Childhood close family relationships and health

Family Structure and History of Childhood Trauma: Associations With Risk-Taking Behavior Among Adolescents in Swaziland

Introduction: Risk-taking and self-harm behavior among adolescent are a global challenge. This study explored family structure and history of childhood trauma and their association with risk-taking and self-harm behaviors among adolescents in Swaziland. Methods: Using a cross-sectional design, a sample of 470 male and female adolescents were sampled through simple random sampling from selected high schools in Swaziland. They completed a questionnaire assessing family structure, history of childhood trauma, and risk-taking and self-harm behaviors. Analysis of variance and t-test were used to analyze the results. Results: The findings revealed that family structure significantly influence risk-taking and self-harm behavior among adolescents [F(2, 247) = 5.481; P < 0.004] those from child-headed and single-parent households reported higher risk-taking and self-harm behaviors. The results also revealed adolescents history of childhood trauma to be more risk-takers than those without history of childhood trauma t(468) = 3.409, p < 0.001. Discussion: Study results suggest that family structure and history of childhood trauma have significant association with adolescents' risk-taking and self-harm behaviors.

An autonomic nervous system context of harsh parenting and youth aggression versus delinquency

Harsh parenting is a significant predictor of youth aggression and delinquency. However, not every child exposed to adverse parenting develops such problem behaviors. Recent developmental evolutionary models suggest that variability in stress response reactivity to parenting, reflected by autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning, may affect the impact of adverse parenting on youth behavioral adjustment. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the parasympathetic and sympathetic branches of the ANS moderate the association between parenting and aggressive and delinquent behaviors. The study sample included low-income, ethnically diverse preadolescents (M = 10.28 years old; N = 101) and their caregivers. Direct effects were found from basal RSA to delinquent behaviors. In addition, harsh parenting predicted increased youths' aggressive and delinquent behaviors in the context of high RSA withdrawal and increased youths' delinquent behaviors in the context of shortened basal PEP. Implications for prevention and intervention are discussed.

Childhood Parental Warmth and Heart Rate Variability in Midlife: Implications for Health

The current study investigated high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV) as a potential mediator between childhood parental warmth and later health and mortality outcomes. Participants were 1,255 adults (56.9% female). Childhood parental warmth was reported retrospectively at mean age 46; resting HF-HRV was measured at mean age 57; cardiovascular health and self-evaluated health were assessed at mean age 57 and 63, and mortality records extracted at mean age 63. Results revealed a positive association between childhood parental warmth and resting HF-HRV, as well as associations between higher HF-HRV and reduced risk of having a later cardiovascular health problem and of mortality by age 63. Mediation analyses revealed a small significant indirect effect of parental warmth, through HF-HRV, on cardiovascular health.

Developing a Measure of the Impact of COVID-19 Social Distancing on Household Conflict and Cohesion

This report introduces the COVID-19 Family Environment Scale (CHES), which aims to measure the impact of social distancing due to COVID-19 on household conflict and cohesion. Existing measures do not capture household experiences relevant to the pandemic, in which families are largely confined to their homes while sharing a life-threatening situation. Using best practice guidelines, we developed a pool of items and revised them with review by a panel of experts, and cognitive interviewing with community respondents. We administered the CHES by online survey to 3,965 adults. The CHES consists of 15 items for each of two subscales, household conflict (α = .847) and household cohesion (α = .887). Exploratory factor analysis yielded two factors, corresponding to the intended conflict and cohesion items, which accounted for 29% of variance. Confirmatory factor analysis partially supported the 2-factor model (RMSEA = .057; CFI = .729, TLI = .708, and SRMR = .098). The CHES also contains 25 optional items to describe respondent and household characteristics, and household-level COVID-19 exposure. The CHES, publicly available at https://elcentro.sonhs.miami.edu/research/measures-library/covid-19/index.html, provides a tool for measuring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on important determinants of resilience in the face of major stressful events. Further work is needed to address the factor structure and establish validity of the CHES.

Autonomic nervous system activity predicts increasing serum cytokines in children

Systemic inflammation is associated with increased risk for prevalent and costly diseases, and animal models implicate the autonomic nervous system in the control of inflammatory processes. In humans, research on autonomic-immune connections has been much more limited, and has focused on single branch autonomic measures (i.e., either parasympathetic or sympathetic). The current study utilized cardiac autonomic balance (CAB), derived from dual-branch cardiac autonomic recordings, to test the relation between resting autonomic function and inflammatory reactivity to challenge in children.

METHODS

Participants included 96 children (51 boys, 45 girls) ages 9-11 years (mean age = 9.93 years, SD = 0.57 years). CAB values were calculated from standardized measures of parasympathetic and sympathetic activity, namely resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia and pre-ejection period data, respectively. Children provided two blood samples, one before and one following exposure to an acute social stressor or control condition. Serum was assayed for four cytokines that orchestrate inflammation: interleukin-6 (IL6), interleukin-8 (IL8), interleukin-10 (IL10), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFa).

RESULTS

We discovered large individual differences in inflammatory marker production across children, and no average main effect of stress condition. CAB significantly predicted these individual differences, such that children lower on CAB showed increasing serum cytokines from time 1 to time 2. In contrast, children with greater CAB tended to show declining inflammatory markers across the session.

DISCUSSION

Low cardiac autonomic balance (i.e., the combination of low parasympathetic and high sympathetic activity) may be a useful marker of proinflammatory tendencies in children, suggesting novel paths for early risk detection and intervention.

Childhood Misfortune and Late-Life Stroke Incidence, 2004-2014

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Although most strokes occur in later life, recent studies reveal that negative exposures decades earlier are associated with stroke risk. The purpose of this study was to examine whether accumulated and/or specific domains of early misfortune are related to stroke incidence in later life.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

A decade of longitudinal data from stroke-free participants 50 years or older in the Health and Retirement Study were analyzed (N = 12,473). Incident stroke was defined as either self-reported first incident stroke or death due to stroke between 2004 and 2014.

RESULTS

Analyses revealed that accumulated misfortune was associated with increased stroke risk, but the relationship was moderated by wealth. Examining specific domains of childhood misfortune revealed that stroke incidence was greater for persons with behavioral/psychological risks, but that this relationship also was moderated by higher wealth for those with only one behavioral/psychological risk.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

Accumulated childhood misfortune and adolescent depression heighten the risk of stroke in later life, but the influence is remediable through adult wealth. Reducing poverty in later life may decrease stroke incidence for persons exposed to negative childhood exposures.

Good Relationships With Parents During Childhood as Buffers of the Association Between Childhood Disadvantage and Adult Susceptibility to the Common Cold

OBJECTIVE

Children reared by parents of low socioeconomic status (SES) go on to have elevated rates of physical health problems and premature mortality. However, many children reared in low-SES families remain healthy throughout the life-span. Here, secondary analyses of archival data tested the hypothesis that a positive relationship with parents during childhood acts as a buffer of the increased risk of adult susceptibility to infectious illness associated with low childhood SES.

METHODS

One hundred seventy-six healthy adults reported their childhood SES and the quality of their relationships with their parents during childhood. Relationship quality was defined as parental care, love and support, lack of conflict with parents, and family cohesiveness. Afterward, participants were exposed to a respiratory virus and monitored in quarantine for 5 days for the development of a "common cold" as indicated by infection and objective markers of illness.

RESULTS

The increased risk of developing a cold associated with being reared in a low SES household was attenuated by a positive relationship with parents during childhood (b(SE) = 0.08 (0.03), p = .010). This buffering of disease risk held up across the four components of relationship quality (p values < .05). The association was independent of adult SES, demographics, prechallenge immunity to the virus, current levels of neuroticism and stress, parental divorce during childhood, and number of siblings (p values < .05).

CONCLUSIONS

Individuals with positive relationships with their parents during childhood are buffered from the increased risk of adult susceptibility to an infectious disease associated with low childhood SES.

A family-centered prevention ameliorates the associations of low self-control during childhood with employment income and poverty status in young African American adults

OBJECTIVE

Children with low self-control who grow up in poverty are at elevated risk for living in poverty when they are adults. The purpose of this study was to further understanding of the intergenerational continuity of poverty by (a) examining the likelihood that children with low levels of self-control at age 11 earn less employment income and are more likely to live in poverty 14 years later, at age 25; and (b) determining, via a preventive intervention, whether enhancing supportive parenting during childhood will ameliorate these associations.

METHODS

Parents and their 11-year-old children from 381 families participated in the Strong African American Families (SAAF) program or a control condition. Teachers assessed children's self-control at 11 years; parents reported their use of supportive parenting when children were 11 and 13 years; emerging adults provided data on cognitive and emotional self-control at 19, 20, and 21 years; and young adults indicated their employment income at 25 years.

RESULTS

Significant two-way interactions were detected between children's self-control and prevention condition for employment income (b = -183.18, 95% CI [-363.82, -2.53], p < .05) and poverty status (b = 0.257, 95% CI [0.018, 0.497], p < .05). Low self-control at age 11 forecast less employment income and a greater likelihood of living in poverty among children in the control condition, but not among low self-control SAAF participants. Mediated moderation analyses confirmed that enhanced supportive parenting accounted for SAAF's effects on employment income (indirect effect = 63.057, 95% BCA [19.385, 124.748]) and poverty status (indirect effect = -0.071, 95% BCA [-0.165, -0.016]).

CONCLUSIONS

This study is unique in using a randomized controlled trial to show that preventive interventions designed to enhance parenting and strengthen families can buffer the long-term economic consequences of low self-control.

Childhood adversity and cardiovascular disease risk: An appraisal of recall methods with a focus on stress-buffering processes in childhood and adulthood

INTRODUCTION

Associations between childhood/adolescent adversity and poor adult physical health have been reported in past work. Much of this work has relied on either retrospective or prospective measures of childhood experiences. However, the effect of different assessment methods on potential stress buffering processes remains largely unknown.

OBJECTIVE

We first examined the extent to which long-term cardiovascular disease risk (CVD) was predicted by reports obtained from 10-year old youth regarding adversity experienced in the prior year and those obtained from the same individuals as adults (age 29) regarding their experience of childhood adversity from ages 0-10, focusing in each case on similar types of adversity. To test stress buffering perspectives, we examined the effects of parental emotional support on the association between each measure of childhood adversities and cardiovascular health.

METHODS

We used data from a longitudinal sample of 454 African Americans enrolled in the Family and Community Health Study. The outcome variable was a 30-year CVD risk score computed from the Framingham algorithm. The hypotheses were tested with beta regression models.

RESULTS

The findings revealed a link between childhood adversity and adult CVD risk at age 29, for both measures of adversity. Consistent with the stress-buffering hypothesis, prospectively assessed parental emotional support in adolescence, but not adulthood, buffered effects on cardiovascular risk for each type of assessment of childhood adversity.

CONCLUSIONS

Prospective and retrospective measures correlated in a manner similar to prior reports (i.e. significantly, but poorly). Further, in line with stress-buffering hypothesis, parental emotional support received at age 10 yielded different buffering effects than parental emotional support received at age 29. The study's findings suggest that theoretically consistent patterns of stress-buffering are detectable using either type of assessment of childhood adversity and provide useful information in the prediction of adult CVD risk.

Disclosure, Stigma, and Social Support among Young People Receiving Treatment for Substance Use Disorders and their Caregivers: A Qualitative Analysis

Relational processes (i.e., disclosure, stigma, social support) experienced by youth with substance use disorders (SUDs) and their caregivers may act as barriers to, or facilitators of, recovery but are understudied. Single-session qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 patients and 15 caregivers recruited by clinicians from a SUD program. There was variability in disclosure experiences, including how many people knew about patients' SUD diagnosis and treatment, whether patients or caregivers primarily disclosed to others, and feelings about others knowing about one's or one's child's SUD treatment. After disclosing, patients and caregivers experienced stigmatizing (e.g., social rejection) and supportive (e.g., understanding, advice) reactions from others. Disclosures may have important implications for relationship and recovery-related outcomes. Moreover, some child-caregiver pairs have significant disagreements regarding disclosure of SUD treatment. Addressing relational processes within treatment by encouraging patients and caregivers to share the disclosure decision-making process may support the recovery of youth with SUDs.

Emotion, Social Relationships, and Physical Health: Concepts, Methods, and Evidence for an Integrative Perspective

Emotional characteristics and processes are robust predictors of the development and course of major medical illnesses and premature mortality, as are a variety of indicators of the presence and quality of personal relationships. Despite clear evidence of close interconnection between these two domains of risk and protection, affective characteristics and relationships have largely been studied separately as influences on health. After a recent conference on integrative perspectives on emotions, relationships and health co-sponsored by the American Psychosomatic Society and the Society for Affective Science, the present review builds on prior calls for integration, related theory, and current research to outline what is known about the interconnection of these domains as it specifically relates to their overlapping influences on health. Areas of interest include the following: their interconnected roles over the course of development, which may inform current efforts to understand the influence of early life events on adult health; the parallel positive and negative factors in both domains that could have distinct influences on health; the role of emotion regulation in relationship contexts; and measurement, design, and analysis approaches to capture the dyadic and dynamic aspects of these interconnected influences on health. We conclude with a discussion of an emerging research agenda that includes the following: common biological foundations of affective and relationship processes, the cultural embeddedness of affective and relationship processes, the potential contribution of affective-relational processes to health disparities, and implications for intervention research.

Neighborhood Social Conditions, Family Relationships, and Childhood Asthma

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Poor neighborhood conditions have established associations with poorer child health, but little is known about protective factors that mitigate the effects of difficult neighborhood conditions. In this study, we tested if positive family relationships can buffer youth who live in dangerous and/or disorderly neighborhoods from poor asthma outcomes.

METHODS

A total of 308 youths (aged 9-17) who were physician-diagnosed with asthma and referred from community pediatricians and/or family practitioners participated in this cross-sectional study. Neighborhood conditions around families' home addresses were coded by using Google Street View images. Family relationship quality was determined via youth interviews. Clinical asthma outcomes (asthma symptoms, activity limitations, and forced expiratory volume in 1 second percentile), asthma management behaviors (family response to asthma symptoms and integration of asthma into daily life), and asthma-relevant immunologic processes (lymphocyte T helper 1 and T helper 2 cytokine production and sensitivity to glucocorticoid inhibition) were assessed via questionnaires, interviews, spirometry, and blood draws.

RESULTS

Significant interactions were found between neighborhood conditions and family relationship quality (β = |.11-.15|; P < .05). When neighborhood danger and/or disorder was low, family relationships were not associated with asthma. When neighborhood danger and/or disorder was high, better family relationship quality was associated with fewer asthma symptoms, fewer activity limitations, and higher forced expiratory volume in 1 second percentile. Similar patterns emerged for asthma management behaviors. With immunologic measures, greater neighborhood danger and/or disorder was associated with greater T helper 1 and T helper 2 cytokine production and reduced glucocorticoid sensitivity.

CONCLUSIONS

When youth live in dangerous and/or disorderly neighborhoods, high family relationship quality can buffer youth from poor asthma outcomes. Although families may not be able to change their neighborhoods, they may nonetheless be able to facilitate better asthma outcomes in their children through strong family relationships.

Differences in Febrile and Respiratory Illnesses in Minority Children: The Sociodemographic Context of Restrictive Parenting

OBJECTIVE

To examine the moderating role of restrictive parenting on the relation of socioeconomic status (SES) to febrile illnesses (FIs) and upper respiratory illnesses (URIs) among ethnic minority and non-minority children.

METHODS

Children from diverse ethnic backgrounds (Caucasian, African American, Asian, Latino, other, or multiethnic) were followed across the course of the kindergarten year. Parents reported on SES and parenting. A nurse completed 13 physical exams per child over the year to assess FIs and URIs.

RESULTS

During the school year, 28% of children (n = 199, 56% ethnic minority) exhibited one or more FIs (range, 0-6) and 90% exhibited one or more URIs (range, 0-10). No main or moderating effects of SES or restrictive parenting on FIs or URIs were found among Caucasian children; however, among ethnic minority children, the relation of SES to FIs was conditional upon restrictive parenting (β = .66; P = .02), as the fewest FIs were found for lower SES minority children whose parents reported more restrictive practices. Additionally, among minority children, more restrictive parenting was marginally associated with fewer URIs (β = -.21; P = .05).

CONCLUSIONS

Unexpectedly, among minority children the fewest illnesses occurred among lower SES children whose parents endorsed more restrictive parenting. This may be due to unique appraisals of this rearing style among minority children in lower SES environments and its potential to influence immune functioning. Results suggest variability in the effects of parenting on offspring health and support context-specific evaluations of parenting in efforts to ameliorate early health disparities.

Motivational Climate and Physical Activity: A Multigroup Analysis in Romanian and Spanish University Students

BACKGROUND

Motivational climate in sport is a psychosocial construct which is related with several factors, such as healthy habits and well-being, and is influenced by teachers, trainers, and parents. The aim of this study was to assess the relationships between motivational climate, family functionality, and physical activity within a population of students from Spain and Romania.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of university students specialization: physical education (n = 605; 20.71 ± 2.42 years old), using the perceived motivational climate in sport questionnaire-2 (PMCSQ-2), the physical activity questionnaire for adolescents (PAQ-A), and the family functionality scale (APGAR) as the main instruments. IBM SPSS Amos was used for data analysis in the structural equation model that was developed.

RESULTS

We observed positive relationships between task-oriented climate, family functionality, and the level of physical activity, showing higher regression weights for Spanish university students. Ego-oriented climate was negatively related to family functionality in Spanish university students, while this association was positive in Romanian students. Moreover, the relationship between physical activity and functional family was stronger in respondents from Spain.

CONCLUSIONS

It can be pointed out that a better family functionality can promote higher levels of physical activity and self-determined motivations in sports shown by task-oriented motivational climates. Thus, it is essential to take into account the influence of family in the promotion of healthy lifestyles.

Family Dynamics in Sleep Health and Hypertension

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Present a conceptual model and review the recent literature on family dynamics, sleep, and hypertension.

RECENT FINDINGS

Family dynamics predict hypertension and hypertension risk, in part, due to shared health behaviors. Sleep health behaviors (sleep duration, quality, and efficiency) predict hypertension risk in children and youth and are emerging as a family-level health behavior. Importantly, both family dynamics and sleep are modifiable. Family members influence one another's sleep through their physical presence and through psychological and emotional mechanisms. Family members' sleep patterns may also be coregulated. Negative family dynamics are associated with poor sleep health and predict greater cardiovascular risk. Sleep health behaviors in the family context may also interact with family dynamics to dampen or exacerbate hypertension risk factors in children and youth. This review proposes that promoting sleep health in a family context could be one way to reduce long-term hypertension risk.

Annual Research Review: Expanding mental health services through novel models of intervention delivery

Currently, in the United States and worldwide, the vast majority of children and adolescents in need of mental health services receive no treatment. Although there are many barriers, a key barrier is the dominant model of delivering psychosocial interventions. That model includes one-to-one, in-person treatment, with a trained mental health professional, provided in clinical setting (e.g., clinic, private practice office, health-care facility). That model greatly limits the scale and reach of psychosocial interventions. The article discusses many novel models of delivering interventions that permit scaling treatment to encompass children and adolescents who are not likely to receive services. Special attention is accorded the use of social media, socially assistive robots, and social networks that not only convey the ability to scale interventions but also encompass interventions that depart from the usual forms of intervention that currently dominate psychosocial treatment research.

Socioeconomic Adversity, Social Resources, and Allostatic Load Among Hispanic/Latino Youth: The Study of Latino Youth

OBJECTIVE

We examined associations among socioeconomic adversity, social resources, and allostatic load in Hispanic/Latino youth, who are at high risk for obesity and related cardiometabolic risks.

METHODS

Participants were 1343 Hispanic/Latino youth (51% male; ages 8-16 years) offspring of Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos participants. Between 2012 and 2014, youth underwent a fasting blood draw and anthropometric assessment, and youth and their enrolled caregivers provided social and demographic information. A composite indicator of allostatic load represented dysregulation across general metabolism, cardiovascular, glucose metabolism, lipid, and inflammation/hemostatic systems. Socioeconomic adversity was a composite of caregiver education, employment status, economic hardship, family income relative to poverty, family structure, and receipt of food assistance. Social resources were a composite of family functioning, parental closeness, peer support, and parenting style variables.

RESULTS

Multivariable regression models that adjusted for sociodemographic factors, design effects (strata and clustering), and sample weights revealed a significant, positive, association between socioeconomic adversity and allostatic load (β = .10, p = .035), and a significant, inverse association between socioeconomic adversity and social resources (β = -.10, p = .013). Social resources did not relate to allostatic load and did not moderate or help explain the association of adversity with allostatic load (all p values > .05).

CONCLUSIONS

Statistically significant, but small associations of socioeconomic adversity with both allostatic load and social resources were identified. The small effects may partially reflect range restriction given overall high socioeconomic adversity and high social resources in the cohort.

Longitudinal associations between attachment quality in infancy, C-reactive protein in early childhood, and BMI in middle childhood: preliminary evidence from a CPS-referred sample

In the current pilot study, we examined whether insecure or disorganized attachment was associated with elevated inflammation (i.e. C-reactive protein [CRP]) in children with histories of child protective services (CPS) involvement, and whether early childhood CRP predicted body mass index (BMI) in middle childhood. Participants included 45 CPS-referred children and 39 low-risk comparison children, for whom we assessed levels of CRP in early childhood (Mean age = 4.9 years). For the CPS-referred children, who were drawn from an ongoing longitudinal study, we had attachment classifications (assessed during infancy with the Strange Situation) and BMI data (assessed during early and middle childhood); these data were not available for the low-risk comparison group. CPS-referred children who had insecure or disorganized attachments during infancy had higher levels of CRP in early childhood than CPS-referred children who had secure attachments, who had similar levels of CRP to low-risk comparison children. Among CPS-referred children, early childhood CRP predicted age 8 BMI, controlling for BMI at age 4. Findings offer preliminary support for the association between attachment quality and inflammation in early childhood, which may have implications for later physical health.

Attachment and physical health: introduction to the special issue

Over the last 40 years, researchers have made considerable progress identifying the ways in which attachment security shapes individuals' social and emotional functioning. In recent years, new investigations have shed light on connections between attachment and physiological systems in the body. The goal of this special issue is to focus attention on how attachment may be related to biological markers that relate to physical health, including inflammation, cortisol, and cardiometabolic risk. The papers in this special issue, highlighted in this introduction, demonstrate that these links may exist across the lifespan. We conclude with several examples of extensions of this work might emerge in the years to come.

Family obligations and asthma in youth: The moderating role of socioeconomic status

OBJECTIVE

Fulfilling family obligations-providing instrumental help to and spending time with family-is a common aspect of family relationships. However, whether fulfilling these obligations links with physical health remains unclear. In this study, we investigated whether fulfilling family obligations was associated with asthma outcomes among youth, and whether these associations differed depending on family socioeconomic status (SES).

METHOD

Participants were 172 youth, 8 to 17 years of age (Mage = 12.1; 54% boys) who had been physician-diagnosed with asthma and reported on family-obligation frequency; completed the Asthma Control Test (ACT; Nathan et al., 2004), a clinical measure of asthma control; and completed a measure of airway inflammation (i.e., fractional exhaled nitric oxide). Parents also completed the ACT in reference to their asthmatic children and reported on family income.

RESULTS

Fulfilling family obligations was not associated with asthma outcomes (βs < .14, ps > .075). However, SES (family income) interacted with family obligations, such that fulfilling family obligations was associated with greater airway inflammation (interaction term β = -.17, p = .023) and poorer parent-reported asthma control (interaction term β = .15, p = .039), only among youth from lower SES backgrounds. Exploratory analyses suggest that these interactions were robust against covariates and were largely consistent across age and the two dimensions of family-obligation behaviors.

CONCLUSION

Findings from this study suggest that among youth from lower SES backgrounds, engaging in more frequent family-obligation behaviors may have negative repercussions in terms of their asthma. (PsycINFO Database Record

Unsupportive parenting moderates the effects of family psychosocial intervention on metabolic syndrome in African American youth

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE

Family relationships have been linked to obesity and related disorders in youth, but few studies have provided causal evidence of this association. This study tested the impact of a family psychosocial intervention on components of metabolic syndrome-a condition driven largely by abdominal obesity-in African American youth. In particular, the study tested whether effects were strongest among those who started at highest risk, that is, with high levels of unsupportive parenting at baseline.

SUBJECTS/METHODS

Randomized clinical trial of a community sample of 391 African American youth (mean age=11.2 years) conducted in 2001-2002, with follow-up metabolic syndrome assessment in 2014-2015. Participants were assigned either to receive a weekly family intervention or to a control group. The primary study outcome was the number of components of metabolic syndrome that were clinically elevated at age 25, including central adiposity, blood pressure, triglycerides, glucose and low high-density lipoproteins. Unsupportive parenting was measured by questionnaires at baseline.

RESULTS

Significant interaction effects were found between group assignment and baseline unsupportive parenting on counts of metabolic syndrome components in youth (beta=-0.17, P=0.03). Among those who started with higher levels of unsupportive parenting at age 11, participation in the family intervention reduced the number of clinically elevated components of the metabolic syndrome at age 25 relative to the control group. No such effect was seen among those who started with good parenting. Mediation analyses suggested that changes in the psychosocial targets of the parenting intervention partially accounted for the effects amongst those high in unsupportive parenting at baseline (effect size=-0.350, s.e.=0.178).

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that efforts to improve family relationships may be able to ameliorate the detrimental effects that harsh and unsupportive parenting have on obesity-related outcomes such as metabolic syndrome in youth.

Family functioning and trait emotional intelligence among youth

This study explored the relationship between family functioning and trait emotional intelligence among 547 respondents, between the age of 16 and 24 years from Malaysia, Iran, China, Sudan, Somalia, Morocco, the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands. The questionnaires were Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale III and Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire Short Form. Pearson correlation analysis revealed a significant relationship between family functioning and trait emotional intelligence. The higher the family functioning, the higher the trait emotional intelligence among youths. The findings provide a deeper understanding in the field of family functioning and trait emotional intelligence and have implications for parents, administrators and child relationships dealing with trait emotional intelligence.