Associations of Work-Related Injuries and Stress to Family and Youth Wellbeing among U.S. Latino/a Immigrant Cattle Feedyard Workers

Based on the Ecological Stress-Based Model of Immigrant Worker Safety and Health, we hypothesized that occupational stress and physical safety would be negatively linked to workers' depression, which in turn, would increase family conflict and decrease youth prosocial behaviors. A total of 242 Latino immigrant cattle feedyard workers from Nebraska and Kansas (90.9% male; M age = 37.7 years) answered questions assessing depression, occupational stress, whether they had ever been injured at work, familial conflict, and youth prosocial behaviors. All four indirect relations among occupational stress and injury and the outcomes (family conflict and youth prosocial behaviors) via depressive symptomatology were significant. Additionally, ever injured was negatively related to youth prosocial behaviors and occupational stress was positively related to youth prosocial behaviors. The findings support our model and suggest that increased stress and work-related injuries on cattle feedyards are linked to mental health problems, which in turn, is linked to more conflict experienced at home and less youth prosocial behaviors. Feedyard employers should focus on improving safety culture including providing robust training in the workplace. Practical implications to improve availability and access to mental and behavioral health resources to mitigate negative family outcomes are provided.

Building long-term family resilience through universal prevention: 10-year parent and child outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic

As the COVID-19 pandemic has been highly stressful for parents and children, it is clear that strategies that promote long-term family resilience are needed to protect families in future crises. One such strategy, the Family Foundations program, is focused on promoting supportive coparenting at the transition to parenthood. In a randomized trial, we tested the long-term intervention effects of Family Foundations on parent, child, and family well-being one to two months after the imposition of a national shelter-in-place public health intervention in 2020. We used regression models to test intervention impact on outcomes reported on by parents in a standard questionnaire format and a series of 8 days of daily reports. We also tested moderation of intervention impact by parent depression and coparenting relationship quality. Relative to control families, intervention families demonstrated significantly lower levels of individual and family problems (general parent hostility, harsh and aggressive parenting, coparenting conflict, sibling relationship conflict, and children's negative mood and behavior problems), and higher levels of positive family relationship quality (positive parenting, couple relationship quality, sibling relations, and family cohesion). For some outcomes, including coparenting conflict, harsh parenting, and child behavior problems, intervention effects were larger for more vulnerable families-that is, families with higher pre-pandemic levels of parent depression or lower levels of coparenting relationship quality. We conclude that targeted family prevention programming is able to promote healthy parent and child functioning during unforeseen future periods of acute stress. The long-term benefits of a universal approach to family support at the transition to parenthood indicate the need for greater investment in the dissemination of effective approaches.

Prosocial cascades: Understanding and nurturing the potential for positive developmental trajectories

Understanding the developmental cycles and mechanisms that nurture prosocial behavior can support our potential to build a kinder and more peaceful society. The current chapter explores positive developmental cascades, with a focus on the chain reactions that explain how prosocial behaviors manifest and evolve throughout childhood and adolescence. Specifically, we review the main issues, theories, and findings related to the study of children's prosocial trajectories. We focus on various socialization environments that span typical and adverse (e.g., trauma, poverty, maltreatment, exposure to violence) contexts. Furthermore, we highlight the evidence behind efforts and initiatives that aim to nurture prosociality in children and families. We conclude with future directions for how research on positive cascades can inform research-practice alliances work that aims to break harmful cycles and promote prosocial mechanisms of change.