Factors Moderating Children's Adjustment to Parental Separation: Findings From a Community Study in England

Research findings show that there is marked variability in children's response to parental separation, but few studies identify the sources of this variation. This prospective longitudinal study examines the factors modifying children's adjustment to parental separation in a community sample of 5,635 families in England. Children's behavioral/emotional problems were assessed when children were aged 47 and 81 months; marital quality, maternal depression, socioeconomic circumstances, and demographic variables were assessed prior to the separation from maternal report. Results indicated that 346 mothers separated from their partners in the 3-year period. Preseparation differences were found for measures of family process and parent risk factors, with effect sizes ranging from small to trivial. Parental separation was associated with a significant but modest increase in behavioral/emotional problems, independent of marital quality, maternal depression, socioeconomic circumstances, and demographic variables. Moderation analyses showed that children of cohabiting parents had a greater increase in adjustment problems following parental separation than children of married parents. Further research elucidating the factors that moderate children's adjustment to parental separation is needed to improve our understanding of who may most likely benefit from preventive interventions.     

父母消极抚养方式与父母冲突和青少年社会适应的关系

以720名小学、初中和高中生为被试,采用问卷法,探讨父母消极抚养方式与父母冲突和青少年社会适应的关系,并检验父母消极抚养方式在父母冲突与青少年适应间的中介作用。结果发现：（1）与孩子有关的父母冲突显著多于与父母自身有关的冲突,初中生报告的两种冲突显著多于小学生;母亲消极抚养显著多于父亲,父母对男生的消极抚养显著多于女生,父母对初中生的消极抚养显著多于小学生;青少年的抑郁、学习问题较多,在抑郁、不良行为上存在显著的性别主效应,女生抑郁多于男生,男生的不良行为多于女生。在抑郁、学习问题和不良行为上存在显著年级主效应,初、高中生的抑郁、学习问题和不良行为显著多于小学生;（2）与孩子或父母有关的冲突越多,父母消极抚养越多;（3）父母消极抚养越多,青少年抑郁、不良行为、学习问题越多;（4）父母消极抚养在父母冲突与青少年社会适应中起部分中介作用。     

Parental Dysphoria and Children’s Adjustment: Marital Conflict Styles,Children’s Emotional Security,and Parenting as Mediators of Risk

Dimensions of martial conflict, children's emotional security regarding interparental conflict, and parenting style were examined as mediators between parental dysphoria and child adjustment. A community sample of 262 children, ages 8–16, participated with their parents. Behavioral observations were made of parents’ interactions during marital conflict resolution tasks, which children later observed to assess their emotional security. Questionnaires assessed parents’ dysphoria, parenting, and children's adjustment. Structural equation modeling indicated that parental dysphoria was linked with child adjustment through specific and distinct mediating family processes, including marital conflict and parenting. Children's emotional security in the context of particular marital conflict styles also mediated relations between parental dysphoria and child adjustment problems, with similar pathways found for mothers and fathers. These pathways remained significant even after significant parenting contributions were considered.     

Parental conflict resolution styles and children's adjustment: children's appraisals and emotion regulation as mediators

Guided by the emotional security hypothesis and the cognitive-contextual framework, the authors investigated whether the associations between negative parental conflict resolution styles and children's internalizing and externalizing problems were mediated by children's appraisals of threat and self-blame and their emotion regulation. Participants were 192 Swiss 2-parent families with children aged 9-12 years (M age = 10.62 years, SD = 0.41 years). Structural equation modeling was used to test the empirical validity of the theoretical model. Results indicated that children's maladaptive emotion regulation mediated the association between negative parental conflict resolution styles and children's internalizing as well as externalizing problems. Whereas perceived threat was related only to children's internalizing problems, self-blame did not mediate the links between negative parental conflict resolution styles and children's adjustment. Implications for understanding the mechanisms by which exposure to interparental conflict could lead to children's maladjustment and limitations of the study are discussed.     

Parental Depressive Symptoms and Adolescent Adjustment: A Prospective Test of an Explanatory Model for the Role of Marital Conflict

Despite calls for process-oriented models for child maladjustment due to heightened marital conflict in the context of parental depressive symptoms, few longitudinal tests of the mechanisms underlying these relations have been conducted. Addressing this gap, the present study examined multiple factors longitudinally that link parental depressive symptoms to adolescent adjustment problems, building on a conceptual model informed by emotional security theory (EST). Participants were from 320 families (158 boys, 162 girls), including mothers and fathers, who took part when their children were in kindergarten (T1), second (T2), seventh (T3), eighth (T4) and ninth (T5) grades. Parental depressive symptoms (T1) were related to changes in adolescents’ externalizing and internalizing symptoms (T5), as mediated by parents’ negative emotional expressiveness (T2), marital conflict (T3), and emotional insecurity (T4). Evidence was thus advanced for emotional insecurity as an explanatory process in the context of parental depressive symptoms.     

Interparental conflict and children's school adjustment: the explanatory role of children's internal representations of interparental and parent-child relationships

This study examined how children's insecure internal representations of interparental and parent-child relationships served as explanatory mechanisms in multiple pathways linking interparental conflict and parent emotional unavailability with the emotional and classroom engagement difficulties the children had in their adjustment to school. With their parents, 229 kindergarten children (127 girls and 102 boys, mean age = 6.0 years, SD = .50, at Wave 1) participated in this multimethod, 3-year longitudinal investigation. Findings revealed that children's insecure representations of the interparental relationship were a significant intervening mechanism in associations between observational ratings of interparental conflict and child and teacher reports on children's emotional and classroom difficulties in school over a 2-year period. Moreover, increased parental emotional unavailability accompanying high levels of interparental conflict was associated with children's insecure representations of the parent-child relationship and children's difficulties in classroom engagement at school entry. The findings highlight the importance of understanding the intrinsic processes that contribute to difficulties with stage-salient tasks for children who are experiencing interparental discord.     

The impact of parental multiple sclerosis on the adjustment of children and adolescents

Thirty-one parents with multiple sclerosis (MS) participated in a study to investigate the adjustment of their children, 24 boys and 24 girls aged 4 to 16 years. The majority of parents believed that their illness had an effect on their children. The perception of parents regarding their children's problems in the areas of emotions, concentration, behavior, or social interactions indicated that the children were at three times greater risk than the general community of developing psychological problems. In contrast, actual symptom scores reported by parents revealed that, although these children were at greater risk than the general community of developing peer problems, little difference was found on hyperactivity, emotional symptoms, conduct problems, or total difficulties. Parental negative affect predicted both parental reports of peer problems and perceptions that the parents' illness had an effect on their children. Parental relationship satisfaction and family income did not predict parental reports of children's level of adjustment. These results indicate that children of parents with MS demonstrate more difficulties in how they relate to others, the distress they experience, and how they manage their lives, rather than revealing higher levels of symptoms. Since the data were based on parental reports of their children's problems, the results may also be due to negative affect among the parents.     

Parental Experiences of Having a Child with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Associations with Clinical Characteristics and Caregiver Adjustment

We examined parental experience of having a child with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in 62 parent–child dyads. Youth with a primary diagnosis of OCD and their parent(s) were administered the CY-BOCS jointly by a trained clinician. Parents completed several measures about their child’s OCD-related impairment and accommodation, emotional and behavioral functioning, parental distress, caregiver stress, and parental experiences of having a child with OCD. Results indicated that parents of children with OCD are considerably distressed about their child’s condition. As expected, negative parental experiences (e.g., anxiety about child’s condition, uncertainty about their future) were directly related to OCD symptom severity and impairment, as well as child internalizing and externalizing problems, family accommodation of symptoms, and caregiver strain. The presence of emotional resources was negatively related to most outcomes, although some of these relationships did not achieve statistical significance. The presence of internalizing symptoms mediated the relationship between parental experiences and parental distress. Given these findings, addressing parental experiences as part of a family based cognitive-behavioral treatment program for pediatric OCD may help reduce parental distress and improve patient prognosis.     

The contribution of parental discipline, parental monitoring, and school risk to early-onset conduct problems in African American boys and girls

The association of parental discipline and monitoring with the early conduct problems of 123 boys and girls was assessed in a highly disadvantaged, African American sample. Prospective analyses indicated that, after earlier conduct problems were controlled for, coercive parent discipline and poor parental monitoring at age 4 1/2 were independent, reliable predictors of age 6 conduct problems for both boys and girls. The association of parental monitoring with later child conduct problems was mediated, in part, by parents' choice of higher risk schools for their children's kindergarten education. The association of family income with child conduct problems was mediated by parental discipline and monitoring. These models are consistent with previous research on older, European American, more advantaged, male samples, which supports the generality of the association of family processes with child conduct problems across child gender, age, and ethnicity.     

Parental conflict and other correlates of the adjustment of school-age children whose parents have separated

In this study, several factors related to psychological adjustment of schoolage children were examined in a sample of 40 lower-class families in which the parents were separated. It was hypothesized that parental conflict and other indices of family adversity, including maternal depression, income, and the length of time past since parental separation, would be important predictors of children's behavioral adjustment. Parental acrimony was found to be a significant correlate of children's behavioral problems, even when other family variables were taken into account. In addition, independent and additive effects on children's functioning were found for parental discord and maternal depression, with some support found for an additional variable, family income. In contrast to some prior investigations, the length of time since parental separation was unrelated to children's functioning. Results are discussed in terms of Rutter's cumulative stress hypothesis and previous research on parental discord.This research was supported in part by a grant to Robert E. Emery from the William T. Grant Foundation.     

Externalizing Outcomes of Youth with and without ADHD: Time-Varying Prediction by Parental ADHD and Mediated Effects

Although parental attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a risk factor for multiple negative youth outcomes, it is unknown how change in parental ADHD symptoms over time affects change in child ADHD symptoms; moreover, mediators of these predictions are largely unknown. Parents of 230 5–10 year-old children (68 % male) with (n = 120) and without ADHD (n = 110) were followed prospectively for 6–7 years across three separate waves. Parents self-reported their ADHD and depression symptoms and similarly rated offspring ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), and conduct disorder (CD) symptoms; youth self-reported their substance use. Temporally-ordered mediators consisted of parental expressed emotion (EE), derived from the Five Minute Speech Sample, and self-reported positive and negative parenting behavior. Controlling for key demographics and parental depression symptoms, increasing parental ADHD symptoms were a time-varying predictor of worsening youth ADHD and ODD, although it was unrelated to change in CD and alcohol/substance use. Next, although EE facets (i.e., criticism, emotional over-involvement) did not mediate these predictions, negative parenting behavior significantly mediated predictions of youth ADHD (and marginally in predictions of ODD) from parental ADHD symptoms. These quasi-experimental findings suggest that parental ADHD symptoms are a potential unique causal risk factor for offspring ADHD and ODD; also, preventing negative parenting behavior secondary to parental ADHD symptoms is critical to improve trajectories of youth ADHD and ODD. We consider parental ADHD symptoms and family factors underlying emergent externalizing problems utilizing a developmental psychopathology framework, including implications for intervention and prevention.     

Parental Incarceration Among Adolescents Receiving Mental Health Services

The Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates that approximately 1 in every 50 youth in the U.S. had a parent in State or Federal prison in 1999. Studies of children of incarcerated parents suggest that these youth are at risk for experiencing emotional and behavioral problems. Using a sample of 258 adolescents receiving routine mental health services, this study explored: (1) differences in demographic characteristics, lifetime exposure to risk factors, recent stressful life experiences, and clinical profiles of adolescents with and without a history of parental incarceration; and (2) the effect of parental incarceration relative to other risk factors on levels of emotional and behavioral problems and treatment outcomes. Nearly half (43%) of the youth studied had experienced the incarceration of one or both parents. Youth who experienced parental incarceration had been exposed to significantly more risk factors during their lifetimes including parental substance abuse, extreme poverty, and abuse or neglect. They were more likely than other treated youth to present with attention-deficit/hyperactivity and conduct disorders and less likely to have major depression. Findings provide preliminary evidence that parental incarceration may have a discrete negative effect on certain outcomes of treatment.     

Interparental conflict, negative parenting, and children's adjustment: bridging links between parents' depression and children's psychological distress

Pathways linking parental depressive symptoms, adult relationship insecurity, interparental conflict, negative parenting, and children's psychological adjustment (internalizing symptoms and externalizing problems) were assessed using a 3-wave longitudinal research design. Two-parent families (N = 352) with 11- to 13-year-old children (179 boys, 173 girls) participated in the study. Maternal and paternal depressive symptoms were associated with insecurity in adult close relationships assessed 12 months later, which was concurrently related to heightened levels of interparental conflict. Controlling for children's initial symptom levels, interparental conflict was related to child appraisals of father and mother rejection assessed an additional 12 months later, which were related to children's internalizing symptoms and externalizing problems, respectively. Results are discussed with regard to the implications for understanding the complex interplay between adult depressive symptoms, attributions in close adult relationships, interparental conflict, negative parenting, and children's psychological adjustment.     

The Relation of Parental Emotionality and Related Dispositional Traits to Parental Expression of Emotion and Children's Social Functioning

The purpose of this study was to test relations between parental temperamental emotionality and regulation or related personality characteristics and parental behavior, children's regulation, and children's social functioning. Mothers and fathers reported on their own personality and/or temperament and expressivity in the family (mothers only); parents and teachers rated children (71 girls and 99 boys; M age = 73 months) on their temperamental regulation, social competence, and problem behavior. Mothers also were observed interacting with their child, and behavioral measures of children's regulation were obtained. In general, high parental regulation and low negative emotionality were associated with positive developmental outcomes in children and more positive parental behaviors, and mothers' expression of positive emotion in the family mediated some of the relations of their dispositions to children's socioemotional functioning.     

父母述情困难与儿童行为问题:父母心境的中介作用

采用整群抽样法选取438名学前儿童及其家长为被试, 通过量表考察父母述情困难、心境与儿童问题行为之间的关系。结果发现:(1)父亲述情困难与儿童焦虑害羞行为显著正相关, 父亲情绪愉悦在其述情困难与儿童焦虑害羞行为之间具有完全中介作用;(2)母亲述情困难与儿童愤怒攻击、焦虑害羞行为显著正相关, 同时母亲的情绪波动在其述情困难与儿童愤怒攻击行为之间起着部分中介作用。研究结果说明述情困难风险较高的父亲, 其情绪愉悦水平也相对较低, 进而导致儿童表现出更多焦虑害羞行为;述情困难风险较高的母亲, 一方面会直接导致儿童表现出较多愤怒攻击与焦虑害羞行为, 另一方面又会通过其情绪波动增加儿童出现愤怒攻击行为的风险。     

Family Emotional Climate and Sibling Relationship Quality: Influences on Behavioral Problems and Adaptation in Preschool-Aged Children

We examined the impact of family emotional climate and sibling relationship quality on behavioral problems and adaptation in preschool-aged children. Participants were 63 mothers with a preschool-aged child enrolled in a Southern Arizona Head Start Program. Siblings were identified as children closest in age to target child. Mothers of predominantly Mexican descent (95%) participated in home interviews during the Fall and Spring of the year children entered center-based programs. Sibling relationship quality (warmth, agonism/competition) was proposed to predict children’s adjustment (behavioral problems and adaptation) longitudinally. Results indicate that after controlling for child characteristics (temperament, child gender, birth order) and after accounting for family characteristics (family emotional expressiveness, child exposure to interparental conflict, and parental agreement on childrearing), sibling warmth made a significant and unique contribution to child adjustment as reported by mothers and teachers six months later. Findings are consistent with existing research indicating that sibling relationships impact children’s adjustment and shape young children’s lives in meaningful and marked ways. Moreover, these associations were found with an understudied sample of young children of predominantly Mexican descent in low-income families, and thus make an important contribution to knowledge in the field.     

父母心理控制与ODD症状儿童抑郁、攻击行为的关系

以北京市、山东省和云南省14所小学中的340名有对立违抗障碍(Oppositional Defiant Disorder, ODD)症状的儿童及其158名班主任为被试, 收集了儿童自己填写的父母心理控制、自尊、抑郁量表, 班主任评估的儿童攻击行为量表, 用以考察父亲与母亲心理控制对ODD症状儿童抑郁、攻击行为的不同影响, 以及自尊在其中的中介作用和儿童性别的调节作用。结果发现:(1)与有ODD症状的女孩相比, 具有ODD症状的男孩人数更多, 抑郁、攻击行为问题更为严重, 自尊也更差;(2)父亲对男孩的心理控制显著多于女孩, 而母亲对男孩、女孩的心理控制没有显著差异;(3)父亲和母亲心理控制与ODD症状儿童的抑郁、攻击行为都呈显著正相关且父亲心理控制能显著预测儿童的抑郁和攻击行为, 而母亲心理控制能显著的预测攻击行为;(4)自尊在父亲心理控制与ODD症状儿童的抑郁、母亲心理控制与儿童的攻击行为之间均起部分中介作用, 在父亲心理控制与儿童的攻击行为、母亲心理控制与儿童的抑郁之间均起完全中介作用。     

Adverse Life Events and Emotional and Behavioral Problems in Adolescence: The Role of Non-verbal Cognitive Ability and Negative Cognitive Errors

The aim of this study was to test whether negative cognitive errors (overgeneralizing, catastrophizing, selective abstraction, and personalizing) mediate the moderator effect of non-verbal cognitive ability on the association between adverse life events (life stress) and emotional and behavioral problems in adolescence. The sample consisted of 430 children (aged 11–15 years) from three state secondary schools in disadvantaged areas in one county in the South East of England. Total difficulties (i.e., emotional symptoms, peer problems, hyperactivity, and conduct problems) were assessed with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Adjustment was made for gender, age, ethnicity, special educational needs, exclusion history, family structure, and family socio-economic disadvantage. Adverse life events were measured with Tiet et al.’s (Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 37, 1191–1200, 1998) Adverse Life Events Scale. Non-verbal cognitive ability was measured with Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices Plus. Non-verbal cognitive ability moderated the effect of adverse life events both on total difficulties and on emotional symptoms. Overgeneralizing mediated the moderator effect of non-verbal cognitive ability on the association between adverse life events and total difficulties. Adverse life events were related to a tendency to overgeneralize which was associated with emotional and behavioral problems, but particularly among those adolescents with lower non-verbal cognitive ability.     

Links between parental psychological violence, other family disturbances, and children's adjustment

In a sample of 143 parent-child dyads from two-parent and separated families, this investigation documented the links between parental psychological violence and separation or divorce, severity of parental conflict, triangulation of the child in this conflict, and polarized parent-child alliances. The unique and combined contributions of all these variables to children's behavior problems were also assessed. Participants were parents, mostly mothers, and their 10-12-year-old child. They were recruited through schools, community organizations, and newspapers. Questionnaires were administered at home. Findings suggest that separated families undergo more relational disturbances than two-parent families (more severe conflicts, more triangulation, stronger parent-child alliances), but the amount of parental psychological violence was similar in both groups. Psychological violence was associated with the severity of parental conflict, especially in two-parent families. Triangulation of the child in parental conflict was another correlate of psychological violence. Once all variables were controlled for, psychological violence remained the only significant correlate of children's externalized behavior problems. These findings raise the importance of preventing psychological violence toward children, especially in families plagued with severe parental conflicts.     

Gender differences in the pathway from adverse life events to adolescent emotional and behavioural problems via negative cognitive errors

The aim of this study was to test for gender differences in how negative cognitive errors (overgeneralizing, catastrophizing, selective abstraction, and personalizing) mediate the association between adverse life events and adolescents’ emotional and behavioural problems (measured with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire). The sample consisted of 202 boys and 227 girls (aged 11–15 years) from three state secondary schools in disadvantaged areas in one county in the South East of England. Control variables were age, ethnicity, special educational needs, exclusion history, family structure, family socio‐economic disadvantage, and verbal cognitive ability. Adverse life events were measured with Tiet et al.'s (1998) Adverse Life Events Scale. For both genders, we assumed a pathway from adverse life events to emotional and behavioural problems via cognitive errors. We found no gender differences in life adversity, cognitive errors, total difficulties, peer problems, or hyperactivity. In both boys and girls, even after adjustment for controls, cognitive errors were related to total difficulties and emotional symptoms, and life adversity was related to total difficulties and conduct problems. The life adversity/conduct problems association was not explained by negative cognitive errors in either gender. However, we found gender differences in how adversity and cognitive errors produced hyperactivity and internalizing problems. In particular, life adversity was not related, after adjustment for controls, to hyperactivity in girls and to peer problems and emotional symptoms in boys. Cognitive errors fully mediated the effect of life adversity on hyperactivity in boys and on peer and emotional problems in girls.