Maternal Emotion Regulation and Children’s Behavior Problems: The Mediating Role of Child Emotion Regulation

Children’s difficulties managing emotions are contributors to their behavior problems, and parents’ emotion regulation difficulties are also likely contributors to their children’s regulatory challenges and behavioral difficulties. This study examined the associations among mothers’ emotion regulation, children’s emotion regulation, and children’s behavior problems. Children’s emotion regulation difficulties were hypothesized to mediate the association between maternal difficulties with emotion regulation and children’s internalizing and externalizing problems. A sample of 454 mothers completed the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, the Emotion Regulation Checklist, and the Child Behavior Checklist for their children aged 3–7. Children’s emotion regulation difficulties accounted for the indirect association between mothers’ lower emotion awareness and both internalizing and externalizing problems. On the other hand, children’s emotional negativity accounted for the indirect association between mothers’ difficulties with emotion regulation and behavior problems. Future directions for research and clinical intervention focused on promoting parental and child emotion regulation are discussed.     

Inside out,or outside in: meeting with couples

The complex difficulties often faced by couples require a range of models for effective help. Relational intensity is heightened in therapy by the ease with which the therapist can be triangled into the couple's relationship and by the influence of the emotional triggers from their respective internal worlds. This article draws on systemic and psychodynamic models and a transgenerational perspective for gendered stories. Different time frameworks link interpersonal and intrapersonal themes. In this sense, the therapist works ‘inside out’ and ‘outside in’. A framework of behaviours, emotions, feelings, meanings and beliefs is proposed to help link these perspectives. ‘Invisible contracts’ and the sense of there often being an unconscious ‘pact to disappoint’ are described. Clear models are not enough, for it is the intimate encounter between client and therapist that is the bedrock of therapeutic change and growth. There is no short cut to this sense of intimacy in the unique encounter between therapist and each new couple. Brief examples from practice describe how the issues discussed may be addressed in couples work.     

The Family Stress Model as it Applies to Custodial Grandfamilies: A Cross Validation

There is scant research on how the parenting practices of custodial grandmothers affect the psychological adjustment of grandchildren in their care. Yet, the findings from a handful of prior studies suggest the relevance of the Family Stress Model (FSM) to these caregivers. The present study further tested the FSM with baseline data from 343 custodial grandmothers (M_age?=?58.5 years) enrolled in a clinical trial of the efficacy of interventions for improving the well-being of their families. Not only was this “help-seeking” sample atypical of prior FSM studies, but also unique to the present study was our addition of multiple parenting practices, self-reported and clinical ratings of grandmothers’ distress, and reports of grandchildren’s internalizing and externalizing difficulties from grandchildren and grandmothers. Mplus 7.31 was used to test a model where the effect of grandmother distress on grandchildren’s internalizing and externalizing difficulties was hypothesized to be indirect through five distinct parenting practices. The findings regarding both the measurement and structural models fit the observed data well, and invariance was largely found across grandchildren’s gender and age (4–7 vs. 8–12). Although grandchildren’s self-reported internalizing and externalizing difficulties were unrelated to grandmothers’ distress and parenting practices, the grandmothers’ reports of these outcomes were generally related to their own distress and parenting practices as hypothesized. However, considerable variation was found across the five parenting practices in terms of their relationships to the other FSM constructs. We conclude that data from multiple informants and measures of assorted parenting practices are essential to future research and practice.     

Maternal psychological functioning mediates the association between infant behavior and subsequent child psychological functioning

Symptoms of psychopathology that onset during childhood are often more severe, chronic, and difficult to treat than symptoms that first appear later in life. Maternal psychological symptoms are associated with the development of psychological symptoms in children. However, less research focuses on whether children’s behaviors may presage maternal psychological difficulties that, in turn, contribute to the child’s own psychological functioning. Identifying psychological difficulties in families and intervening in early life may lower risk for intergenerational transmission of subsequent psychological symptoms. Even at non-clinical or normative levels, exploring transactional models of parent-child behavior and psychological functioning may provide insight into the development of later psychological difficulties or symptoms within families. Thus, the current study examined whether difficult infant behavior (e.g., fussiness, unpredictability) is associated with future maternal psychological difficulties and subsequently, the child’s own psychological functioning in early childhood. The current sample includes 847 dyads from a multi-wave birth cohort in England (‘Born in Bradford’), who identified as predominantly non-White (62.2%) and socioeconomically diverse. Mothers reported on their child’s behaviors at 6 months, their own psychological functioning during pregnancy and at 18 months postpartum, and their child’s psychological functioning at age 3. Results of a mediation model revealed that the association between infant behavior at 6 months and child psychological functioning at 3 years is partially explained by maternal psychological functioning at 18 months, even after accounting for psychological difficulties during pregnancy, maternal age at birth, child sex, family income, and ethnicity. Post-hoc exploratory analyses revealed that the association between infant behavior, maternal psychological functioning, and subsequent child psychological functioning was significant for Pakistani British families but not White British families. These findings provide preliminary evidence that infant behaviors (e.g., temperament) may presage future maternal psychological difficulties and subsequent child psychological functioning, above and beyond previous maternal psychological functioning. Importantly, these results highlight infant behavior as a potential catalyst for later psychological difficulties within families.     

Emotional Competence Disorders and Social Communication in Young Victims of Abuse

This research analyses the emotional competence difficulties (measured through emotional intelligence and empathy) and social communication disorders of young victims of abuse. These minors are in residential care centres with protective measures after suffering maltreatment and/or neglect. The relation between their emotional competence and social communication is analysed, as well as the contribution of empathy and emotional intelligence in predicting their social communication. The results indicate that a lack of emotional competence is related to and can predict their difficulties in social communication. The study manifests a scarcity of emotional intelligence, affecting attention, emotional repair and clarity of feelings, as well as a deterioration in affective and cognitive empathy. The minors’ scarce ability to put themselves in the place of others, to understand others’ intentions and emotional states, limits their use of language in social interactions. The research stresses the need to set up intervention programmes aimed at training in interpersonal and intrapersonal emotional competences which can encourage social communication.     

Mental health and mediumship: an interpretative phenomenological analysis

There is a lack of research examining the mental health of practicing mediums, yet the nature of mediumship work inherently presents a number of challenges to the mental health of practitioners. In this study, we aimed to gain an understanding of how mediums experience their mental health in relation to their mediumistic practice and how they recognise and respond to psychological difficulties experienced by their clients. Fourteen mediums from the North West of England took part in one-to-one interviews, which were transcribed and subject to interpretative phenomenological analysis. Four themes were identified: from past traumas to mediumistic identity; spirit makes sense, mental illness is chaos; being resilient but vulnerable; and ethical mediumistic practice. The research highlights the value of not dismissing or attempting to change appraisals of valued aspects of mediums’ anomalous experiences. However, the findings do indicate that support for exposure to clients’ difficulties might be helpful.     

More focused attention upon relationship; another call for paradigm shift in psychiatry

Much of what are understood as ‘mental health difficulties’ reflects shortcomings in the ability to develop and sustain healthy relationships. Many of those embarking upon life as someone with a psychiatric diagnosis are people whose difficulties can be traced to adolescence, or even earlier in life. Unsatisfactory relational experiences during childhood are acknowledged contributors to subsequent psychological vulnerability. Numerous studies identify associations between other forms of relational disturbance, and the onset and maintenance of psychological difficulties. Some eighty years’ psychotherapy research has repeatedly suggested that the quality of therapeutic relationship is a major determinant of outcome. Sophisticated analyses of large databases now confirm this beyond doubt. All concur that social exclusion and stigma are the most disabling consequences of living as someone with a psychiatric diagnosis. None of these facts are disputed but there is continuing resistance to broad acknowledgement of their implications. This has many parallels with other examples of paradigm shift, as so clearly outlined by Thomas Kuhn. Uncertainties about the value of medical psychiatry and growing recognition of the role relationships play in the genesis and relief of mental health difficulties suggest that psychiatry can be seen in similar terms. This paper develops that thesis.     

Peripheral and central contribution to the difficulty of speech in noise perception in dyslexic children

Noise typically induces both peripheral and central masking of an auditory target. Whereas the idea that a deficit of speech in noise perception is inherent to dyslexia is still debated, most studies have actually focused on the peripheral contribution to the dyslexics’ difficulties of perceiving speech in noise. Here, we investigated the respective contribution of both peripheral and central noise in three groups of children: dyslexic, chronological age matched controls (CA), and reading‐level matched controls (RL). In all noise conditions, dyslexics displayed significantly lower performance than CA controls. However, they performed similarly or even better than RL controls. Scrutinizing individual profiles failed to reveal a strong consistency in the speech perception difficulties experienced across all noise conditions, or across noise conditions and reading‐related performances. Taken together, our results thus suggest that both peripheral and central interference contribute to the poorer speech in noise perception of dyslexic children, but that this difficulty is not a core deficit inherent to dyslexia.     

Psychometric Properties of the Parent Cognition Scale in a Clinical Sample of Parents of Children With Disruptive Behavior

The Parent Cognition Scale (PCS; Snarr, Slep, & Grande, 2009) is a self-report measure of parental attributions of child behavior that has demonstrated validity in community samples. However, its psychometric properties have not been examined in a clinical sample of parents of children with disruptive behavior. Examining the psychometric properties of the PCS in this population is important given research linking parent attribution with childhood disruptive behavior. The present study aimed to: (a) examine the psychometric properties of the PCS in a sample of parents whose children were clinic-referred for disruptive behavior problems; and (b) investigate the concurrent validity of the PCS and its factors using correlations with parent reports of children’s emotional and behavioral difficulties, and parenting skills (i.e., discipline, supervision). A confirmatory factor analysis was run on 225 parents’ responses on the PCS, and revealed that a two-factor structure of the PCS fit the data well. Significant correlations were found between Parent Causal Attributions (Factor 1) and parent-reported parenting difficulties. Child Responsible Attributions (Factor 2) were correlated with elevations in children’s emotion, attention, and conduct difficulties. The results provide information on the utility of the PCS for parents of children with disruptive behavior and its potential clinical relevance.     

Problems in relating theory to practice

Two kinds of difficulties, which should be made explicit, face a researcher undertaking empirical work in an institution. First, he must explain how he chooses his theoretical framework, in so far as what he sees and the information he obtains will depend far more than is often admitted on the type of questions he asks. Secondly, he must try to clarify the way in which he adapts his original intentions in the light of the practical difficulties that occur in the actual research situation, and how he interprets the evidence he finally decides is relevant. These points are illustrated by the study of an ‘open’ Borstal for girls. The aim of the study was to try to understand the workings of the institution, to outline the process which led to the Borstal sentence, and to attempt to discover the way the girls looked at the situation. The research was motivated by Matza's guiding principle, ‘to be true to the phenomena’, but even this, as this paper tries to show, does not lead to an unambiguous body of facts which can be presented unequivocally as ‘findings’.     

Functional neuroimaging of working memory in survivors of childhood brain tumors and healthy children: Associations with coping and psychosocial outcomes

Purpose: Pediatric brain tumors are the second most common cancer diagnosis in individuals under age 20 and research has documented significant neurocognitive, psychosocial, and emotional late effects. Associations among these deficits have not been adequately considered and the role of survivors’ coping with stress in relation to deficits is unknown. Further, research has yet to examine neurobiological processes related to neurocognitive, psychosocial, and emotional difficulties in survivors through the use of functional neuroimaging. Method: Questionnaire measures and functional neuroimaging were used to examine the neurocognitive, psychosocial, and emotional functioning and coping responses of survivors of pediatric brain tumors (N = 17; age 8–16) and healthy children (N = 15). Results: Survivors experienced elevated levels of psychosocial and behavioral/emotional difficulties relative to healthy controls and normative data. Increases in brain activation in prefrontal and other anterior regions in response to a working memory task were associated with better psychosocial functioning, use of engagement coping strategies, and less use of disengagement coping strategies. Regression analyses suggest coping accounts for a significant portion of the association between brain activation and behavioral/emotional functioning. Conclusions: This study extends late-effects research by examining neurobiological processes associated with psychosocial and emotional difficulties. These findings contribute to our understanding of difficulties in survivors and provide a foundation for research exploring these associations and mediators of deficits in future longitudinal studies.     

Perspectives on international collaboration in sales research

Abstract

International research collaboration and co-authorship among scholars is always encouraged, yet it comes with its share of difficulties. While globalization brings its own challenges in sales, this special issue focuses on the challenges of fostering international collaboration in sales research. Such perspective is important in today’s academic context for three main reasons. First, international collaboration in research forces scholars to take an international perspective on research problems and thus consider fields of study that may transcend cultural boundaries. Second, with international research collaboration indubitably comes broader exchanges of ideas. Having a breadth of perspectives is at the very essence of scholastic work. Third, international research collaborations can drive intellectual communities to embrace important global challenges confronting modern sales organizations.     

Negotiating professional and personal biographies in a liquid world: creating space for reflexive innovation in career counselling

This paper explores the constraints to innovative, creative and reflexive careers counselling in an uncertain neo-liberal world. We draw on previously reported research into practitioners’ use of a narrative model for career counselling interviews in England and a Europe-wide auto/biographical narrative study of non-traditional learners in universities. The latter draws on a number of narrative interviews with an asylum seeker, to debate whether such a way of working with people, ‘in a clinical style’, offers contextualised insight into people's struggles to construct a career and a methodology for doing so. The paper also examines the difficulties of creating a ‘good enough’ professional, psychosocial space for experimentation with creative approaches in a marketised guidance world, where more is expected from less.     

‘Outing’ Qoheleth: On the Search for Homosexuality in the Wisdom Tradition

Abstract

U. Wernik has recently commented upon the attempts of liberals and conservatives to co-opt the Bible in support of their respective positions on homosexuality. Focusing on same-sex relationships within the Bible, he offers six arguments in support of ‘outing’ Qoheleth as a homosexual. Here each is evaluated in turn. It is argued that a more convincing interpretation of all six is available in the light of the culture of Qoheleth's world. It is also argued that in the light of the ongoing essentialist/constructionist debate, Wernik's decision to impose the term ‘homosexual’ on the ancient world is deeply problematic. His ultimate failure to convince, however, does not definitively answer the question of Qoheleth's sexuality, but it is clear that any attempt to make good his claim in future must overcome significant textual and theoretical difficulties if it is to succeed. On the basis of current evidence, the view that Qoheleth's sexuality was identical to that which was most culturally acceptable in his own day remains the most likely option.     

Children's Adjustment in a Climate of Political Violence: Comparing Mother and Child Reports

There is a dearth of research on parent and child reports regarding a parent’s parenting and its contribution to a child’s adjustment. Therefore, the current study examined: (a) the differences between mother and child reports of aspects of maternal parenting (i.e., care and control), among both boys and girls; (b) which parenting report (i.e., mother’s or child’s) makes a stronger contribution to mother and child reports of the child’s adjustment in the context of political violence. One hundred and twenty-one mother-child dyads (children aged seven to 12 years old (M?=?10.02, SD?=?1.03)), who were exposed to prolonged political violence, participated in this study. Maternal care and control were assessed by mother and child reports on the Parental Bonding Instrument. Child’s adjustment was assessed both by mother’s report of child’s total difficulties and child’s self-report of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). Results revealed that both the mothers of girls and the girls themselves reported higher care, in comparison to mothers of boys and the boys themselves, while mothers of boys and the boys themselves reported higher control. Higher maternal control, as reported by the child, was associated with the child’s self-reported PTSS. Higher maternal control, as reported by the mother, was associated with the child’s total difficulties, as reported by the mother. However, maternal care, whether reported by mother or child, was not found to be associated with the child’s adjustment. School-aged children and their mothers were in agreement regarding maternal dimensions and their contribution to children’s adjustment.     

Five women talk about work‐related brief therapy and therapeutic writing

Therapeutic writing can play a valuable role in brief, workplace counselling. The present study explores the experiences of five women who used therapeutic writing in this context. Ethical and methodological dilemmas in carrying out this research are highlighted. The study also demonstrates the use of ‘fictionalist’ accounts as a way of overcoming some of the difficulties associated with the dual role of practitioner/researcher, especially confidentiality.     

Sexual Experiences among College Women: The Differential Effects of General versus Contextual Body Images on Sexuality

Women’s bodies are often objectified and evaluated, which may result in body dissatisfaction associated with sexual difficulties. This study of 384 college women confirmed that contextual body image during sex was more associated with a lower self-confidence to refuse sex, poorer sexual functioning, and reduced sexual assertiveness than general body dissatisfaction, and the level of contextual body image mediated the effect of body dissatisfaction. Moreover, greater contextual body image was associated with lower sexual self-efficacy, more ambivalence in sexual decision-making, and more emotional disengagement during sex with a partner, implying that contextual body image is a better predictor of women’s sexuality than general body image. Findings are discussed in relation to needed research and their implications for clinical interventions.     

Pupils' perceptions of self and of labels: Moderate learning difficulties in mainstream and special schools

Background: The study is set in the context of international moves towards more inclusion of children with disabilities into mainstream schools and the greater importance attached to the child's voice in decision making in education. Aims: To examine how children with moderate learning difficulties (MLD) in mainstream and special schools see themselves; to investigate their positive, negative and mixed self‐perceptions; to explore their evaluations of the terms and labels used by others to describe them; and to examine whether their perceptions vary according to special educational placement, age or gender. Sample: One hundred and one children; 50 in special and 51 in mainstream schools, of whom 51 were age 10–12 and 50 13–14 years; within each age group half were boys and half were girls. Method: Semi‐structured in‐depth interviews based on a common framework derived from the research questions. Results: Most pupils were aware of their learning difficulties and felt mainly negative about their difficulties. Pupils in special schools had more positive self‐perceptions of educational abilities than those in mainstream schools. Self‐perceptions of general characteristics were mainly a mixture of positive and negative with no differences by placement. ‘Stupid’ and ‘thick’ were perceived as the most negative labels, while ‘has help’ was the most positive label. The SEN term was infrequently recognized. Conclusions: The findings are discussed within the context of a multi‐dimensional, complex and contrary framework of self‐perceptions, and reference groups as the bases for self‐perceptions and as an active and interpretive process in the formation of self‐perceptions.     

Perceiving Revelation Here and Now: Insights from Walter Ong and Hans Urs von Balthasar

This essay argues that the research of Walter J. Ong, S.J. (d. 2003) is an important supplement for theological aesthetics, especially of the sort espoused by Hans Urs von Balthasar. Although Ong wrote relatively little theology proper, there is a surprising degree of confluence between Ong’s leading ideas in media/communication theory and Balthasar’s ideas about how our perception of beauty is of a piece with divine revelation. I relate their respective insights in three particular areas: (1) the phenomenology of spiritual perception; (2) the role of technology vis-à-vis revelation; and (3) the theology of the Word of God as word.     

Perspectives on Psychology and Law

The past decade saw an explosive growth in psychological research on law (particularly the judicial process) that continues unabated. This article presents an intellectual history of this research and a critical assessment of its contemporary developments. It begins by tracing four stages in the relations between psychology and law that serve to place present scholarship in perspective. Then follow two sections consisting of conceptual, methodological, and jurisprudential critiques of two topics, respectively, that traditionally have been and still remain at the center of research attention: the pretrial phase of the criminal process (eyewitness identifications) and the criminal trial itself (jury selection, jury decision making, and presentations of evidence and law to the jury). Finally, some themes are culled from past and present experience that capture the mood, difficulties, and prospects of applying psychology to the law. The purpose of this theoretical overview of the field is to suggest some insights into two recurrent questions: why has psychological research not had more of an impact on the judicial process, and what can be done about it?