Parental socialization of emotion expression: gender differences and relations to child adjustment

The present study examined gender differences in children's submissive and disharmonious emotions and parental attention to these emotions. Sixty children and their mothers and fathers participated when children were 4 and 6 years old. Children's emotion expression and parental responses during a game were coded. Girls expressed more submissive emotion than boys. Fathers attended more to girls' submissive emotion than to boys' at preschool age. Fathers attended more to boys' disharmonious emotion than to girls' at early school age. Parental attention at preschool age predicted later submissive expression level. Child disharmonious emotion predicted later externalizing symptoms. Gender differences in these emotions may occur as early as preschool age and may be subject to differential responding, particularly by fathers.     

Parental divorce and the well-being of children: a meta-analysis.

This meta-analysis involved 92 studies that compared children living in divorced single-parent families with children living in continuously intact families on measures of well-being. Children of divorce scored lower than children in intact families across a variety of outcomes, with the median effect size being .14 of a standard deviation. For some outcomes, methodologically sophisticated studies yielded weaker effect sizes than did other studies. In addition, for some outcomes, more recent studies yielded weaker effect sizes than did studies carried out during earlier decades. Some support was found for theoretical perspectives emphasizing parental absence and economic disadvantage, but the most consistent support was found for a family conflict perspective.     

Reinforcing value of physical activity as a determinant of child activity level.

This study examined whether the relative reinforcing value of physical activity (RRVPA) measured in the laboratory predicted physical activity measured in the natural environment in 32 6-11-year-old children. RRVPA correlated with physical activity level (r = .42, p < .05), and contributed to the prediction of physical activity level along with child obesity. RRVPA was related to the number of moderate to vigorous physical activity exercise bouts (r = .35, p < .05), not to the duration of those bouts. These results suggest that RRVPA is a determinant of child physical activity level, and that it may be naturally more reinforcing for children to engage in multiple, short exercise bouts than fewer, more extended bouts.     

Preventing prejudice and improving intergroup attitudes: A meta-analysis of child and adolescent training programs

This article reports the results of a meta-analysis of 81 research reports containing 122 intervention–control comparisons of structured programs to reduce prejudice or promote positive intergroup attitudes in children and adolescents. Overall, the analysis revealed a mean effect size of d = 0.30, indicating low to moderate intervention effects. From the great variety of different approaches, interventions based on direct contact experiences along with social-cognitive training programs designed to promote empathy and perspective taking showed the strongest effect sizes. In addition, effects varied according to the program participant's social status (higher effects for majority groups), the target out-group (lower effect sizes for ethnic vs. disabled and aged out-groups), and the type of outcome assessment (higher effects for cognitive vs. affective and behavioral measures of intergroup attitudes). The discussion considers several limitations including the lack of implementation and follow-up research as well as future direction of research on promoting intergroup relations.     

Parental and professional views of the needs of families with a child with severe physical disability

The study examined parents' and paediatricians' views of the prevalence of needs for help in a number of different areas related to child and family functioning. Twenty-four paediatricians estimated the percentage of families who would need help in each area and their estimates were compared with data from 107 parents who responded about their own needs. Parents and paediatricians largely agreed on the areas of greatest need but in other areas paediatricians tended to overestimate the negative impact of the child on the family and parents' needs for help in teaching the child. Paediatricians with more years experience were likely to be more accurate in their estimates, as were those who placed greater emphasis on giving information about other services to parents and the importance of their own continued involvement with the family. Results are discussed in relation to their implications for parent-professional partnership, the need for more emphasis on communication skills in medical training and the importance of individualized assessment of family needs.     

Parental conflict and male adolescent problem behavior.

Mothers in 30 clinical and 35 nonclinical families completed a behavior checklist for a target son and all other sons in the family who were between 13 and 17 years old. Each of these male adolescents completed two perceived parental conflict questionnaires for their biological parents. In each group, child behavior problems and parental conflict were correlated under two conditions: (a) using information pertaining to the target adolescent and (b) using information pertaining to the male adolescent experiencing the greatest behavior difficulties. Correlations increased in the nonclinical group when the information used was for the adolescent experiencing the greatest behavior difficulties.     

Maternal meta-emotion philosophy and socialization of adolescent affect: The moderating role of adolescent temperament

This study explored the associations between maternal meta-emotion philosophy (MEP) and maternal socialization of preadolescents' positive and negative affect. It also investigated whether adolescent temperament and gender moderated this association. MEP involves parental awareness and acceptance of their own and their child's emotions and their coaching of child emotions. Event-planning (EPI) and problem-solving (PSI) interactions were observed in 163 mother-adolescent dyads, and maternal behaviors were coded to provide indices of socialization responses to adolescent emotion. In addition, maternal MEP was assessed via interview, and preadolescents provided self-reports of temperament on 2 occasions. Maternal MEP that is higher in awareness and acceptance was associated with reduced likelihood of negative socialization behaviors during the EPI. Moreover, preadolescents' temperamental negative emotionality (NEM) and effortful control (EC) moderated some of these MEP-socialization associations. During the positive EPI task, greater maternal awareness and acceptance is associated with reduced likelihood of negative socialization toward preadolescents with "easy" temperaments, that is, low NEM or high EC. However, during the conflict task, greater maternal awareness is associated with reduced likelihood of negative socialization among preadolescents with "difficult" temperaments. Some male-specific associations were also found.     

Parental bonding may moderate the relationship between parent physical activity and youth physical activity after school

ObjectivesThe processes and conditions through which parents may influence children's physical activity have not been identified. This study tested the hypothesis that bonding with parents would moderate the relationships between parental physical activity and youth physical activity.DesignA cross-sectional preliminary study.MethodsA total of 57 sixth and seventh grade students completed a survey that assessed bonding with parents and parental physical activity. Then, on 3 days, they reported their moderate and vigorous physical activity using the Previous Day Physical Activity Recall.ResultsHierarchical multiple regression analyses showed a moderation effect such that the interaction between bonding with parents and parental physical activity significantly predicted youth physical activity after controlling for their main effects.ConclusionThis preliminary study suggests that interventions targeting parents as the route to increasing physical activity may need to target both increasing parental physical activity and the parent--child bond.     

Viewing imitation as child responsiveness: a link between teaching and discipline domains of socialization

The authors observed 106 children's imitation and responses to maternal control at 14 and 22 months. Imitation was observed in a teaching task in which mothers modeled 3 standard pretend-play sequences. Responses to control were observed in typical discipline contexts. Girls imitated more than boys. Responsive imitation measures were coherent and longitudinally stable and correlated significantly with responsiveness to maternal control. The authors propose that a young child's willingness to imitate his or her parent in a teaching context and to comply in a control context both reflect a responsive or receptive stance toward parental socialization. The consistency of children's responsiveness across contexts has implications for both sociomoral and cognitive development.     

Biological maturation and physical activity in adolescent British females: The roles of physical self-concept and perceived parental support

ObjectivesThis study examined the mediating and moderating effects of physical self-concept and parental support, respectively, on relations between maturation and physical activity (PA) in British adolescent females.DesignCross-sectional field based study.MethodsBiological maturity status, physical self-concept, perceived parental support for PA, and self-reported PA were assessed in 244 female British year 7–9 pupils (M age = 12.8 years, SD = .9).ResultsStructural equation modelling, employing maximum likelihood estimation and boot-strapping procedures supported the contention that physical self-concept mediated an inverse relation between maturation and PA. A regression model examining the main and interactive effects of maturation and parental support on PA provided evidence of a main effect for parental support, but no interactive effect.ConclusionsThe results suggest that physical self-concept partially mediates an inverse relation between maturity and physical activity in adolescent females. Accordingly, how adolescent females interpret or perceive the changes associated with maturation may be more important than maturation itself. Encouraging adolescent females to view puberty as a natural and attractive aspect of the process of ‘growing up’ may help mitigate any negative health consequences associated with early maturation. Parental support for PA does not appear to moderate relations between maturation and PA.     

Parental and sibling effects in adolescent outcomes

This study examined the differential effects of parenting and sibling influences (and the interaction between the two) in predicting adolescents' problem behaviors. The reliability and validity of the Sibling Relationship Questionnaire was also assessed. Subjects were 99 intact families from the San Francisco Bay area, all of whom contained both parents and at least one target child between 10 and 18 years of age still living in the home. Analysis indicated that sibling behavior was a significant predictor of deviant behavior, as measured by the Child Behavior Checklist, even when parenting effects were statistically controlled. Parenting effects had a separate effect on adolescents' positive behaviors. The analysis of the Sibling Relationship Questionnaire indicated adequate test-retest and internal consistency reliability, and construct validity. Findings are discussed in terms of the larger literature on socialization on the different ways that siblings and parents influence adolescent outcomes.     

From cleaning up to helping out: Parental socialization and children's early prosocial behavior

Relations between parental socialization and infants’ prosocial behavior were investigated in sixty three 18- and 30-month old children. Parents’ socialization techniques (e.g., directives, negotiation, reasoning) differed for the two age groups, as did relations between socialization and different forms of emerging prosocial behavior (helping; sharing).     

Relationship of family socialization processes to adolescent moral thought

The author investigated the relationship between salient family processes and adolescent moral thought among a sample of 271 adolescents and their parents. Family-process variables measured were adaptability, cohesion, and parent-adolescent communication; adolescent moral thought was measured by the influence the adolescent participants attributed to sources of moral authority. Perceptions of high family cohesion were associated with the greatest influence attributed to the family as a source of moral authority. Perceptions of high family adaptability were associated with greater influence attributed to all sources of moral authority. Parent-adolescent dyads who perceived high positive communication showed strong parent-adolescent agreement on the levels of influence attributed to all sources of moral authority. The findings (a) support the view that a strong relationship exists between family-socialization processes and the content of adolescent moral thought and (b) redress an empirical imbalance in research literature.     

Impact of mothers' life style on adolescent gender-role socialization

The perceptions and attitudes of 365 eighth-grade girls were surveyed to examine the direct and indirect impact of mothers' life style on adolescents' gender-role development. Among the hypotheses investigated were the following: (1) mothers' activity outside the home enhances her status and increases the likelihood of diminished gender-role differentiation in the family and (2) status and parental role differentiation explain a greater proportion of the variance in the gender-role socialization variables than maternal life style. Multiple regression analyses were carried out to determine which combination of life style and intervening variables would best predict gender-role responses. Collectively, the results indicated only modest relationships between maternal characteristics and girls' gender-role socialization. The appropriateness of this model for future research is discussed.Data reported here are from a study conducted while the senior author was a Charles Phelps Taft Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cincinnati.     

Spontaneous and experimentally induced action planning and coping planning for physical activity: A meta-analysis

ObjectivesThe main objective of this review was to provide summary effects for spontaneous and experimentally induced action planning (AP) and coping planning (CP) for physical activity (PA). These summary effects were then used to test key theoretical postulates using meta-analytic path analysis, and examine possible boundary conditions via moderation analyses.DesignThis review employed a quantitative research synthesis design.MethodUsing the method of Lipsey and Wilson (2001), fixed- and random-effects meta-analysis was performed on over 150 effect sizes from 23 correlational and 21 experimental studies. The method of Viswesvaran and Ones (1995) was used to test two mediation models using the correlational meta-analytic data. Group comparisons and meta-regression were used to test moderation.ResultsAmong the correlational studies, findings indicated a medium-to-large summary effect of spontaneous AP (φ = .41) and CP (φ = .38) on PA. Among the experimental studies, results revealed a small-to-medium summary effect (φ = .24) when comparing all experimental conditions versus all controls and a medium-to-large summary effect (φ = .37) when comparing purely planning conditions versus neutral controls. Support was found for AP and CP as partial mediators in the relation between intention and PA. Numerous significant moderators emerged.ConclusionThis review offers the first meta-analytic estimates of both spontaneous and experimentally induced AP and CP for PA, while supporting the role of both spontaneous AP and CP as mediators in both a multiple and sequential mediation model. Relevant moderators will serve to inform future research in this area.     

Parental control in child rearing and multidimensional locus of control.

272 French-Canadian adolescent boys and 286 girls took part in a study of the association between parental control in child-rearing and Levenson's locus of control dimensions. Analysis showed relations between parental control and the two external dimensions but not with the internal one. Age and gender did not contribute to the various relationships.     

Parental responsibility of African-American unwed adolescent fathers

This study investigated factors related to adolescent fathers' willingness to take parental responsibility for their children. Data were collected on a convenience sample of 43 African-American unwed adolescent fathers. Demographic information was gathered, and self-image was measured using the Offer Self-Image Questionnaire. An author-developed questionnaire measured father's parental responsibility, his own role expectations, and the perceived role expectations of his partner and parents. The findings indicated that father's parental responsibility was influenced by his own role expectations and self-image. The perceived role expectations of his partner and parents were not related to his willingness to take parental responsibility. This study helps adolescent care providers in various settings to become familiar with some of the issues related to teenage fathers, and assists them in determining appropriate interventions.     

Parental defense style and child competence: A match-mismatch hypothesis

This study sought to explore the possible relationship between parental style of psychological defense and children's social competence in 50 families in which one parent had been hospitalized for a psychiatric disorder. Based upon a formal analysis of the logical transformations inherent in various defense mechanisms, three levels of complexity of defenses were identified, along with a counterpart set of cognitive operations necessary for decoding these defense levels. It was hypothesized that children lacking the requisite cognitive skills to grasp the logical complexities of their disturbed parent's primary mode of psychological defense would be less socially adjusted and judged less competent than children who could understand the defensive transformations of their parent. The results suggested that children who, due to their cognitive immaturity, are potentially     

Training in child and adolescent group therapy: Two surveys and a model

Although group therapy is widely used in the treatment of children and adolescents, there has been little attention paid to establishing training standards and developing comprehensive programs for training psychiatry fellows in child and adolescent group psychotherapy. The authors conducted two surveys of child and adolescent training programs. After reviewing the literature, they present the data from their surveys, compare similarities and differences, and discuss trends. Finally, they propose a model for training in child and adolescent group therapy.