The Unique Effects of Fathers’ Warmth on Adolescents’ Positive Beliefs and Behaviors: Pathways to Resilience in Low-Income Families

The role of only-child status in the effect of childhood trauma and parental rearing style on depressive symptoms in Shanghai adolescents

Introduction

After decades of the one-child policy, China changed its rules to allow two children in 2016, which altered family dynamics. Few studies have examined the emotional problems and the family environment of multi-child adolescents. This study aims to explore the role of only-child status in the impact of childhood trauma and parental rearing style on depressive symptoms of adolescents in Shanghai, China.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted on 4,576 adolescents (M = 13.42 years, SD = 1.21) from seven middle schools in Shanghai, China. Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form, the Short Egna Minnen Beträffande Uppfostran, and Children's Depression Inventory were used to evaluate childhood trauma, perceived parental rearing style, and depressive symptoms of adolescents, respectively.

Results

Results showed that girls and non-only children reported more depressive symptoms, while boys and non-only children perceived more childhood trauma and negative rearing styles. Emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and father's emotional warmth significantly predicted depressive symptoms in both only children and non-only children. Father's rejection and mother's overprotection were related to adolescents' depressive symptoms in only-child families, but not non-only child families.

Discussion

Therefore, depressive symptoms, childhood trauma, and perceived negative rearing styles were more prevalent among adolescents in non-only child families, while negative rearing styles were especially associated with depressive symptoms in only children. These findings suggest that parents pay attention to their impacts on only children and give more emotional care to non-only children.

The role of paternal and maternal warmth and hostility on daughter's psychosocial outcomes: The insidious effects of father warmth combined with high paternal hostility

Introduction

Despite the well-accepted view on the importance of parental warmth and parental hostility for adolescent development, few studies have examined the joint interactive effects of these two key aspects of parenting. Furthermore, research comparing maternal and paternal parenting is limited, with the father-daughter relationship during adolescence remaining one of the more understudied familial contexts. Given that family processes are key for the intergenerational transmission of inequality, these parent-child relationships may be especially important for youth at risk for exposure to violence.

Objectives

Using a sample of juvenile female offenders, this study examined the associations between the perceived warmth and hostility in the father-daughter and mother-daughter relationships on daughters' depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, romantic partner warmth, romantic partner hostility, and the daughter's sense of agency. We hypothesized that high perceived parental warmth would moderate the effects of parental hostility by protecting daughters from the negative effects of parental hostility, with stronger effects for the father-daughter than the mother-daughter relationship.

Results

In contrast, our paternal relationship findings across four of the five outcomes suggest a moderation in the opposite direction - that is, high perceived father warmth exacerbates the deleterious effects of father hostility on daughters' depressive symptoms, anxiety, romantic partner warmth, and romantic partner hostility. Maternal warmth, and not hostility, had a direct association with these four outcomes, with stronger explanatory power shown for the father-daughter than the mother-daughter model. Higher agency was associated with maternal hostility only.

Conclusion

Our findings suggest that daughters might be modeling and internalizing the relationship with their fathers (for better or worse) when they perceive it as warm and supportive. Consequently, adolescent girls whose fathers exhibit hostile behavior may benefit from emotional distancing from their fathers.

Comparative Performance of the Resilience Inventory (IRES) and Resilience Scale-14 (RS-14) Spanish Versions Among Postpartum Adolescent Mothers

We sought to evaluate the psychometric properties of two resilience scales; the Resilience Inventory (IRES) and the 14-item Resilience Scale (RS-14) among Peruvian postpartum adolescent mothers. This cross-sectional study included 785 adolescent mothers who delivered at a maternity hospital in Lima, Peru. The Spanish versions of IRES and RS-14 were used to evaluate the properties of the measures. We examined reliability using Cronbach's alpha. We used exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to assess the construct validity and factor structures of the two scales. Both scales had good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha > 0.7). Correlation between IRES and RS-14 scores was fair (r = 0.53). The EFA results of both scales yielded a three-factor structure. EFA including all items from IRES and RS-14 yielded a six-factor structure. CFA results corroborated the original seven-factor structure for IRES and yielded measures indicating a good level of goodness of fit (comparative fit index of 0.93) and accuracy (root mean square error of approximation of 0.07). Overall, Spanish language versions of both the IRES and the RS-14 are reliable and valid scales for assessing resilience among Peruvian postpartum adolescent mothers. Additional research is needed to integrate culturally-specific traits into resilience measures.

Transactional processes among perceived parental warmth, positivity, and depressive symptoms from middle childhood to early adolescence: Disentangling between- and within-person associations

RATIONALE

Previous cross-sectional and unidirectional longitudinal studies have investigated the associations among perceived parental warmth, positivity, and depressive symptoms among children and adolescents without distinguishing between-person effects from within-person effects.

OBJECTIVE

The current study aimed to examine the dynamic longitudinal associations among perceived parental warmth, positivity, and depressive symptoms, including whether positivity functioned as a mediator of the reciprocal relations between perceived maternal/paternal warmth and depressive symptoms at the within-person level encompassing middle childhood to early adolescence.

METHODS

A sample of 3765 Chinese students (45.8% girls; M age = 9.92 years, SD = 0.72; range = 9-12 years at Time 1) completed self-report measures on 4 occasions across 2 years, using 6-month intervals. Random-Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Models were employed to disentangle between- and within-person effects.

RESULTS

(a) Perceived maternal/paternal warmth and depressive symptoms reciprocally and negatively predicted each other; (b) positivity and depressive symptoms reciprocally and negatively predicted each other; (c) perceived maternal/paternal warmth and positivity reciprocally and positively predicted each other; (d) depressive symptoms indirectly predicted perceived maternal/paternal warmth via positivity; (e) perceived maternal warmth displayed earlier and more stable effects on positivity and depressive symptoms than perceived paternal warmth; and (f), no childhood sex differences existed in the observed associations.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings highlight the longitudinal within-person transactions among perceived parental warmth, positivity, and depressive symptoms, and the differential roles of perceived maternal/paternal warmth. These findings may help provide a potential theoretical framework through which to precisely identify objectives for early intervention.

Paternal Borderline Symptoms and Offspring Outcomes in Young Adulthood

Borderline personality disorder symptoms (BPDsx) in mothers have been linked to psychopathology in their offspring. However, it is still unclear whether BPDsx in fathers influences offspring psychopathology and, if so, how this risk transmission may occur. A total of 448 father-mother-offspring triads completed a longitudinal study following children from birth until age 20 and included self-report questionnaires and clinical interviews when children were 15 and 20 years old. Results revealed that paternal BPDsx were predictive of youth BPDsx and internalizing symptoms, even after controlling for maternal BPDsx. Chronic family stress was a significant mediator of the relationship between paternal BPDsx and offspring BPDsx, internalizing symptoms, and externalizing symptoms. Fathers' expressed emotion and child temperament were not significant mediators. Although offspring sex predicted youth outcomes, it was not a significant moderator of the association between paternal BPDsx and offspring symptoms. Finally, controlling for comorbid paternal disorders weakened the association between paternal BPDsx and youth psychopathology.

The Role of Paternal Parenting and Co-parenting Quality in Children's Academic Self-Efficacy

This study explored the unique effect of fathers' parenting behaviors and the quality of co-parenting described as the degree of consistency between paternal and maternal parenting behaviors on children's academic self-efficacy. The power of both pancultural parenting behaviors (i.e., emotional warmth and rejection) and specific parenting controlling behaviors that are relatively common in Turkish culture (i.e., intrusion and guilt induction) in predicting academic self-efficacy was tested. A total of 1,931 children completed measures of parenting behaviors and academic self-efficacy in math and literature courses in their school. Overall, girls reported higher levels of literature self-efficacy, whereas boys reported higher levels of math self-efficacy. Compared to boys, girls perceived higher levels of positive parenting behaviors from both their fathers and mothers. The results of the regression analyses showed that, whereas father warmth had stronger effects on boys' math self-efficacy, mother warmth had stronger effects on girls' literature self-efficacy. Examination of the effects of co-parenting quality demonstrated that children with positively consistent parents (i.e., both parents having high positive and low negative parenting behaviors) reported the highest level of academic self-efficacy, whereas those having negatively consistent parents had the lowest level of academic self-efficacy. Analyses on inconsistent co-parenting, however, yielded compensatory effects, which were similar to positively consistent parents, and deterioration effects, which were similar to negatively consistent parents depending on the gender of parent and child, domain of parenting behavior, and academic efficacy. This study contributed to the current literature by showing the unique role of fathers over and beyond mothers, and confirmed the importance of positive parenting and parenting consistency in promoting children's academic efficacy. Cultural and practical implications of the findings were discussed.

CHAOS in the Home Environment and Child Weight-Related Outcomes

INTRODUCTION

Biopsychosocial approaches to health care are critical to addressing childhood obesity. This study aimed to examine how multiple indicators of the home environment related to child weight-related outcomes. We hypothesized that families with home environments of higher chaos and stress, and lower quality parent-child interactions, would have children with a higher body mass index (BMI), less healthy dietary intake, and less healthy eating behaviors.

METHODS

Data were drawn from the cross-sectional Phase I of the Family Matters study. Participants were 150 racially/ethnically diverse families with a child between 5 to 7 (mean, 6.4) years old. We used a latent profile analysis approach. A 4-class solution fit the data well, and we used predicted class posterior probabilities to assign families to classes. We then regressed the results onto the distal outcomes of child BMI, healthy dietary intake, and healthy eating behaviors.

RESULTS

Families were classified as Collaborative-Chill (n = 38), Busy Bees (n = 37), Engaged (n = 61), and Inconsistent-Distant (n = 14). Collaborative-Chill was used as the reference class. Inconsistent-Distant families had children with higher BMI (P < .001) that were more food responsive (P < .001). Busy Bees families had children who were more food responsive (P = .04) and more satiety responsive (P = .02). Engaged families had children who were marginally more food responsive (P = .06).

CONCLUSION

Household chaos, parent stress, and parent-child interactions are important components of the home environment implicated in children's weight-related outcomes. Health care providers should consider these indicators with child patients who struggle with obesity.

The associations of maternal/paternal modeling, self-efficacy, and ethnic fit on math/science achievement among Latinx students

INTRODUCTION

This paper examined individual, family, and peer roles in promoting Latinx youths' math and science performance. The role of maternal/paternal modeling in education was examined as shaping academic self-efficacy and, in turn, math/science grades among a population considered at risk of low academic achievement. Moreover, the study tested the moderating roles of class ethnic fit (i.e., feelings of fit based on having same-ethnic peers in class) and gender.

METHOD

Cross-sectional data came from a southwestern U.S. sample of Latinx adolescents (N = 329; 54% female, M_age = 13.69 years, SD = 0.56) who reported on maternal/paternal educational modeling, academic self-efficacy, math/science grades, class ethnic fit, and gender.

RESULTS

Adolescents' perceptions of maternal modeling, but not paternal, related to higher levels of academic self-efficacy which, in turn, related to higher math/science performance. Moderation results revealed: (a) for adolescents who perceived low science class ethnic fit, high levels of parental modeling related to higher levels of academic self-efficacy which, in turn, were related to higher science grades, and (b) maternal modeling positively related to girls', but not boys', academic self-efficacy and paternal modeling positively related to girls', but not boys', math/science performance.

CONCLUSIONS

These results suggest maternal modeling is a promotive factor, supporting Latinx youths' academic self-efficacy which, in turn, related to math/science grades. Additionally, a negative direct relation between maternal modeling and science grades suggests maternal modeling generally support academic self-efficacy, but not necessarily science attainment. These associations are nuanced as they are informed by context and parent-child gender.

Improving Parenting Practices Among Fathers Who Misuse Opioids: Fathering Through Change Intervention

Fathers have been largely neglected in the parenting literature though there is a critical need to improve parenting practices among fathers who misuse opioids in the midst of the opioid epidemic. Urgency is critical to rapidly intervene in the lives of fathers and children to reduce misuse and interrupt intergenerational cycles of substance misuse. Thus, we provide an overview of solutions to adapt existing parenting interventions for fathers who misuse opioids to accelerate the pace of science for this population.

Is parents' education level associated with adolescent self-compassion?

Self-compassion has been identified as a trait that correlates with robust mental health; specifically, less anxiety, depression and stress in both adolescents and adults. However, little is known about the parental and family factors that are associated with adolescent self-compassion that may promote or enhance the development of this stress-buffering trait. In this study, 1057 adolescents in grades 7-12 from two different school settings answered questions in an online survey that related to their parents' education level and their own self-compassion. Results indicated that fathers' education, but not mothers', was associated with adolescent self-compassion. Specifically, adolescents whose fathers had a college education only had the highest level of self-compassion; a significant difference was found between self-compassion of adolescents of fathers' with a college degree and those with a doctorate/professional degree. Adolescents whose fathers had less than a college education (some college, high school graduate) or more than a college education (masters or doctorate/professional degree) reported lower self-compassion. As parent education level may be a proxy for other factors such as socioeconomic status, parenting style, or parent-adolescent relationship closeness, further research is necessary that will measure these factors and parse out that which specifically is associated with self-compassion in adolescents.

Deviant Peers and Adolescent Risky Behaviors: The Protective Effect of Nonverbal Display of Parental Warmth

This study examines whether nonverbal displays of parents' warmth during an in-lab conflict discussion mitigate the links between affiliation with deviant peers and risky behaviors. A sample of 107 youth and their parents participated in a study spanning from mid-adolescence (T1) to late adolescence (T2). At T1, family members discussed a contentious issue, which was coded for parents' nonverbal warmth. At T1 and T2, youth reported on their friends' and their own risky behaviors. Fathers' warmth moderated each prospective association between deviant peers and risky behaviors. Mothers' warmth did not emerge as a significant moderator. Girls, in particular, benefitted from fathers' warmth as a buffer in the trajectory from T1 risky behaviors to T2 risky behaviors and deviant peers.

Parents' postnatal depressive symptoms and their children's academic attainment at 16 years: Pathways of risk transmission

The aim of the study was to examine whether parents' increased postnatal depressive symptoms predicted children's academic attainment over time and whether the parent-child relationship, children's prior academic attainment, and mental health mediated this association. We conducted secondary analyses on the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children data (12,607 mothers, 9,456 fathers). Each parent completed the Edinburgh-Postnatal Depression Scale at 8 weeks after the child's birth (predictor) and a questionnaire about the mother-child and father-child relationship at 7 years and 1 month (mediator). The children's mental health problems were assessed with the teacher version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire at 10-11 years (mediator). We used data on the children's academic attainment on UK Key Stage 1 (5-7 years; mediator) and Key Stage 4 (General Certificate of Secondary Education 16 years) (outcome). We adjusted for the parents' education, and child gender and cognitive ability. The results revealed that parents' depressive symptoms at 8 weeks predicted lower academic performance in children at 16 years. Mothers' postnatal depressive symptoms had an indirect effect through children's mental health problems on academic outcomes at 16 years via negative mother-child relationship, and prior academic attainment. There was a significant negative indirect effect of fathers' postnatal depressive symptoms on academic attainment at 16 years via negative father-child relationship on child mental health. The findings suggest that the family environment (parental mental health and parent-child relationship) and children's mental health should be potential targets for support programmes for children of depressed parents.