Posttraumatic stress and worry as mediators and moderators between political stressors and emotional and behavioral disorders in Palestinian children

This study was designed to assess whether the symptoms of posttraumatic stress mediate or moderate the relationship between political stressors and emotional and behavioral disorders in Palestinian children. It was hypothesized that (a) posttraumatic stress and worry mediate the effect of political stressors on behavioral and emotional disorders and (b) the relationship between political stressors and behavioral and emotional disorders should be attenuated for children with low levels of worry and posttraumatic stress and strengthened for children with high levels of worry and posttraumatic stress. The total sample was 1267 school age children of both sexes with a mean age of 11.97 years. Interviews were conducted with children at school. As hypothesized, the results indicated that posttraumatic stress and worry mediated and moderated the relationship between political stressors and emotional and behavioral disorders in children. Cognitive-behavioral therapy may be used to reduce the incidence of posttraumatic stress and decrease self-reported worry, somatic symptoms, general anxiety, and depression among children exposed to political trauma. Cognitive-behavioral treatment that exclusively targets excessive worry can lead to clinical change in the other interacting subsystems at the cognitive, physiological, affective and behavioral levels.     

Parental Behavioral Control and Parent-Child Relational Quality Predictors of Perceived Parental Knowledge in Chinese Adolescents in Hong Kong

Over three consecutive years, 2,559 Chinese adolescents (mean age = 12.65 years at Wave 1) responded to instruments assessing their perceived parental behavioral control (parental knowledge, expectation, monitoring, discipline, and demandingness) and parent-child relational qualities (satisfaction with parental control, child's readiness to communicate with the parents, and perceived mutual trust between parents and their children). Amongst the various indicators of behavioral control, monitoring was the strongest predictor of parental knowledge. Although parental monitoring and child's readiness to communicate with parents were significant predictors of parental knowledge, parental monitoring was a stronger predictor. Results further showed that behavioral control and parent-child relational quality composite scores were concurrently and longitudinally related to parental knowledge. The present study clarifies the family predictors of parental knowledge in Chinese families, but the findings are not entirely consistent with the Western research findings.     

Are moderate levels of stress particularly dangerous for relationship satisfaction? A conceptual replication of Tesser and Beach (1998)

The well-documented negative impact of daily stressors on relational well-being, juxtaposed with emerging evidence indicating that major stressors can have a positive impact on relational well-being, suggests that the association between stress and relational well-being may not be monotonic. Tesser and Beach originally raised this possibility in a 1998 study in which they found that the association between stress and individual well-being was linear, whereas the association with relational well-being was non-linear. The current study sought to conceptually replicate this study within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic by examining associations between stress and individual versus relational well-being, using a sample of 654 individuals who were in a committed relationship in the early weeks of the pandemic. Results were somewhat consistent with those of the original study: the association between stress and depression was linear, but the association between stress and relationship satisfaction was non-linear. However, the form of the association between stress and relationship satisfaction was different than observed in the original study. These results point toward the need to better understand how the severity of a stressor impacts relational outcomes, including the characteristics of stress that lead to stress spillover and the circumstances under which relational outcomes are resilient to high levels of stress.     

Stressors, quality of the child-caregiver relationship, and children's mental health problems after parental death: the mediating role of self-system beliefs

Investigated whether three self-system beliefs, fear of abandonment, coping efficacy, and self-esteem, mediated the relations of stressors and caregiver-child relationship quality with concurrent and prospective internalizing and externalizing problems in a sample of children who had experienced parental death in the previous 2.5 years. The cross-sectional sample consisted of 340 children ages 7-16 and their surviving parent/current caregiver; the longitudinal analyses employed a subset of this sample that consisted of 100 children and their parents/caregivers who were assessed at three time points. A multirater, multimethod measure of caregiver-child relationship quality and a multirater measure of children's mental health problems were used. The cross-sectional model supported a mediational relation for fear of abandonment, coping efficacy, and self-esteem. The three-wave longitudinal model showed that fear of abandonment at Time 2 mediated the relation between stressors at Time 1 and internalizing and externalizing problems at Time 3. Implications of these findings for understanding the development of mental health problems in parentally bereaved children and designing interventions for this at-risk group are discussed.     

Mentoring Youth with Psychiatric Disorders: The Impact on Child and Parent Functioning

ABSTRACT

This study examined the effectiveness of a behavioral mentoring program aimed at serving youth with psychiatric disorders. Participants included 30 youth (8–12 years old) receiving services in a mentoring program for a mental health population and 30 wait-listed youth and their maternal caregivers. Participating in mentoring services was related to higher family functioning across a number of domains including child behavior, parenting stress, perceived parent social support, and perceived parent-child relationship quality. As predicted, parenting stress mediated the relationship between mentoring and children's externalizing behavior problems. Results suggest that mentoring services may be a useful adjunct service for highly stressed families with children with emotional and behavioral disorders.     

人际关系状况与学龄前流动儿童的问题行为

以北京市40所幼儿园的336个班级的3430名儿童为被试, 构建多层线性模型, 分析亲子关系、班级师幼关系氛围对学龄前城市和流动儿童问题行为的影响。发现亲子冲突和班级师幼冲突氛围显著正向预测儿童的内、外向问题行为; 班级师幼亲密和冲突氛围对城市儿童内向问题行为的预测作用相比流动儿童更大; 班级师幼冲突氛围对亲子冲突高的流动儿童的外向问题行为的消极作用降低, 高亲子亲密缓解了班级师幼冲突氛围对流动儿童内向问题行为的消极作用。     

Perceived parent-child relational qualities and parental behavioral and psychological control in Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong

Chinese secondary school students (N = 3,017) were asked to respond to instruments measuring their perceived parent-child relational qualities (parental trust of the child, child's trust of parents, child's readiness to communicate with parents, and child's satisfaction with parental control), parental behavioral control (including indicators of knowledge, expectation, monitoring, discipline, and demandingness), and parental psychological control. Results showed that parental trust of the child and child's trust of parents were positively related to child's readiness to communicate with the parents and satisfaction with parental control. While parental trust of the child and child's trust of parents were basically negatively related to different aspects of behavioral control (except parental knowledge), readiness to communicate with the parents and satisfaction with parental control were positively associated with parental control. Parent-child relational quality measures were negatively related to psychological control. Relative to measures of parental behavioral control, parental psychological control was a stronger predictor of parent-child relational qualities. The present findings clarify the parent-child relational quality correlates of parental behavioral and psychological control.     

A Two-way Street: Mentor Stress and Depression Influence Relational Satisfaction and Attachment in Youth Mentoring Relationships

Over the past two decades, youth mentoring programs have increased in popularity as an intervention for children exposed to a range of stressful life circumstances. Such programs have been shown to promote positive youth development and reduce risk for emotional and behavioral problems; yet, the effect size of youth gains remains small. The current study examined the influence of college student mentors’ history of early life stress and baseline depressive symptoms on their effectiveness in youth mentoring relationships using 340 randomized mentor–youth pairs from College Mentors for Kids, a well-established mentoring program with chapters across the United States. Hierarchical linear models revealed that mentors with higher levels of depressive symptoms reported lower relationship satisfaction and increased avoidance in the mentoring relationship. In contrast, mentors who experienced higher levels of early life stress had youth who reported greater satisfaction in the mentoring relationship and decreased relational anxiety. These findings are some of the first to examine the impact of mentor characteristics on mentor–youth relationships and highlight the importance of considering factors relevant to psychosocial functioning and emotional distress when recruiting, training, and supporting college student mentors.     

Differential Effects of Family Stress Exposure and Harsh Parental Discipline on Child Social Competence

Low family socioeconomic status (SES) is a robust risk factor for adverse child outcomes, yet the specific processes that account for this risk are not fully understood. This study examines whether and how variation in two adverse factors, stressful life events and harsh parental discipline, affect children’s social competence within a high-risk environment, and whether some children are more vulnerable to these effects than others. Data were collected from 207 families of kindergarten children at risk for behavioral maladjustment. Children’s physiological regulation (respiratory sinus arrhythmia; RSA) measured during rest was examined as a moderator of risk exposure. Results indicate that both greater exposure to life stress and harsh discipline were correlated with lower social competence. Although children’s resting RSA was not a direct predictor of their social competence, it moderated the association between life stress and social competence. Greater exposure to life stress was more strongly associated with lower social competence among children with lower resting RSA. Higher RSA may help to buffer the effects of stress and facilitate appropriate social development. RSA did not moderate the effects of harsh discipline. This differential pattern of findings suggests that children’s physiological regulation can facilitate an effective response to situational stressors, but may be less efficacious in buffering against stress in the context of the parent-child relationship.     

母亲男孩偏好和亲子沟通的关系:子女性别的调节作用

以653名小学五年级学生的母亲为被试,通过问卷法探讨了母亲男孩偏好和母子亲子沟通的关系,并考察子女性别在其中可能的调节作用。结果表明：（1）子女为非独生、流动儿童;受教育水平较低、家中有2个及以上孩子以及所测查的孩子排名第2及以上孩子的母亲具有较高水平的男孩偏好;（2）子女性别对于母亲男孩偏好和母子亲子沟通关系的调节作用显著。对女生而言,亲子沟通随着母亲男孩偏好的增加而显著下降;对男生而言,母亲男孩偏好并不能显著预测亲子沟通。结果揭示了母亲男孩偏好对于母女亲子沟通的负面影响,提示了在强调男女平等的背景下,男孩偏好依旧值得重视并着力改善,特别是在孩子人格塑造和习惯养成的关键时期,作为主要照料者的母亲更应得到关注。     

虐待与流动儿童对立违抗症状的关系:亲密度和冲突性的作用

以来自北京10所小学的369名有对立违抗障碍症状的流动儿童,349名无ODD症状的对照组流动儿童和94名有ODD症状的北京儿童为被试,探究了有ODD症状流动儿童的症状严重程度及影响因素,并进一步探讨了ODD症状流动儿童在家庭中所受情感虐待、躯体虐待对其情绪方面的ODD症状和行为方面的ODD症状的影响,以及亲子关系(包括亲密度和冲突性)在其中起的作用。研究结果发现:(1)对比ODD症状北京儿童和对照组流动儿童,ODD症状流动儿童受到更严重的虐待,亲子关系亲密度更差,冲突性更高;(2)对ODD症状流动儿童,虐待和亲密度显著负相关,虐待和冲突性显著正相关,躯体虐待、冲突性均和行为方面ODD症状显著正相关;(3)躯体虐待能直接预测ODD症状流动儿童的行为方面ODD症状,但无法直接预测其情绪方面ODD症状;(4)在躯体虐待对ODD症状的影响中,冲突性起着显著的中介作用,躯体虐待通过影响亲子关系冲突性,对流动儿童的行为方面ODD症状产生影响,而亲密度则显著调节了躯体虐待对流动儿童情绪方面ODD症状的影响。     

Parents’ and Children’s Religiosity and Child Behavioral Adjustment Among Maltreated and Nonmaltreated Children

We investigated the role of parents’ and children’s religiosity in behavioral adjustment among maltreated and nonmaltreated children. Data were collected on 170 maltreated and 159 nonmaltreated children from low-income families (mean age = 10 years). We performed dyadic data analyses to examine unique contributions of parents’ and children’s religiosity and their interaction to predicting child internalizing and externalizing symptomatology. A four group structural equation modeling was used to test whether the structural relations among religiosity predictors and child outcomes differed by child maltreatment status and child gender. We found evidence of parent-child religiosity interaction suggesting that (1) parents’ frequent church attendance was related to lower levels of internalizing symptomatology among nonmaltreated children with low church attendance and (2) parents’ importance of faith was associated with lower levels of internalizing and externalizing symptomatology among nonmaltreated children with low faith. The results suggest that independent effects of parents’ religiosity varied depending on children’s religiosity and parent-child relationship.     

Stress, Cortisol, and Externalizing Behavior in Adolescent Males: An Examination in the Context of Multisystemic Therapy

Stress and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis dysregulation have been associated with externalizing behavior in adolescence, but few studies have examined these factors in a treatment context. This study investigated the relationship between stress, cortisol, and externalizing behavior among 120 adolescent males (mean age?=?15) receiving Multisystemic Therapy (MST). To examine the differential relationship of cortisol with various types of stressors, self-report measures assessed lifetime stress, current episodic stress, and daily hassles. Morning and afternoon cortisol samples were collected to examine whether the relationship between stress and treatment outcome depended on the youth's biological stress levels. Regression analyses indicated that awakening cortisol levels moderated the relationship between daily hassles and externalizing behaviors at post-treatment. More specifically, higher levels of daily hassles predicted worse outcomes only among adolescents with high levels of morning cortisol. In addition, lifetime stressors and afternoon measures of cortisol interacted to predict changes in caretaker reports of externalizing problems and youth arrests following treatment; lifetime stressors were positively associated with externalizing behavior when adolescents had low levels of afternoon cortisol. Implications for theory and future directions for evidence-based treatment are discussed.     

Caring for the Caregivers: An Investigation of Factors Related to Well-Being Among Parents Caring for a Child with Smith-Magenis Syndrome

Smith-Magenis syndrome (SMS) is a complex disorder characterized by numerous challenges, including intellectual disability, speech delay, decreased pain sensitivity, sleep disturbances, hyperactivity, mood instability, and self-injury. Caregivers must readily adapt to the ever-changing needs of the child. Due to these demands, caregivers may encounter difficulties maintaining their own level of well-being. Thus, a total of 112 primary caregivers (i.e., parents) of individuals diagnosed with SMS responded to online questionnaires to assess demographic and psychosocial factors, such as perceptions of child health vulnerability, benefit finding, sleep behaviors, anxiety and depression symptomatology, and caregiver satisfaction and self-efficacy, which may be related to caregiver well-being. Results show that, among mothers, caregiver well-being was directly related to perceived child health vulnerability, caregiver satisfaction, and benefit finding, and a significant moderating effect was observed for depression/anxiety counseling after beginning the caregiver role on the relationship between anxiety symptomatology and caregiver well-being. Results further suggest that maternal caregivers who report high levels of anxiety but do not seek counseling fair the worst in terms of well-being. Among fathers, lower depression symptoms and greater benefit finding were related to higher levels of caregiver well-being. These data show that many factors play roles in influencing coping and well-being among SMS caregivers. Investigating these variables and relationships may reveal additional resources and interventions to assist primary caregivers.     

Interparental violence, maternal emotional unavailability and children's cortisol functioning in family contexts

Our goal in the present study was to examine the specificity of pathways among interparental violence, maternal emotional unavailability, and children's cortisol reactivity to emotional stressors within interparental and parent-child relationships. The study also tested whether detrimental family contexts were associated, on average, with hypocortisolism or hypercortisolism responses to stressful family interactions in young children. Participants included 201 toddlers and their mothers who were from impoverished backgrounds and who experienced disproportionate levels of family violence. Assessments of interparental violence were derived from maternal surveys and interviews, whereas maternal emotional unavailability was assessed through maternal reports and observer ratings of caregiving. Salivary cortisol levels were sampled at 3 time points before and after laboratory paradigms designed to elicit children's reactivity to stressful interparental and parent-child contexts. Results indicated that interparental violence and the mother's emotional unavailability were differentially associated with children's adrenocorticol stress reactivity. Furthermore, these family risk contexts predicted lower cortisol change in response to distress. The results are interpreted in the context of risky family and emotional security theory conceptualizations that underscore how family contexts differentially impact children's physiological regulatory capacities.     

Caregivers’ Positive Emotional Expression and Children’s Psychological Functioning after Parental Loss

The death of a loved one, particularly a parent, has been identified as not only the most common, but also the most distressing form of adversity youth may experience in their lifetime. Surviving caregivers’ communication with their children may play a critical role in shaping bereaved children’s psychological functioning. However, few studies have examined the specific content (e.g., word usage) of caregivers’ verbal communication as a predictor of psychological functioning in bereaved youth. In a sample of 39 parentally-bereaved children and their surviving caregivers, we investigated whether the frequency of caregivers’ use of positive emotion words (e.g., “love”, “happy”, “hope”) during a reminiscing task about the deceased was associated with children’s psychological functioning and coping. In a cross-sectional analysis, we specifically examined whether these associations were moderated by the amount of time passed since children lost their parents. The Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count Program (LIWC) was used to code and evaluate the percentage of positive emotion words caregivers used during the discussion. When caregivers used more positive emotion words, children were less likely to experience depression, anxiety, and avoidant coping. Those associations were present for children who had experienced parental loss at least 105 days prior to the study.     

Influence of caregiver burden on the association between daily fluctuations in pleasant activities and mood: A daily diary analysis

Much research has focused on behavioral activation and its effect on depression, but less is known about the effects of leisure activities on the two distinct affective domains of depression: positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA). Furthermore, individual factors (i.e., stress level) may moderate the impact of behavioral activation on affect. The present study utilized a daily diary approach to examine the moderating effect of stress on the relationship between leisure satisfaction and both PA and NA. Twenty-five dementia caregivers completed activity and affect measures four times daily for 14 days. Results were analyzed using multilevel modeling, an approach that considers intra-individual differences in activity and affect over time. Results supported the hypothesis that caregivers with higher burden display a stronger association between leisure satisfaction and affect than caregivers with lower burden. Specifically, caregivers with higher burden had a stronger positive relationship between leisure satisfaction and PA and a stronger negative relationship between leisure satisfaction and NA. These findings suggest that screening caregivers for level of burden may help identify those most likely to benefit from behavioral interventions.     

Family protective factors among urban African American youth.

Examined the relations among family protective factors, stressful events, and behavioral adjustment of 64 African American 6th graders. The youths reported on family stressors, father-figure involvement, and kin support. Their primary caregivers reported on parenting, father-figure involvement, and family stressors. Teachers reported on child social skill deficits, acting out, and shy or anxious behavior. Based on regression analyses, stress exposure associated positively with child social skill deficits, acting out, and shy or anxious behavior. Parental warmth was associated negatively with shy or anxious behavior. Parental use of corporal punishment was associated positively with child acting out. For youth exposed to high numbers of family stressors, parental demandingness was associated negatively with child acting out and kin support was associated negatively with acting out and shy or anxious behavior, suggesting that these family factors partially shield children from the negative effects of stress.     

Impact of Maternal Support and Involvement on Coping in Adolescent Males of Color

The current study examined maternal support and maternal involvement as moderators of the association between exposure to community violence (ECV) and both violence-related and non-violence related stressors in adolescent males of color. The current study included 250 African American (61%) and Latino (39%) male adolescents from the Chicago Youth Development Study to examine the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between community violence exposure, maternal support and involvement, and youth coping strategies. Neither maternal support nor maternal involvement were moderators of the association between ECV and coping, cross-sectionally or longitudinally. However, higher levels of both maternal support and involvement predicted lower levels of maladaptive coping with non-violence related stressors both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Maternal support and involvement were unrelated to coping with violence-related stressors. It was expected that these parenting variables would show a protective effect on the relationship with violence exposure and coping, but the results suggest that these parenting attributes have direct ameliorative effect on coping with non-violence-related stressors. However, this finding did not extend to coping with violence-related stressors, underscoring the traumatic nature of violence exposure and importance of specificity frameworks for conducting research on the impact of violence exposure.     

Culturally Competent Family Therapy with Latino/Anglo-American Adolescents: Facilitating Identity Formation

On two occasions separated by one year, Chinese adolescents (N = 2,758) responded to instruments measuring their perceived parent-adolescent trust (i.e., paternal trust of the child and the child's trust of the parent) and other dimensions of parent-child relational qualities (satisfaction with parental control, readiness to communicate with the parent, and global satisfaction with the parent-child relationship). Results showed that perceived parent-adolescent trust was concurrently and longitudinally related to other dimensions of parent-child relational qualities. Multiple regression analyses suggest that the relations between perceived parent-adolescent trust and different dimensions of parent-child relational qualities over time were bidirectional in nature. Relative to perceived paternal trust of the adolescent child, adolescent child's trust of their parents exerted a stronger influence on different dimensions of parent-adolescent relational qualities, particularly in the father-adolescent dyad. While the influence of the child's readiness to communicate with the parents on parent-adolescent trust was weak in the father-adolescent dyad, the influence of global satisfaction with the parent-adolescent relationship on parent-adolescent trust was weak in the mother-adolescent dyad. The implications of the present findings on parent education and family therapy are discussed.