Love for a Marriage Story: The Association Between Love and Marital Satisfaction in Middle Adulthood

Journal of Child and Family Studies - The present study examined the associations between perceptions of love and marital satisfaction and gender moderations among Korean middle-aged married men...     

The Moderating Effects of Mindfulness on Psychological Distress and Emotional Eating Behaviour

Current evidence and theory suggests that emotional eating resulting from attempts to manage psychological distress, such as anxiety, depression, and stress, is considered to be a major contributor to obesity. Mindfulness has been shown to be related to disordered eating behaviours. Employing a non‐clinical sample of 42 males and 115 females, the present study investigated the contribution of mindfulness as a potential moderator between psychological distress and engagement in emotional eating, while controlling for the effects of gender and general nutrition knowledge. Consistent with predictions, psychological distress was positively associated with engagement in emotional eating, while mindfulness was found to share an inverse relationship. Moreover, after controlling for gender and general nutrition knowledge, the interaction between psychological distress and mindfulness was found to significantly predict the tendency to engage in emotional eating over and above the individual effects of these variables. The findings from the current study add to the current literature supporting the use of mindfulness‐based interventions for treatment of emotional eating practices in individuals experiencing anxiety, stress, and lower levels of depression.     

The Roles of Cognitive Flexibility and Experiential Avoidance in Explaining Psychological Distress in Survivors of Interpersonal Victimization

The long-term negative psychological consequences associated with interpersonal victimization are significant; however a history of interpersonal victimization alone does not necessarily lead to greater long-term psychological distress. The current study examined the relationship between cognitive flexibility, experiential avoidance, and psychological distress among 92 women who reported a history of interpersonal victimization. The findings indicate that both cognitive flexibility and experiential avoidance are significantly related to posttraumatic stress symptomology and depression in this sample. Preliminary evidence is also presented suggesting experiential avoidance maybe a potential mediator between cognitive flexibility and psychological distress in this sample. The current findings suggest that treatments targeting greater emotional acceptance and mindfulness might be useful approaches in working with survivors of interpersonal victimization.     

Social-Exchange Theory: Cognitive Restructuring in Marital Therapy

Problems arise in marital relationships when any of the following conditions are not met: first, that the couple have correspondence of their beliefs, or rules, as to what behaviors constitute “value messages” or “devalue messages”; second, that they depend primarily upon nonpainful channels for sending and receiving value messages; and third, that each partner's required quota of value messages from the other be of a reasonable quantity, not inflated by unrealistic fear of abandonment or devaluation. Problems in any of these areas may present in a variety of seemingly disparate fashions. Each of these problems is amenable to cognitive restructuring strategies. Different demands are placed on the therapeutic alliance and the marital alliance by the elucidation of each of these three types of problems; proper timing of interventions is therefore necessary.     

认知评价在婚姻冲突与青少年自尊关系间的中介作用

以538名初一至高三年级青少年为被试,采用儿童对婚姻冲突的感知量表和自尊量表考察青少年父母冲突的特征、青少年对冲突的认知评价和自尊的关系.结果表明:不同年级青少年报告的父母冲突特征没有显著差异,但其对冲突的认知评价却表现出显著的年级差异,年级越高则青少年越少感受到威胁并更少对冲突做自我归因;婚姻冲突对青少年自尊的直接影响显著,但当加入认知评价作为中介变量后,直接影响不再显著,而间接作用很显著,模型检验结果支持认知评价的中介作用.     

认知情绪调节对流动儿童同伴依恋和孤独感的调节作用

考察流动儿童同伴依恋与孤独感的特点,以及认知情绪调节在两者关系之间的调节作用.采用整群取样方法对595名流动儿童和本地城市儿童进行问卷调查.结果表明:(1)流动儿童的孤独感显著高于本地儿童;(2)流动儿童的同伴依恋得分及其信任、沟通维度得分显著低于本地儿童;(3)流动儿童的孤独感和同伴依恋显著负相关;(4)较高的积极认知情绪调节得分对同伴依恋和孤独感的关系具有减弱作用.因此,积极认知情绪调节策略可以作为流动儿童应对不良环境的弹性力量.     

Relations of Interpersonal Unfairness with Counterproductive Work Behavior: The Moderating Role of Employee Self-Identity

Purpose

Following the job demands–resources model, this study investigated the role of self-identity, or how employees define themselves in relation to others, in the relations between interpersonal unfairness and counterproductive work behavior (CWB). Self-identity, an important self-regulatory and resource-related variable, was proposed to moderate the unfairness–CWB relations.

Methodology

A sample of 361 Chinese airline industry employees completed measures of identity, interpersonal unfairness, and CWB directed at people or the organization. We conducted a series of moderated regression analyses to test the hypotheses.

Findings

We found as expected relational identity (identity based on dyadic connection to another person) and collective identity (identity based on membership in a social group) buffered unfairness–CWB relations, such that positive relations were weaker when relational or collective identity was high (vs. low). Support was not found for the proposed moderation effect of individual identity (identity based on uniqueness from others) on unfairness–CWB relations. Supplementary relative weight analyses indicated that multiple identity levels and interactions between them accounted for considerable proportions of explained variance in CWB.

Implications

These findings suggest that different levels of employee identity seem to play different roles in the interpersonal unfairness–CWB relations, and it is important to continue studying employee identity profiles in the context of predicting CWB occurrences.

Originality/Value

This study not only advances our understanding of potential antecedents of CWB, but also underscores the importance of simultaneously studying all three levels of employee identity.     

You Name It: Interpersonal Affect Labeling Diminishes Distress in Romantic Couples

Although it is increasingly acknowledged that social interactions may provide support at times of adversity, whether or how such interactions can buffer distress remains unclear. The objective of the present study was to examine whether naming the emotions of our partner in aversive situations can effectively reduce distress and whether the regulator’s empathy contributes to its effectiveness. We utilized a novel performance-based interpersonal affect labeling (IAL) paradigm. Seventy-four romantic couples were randomly divided into targets and regulators. The targets watched aversive pictures with low and high intensity and rated their level of distress after: (1) simply viewing the picture (control trials) (2) choosing a label that describes their emotional reaction (self-labeling trials), (3) viewing a label chosen for them by the regulator, their partner (IAL trials). It was found that IAL significantly reduced distress compared to self-labeling. Moreover, the effectiveness of IAL increased as a function of the regulator’s level of empathy. The results highlight the importance of empathy in social support and suggest that as simple an action as naming our partner’s emotions may be effective in reducing their distress. Moreover, it emphasizes the potential contribution of nonprofessional help in emotion regulation.     

Communication and Adjustment in Marriage: Investigating the Relationship

The relationship between marital communication and adjustment is assumed to be a strong one, although little research has been done to verify the assumption. This article reports a study in which the relationship was shown to be positive; it also describes some clinical observations of the sample couples in a related research task. It suggests that those scoring low on marital adjustment tended to either communicate more about their relationship than about the content of the task or to ignore each other in favor of working on the task independently.     

Behavioral Complexity Is in the Eye of the Beholder Effects of Cognitive Complexity and Message Complexity on Impressions of the Source of Comforting Messages

Recent theorizing suggests that exposure to sophisticated or behaviorally complex messages (i.e., messages that reflect a concern with multiple goals) may enhance the cognitiue development of message recipients. Reasoning that persons attempt to accommodate their cognitive structuring of an environment to the level of complexity in that environment, it was hypothesized that persons exposed to behaviorally complex messages would form more differentiated impressions of the message source than would persons exposed to less complex messages. It was also hypothesized that persons with complex systems of interpersonal constructs would form more differentiated impressions of the message source. Further, because persons with complex systems of interpersonal constructs should better appreciate the richness of behaviorally complex messages, it was hypothesized that message complexity would exert the strongest effect on impression differentiation for those with high levels of cognitive complexity. Participants in the study (410 college students) read a conversation containing comforting messages representing one of three levels of behavioral complexity; they subsequently wrote impressions of the source of these messages and these impressions were scored for the number of attributes they contained. Interpersonal cognitive complexity was assessed with Crockett's (1965) Role Category Questionnaire. Consistent with hypotheses, main effects for behavioral complexity and cognitive complexity were observed on impression differentiation; in addition, the anticipated interaction between message complexity and cognitive complexity was observed.     

Marital and Existential Pain: Dialectic in Bergman's "Scenes From a Marriage"

Marital pain and existential pain are discussed in terms of the movie "Scenes From a Marriage" by the Swedish director, Ingmar Bergman.     

Parental Distress Tolerance in Three Periods of Child Development: The Moderating Role of Child Temperament

Emotion regulation (ER) is essential to everyday, normative functioning. One aspect of ER is distress tolerance—the ability to persist in goal-directed activities when experiencing aversive states. Despite an assumption that ER improves with age, very little is known about ER across parenthood. Emotion regulation may be taxed by parenthood with implications for negativity in the family environment. The purpose of the current study was to describe levels of distress tolerance across periods of parenthood and to evaluate child temperament as a moderator of the relationship between child’s age and parents’ distress tolerance. A total of 602 parents (66.3% female, M _age ? =?32.31 years, SD?=?7.07) whose eldest child belonged to one of three developmental periods (i.e., infancy, n?=?187; early childhood, n?=?214; late childhood, n?=?201) completed an online survey. While we found no evidence for a main effect of child’s age on parent distress tolerance, children’s negative affectivity moderated the association between period of parenthood and parent distress tolerance. Specifically, children who were higher in negative affectivity had parents who reported less distress tolerance between the developmental periods. The implications of the current study are discussed in the context of current and future research on emotional regulation among parents.     

Effects of Item Difficulty on the Retrieval of Solutions during Cognitive Skill Acquisition: Age Differences

ABSTRACT

In cognitive skill learning, shifts to better strategies for obtaining solutions often occur while associations between problems and solutions are being strengthened. In two skill learning experiments, we examined the effects of item difficulty on the retrieval of solutions and the learning of problem–solution associations in younger and older adults. The results of both experiments demonstrated an ‘easy effect’ in both younger and older adults, such that the retrieval of solutions as well recognition memory for problems was best for the easier items. In addition, a ‘hard effect’ was found in younger adults, but not in older adults, whereby the retrieval of solutions as well as recognition memory for problems was better for harder items than for medium-difficulty items. The finding that increased computational demands at the item level delayed item memorization and the retrieval of solutions in older adults but not younger adults is consistent with a general-resources account of age-related differences in skill learning.     

Marriage Matters: A Description and Initial Examination of a Church-Based Marital Education Program

Marital education is helpful for treating marital distress. Religious organizations have been identified as a particularly useful outlet for the dissemination of marital education. We describe and present initial evidence for the effectiveness of Marriage Matters, a church-based marital education program. Participants (N = 731) reported a high level of satisfaction with the program and also reported feeling better about their marriage at the end of the program compared to the beginning of the program.     

Traumatic Exposure and Psychological Well-Being: The Moderating Role of Cognitive Flexibility

This study examined the moderating role of cognitive flexibility between earthquake exposure and psychological well-being. The participants were 491 adolescents from three middle schools in Sichuan. Multivariable, hierarchical linear regressions were used to analyze the data. The findings showed that there were significant differences in psychological well-being for the dimension of relocation of school (T = ?3.09, p < 0.01), damage to property (F = 2.73, p < 0.05) and damage to school (F = 5.76, p < 0.01). Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that cognitive flexibility moderated the relation between being hurt during the earthquake and psychological well-being (B = 1.01, SE = 0.31, T = 3.22, p < 0.01).     

Patterns in Blame Attributions in Maltreated Youth: Association with Psychopathology and Interpersonal Functioning

This investigation explored patterns of blame attributions in 128 youth, primarily (87%) female, with maltreatment histories. Second, the study also evaluated the relative variance in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity, emotional distress, and interpersonal functioning outcomes, accounted for by age, abuse characteristics, and blame attribution patterns. Cluster analyses revealed distinctive blame profiles: high perpetrator blame, moderate perpetrator blame, high self-blame, high perpetrator/high self-blame, and low perpetrator/low self-blame. Regression analyses yielded significant models, accounting for 15% to 34% of the variance of outcomes. Most notably, youth endorsing a high perpetrator/high self-blame (i.e., compounded blame) attribution pattern reported poorer outcomes as compared to youth presenting with other blame profiles. Maltreatment type and age differences were not demonstrated across clusters. Implications and limitations are discussed.     

Relative Income and Marital Happiness Among Urban Chinese Women: The Moderating Role of Personal Commitment

Compared with the rich knowledge in the West, studies of the impact of wives’ relative income on marital quality during the fast socioeconomic change period in urban China have surprisingly fallen far behind. This study attempted to examine the impact of relative income on marital happiness among urban Chinese women. Using an urban Beijing sample of 763 married women, this study found that a woman married to a husband with lower income tended to be less happy with her marriage, but this effect will be countered if there is more love in the sense of a genuine concern about the well-being of the partner and a willing to make sacrifice for him. The results were interpreted from theoretical verification and possible mechanisms linking personal commitment and marital happiness.