Home visiting impacts during the pandemic: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial of child first.
This study estimates impacts within four domains: families’ receipt of services, caregiver psychological well-being and parenting, child behavior, and family economic well-being. After randomly assigning families (N = 226) to receive Child First or typical community services, the research team surveyed caregivers (N = 183) about a year after study enrollment. Results from regression models with site fixed effects revealed suggestive evidence that Child First reduced caregivers’ job loss, residential mobility, and self-reported substance abuse, and increased receipt of virtual services during the pandemic. There were nu...
Source: Journal of Family Psychology - June 15, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Parental distress in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia: A systematic review of the literature.
Journal of Family Psychology, Vol 38(1), Feb 2024, 149-160; doi:10.1037/fam0001113The present study is a systematic review of factors and consequences of parental distress following their children’s acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) diagnosis. PubMed, Web of Science, and APA PsycInfo databases were searched. Twenty-eight papers were included, with only three longitudinal studies. Fifteen studies explored factors of parental distress, including sociodemographic, psychosocial, psychological, family, health, and ALL-specific variables. Correlations were found between social support, illness cognitions, coping strategies, a...
Source: Journal of Family Psychology - June 8, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

(In)congruence in child–mother relationships and depressive symptoms in cross-boundary families.
Journal of Family Psychology, Vol 37(7), Oct 2023, 1037-1047; doi:10.1037/fam0001115A large number of school-aged children traveling between Mainland China and Hong Kong every day to attend school are known as cross-boundary students (跨境學童). Daily cross-boundary schooling is likely to be a constant challenge for cross-boundary students and their families, putting them at great risk of mental health problems (e.g., depression). Nevertheless, intergenerational relationships may be positive contributors to their adaptation. Guided by the interdependence theory and the operations triad model, this study employed dyadic...
Source: Journal of Family Psychology - May 29, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Novel measures of family orientation and childhood self-regulation: A genetically informed twin study.
This study highlights the complex nature of cultural variation within the family and its importance for children’s self-regulatory abilities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Journal of Family Psychology)
Source: Journal of Family Psychology - May 29, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Fathers’ marital conflict and children’s socioemotional skills: A moderated-mediation model of conflict resolution and parenting.
Journal of Family Psychology, Vol 37(7), Oct 2023, 1048-1059; doi:10.1037/fam0001102Marital conflict is common in many families. The effects of marital conflict may often spill over to parent–child dyads and affect children’s development via their parenting practices. However, couples handle their marital conflict in different ways, and conflict resolution strategies may play a role in children’s outcomes. Although mother-reported marital conflict has been a primary focus in most prior studies, little is known about fathers’ perspectives. To that end, we examined the mediating effect of fathers’ parenting in the ...
Source: Journal of Family Psychology - May 22, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Interactions between COVID-19 family home disruptions and relationships predicting college students’ mental health over time.
Journal of Family Psychology, Vol 37(5), Aug 2023, 592-602; doi:10.1037/fam0001085The present study tested whether family home disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Spring 2020 (Time 1; T1) informed mental health (i.e., posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD], depressive, and anxiety symptoms) 7 months later in Fall 2020 at T2 and whether family relationship quality moderated relations. Multigroup path analysis models were used to test whether there were significant differences in relations by emerging adults’ ethnic–racial backgrounds. Participants were 811 Black, Asian American, Latine, and White emerging adul...
Source: Journal of Family Psychology - May 22, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Child hyperactivity, mother–child negativity, and sibling dyad negativity: A transactional family systems approach.
Journal of Family Psychology, Vol 38(1), Feb 2024, 82-91; doi:10.1037/fam0001090Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is among the most common mental disorders in children and adolescents. While most studies in this field have focused on the genetic and neurobiological underpinnings of the disorder, research focusing on the family environment as a critical context contributing toward the manifestation and maintenance of child ADHD symptoms is still less extensive. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine longitudinal and bidirectional associations between child hyperactivity, mother–child negativity, and...
Source: Journal of Family Psychology - May 18, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Grandparent alcohol use disorder and grandparent–grandchild relationships.
Journal of Family Psychology, Vol 37(7), Oct 2023, 1005-1015; doi:10.1037/fam0001116Involvement of grandparents in grandchildren’s lives is important for grandchild well-being. Studies suggest that the quality of relationships between grandparents and their adult children may “spill over” to the quality of their relationships with their grandchildren. However, no research has tested whether grandparent alcohol use disorder (AUD) disrupts intergenerational relationships. This is important because grandchildren may not benefit from closeness with grandparents with AUD. In a sample of 295 parents and their children (N =...
Source: Journal of Family Psychology - May 18, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Parents’ secure base script knowledge predicts observed sensitive caregiving and discipline toward twin children.
Journal of Family Psychology, Vol 37(7), Oct 2023, 966-976; doi:10.1037/fam0001091The present study investigated associations between parents’ secure base script knowledge and parental sensitivity and sensitive discipline in 461 families with 922 same-sex twin children (Mage = 7.00, SD = 2.18). In addition, we explored whether the strength of the associations between parents’ secure base script knowledge and parental sensitivity and sensitive discipline were similar for mono- and dizygotic twin siblings. Parental sensitivity was observed during a computerized version of a structured cooperative drawing task (Etch-A-Ske...
Source: Journal of Family Psychology - May 18, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Couples’ communication quality differs by topic.
Journal of Family Psychology, Vol 37(6), Sep 2023, 909-919; doi:10.1037/fam0001111Extensive research has demonstrated that couples’ communication quality is related to many aspects of couples’ lives, including relationship satisfaction. However, the possibility that the quality of couples’ communication might vary as a function of the topic of communication and the implications of this variability have received relatively little attention. Accordingly, this study sought to examine (a) within-person variability in communication quality between topics, (b) associations with relationship satisfaction, and (c) associatio...
Source: Journal of Family Psychology - May 18, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

A latent profile analysis of perceived family reactions to youth LGBTQ identity.
Journal of Family Psychology, Vol 37(6), Sep 2023, 888-898; doi:10.1037/fam0001114Family members’ reactions to youth identity disclosure are important predictors of well-being for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning (LGBTQ) youth. To better understand potential variation within and across families’ current reactions, this study established latent profiles of family level reaction patterns and examined predictors and outcomes associated with these patterns. In 2011–2012, LGBTQ youth (N = 447, Mage = 18.8) rated their mother’s, father’s, brother’s, and sister’s reactions to their LGBTQ id...
Source: Journal of Family Psychology - May 18, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Measurement invariance in the assessment of parenting practices: A cross-cultural comparison of China and the United States.
Journal of Family Psychology, Vol 37(6), Sep 2023, 774-785; doi:10.1037/fam0001099Assessing parenting practices in a culturally informed manner is critical to clinical practice when working with families. Although many parenting measures have been translated into Chinese, limited evidence for measurement invariance is available. The present study aims to assess the measurement invariance of positive and negative parenting practices across Mandarin-speaking families living in Mainland China and English-speaking families living in the United States. Three thousand seven parents of children ages 6–12 years (770 English-spea...
Source: Journal of Family Psychology - May 18, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Preconception interpersonal personality features predict postpartum maternal parenting behaviors.
Journal of Family Psychology, Vol 37(5), Aug 2023, 680-688; doi:10.1037/fam0001108Individual differences in personality traits affect the quality of social relationships. The parent–child relationship is among the most impactful social relationships in an individual’s life, and positive parenting behaviors are known to support positive child development. The present study aimed to identify personality predictors—measured prior to conception at age 16—on later positive parenting behaviors. Young women (n = 207; 83.5% Black or multiracial; 86.9% receiving public assistance) who were followed since childhood as part o...
Source: Journal of Family Psychology - May 18, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

The birth of a story: Childbirth experiences, meaning-making, and postpartum adjustment.
Journal of Family Psychology, Vol 37(5), Aug 2023, 667-679; doi:10.1037/fam0001062The present study investigated how meaning-making around a birth experience predicts relationship quality and parenting stress across the transition to first-time parenthood, a time that many new parents find stressful and challenging. Childbirth experiences may set the stage for these challenges, and how new parents make meaning of childbirth could play a role in their subsequent postpartum adjustment. Meaning-making processes (sense making, benefit finding, and changes in identity) were coded from birth narratives collected from 77 mixed-se...
Source: Journal of Family Psychology - May 18, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Household chaos as a moderator of the link between parents’ inhibitory control and parenting quality.
This study considered how mothers’ and fathers’ inhibitory control, an aspect of executive functioning (EF) that reflects how well an individual can suppress a dominant response to perform a subdominant response, is associated with observations of their parenting quality when children were 7.5 years old. Furthermore, aspects of the daily home environment may strengthen or undermine parents’ ability to draw on their inhibitory control and exhibit high-quality parenting. Household chaos, including clutter, confusion, and ambient noise, may impair parents’ ability to successfully activate inhibitory control and engage...
Source: Journal of Family Psychology - May 18, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research