A smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment of parental behavioral consistency: Associations with parental stress and child ADHD symptoms

Impulsive Decision-Making, Affective Experiences, and Parental History of Self-Injurious Thoughts and Behaviors within Parent-Adolescent Dyads

Impulsive decision-making, particularly during states of affective intensity, is associated with greater risk of engagement in self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (SITBs) during adolescence. The proximal (dyadic parent-adolescent affect and impulsivity) and distal (family history of SITBs) risk factors that occur within the family system could be relevant processes at stake in the intergenerational transmission of risk. The current study tests the interdependence of parent-adolescent factors associated with risk for SITBs and probes the extent to which parent-adolescent affective states influence their own (actor-effects) and each other's (partner-effects) impulsive decision-making, and further whether these relationships are moderated by a parent's history of SITBs. Participants included 212 (106 dyads) community parents and their adolescents who completed self-report and behavioral tasks related to positive and negative affective states, impulsive decision-making, and lifetime history of SITBs. Application of the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) revealed a partner-effect where greater parent negative affect in the past week was associated with elevated adolescent impulsive decision-making among families with a history of SITBs (Estimate = 0.66, Standard Error = 0.13, p < 0.001). In addition, a significant actor-effect was observed where greater positive affect was associated with decreased impulsive decision-making among adolescents (Estimate = -0.21, Standard Error = 0.10, p = 0.03), however, moderating effects of parent history of SITBs were not detected. Findings from the present study shed light on the interdependence of affect and impulsivity within parent-adolescent dyads, and the extent to which these interactions may be particularly salient for families with known vulnerabilities for SITBs.

Parent Anxiety, Depression, Protective Responses, and Parenting Stress in the Context of Parent and Child Chronic Pain: A Daily Diary Study of Parent Variability

Parents with (vs without) chronic pain report poorer psychosocial functioning (eg, worse mental health, parenting difficulties), which has been linked to poorer child outcomes (eg, child pain). However, emerging research suggests that individuals vary in their functioning from day-to-day, particularly those with chronic pain. This study used daily diaries to compare parents with (versus without) chronic pain on variability in their anxiety, mood, protective responses, and parenting stress. We also examined parent chronic pain status as a moderator of the associations between parent variability and youth daily pain and interference. Participants were 76 youth with chronic pain (Mage = 14.26; 71.1% female) and one of their parents (89.5% mothers; n = 38 or 50.0% endorsing chronic pain). Parents and youth completed self-report questionnaires and 7 days of diaries. Parent variability was calculated to reflect the frequency and size of day-to-day changes. Multilevel models revealed that parents with (vs without) chronic pain were significantly more variable in their parenting stress, but not in their anxiety, mood, or protective responses. Contrary to hypotheses, parent variability was not significantly related to youth daily pain intensity or interference and parent chronic pain did not moderate any associations. Instead, mean levels of parent anxiety, protective responses, and parenting stress across the week significantly predicted youth daily pain interference. Findings suggest that while variability was observed among parents (with and without chronic pain) of youth with chronic pain, it did not significantly predict youth's daily pain-related functioning. Further research is needed to confirm these initial findings. PERSPECTIVE: Parents with chronic pain have expressed concerns that the variable nature of their pain negatively impacts their children. Our results found that parents (with and without chronic pain) were variable in their anxiety, mood, protective responses, and parenting stress, but this variability did not significantly predict youth's chronic pain-related functioning.

Using Daily Diary Assessments to Better Understand the Role of Parental Consistency in the Development of Externalizing Child Behavior

Consistent discipline is thought to reduce early child externalizing behavior. It is unclear, however, whether consistency is important mainly within episodes of misbehavior (e.g., threatening with discipline but then giving in) or across episodes of misbehavior (e.g., disciplining each instance of misbehavior). Using a daily diary approach, we examine whether these two types of consistency are associated with disruptive child behavior, concurrently and prospectively. We included two samples (Sample 1: N = 134, Magechild = 30 months, 44% girls; Sample 2: N = 149, Magechild = 5.88 years; 46% girls, at-risk sample) with daily reports of child disruptive behavior and parental responses (Sample 1 = 7 days; Sample 2 = 14 days). Sample 1 parents additionally reported on their reactions over the past month and their child's externalizing behavior one year later. Within-episode consistency was assessed by the average number of parental reactions per episode; across-episode consistency by the Index of Qualitative Variation; and general consistency by parents' report of how they had responded to child disruptive behavior in the past month. In both samples correlations between within- and across-episode consistency were significant, but not so strong that they were not differentiated. Again in both samples, regression analyses provided evidence for unique predictive value of across-episode, not within-episode, consistency for daily disruptive behavior. Parental general consistency was longitudinally associated with fewer externalizing problems, whereas within- and across-episode consistency were not. It appears meaningful to differentiate within- from across-episode consistency to better understand the relevance of different aspects of consistency.

A Dynamical Systems Investigation of the Co-regulation between Perceived Daily Parental Warmth and Adolescent Attention-deficit/hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms

Longitudinal research demonstrates that child ADHD symptoms and behaviors exhibit reciprocal associations with parenting behaviors over time. However, minimal research has investigated these associations and their dynamic links at the daily level. Intensive longitudinal data can disentangle stable between-person differences from within-person fluctuations and reveal nuanced short-term family dynamics on a micro timescale. Using 30-day daily diary data from a community sample of 86 adolescents (Mage = 14.5, 55% female, 56% White, 22% Asian) and latent differential equation modeling, this study examined the links between perceived daily parental warmth and ADHD symptoms as coupled dynamical systems. The results show that the magnitude of fluctuations in perceived daily parental warmth generally remains stable, while elevated ADHD symptoms return to their normal level over time. Perceived parental warmth is sensitive to change in ADHD symptoms such that adolescents feel that their parents will fine-tune their warmth with gradual changes when adolescents demonstrate heightened symptoms. There are substantial between-family differences in these regulating system dynamics. Among families with more baseline parental non-harsh discipline, both perceived parental warmth and ADHD symptoms tend to be more stable and fluctuate less often. Intensive longitudinal data and dynamical systems approaches offer a new lens to uncover short-term family dynamics and adolescent adjustment at a refined micro level. Future research should explore antecedents and consequences of between-family differences in these short-term family dynamics on multiple timescales.

Variance Decomposition of the Continuous Assessment of Interpersonal Dynamics (CAID) system: Assessing sources of influence and reliability of observations of parent-teen interactions

The Continuous Assessment of Interpersonal Dynamics (CAID) is an observational tool that measures warmth and dominance dynamics in real time and is sensitive to individual, dyadic, and contextual influences. Parent-adolescent interpersonal dynamics, which conceptually map onto parenting styles, are an integral part of positive adolescent adjustment and protect against risky outcomes. The current study's goal was to test the degree to which sources of influence on CAID data observed in a previous study of married couples generalize to a sample of parent-adolescent dyads. We examined data from ten raters who rated moment-to-moment warmth and dominance using CAID in a sample of 61 parent-adolescent dyads (N = 122) who were largely non-Hispanic White (62%) or African American (30%) based on parent report (adolescent M age = 14; 57% female). Dyads interacted in four different discussion segments (situations). We applied Generalizability Theory to delineate several sources of variance in CAID parameters and estimated within and between-person reliability. Results revealed a number of different influences, including the person, kinsperson (adolescent versus parent), dyad, rater, situation, and interactions among these factors, on ratings of parent-adolescent interpersonal behavior. These results largely replicate results from married couples, suggesting that the factors that influence ratings of interpersonal interactions largely generalize across sample types.

Early childhood impulsivity and parenting predict children's development of externalizing psychopathology

Parenting and child impulsivity are consistent predictors of children's externalizing symptoms; however, the role of the range of parenting (i.e., variation in parenting across contexts), and its interactions with child impulsivity, are poorly understood. We examined whether characteristic parenting practices and parenting range predicted the course of externalizing symptoms in 409 children (M_age = 3.43 years at baseline, 208 girls) across ages 3, 5, 8, and 11. We assessed parent positive affectivity (PPA), hostility, and parenting structure at child age 3 using three behavioral tasks that varied in context, examining range by modeling a latent difference score for each parenting dimension. Greater PPA range, mean structure, and parenting structure range all predicted fewer symptoms at age 3 for children with higher impulsivity. Lower mean hostility predicted fewer symptoms at age 3 for children with lower impulsivity. Greater PPA, and smaller PPA range, predicted a decrease in symptoms for children higher in impulsivity. Lower hostility range predicted a decrease in symptoms for children with lower impulsivity but predicted maintaining symptoms for children with higher impulsivity. Results demonstrate the differential roles average parenting practices and parenting range play in the development of child externalizing psychopathology, especially in the context of child impulsivity.

Explaining the Prospective Association of Positive and Negative Parenting Behaviors and Child ADHD Symptoms: Pathways Through Child Executive Function and Reward Responsivity

Objective: Parenting behavior is a well-established correlate of offspring ADHD. However, little is known about how parenting exerts its effects on offspring ADHD symptomatology. We examined whether prospective associations between positive and negative parenting behaviors and child ADHD symptoms are mediated by deficits in child executive function (EF) and reward responsivity (RR). Method: One hundred and thirty-five children with and without ADHD were assessed across two Waves, when children were mean ages 6 and 8 respectively. Children completed tasks on EF, and parents completed questionnaires about their parenting behaviors and their children's RR and ADHD symptoms. Results: Negative parenting behavior at Wave 1 was indirectly associated with offspring ADHD symptoms at Wave 2 via offspring EF. Conclusion: Individual differences in EF, but not RR, during early childhood may constitute a potential pathway by which negative parenting behaviors exerts its effects on subsequent offspring ADHD symptomatology. Treatment implications are discussed.

Annual Research Review: Cross-cultural similarities and differences in parenting

This article reviews contemporary research on cross-cultural similarities and differences in parenting. The article begins by providing a definition of culture and how both parenting and culture can change over historical time. The article then presents some classic theoretical frameworks for understanding culture and parenting before considering why parenting may be similar across cultures and why parenting may be different across cultures. The article next turns to a review of cross-cultural similarities and differences in several aspects of parenting, including physical caregiving, cognitive stimulation, warmth and acceptance, control and monitoring, and discipline. Cultural normativeness and beliefs on the legitimacy of parental authority are then considered as potential moderators that contribute to cross-cultural similarities and differences in relations between parenting and child outcomes. The article then considers implications for parenting interventions and laws and policies related to parenting. Finally, the article suggests directions for future research.

Spotlight on Maternal Perceptions of Child Behavior: A Daily Diary Study with Child Welfare-Involved Mothers

Research has documented a variety of factors—including stress, attributions, and anger—that may increase parents’ risk for child maltreatment, but most of this research is based on low-risk, community samples of parents’ perceptions about themselves and their children. Moreover, parents are usually asked to provide self-reports wherein they summarize their general impressions distal from actual parenting. The current study employed experience sampling methods with a high-risk sample. Mothers identified for child maltreatment reported on their stress and coping as well as their perceptions regarding children’s misbehavior and good behavior using end-of-day surveys for up to four weeks. Only maternal reports of children’s good behavior based on personality and mood were relatively stable; stress, coping, and reports on child misbehavior varied considerably across days, implying that contributors to daily fluctuations in these factors could represent intervention targets. Although maternal perceptions of misbehavior severity, anger, and negative attributions were interrelated, only anger about misbehavior related to maternal stress levels. Mothers who reported better coping perceived their child’s behavior more favorably that day and were more likely to ascribe positive behavior to the child’s mood and personality. Current findings highlight the importance of positive coping mechanisms in parental perceptions of children; such findings should be replicated to determine how to maximize parental resources that reduce child maltreatment risk.

Measuring Micro Temporal Processes Underlying Preschoolers Screen Use and Behavioral Health: Protocol for the Tots & Tech Study (Preprint)

Background

Excessive screen time is associated with poor health and behavioral outcomes in children. However, research on screen time use has been hindered by methodological limitations, including retrospective reports of usual screen time and lack of momentary etiologic processes occurring within each day.

Objective

This study is designed to assess the feasibility and utility of a comprehensive multibehavior protocol to measure the digital media use and screen time context among a racially and economically diverse sample of preschoolers and their families. This paper describes the recruitment, data collection, and analytical protocols for the Tots and Tech study.

Methods

The Tots and Tech study is a longitudinal, observational study of 100 dyads: caregivers and their preschool-age children (aged 3-5 years). Both caregivers and children will wear an Axivity AX3 accelerometer (Axivity Ltd) for 30 days to assess their physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep. Caregivers will complete ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) for 1 week to measure child behavioral problems, caregiver stress, and child screen time.

Results

The Tots and Tech study was funded in March 2020. This study maintains rolling recruitment, with each dyad on their own assessment schedule, depending on the time of enrollment. Enrollment was scheduled to take place between September 2020 and May 2022. We aim to enroll 100 caregiver-child dyads. The Tots and Tech outcome paper is expected to be published in 2022.

Conclusions

The Tots and Tech study attempts to overcome previous methodological limitations by using objective measures of screen time, physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep behaviors with contextual factors measured by EMA. The results will be used to evaluate the feasibility and utility of a comprehensive multibehavior protocol using objective measures of mobile screen time and accelerometry in conjunction with EMA among caregiver-child dyads. Future observational and intervention studies will be able to use this study protocol to better measure screen time and its context.

International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)

DERR1-10.2196/36240

Daily Stress and Use of Aggressive Discipline by Parents during the COVID-19 Pandemic

To assess the relationship between stress throughout the day and aggressive discipline practices by parents during COVID-19 stay at home orders. For this study, participants took baseline survey online, then provided data three times a day (10 a.m., 3 p.m., and 9 p.m.) for 14 consecutive days using Ecological Momentary Assessment procedures. Data were collected from 323 participants, covering 9,357 observations from April 13 to May 27, 2020 in Central Ohio during stay-at-home orders due to COVID-19. Use of aggressive discipline, including corporal punishment and psychological aggression, was measured using the Dimensions of Discipline Inventory. For each higher level of stress, parents had 1.3 greater odds of using aggressive discipline. Having used aggressive discipline at baseline was related to three times greater odds of using it during the study period. Higher situational stress was associated with use of aggressive parenting. When combined with less contact with mandatory reporters, this places children at risk for abuse and neglect that may go without detection and intervention for longer time-periods. First responders and medical professionals become more important in identifying and reporting suspected child maltreatment, as this may be a child's only contact with a mandated professional for six months to a year. Well child visits, routine vaccinations, and problem-focused care are important opportunities to assess parents' stress and discipline practices that may be suggestive of abuse or neglect.

'They deserve a treat': the nature and antecedents of parental licensing surrounding children's physical activity

OBJECTIVE

Little is known about parents' compensatory health beliefs (CHB) surrounding their children's engagement in physical activity (PA). Our aim was to provide evidence regarding the nature of, and factors underpinning, parents' PA-related compensatory beliefs for their children.

DESIGN

A qualitative descriptive approach and thematic content analysis were employed.

SETTING

Parents were recruited from community sport and PA programmes.

PARTICIPANTS

Eighteen parents aged 32-52 years (mean age = 40·8 (sd 5·4) years; six males; twelve females).

RESULTS

Analyses indicated that parents compensate through 'passive' or 'active' means. Among parents who compensated, most described their provision of 'treat' foods/drinks and a minority described allowing extended sedentary time to their children. Parents' reasons underpinning these beliefs related to their child's general physical/health status and psychological characteristics, and their own motivation and mood state.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings provide the first evidence of unhealthy dietary and sedentary behaviour CHB that parents may hold regarding their children's involvement in PA.

Using automated computer vision and machine learning to code facial expressions of affect and arousal: Implications for emotion dysregulation research

As early as infancy, caregivers' facial expressions shape children's behaviors, help them regulate their emotions, and encourage or dissuade their interpersonal agency. In childhood and adolescence, proficiencies in producing and decoding facial expressions promote social competence, whereas deficiencies characterize several forms of psychopathology. To date, however, studying facial expressions has been hampered by the labor-intensive, time-consuming nature of human coding. We describe a partial solution: automated facial expression coding (AFEC), which combines computer vision and machine learning to code facial expressions in real time. Although AFEC cannot capture the full complexity of human emotion, it codes positive affect, negative affect, and arousal-core Research Domain Criteria constructs-as accurately as humans, and it characterizes emotion dysregulation with greater specificity than other objective measures such as autonomic responding. We provide an example in which we use AFEC to evaluate emotion dynamics in mother-daughter dyads engaged in conflict. Among other findings, AFEC (a) shows convergent validity with a validated human coding scheme, (b) distinguishes among risk groups, and (c) detects developmental increases in positive dyadic affect correspondence as teen daughters age. Although more research is needed to realize the full potential of AFEC, findings demonstrate its current utility in research on emotion dysregulation.

Automated sensing of daily activity: A new lens into development

Rapidly maturing technologies for sensing and activity recognition can provide unprecedented access to the complex structure daily activity and interaction, promising new insight into the mechanisms by which experience shapes developmental outcomes. Motion data, autonomic activity, and "snippets" of audio and video recordings can be conveniently logged by wearable sensors (Lazer et al., 2009). Machine learning algorithms can process these signals into meaningful markers, from child and parent behavior to outcomes such as depression or teenage drinking. Theoretically motivated aspects of daily activity can be combined and synchronized to examine reciprocal effects between children's behaviors and their environments or internal processes. Captured over longitudinal time, such data provide a new opportunity to study the processes by which individual differences emerge and stabilize. This paper introduces the reader to developments in sensing and activity recognition with implications for developmental phenomena across the lifespan, sketching a framework for leveraging mobile sensors for transactional analyses that bridge micro- and longitudinal- timescales of development. It finishes by detailing resources and best practices to facilitate the next generation of developmentalists to contribute to this emerging area.