Parental relationships and coping with life stress

Abstract

The primary goal of this investigation was to explore how the quality of parent-student relationships relates to coping style by examining multiple aspects of this relationship–including support and conflict–and by examining the contribution that both parents' and students' perceptions of their relationship make to students' coping reports. We found that perceptions of conflict and depth in the parent-child relationship were each associated with different styles of coping. Moreover, parents' and students' perceptions each accounted for unique variance in students' coping reports. Greater perceived depth (both parent and student reports) predicted higher problem-focused scores, while students' perceptions of conflict predicted higher emotion-focused coping scores. Specific support provisions reported by students and parents also related differentially to the specific coping styles. Finally, the extent to which parents and students reported coping in a similar fashion was predicted by the quality of their relationship.     

父母婚姻冲突与初中生学业倦怠的关系:共同教养的中介作用

本研究基于家庭系统论的溢出假说,以376名初中生作为被试,采用父母婚姻冲突问卷、学业倦怠问卷和父母共同教养问卷,探讨父母婚姻冲突、父母共同教养对初中生学业倦怠的影响及其作用机制。研究结果发现：（1）父母婚姻冲突中的冲突频率、冲突强度因子与学业倦怠呈显著正相关,不支持型父母共同教养与学业倦怠呈显著正相关,支持型父母共同教养与学业倦怠呈显著负相关;父母婚姻冲突与不支持型父母共同教养呈显著正相关,婚姻冲突较高的父母在共同教养中表现出更多不支持的教养行为;（2）不支持型父母共同教养作为单独变量在父母婚姻冲突与学业倦怠之间起完全中介作用。     

The relationship between parenting styles and young adults' self-concepts and evaluations of parents.

In the present study, 123 college students were surveyed in order to assess their self-concepts, evaluations of parents, and perceptions of their parents' parenting styles. Notably, the students' self-concepts were found to vary directly with perceived level of parental warmth, but did not vary as a function of their parents' level of restrictiveness. Fathers and mothers were found to be rated more highly if they were perceived as being warm and permissive rather than hostile and restrictive. Finally, opposite-sex parents' level of warmth also correlated with how each parent was evaluated. Some explanations for these findings are offered.     

Intrinsic motivation among regular, special, and alternative education high school students.

This study examined motivationally related variables among three types of high school students. In particular, students' perceptions of competence, control, parental autonomy support, teacher autonomy support, peer autonomy support, and academic coping were investigated. Two hundred fifty-one juniors and seniors (104 regular education, 93 alternative education, and 54 special education) from a large Southern California school district participated. Significant group differences were found on measures of perceived competence, academic coping, and parental autonomy support. Specifically, regular education students had a higher level of self-reported academic competence than did special education students. Further, regular education and special education students reported that their parents were more involved in their lives as compared with alternative education students. Finally, regular education students reported a higher level of academic anxiety than did special education and alternative education students; however, regular education students had the highest level of positive coping. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Communication deviances: a comparison between parents of learning-disabled and normally achieving students

This study explored the relationship between parents' communication deviances and children's placement in a learning disability class. Participants were the parents of 30 learning-disabled students and 30 average students attending junior high school. Samples of communication were taken from parents' participation in an experimental task. Using a "blind" sorting procedure, raters were able to identify 87% of the learning-disabled students' parents by their high communication deviance scores and 77% of the average students' parents by their low communication deviance scores on the experimental communication task (p less than or equal to .0001). Implications for future research on the etiology and remediation of learning disabilities are discussed.     

Relationships among optimism, coping styles, psychopathology, and counseling outcome

This study had two objectives. The first objective was to evaluate the discriminant validity of optimism by examining the relationships between optimism and coping styles, while controlling for psychopathology. The second objective was to evaluate how well optimism, coping styles, and psychopathology predicted counseling outcome. Participants consisted of 96 college students involved in individual counseling at a university counseling center located in the southeastern United States. Consistent with previous studies, optimism was positively correlated with task-oriented coping and social diversion (social support), and it was negatively correlated with emotion-oriented coping and avoidance (distraction) coping. However, after partially out psychopathology, only the relationship between optimism and task-oriented coping remained statistically different from zero. Both optimism and psychopathology predicted two measures of counseling outcome. In contrast, coping styles were not useful for predicting any of the outcome measures. Results provide limited support for the discriminant validity of optimism in general and the Life Orientation Test in particular.     

A meta-analytic review of the influence of pediatric cancer on parent and family functioning.

This study used meta-analytic methods to compare the functioning of parents of children with cancer to parents of physically healthy children or normative samples. A meta-analysis using fixed effects, weighted least squares methods was conducted on 29 studies examining psychological distress and marital and family functioning among parents of children with cancer. Mothers and fathers of children newly diagnosed with cancer reported significantly greater distress than comparison samples. Mothers reported greater distress than fathers up to 12 months postdiagnosis. Mothers of children with cancer reported higher levels of family conflict than mothers of healthy children. Findings suggest that pediatric cancer impacts parents' perceptions of self- and family functioning, especially within the 1st year following diagnosis.     

Parents' and teachers' perceptions of adolescent storm and stress: relations with parenting and teaching styles

The purpose of this study was to determine if parents and teachers differed in their views of adolescent storm and stress, and to examine the relations of these reported perceptions with parenting and teaching behaviors. Subjects were parents and teachers of middle and high school students in three school districts in the Midwest. Storm and stress beliefs were identified as parents' and teachers' perceptions of conflict, moodiness, and risk-taking behavior. Scales assessing classic/conforming and positive adolescent behaviors also were included. Self-report assessments of parenting and teaching were administered as well. Results indicated that whereas both parents and teachers held storm and stress beliefs, teachers maintained stronger perceptions than parents. Teachers also endorsed higher classic/conforming and lower positive behaviors than did parents. The results further indicated that parents' perceptions of storm and stress were related to their degree of parental responsiveness; but teachers' perceptions were not related to their teaching style. These results suggest that stereotypic beliefs of the adolescent period continue to be maintained, and that these may influence how adults interact with adolescents.     

Collective efficacy following a series of natural disasters

This article examined adolescents' reports of how they cope with a specific social stressor: authority conflict with parents. This situation was presented to 626 adolescents as part of a larger study on coping with stress. Students were requested to report on the intensity of the stress experienced, intensity of emotions, emotion regulation, perceived availability of social support, goal framing, and coping strategies used. Coping strategies split up factor-analytically into two coping patterns, namely fighting the stressor and coming to terms with the stressor. The relations between these two coping modes and various aspects of the students' mental representation of the stressor were examined. It was predicted that the way students frame the coping goal would affect their choice of coping strategies. Direct effects of coping strategy, emotion regulation and social support on intensity of stress were tested as well as moderating effects of the type of coping mode used on the relationship between emotion regulation and experienced stress. It is suggested that some youngsters consider an authority conflict with their parents as a normal aspect of daily functioning, whereas other view it as a developmental challenge.     

工读学校学生的心理健康状况及其影响因素研究

本研究以工读学校和普通学校七～九年级学生为研究对象,研究工读学校学生的心理健康状况及其影响因素。结果表明：(1)工读学校学生的总体焦虑水平和抑郁水平显著高于普通中学生,存在更多的心理健康问题;(2)工读学校学生的心理健康水平不存在显著的年级差异,而普通中学生的心理健康水平存在显著的年级差异;(3)父母的教养方式与工读学校学生的心理健康水平存在显著的相关。工读学校学生的父母更多地采取消极的教养方式;(4)生活事件应激与工读学校学生的心理健康水平存在极其显著的负相关。工读学校学生负性生活事件所带来的应激强度显著高于普通中学生。     

Religious Homogamy, Marital Conflict, and Stability in Same-Faith and Interfaith Jewish Marriages

This study examined the relationship between a couple's similarity in religious beliefs and practices and their level of marital conflict and stability. One-hundred-fifty-five adult children of same-faith and interfaith Jewish marriages reported on each of their parents' religious beliefs and behaviors. Religious homogamy was defined as similar attitudes and beliefs about specific religious practices. The parents' level of marital conflict was obtained by having their adult children fill out the Children's Perception Questionnaire (Emery and O'Leary 1982). The major hypotheses tested were that a positive correlation would exist between religious homogamy and marital stability and this relationship would be mediated by the level of marital conflict. That is to say, as marital conflict increases, marital stability should decrease. It was expected that these correlations would still hold after controlling for religious denomination (same-faith and interfaith). Partial support for the model was found: more disagreement on Jewish issues predicted higher levels of marital conflict. Higher conflict, in turn, predicted less marital stability.     

The Association between Parental Reports of Attachment Style and Family Dynamics, and Offspring''s Reports of Adult Attachment Style

This research assessed the association between parents' reports of attachment styles and their perceptions of family environment, on the one hand, and offspring's reports of adult attachment styles, on the other. The sample included 98 Israeli young adults who completed the adult attachment style scale, and their mothers and fathers who completed this scale, as well as FACES III, and the conflict and expressiveness subscales of the Family Environment Scale. Findings revealed associations between parents' and offspring's reports of attachment styles, which were qualified by gender matching. They also indicated independent and differential contributions of the examined dimensions of perceived family environment to offspring's attachment styles. The discussion attempts to integrate attachment theory with a family system perspective.     

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.     

Behavioral predictors of changes in social relatedness and liking school in elementary school

Normative trends and behavioral predictors for three dimensions of social relatedness were examined in a 6-month longitudinal study of 383 students in Grades 3, 4 and 5. Student reports of social relatedness (teacher supportiveness, school supportiveness, loneliness) and liking school indicated that students in each of the grades felt less positive about the school environment and liked school less in the Spring compared to the Fall. Girls reported higher levels of teacher supportiveness and school supportiveness. Reports of school supportiveness were lower among students at higher grade levels. Teacher-rated aggression predicted declines in students' perceptions of teacher supportiveness, increases in their sense of loneliness, and decreases in reports of liking school across the school year. Teacher-rated closeness predicted the maintenance of student perceptions of high levels of relatedness. Peer social preference predicted increases in loneliness. A path model indicated that the association between aggressive behavior and liking school was mediated by the association between aggressive behavior and perceptions of teacher supportiveness.     

ROMANTIC PARTNERS' COPING STRATEGIES AND PATTERNS OF CORTISOL REACTIVITY AND RECOVERY IN RESPONSE TO RELATIONSHIP CONFLICT

Stress in close relationships can have significant negative consequences for mental health, physical health, and long-term relationship functioning. Dysregulated physiological responses to stress are potential pathways through which relationship stress may lead to these kinds of outcomes, and the ways in which individuals attempt to cope with relationship stress are likely to impact their physiological responses. However, our understanding of the specific coping strategies that predict physiological reactivity and recovery in these contexts is rather limited. This study explored relations between young adult college students' self-reported methods of coping with stress in their romantic relationships and their physiological reactivity to and recovery from negotiating conflict with their romantic partners. Partners' coping styles were also examined as predictors of physiological stress responses. One hundred and ninety opposite-sex couples (N = 380; modal length of relationship = 1-2 years) participated in an experimental conflict discussion task. Physiological stress reactivity to the task was assessed using salivary cortisol, a primary hormonal product of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis. Growth modeling of the cortisol levels before, during, and after the conflict task indicated that men who typically coped with relationship stress by seeking social support showed greater physiological reactivity to the conflict task. Partners' need for social support predicted stronger stress responses for both men and women, as well. While seeking social support is generally thought to be an adaptive coping strategy for couples, the results suggest that within the context of conflict negotiation in which receiving and providing support may be more difficult, seeking support from a partner is associated with greater phyisological stress.     

Apples and Oranges: Divergent Meanings of Parents' and Adolescents' Perceptions of Parental Influence

This study examines the hypothesis that effective parental influence stems from the qualities of the parent-adolescent relationship rather than from explicit efforts to alter adolescents' behaviors. Adolescents' versus parents' perceptions of parental influence as predictors of parent-adolescent relationship quality and of adolescents' social functioning are examined using observational and multireporter data obtained from a sample of 167 adolescents (90 female, 77 male; age M = 13.34 years, SD = 0.65), their parents, and their same-sex peers. Analyses revealed that adolescents' and parents' perceptions of parental influence were uncorrelated with one another and were differentially related to qualities of adolescents' relationships with parents and friends. Adolescents' perceptions of high parental influence were linked to observations and self-reports of warm, supportive relationships with parents (particularly mothers). In contrast, parents' reports of high influence were linked to lower levels of adolescent autonomy with parents and friends and less relatedness with mothers and friends.     

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.     

Predicting students' intention to smoke by theory of planned behaviour variables and parental influences across school grade levels

Differences were examined in Theory of Planned Behaviour determinants of students' intention to smoke including parents' attitudes towards smoking and parents' current cigarette use among Greek students of different school grade levels. Students (N?=?763) aged 10-18 years reported their attitudes towards smoking, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, self-identity and intention to smoke while their parents (N?=?525) reported their attitudes towards smoking and their current cigarette use. All the TPB variables increased from lower to higher school grade level. Multi-sample path analyses showed that parent's attitudes towards smoking positively predicted students' intention to smoke only for elementary school children. Parents' current cigarette use did not contribute significantly. Students' attitudes, perceived behavioural control and self-identity predicted systematically intention to smoke in contrast to the subjective norm that did not contribute at all. Perceived behavioural control contributed to a higher degree in intention to smoke for senior high school students compared to the junior high school and elementary students. Self-identity contributed to a higher degree in intention to smoke for elementary compared to the junior high school students. The results of this study suggests that the determinants of smoking vary between early and late adolescence.     

大学生生命愿景、自我效能感与应对方式的关系

采用问卷法以377名大学生为被试研究了生命愿景、一般自我效能感及应对方式的关系。研究结果为:1)大学生生命愿景整体水平较高,存在着性别和年级差异,女生的生命愿景显著高于男生;大一学生显著高于大四;2)生命愿景不同水平的大学生在一般自我效能感上存在显著性差异(t=7.35,p<0.001);在积极应对与消极应对因子上有显著性差异。3)大学生生命愿景与一般自我效能感呈显著正相关,并对自我效能感具有良好的预测作用;4)大学生生命愿景与积极应对方式呈显著正相关,与消极应对方式呈显著负相关;5)大学生生命愿景通过一般自我效能感对应对方式产生间接影响。结论为生命愿景作为应对源对大学生应对校园压力发挥积极作用。     

Chinese teachers’ use of humour in coping with stress

The purpose of this study was to examine the mentality of Chinese teachers regarding their use of humour in coping with stress. Specifically, the study investigated their frequency of use of humour in coping with stress as compared to other coping styles and their perceptions about the relationship of humour with other coping styles. Data were collected from a sample of 789 Chinese teachers holding teaching posts at local Hong Kong secondary schools. Based on responses made to the COPE questionnaire, there was evidence that Chinese teachers had a lower frequency of use of humour as compared to other coping styles. As suggested by the results of a factor analysis, there was a perception among Chinese teachers that the use of humour was related more closely to escaping and/or avoidance as coping strategies, but more differentiable from problem‐focused/task‐oriented and emotional/social coping. It is interesting to find that the results of our study echoed those of a previous crosscultural comparison between Chinese and Canadian university students, in which the Chinese university students reported less use of humour in coping with stress than did their Canadian counterparts. These results have provided some empirical support for the notion that “humor has been traditionally given little respect in Chinese culture mainly due to the Confucian emphasis on keeping proper manners in social interactions” (Yue, 2010, p. 403). As teachers in Chinese societies are regarded as persons who are full of wisdom and capable of problem‐solving, it is expected that they should act as role models to their students. These social expectations on Chinese teachers could further mould their perceptions on the use of humour in coping with stress.