preschool attachment security were examined for their effects on children's mental state language and expressions of emotional understanding in their conversation. Children discussed an emotionally salient event with their mothers and then relayed the event to a stranger. Compared to mothers of insecurely attached children, mothers of securely attached children used more mental state language and had children who used more mental state language with both mother and stranger, and who expressed more emotional understanding in the mother–child conversation. Maternal mental state language and attachment security made shared contributions to children's mental state language with their mothers. Maternal mental state language accounted for the effects of attachment security on children's expressions of emotional understanding in the mother–child conversation. Mothers’ mental state language to their children may enhance secure attachment and foster children's understanding of mental states in self and others.     

Attachment, Parent–Child Discourse and Theory-of-Mind Development

This study investigated the relations among attachment, mother–child discourse, and theory of mind in a sample of 76 four‐year‐old children (mean age = 4.48 years; 36 boys). Mother–child conversations about a past event were coded for maternal use of elaborative discourse and mothers' references to mental states. Mothers completed the attachment q‐sort and children completed four false‐belief tasks. Results revealed that maternal conversational elaboration was a significant predictor of children's theory‐of‐mind performance, whereas maternal mental state references and attachment security were not. The findings provide further evidence for the importance of discourse in children's theory‐of‐mind development.     

Broadening the Study of Infant Security of Attachment: Maternal Autonomy‐support in the Context of Infant Exploration

Although security of attachment is conceptualised as a balance between infants' attachment and exploratory behaviours, parental behaviours pertaining to infant exploration have received relatively little empirical attention. Drawing from self‐determination theory, this study seeks to improve the prediction of infant attachment by assessing maternal autonomy‐support during infant exploration, in addition to maternal sensitivity. Seventy‐one dyads participated in two home visits. Maternal sensitivity was assessed when the infants were 12 months old, whereas maternal autonomy‐support and infant attachment were assessed at 15 months. The results revealed that autonomy‐support explained an additional portion of the variance in attachment when maternal socioeconomic status and sensitivity were controlled. These results speak to the relevance of a theory‐driven approach to examining maternal behaviours in the context of child exploration.     

农村家庭亲子阅读中的话语分析研究

本研究从谈话目的、谈话内容和谈话形式三个维度对农村家庭的亲子阅读进行话语分析研究。研究发现：亲子阅读中家长主导阅读过程，幼儿居于被动地位；阅读关注文本本身，拓展内容很少；封闭式提问较多，家长提问水平较低；亲子阅读互动不佳。鉴于此，研究者对农村家长提出四点教育建议：尊重幼儿主体地位；提高自身语言修养；丰富亲子阅读互动；关注幼儿阅读品质。     

Attachment Style,Rules Regarding Sex,and Couple Satisfaction: A Study of Gay Male Couples

This article explores the characteristics of open and closed relationships in 170 gay men according to their levels of satisfaction, their attachment styles, and the rules of having sex outside their relationships for open couples. We found no significant difference between open or closed relationships in levels of satisfaction or attachment styles. However, we found that gay men in open relationships who have explicit rules about having sex with other men are significantly more satisfied that those gay men with no rules. A content analysis of the rules is presented and implications for therapy are drawn from the findings.