Social support of children of divorce: Direct and stress buffering effects

This study examined the direct and stress-buffering effects of support from family adults, nonfamily adults, family children, and nonfamily children on the adjustment of 104 children of divorce. For children's reports of adjustment, significant stress-buffering (i.e., Stress x Support) interactions for support from family adults and support from nonfamily adults occurred. The lower the level of social support, the stronger the positive relation between stress and adjustment problems. In addition, at high levels of stress, children with high support from nonfamily and family adults reported fewer adjustment problems than did children with low support. However, at the lowest level of stress, children with high support from nonfamily adults were significantly more poorly adjusted than were children with low support. For parental reports of children's adjustment, support from family adults was marginally positively related to adjustment whereas support from nonfamily adults was inversely related to adjustment. Implications for intervention programs for children of divorce are discussed.     

儿童2岁活跃性、自我控制与5年后学校适应——父母养育方式的调节作用

通过5年的追踪,考察儿童早期气质特征对后期社会适应的影响。选取200名2岁儿童,采用实验室观察法评价其气质上的活跃性和自我控制;在其7岁时追踪到125名儿童,请父母报告养育方式、班主任老师评价其社会能力和学业表现。结果表明：（1）儿童2岁时的活跃性对5年后学校适应的预测总体是消极的,并且受父母养育方式调节;父母的高限制和低压制能够抵消活跃性对学习问题和任务定向的消极影响;（2）儿童2岁时的自我控制对于5年后的所有积极学校适应指标（学业成绩、低学习问题、果敢社交、挫折耐受、任务定向）有直接预测作用。这一结果揭示了气质上的活跃性与自我控制在儿童发展过程中的不同作用,父母应根据孩子的气质特点实行差别化教育。     

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.     

The additive and interactive effects of parenting and temperament in predicting adjustment problems of children of divorce

Investigated the interaction between parenting and temperament in predicting adjustment problems in children of divorce. The study utilized a sample of 231 mothers and children, 9 to 12 years old, who had experienced divorce within the previous 2 years. Both mothers' and children's reports on parenting, temperament, and adjustment variables were obtained and combined to create cross-reporter measures of the variables. Parenting and temperament were directly and independently related to outcomes consistent with an additive model of their effects. Significant interactions indicated that parental rejection was more strongly related to adjustment problems for children low in positive emotionality, and inconsistent discipline was more strongly related to adjustment problems for children high in impulsivity. These findings suggest that children who are high in impulsivity may be at greater risk for developing problems, whereas positive emotionality may operate as a protective factor, decreasing the risk of adjustment problems in response to negative parenting.     

Custodial mothers' perceptions of visitation and payment of child support by noncustodial fathers in families with low and high levels of preseparation interparent conflict

The purposes of this study were (a) to compare families with low (n = 47) and high (n = 44) levels of preseparation interparent conflict on mothers' report of paternal involvement (frequency, regularity, and length of visitation as well as regular payment of child support), children's adjustment, and mothers' level of stress; (b) to intercorrelate the four dimensions of paternal involvement; and (c) to relate the four dimensions of paternal involvement to children's age, children's gender, length of parental separation, children's adjustment, mothers' stress, paternal investment in the children, degree of environmental change, and children's level of interpersonal understanding. Children's mean age was 10.24 years, and parents had been separated a mean of 13.15 months. Compared to fathers in low-conflict families, fathers in high-conflict families visited less regularly and were less regular in their payment of child support. Mothers reported more adjustment problems for children in high-conflict families. All four dimensions of paternal involvement were intercorrelated only for high-conflict families. For both low- and high-conflict families, paternal involvement was related to paternal investment in the child but was unrelated to children's age, children's gender, and length of separation. Paternal involvement was most frequently related to children's adjustment in high-conflict families. For low-conflict families, paternal involvement was related low environmental change and children's well-developed interpersonal understanding skills.     

The emotional adjustment of children with Tourette's syndrome

We investigated the predictive value of family reaction and illness severity with respect to the emotional adjustment of Tourette's syndrome patients. The subjects included 30 children with Tourette's syndrome and 30 control subjects matched on age, sex, race, and socioeconomic status. The predictor variables included the child's perception of parental behavior, family adaptability as perceived by the mother, mother's self-concept, and illness severity. The results indicated that the children's perceptions of their parents' behavior explained the most variance in children's self-concepts and anxiety for both groups. These findings highlight the importance of the parent-child interaction in predicting the child's emotional adjustment to Tourette's syndrome.     

A longitudinal study of the relationship of maternal autonomy support to children's adjustment and achievement in school

A longitudinal study examined the relations of maternal autonomy support to children's school adjustment. Autonomy support and other parenting dimensions were measured when children were 5 years old. School measures were teacher-rated academic and social adjustment and achievement in reading and math in grade 3. Regression analyses controlling for age 5 family and child factors (e.g., socioeconomic status [SES], kindergarten adjustment, IQ) revealed that autonomy support was positively related to grade 3 adjustment (social and academic) and reading achievement. Maternal emphasis on school performance was positively related to achievement measures but negatively related to social adjustment. Maternal use of rewards and praise was unrelated to grade 3 school measures. Finally, supplemental analyses revealed that autonomy support was associated with greater consistency in children's adjustment across social and academic domains as well as higher overall adjustment. These results highlight the developmental significance of parental autonomy support in early childhood.     

自闭症和智力障碍儿童行为问题与父母焦虑的关系:育儿压力的中介作用与领悟社会支持的调节作用

为探讨自闭症和智力障碍儿童行为问题与其父母焦虑的关系及其内在作用机制,研究采用问卷法对1023名自闭症和智力障碍儿童父母进行调查。结果表明：(1)自闭症和智力障碍儿童行为问题对父母焦虑具有正向预测作用;(2)育儿压力在儿童行为问题和父母焦虑间起中介作用;(3)儿童行为问题与育儿压力的关系受到领悟社会支持水平的调节,调节作用只在智力障碍儿童父母群体中显著。研究结果有助于揭示自闭症和智力障碍儿童行为问题对父母焦虑的影响及作用机制,对改善自闭症和智力障碍儿童父母育儿压力与焦虑具有一定指导意义。     

Perceived social support mediates between prior attachment and subsequent adjustment: a study of urban African American children.

The processes whereby attachment and other social and cognitive factors contribute to social and emotional adjustment were examined. Participants were 56 African American children from low-income urban families. Attachment and sociability were assessed in the strange situation when children were 4.5 years old. Two years later, children were interviewed regarding their perceptions of social support and their attributions about others' intentions. Also assessed at Time 2 were child verbal intelligence, defensive response style, children's self-reports, and parent reports of child adjustment. As expected, attachment uniquely predicted perceived social support. Insecure attachment predicted self-reports of behavior problems and parental report of internalizing problems. Perceived social support was associated positively and significantly with viewing ambiguously depicted actions as prosocial rather than aggressive. Perceived social support was found to mediate the relation between attachment and adjustment. Results suggest that behaviorally mediated strategies for relating to caregivers in early childhood predict generalized social perception, thought, and emotion at later ages.     

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.     

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.     

Parental,child-centered attributions and outcome: A meta-analytic review with conceptual and methodological implications

Eight empirical studies which bear on the relation between parents' child-centered attributions for children's problems and parental satisfaction or child adjustment were meta-analyzed. The parental attributional dimensions of stability and globality garnered the most support as correlates of parental satisfaction and/or children's adjustment; the dimensions of intent, selfish motivation, and blame received initial support and warrant further study. Important methodological and conceptual issues were identified and improvements are suggested. The need for prospective designs aimed at determining the causal relation, if any, between parental attributions and outcome, thorough assessment of attributions and the events which impinge upon them, detailed measurement of symptom and satisfaction variables, a wider array of child diagnoses, and establishment of parental diagnoses, are emphasized.     

Children's engagement and competence in personal recollection: effects of parents' reminiscing goals

Parents' goal orientations in parent-child reminiscing were examined in this study, where 28 preschoolers (mean age = 46 months) experienced a standardized event. Dyads discussed the event that evening, with parents randomly assigned to either an "outcome-oriented" or a "process-oriented" condition. Outcome-oriented parents, who were told that children subsequently would be tested on event-related recall, were more controlling in these conversations compared with process-oriented parents, who were told that children's personal perspective would be assessed. Parents did not differ in their provision of structure. Children were interviewed 2 weeks later. Autonomy support in the parent-child conversation predicted children's engagement in the interview. Parental structure predicted children's recall of details and the coherence of their memories. Effects of parental reminiscing styles for children's memory and motivation to reminisce are discussed.     

Response latency as a predictor of the accuracy of children's reports

Researchers have explored various diagnostic cues to the accuracy of information provided by child eyewitnesses. Previous studies indicated that children's confidence in their reports predicts the relative accuracy of these reports, and that the confidence-accuracy relationship generally improves as children grow older. In this study, we examined the added contribution of response latency to the prediction of children's accuracy over and above that of confidence ratings. In Experiments 1 and 2, 2nd and 5th graders studied picture-event pairs and were tested using forced-choice, 2-alternative, or 5-alternative questions. In Experiment 3, children watched a slideshow depicting a story and were tested by 5-alternative questions about story details. The children indicated their confidence in each response, and response latency was measured. The results of all experiments suggested that children in both age groups relied on response latency as a cue for confidence, and this reliance contributed to the success with which they monitored the accuracy of their reports. When the test format was easy (Experiment 1), 2nd graders were as accurate as 5th graders in monitoring the accuracy of their answers, and the latency of their responses was no less predictive of accuracy. When the task was more difficult, age differences emerged. Nevertheless, in all experiments and for both age groups, response latency was found to have added value for predicting accuracy over and above that of confidence. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings for predicting the accuracy of children's reports are discussed.     

Short-term and long-term effects of early parental employment on children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth

This study examined the effects of early parental employment on children in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Minimal effects on children's later functioning were found. Early maternal employment status and the timing and continuity of early maternal employment were not consistently related to children's development. Working more hours was associated with slightly lower cognitive development through age 9 and slightly lower academic achievement scores before age 7 but had no significant relation to children's behavior problems, compliance, or self-esteem. Early parental employment appeared to be somewhat more beneficial for single mothers and lower income families. There was some support for the hypothesis that early parental employment positively affects children's development by increasing family income.     

Differential susceptibility and the early development of aggression: interactive effects of respiratory sinus arrhythmia and environmental quality

The purpose of the current study was to predict the development of aggressive behavior from young children's respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and environmental quality. In a longitudinal sample of 213 children, baseline RSA, RSA suppression in response to a film of crying babies, and a composite measure of environmental quality (incorporating socioeconomic status and marital adjustment) were measured, and parent-reported aggression was assessed from 18 to 54 months of age. Predictions based on biological sensitivity-to-context/differential susceptibility and diathesis-stress models, as well as potential moderation by child sex, were examined. The interaction of baseline RSA with environmental quality predicted the development (slope) and 54-month intercept of mothers' reports of aggression. For girls only, the interaction between baseline RSA and environmental quality predicted the 18-month intercept of fathers' reports. In general, significant negative relations between RSA and aggression were found primarily at high levels of environmental quality. In addition, we found a significant Sex × RSA interaction predicting the slope and 54-month intercept of fathers' reports of aggression, such that RSA was negatively related to aggression for boys but not for girls. Contrary to predictions, no significant main effects or interactions were found for RSA suppression. The results provide mixed but not full support for differential susceptibility theory and provide little support for the diathesis-stress model.     

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.     

Linking Parents' Work Stress to Children's and Adolescents' Psychological Adjustment

Recent research indicates that parental work stress has implications for the quality of family interaction and, in turn, children's and adolescents' adjustment. Studies in two distinct genres are reviewed: investigations relying on global reports of work demands, family dynamics, and child and adolescent adjustment and studies focusing on within-person comparisons of family interaction on days characterized by high and low work stress. The effects of parental work stress on children's and adolescents' adjustment appear to be indirect. Work stress is linked to parents' feelings of overload and strain, which in turn predict lower parent-child acceptance and higher conflict, processes that in turn are related to less positive adjustment of children and adolescents. In the face of high work stress, withdrawing from family involvement may be adaptive in the short run but ultimately problematic. The strength of these associations depends on parents' personality qualities, parents' coping styles, and work and family circumstances.     

Social support and adjustment in chronically ill and handicapped children

The relationship between social support and adjustment was investigated in children with a chronic physical illness or handicap. Mothers of 153 children with juvenile diabetes, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, chronic obesity, spina bifida, or cerebral palsy reported on these children's family support, peer support, externalizing behavior problems, and internalizing behavior problems. Children reported as having high social support from both family and peers showed a significantly better adjustment than those with high social support from only one of these sources. Chronically ill or physically handicapped children without high support from both family and peers were reported to have significantly more behavior problems than children in general. Both family and peer support contributed negatively and independently to the variance in externalizing behavior problems, whereas only peer support did so for internalizing behavior problems. There were no interactions between type of support and either sex or age in predicting adjustment.     

Parental conflict and children's coping styles in litigating separated families: Relationships with children's adjustment

The influence of interparental verbal and physical aggression, children's coping styles, and relevant demographic factors on children's adjustment was examined in a group of 52 families who were disputing custody and/or access arrangements after separation. It was hypothesized that parental conflict and specific children's coping strategies (i.e., cognitive redefinition and social support seeking) would be important predictors of children's adjustment. Consistent with previous research, aggressive styles of resolving conflict between parents were related to more frequent and severe behavior problems and diminished competence among children. Conversely, greater flexibility in coping and greater use of cognitive coping strategies among children were related to decreased behavioral disturbance. The unique and combined influence of these variables is discussed.This research was supported in part through a grant from the LaMarsh Research Programme on Violence and Conflict Resolution, York University, Toronto, Ontario. The author acknowledges the help of Cathy Melville and Susan Dickens in the data analyses. In addition, the author thanks the staff and families at the Toronto and London, Ontario, Family Court clinics who participated in this project.