Developmental trajectories of positivity from mid-childhood to early adolescence: Family and school environmental predictors

This study examined the heterogeneity in positivity trajectories and the predictive roles of family and school environments (i.e., perceived parental warmth and basic psychological need satisfactions at school) from mid-childhood to early adolescence. Elementary school students in China (N = 2204, 54.9% boys, M_age = 9.47 years) completed relevant measures on six occasions, every 6 months. Latent class growth modeling revealed four heterogeneous developmental trajectories of positivity: High-Increasing (50.6%), Moderate Low-Increasing (33.2%), Low-Stable (11.0%), and High-Decreasing (5.2%). Perceived parental warmth and satisfaction of relatedness and competence needs at school significantly predicted trajectory class membership. Findings underscore the value of identifying group difference in positivity development in youth and the need for specific interventions targeting their unique characteristics.     

Parental Warmth and Developmental Change in Familism Values: Latinx Adolescents in an Emerging Immigrant Community

This study examined the developmental changes of familism values across adolescence among Latinx adolescents from an emerging immigrant community, and how changes in parental warmth were associated with changes in familism values. The sample included 547 Latinx adolescents. Multilevel model results indicated that familism values showed a linear decline from 6th to 10th grade. Between-person analyses showed that parental warmth was related to the higher initial levels of familism values but unrelated to changes in familism values. At the within-person level, on the occasions when adolescents report higher parental warmth, they also report higher familism values. This work highlights the importance of parental warmth for socializing developmental changes in Latinx adolescents' familism values in an emerging immigrant community context.     

Parental Conflict and College Student Functioning: Impact of Child Involvement in Conflict

Parental conflict is associated with negative effects on children, and child feelings of involvement in conflict might exacerbate negative outcomes. Research has yet to explore the long-term impact of both parental conflict and caught feelings. In a sample of college students, linear regressions (N = 800) indicated that regardless of parent marital status, children’s feelings of involvement in parental conflict were important predictors of academic and psychological functioning, and in some cases mediated the relationship between conflict and adult child outcomes. Given that parental conflict is common, it appears important to minimize children’s involvement in conflict, as it can have lasting impacts.     

Elusive public support for us child care policy

Most U.S. parents are in the paid labor force (US Department of Labor Statistics. (2014). Women in the labor force: A databook. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/cps/women-in-the-labor-force-a-databook-2014.pdf). Using a purposive non-probability sample (N?=?415) of primarily upper-middle class, married White Democratic women, this study explores support for government regulation, funding, and provision of child care and the factors and context that may shape their beliefs. Although some respondents held reservations about government involvement, over 80% indicated that government should play a role in regulating care for children in all age categories (0–3, 4–5, and 6–12). Eighty-nine percent supported some form of government financial support for child care, and 58% and 61% saw a role for provision of child care for children age 0–5 and 6–12, respectively. Both regression analyses and qualitative responses indicated that support for a government role in child care was influenced by parents’ own difficulties finding affordable and sufficiently comprehensive care, and the number of children they had. We provide recommendations for how best to target these groups of parents to support child care advocacy campaigns, tapping into their own struggles as a source of empathy for others as well as an impetus to shift toward a more universal notion of government support for child care.     

Shift work,father engagement,and the cognitive development of young children

The present study investigates whether the effect of fathers’ positive engagement on young children’s cognitive development is accentuated when one or both dual-earner parents is employed during nonstandard hours. Longitudinal regression models are fitted to three waves of nationally representative data from the Early Child Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort. Father engagement when children are nine months old has an especially positive effect on children’s cognitive ability at age two when the father works during the day and the mother has a fixed evening or night shift. There are no interactions between shift work and engagement at age two in the whole sample, but subgroup analyses show that engagement has an especially strong effect on children who have a non-parent caregiver if both parents are shift workers. The results highlight the important role fathers play in couples with a shift worker, and provide a rationale for efforts to encourage and support their involvement.     

The effect of father's absence,parental adverse events,and neighborhood disadvantage on children’s aggression and delinquency: A multi-analytic approach

We applied multiple statistical approaches to address the covarying nature of neighborhood, household context, and children’s behavioral problems. The focal relationship under investigation was the effect of father's presence on child’s aggression. We take advantage of hybrid models to examine within-group fixed effects of time-varying variables, while paying attention to household stable characteristics. Findings demonstrate that the level of child's aggression was influenced more by household and neighborhood-level stable characteristics. Living in a disadvantaged neighborhood had direct and indirect effects on child 's aggression, controlling for other variables. Fixed effects model showed no significant relationship between having a father in the household and child's aggression. However, hybrid models with between- and within-group differences in father's absence indicated that the between-individual difference was significantly associated with child's aggression. The findings suggest that contextual forces that precede the relationship between father's absence and child's aggression might determine who may be likely to live in households with characteristics that affect both father's absence and child's aggression. When there are systematic selection biases, statistical methods suited for determining causal inference, such as fixed effects models, cannot fully tease out larger contextual and systemic forces that sort individuals into certain types of households and neighborhoods.     

Familial relational experiences of a child born into the midst of parental drug misuse and its longevity impact

This paper details a study that listened and empowered an adult (Beth, a pseudonym), through the use of a life story methodology, to reflect on her childhood experiences of parental drug misuse. Voice Relational Analysis was applied to Beth's life story to assist the researcher to unravel and cipher, through the complexities and nuances of her voice, Beth's familial relational experiences and the lengthy lineage these have had on her ability to relate with others. This paper highlights the somewhat complex composition of her interpersonal relationships and reveals how she related both positively and negatively within them.     

Capital at Home and at School: A Review and Synthesis

Human, financial, and social capital from several contexts affects child and adolescent well‐being. Families and schools are among the most important, and research is increasingly studying how effects of capital across such contexts affect child and adolescent academic and social outcomes. Some research suggests that families may be more powerful than schools in promoting child and adolescent well‐being. Additional research is needed to more fully understand how capital across institutions interacts in producing child well‐being, when and why multiple institutions or levels of analysis are relevant, and how several contexts can form chains of causation. Theories of social capital may promote increased conversation among researchers who study the same outcomes yet focus their analyses on different contexts.