Christ-Centred Solidarity in a Time of Pandemic

The article proposes a reading of Colossians 1:15-20 for the time of COVID-19, arguing that the assertion that all things “hold together” in the incarnate Christ should lead Christians not only to practise solidarity with those most at risk, but also to evaluate societal and systemic responses to COVID-19 in the light of their effects on the most vulnerable members of society. The article considers the use and misuse of the rhetoric of self-sacrificial love or loving self-sacrifice, and the use and misuse of the image of warfare – arguing that in both of these areas, Christian communities offer urgent challenges and correctives on the basis of their traditions of Christ-centred solidarity.     

‘He's got his father's bias’: Parental influence on weight bias in young children

Our aim was to explore the role of parents in the transmission of stereotypical body size attitudes and awareness of weight loss strategies to preschool children. Participants were 279 3‐year‐old children and their parents, who provided data at baseline and 1 year later. Parents completed self‐report body size attitude and dieting measures. Child weight bias and awareness of weight loss strategies were assessed through interview. Over time, negative associations with large bodies and awareness of weight loss strategies increased. Fathers’ attitudes prospectively predicted boys’ weight bias and awareness of weight loss strategies. Among girls, parental attitudes were less predictive. Findings confirm the importance of fathers in the development of boys’ body attitudes and inform prevention programmes.     

The Associations between Mothers’ and Grandmothers’ Depressive Symptoms,Parenting Stress,and Relationship with Children: An Actor–Partner Interdependence Mediation Model

Three-generation households that include parents and grandparents raising children together have become increasingly common in China. This study examined the relations among depressive symptoms, parenting stress, and caregiver–child relationships in the mother–grandmother dyadic context. Participants were mothers and grandmothers from 136 three-generation households. Results from Actor–Partner Interdependence Mediation Modeling indicated that mothers’ depressive symptoms were indirectly related to mother–child conflict/closeness through own parenting stress; grandmothers’ depressive symptoms were indirectly related to grandmother–child conflict through own parenting stress. Mothers’ depressive symptoms were indirectly related to grandmothers’ conflict with children through grandmothers’ parenting stress, and grandmothers’ depressive symptoms were indirectly related to mothers’ conflict/closeness with children through mothers’ parenting stress. The relation between mothers’ parenting stress and mother–child closeness was stronger than the relation between grandmothers’ parenting stress and grandmother–child closeness. Findings highlight the implications of using a family system perspective and the dyadic approach in understanding and improving family functioning in Chinese three-generation households.     

Timing the “magical number seven”: Presentation rate and regularity affect verbal working memory performance

The informative value of time and temporal structure often remains neglected in cognitive assessments. However, next to information about stimulus identity we can exploit temporal ordering principles, such as regularity, periodicity, or grouping to generate predictions about the timing of future events. Such predictions may improve cognitive performance by optimising adaptation to dynamic stimuli. Here, we investigated the influence of temporal structure on verbal working memory by assessing immediate recall performance for aurally presented digit sequences (forward digit span) as a function of standard (1000 ms stimulus-onset-asynchronies, SOAs), short (700 ms), long (1300 ms) and mixed (700–1300 ms) stimulus timing during the presentation phase. Participant's digit spans were lower for short and mixed SOA presentation relative to standard SOAs. This confirms an impact of temporal structure on the classic “magical number seven,” suggesting that working memory performance can in part be regulated through the systematic application of temporal ordering principles.     

The Role of Children's Neurophysiological Functioning in the Links Between Emotion-Parenting Behaviors and Child Anxiety Symptoms: A Biological Sensitivity to Context Framework

A plethora of data supports links between parenting behaviors and child anxiety, but few studies have examined factors that can contribute to variability in these relations. Adopting a biological sensitivity to context framework, this study explored the role of children's physiological stress reactivity in the links between emotion-parenting and child anxiety symptoms in a group of Chinese families. Sixty-one parent–child dyads (child M_age = 8.21 years, SD = 1.40, range = 6–12 years) participated in an acute stress protocol, from which children's physiological (cortisol and respiratory sinus arrhythmia) responses to a social speech task were recorded. Participants then completed questionnaires assessing parents’ emotion-parenting behaviors and children's anxiety symptoms. Results showed that the relation between supportive emotion-parenting and child anxiety was stronger in the context of greater child RSA suppression to acute stress, such that children higher in RSA suppression exhibited lower anxiety symptoms when supportive emotion-parenting was higher than when it was lower. Thus, these findings supported the biological sensitivity to context model. No significant moderation effect was detected for cortisol reactivity or recovery. Instead, exploratory mediation analyses showed that supportive emotion-parenting was negatively related to child anxiety via greater cortisol recovery. There was also a significant indirect path where unsupportive emotion-parenting was related to blunted cortisol recovery, which in turn was associated with higher child anxiety. The results highlight the importance of coaching parents to respond in supportive ways to children's emotional expressions, particularly in the context of greater child reactivity, to help buffer against childhood anxiety symptoms.