Effects of perceived parental school support and family communication on delinquent behaviors in latinos and white non-latinos

The authors examined the roles of perceived parental school support and family communication in the context of delinquent behaviors in Mexican American and White non-Latino adolescents. Family communication was defined as the degree to which adolescents endorsed that they communicated with their parents about a variety of topics. The Parental School Support scale was administered to assess adolescents' perceptions of parental support for academic pursuits. Data analysis included the relationship between these variables and their predictive relationship to delinquency, and the relationship to gender and ethnicity. Results demonstrated that adolescents' perceptions of family communication and parental school support were related to the likelihood of committing delinquent acts. There were no significant differences in gender or ethnicity in perceived levels of family communication and parental school support.     

Contextual analysis of home environment factors influencing the acquisition of early reading skills in Zambian families

This study examined the effect of home environment factors in the acquisition of early reading skills (orthographic awareness and decoding competence). To assess these factors, a sample of seventy-two (72) first grade learners (females?=?55%; age range?=?7–8 years) and their maternal parents (age range 26–61 years old) from low SES in Zambia's capital city, Lusaka were recruited. Parents, in response to a home literacy questionnaire, reported on their attitudes towards reading, literacy teaching in the home, the home literacy environment, presence of reading materials for adults and children, parental education, occupation, family size and family possessions. Two measures of reading skill were administered at school. Correlations revealed that parental education, occupation and the size of the family were not significantly associated with the reading measures. Family possessions, parental reading attitudes, literacy activities, and reading materials significantly predicted orthographic awareness. In predicting decoding competence, only family possessions, parental reading attitudes and literacy activities were predictive. Regardless of the context, children experience literacy in varied forms and quantities.     

Disconfirmatory feedback in families of schizophrenics

A new approach to the study of family communication and psychopathology, in particular schizophrenia, using Saugstad's theory about use of language as its point of departure is presented. Conflicts between family members were observed and measured using a new unrevealed difference technique, the Colour Conflict Method (CCM). Communication was analysed in terms of continuous feedback processes, using the new computerized method, Confirmation-Disconfirmation Coding System (CONDIS). Feedback mechanisms in the internal communication of families of schizophrenics, normals, and non-schizophrenic pathological controls (n = 21) are described. The findings show that families of schizophrenics lack the ability to adapt their communication to changing situational requirements. When conflicts were introduced, families of schizophrenics-in contrast to non-schizophrenics within the extended schizophrenia spectrum and normals-increased their frequency of disconfirmatory feedback reactions instead of expressing disagreements openly. This was due to active disqualifications occurring between the parents and from the parents towards their schizophrenic offspring, who reacted with incomprehensible egocentric communication acts.     

Erziehungsfähigkeit in familienrechtlichen Begutachtungen

Parental competence describes the multidimensional ability of parents to take responsibility for their children and to bring them up. There is a multitude of criteria and guidelines for the assessment of parental competence in the context of family court procedures, when a child’s well-being is at risk or in the case of divorce and separation. However, little is known about what forensic experts in Germany understand by the term parental competence. In a nationwide study  600 forensic experts were questioned about the contents and their methods of assessment concerning parental competence. Of the 104 participating psychologists and doctors (response rate 17.3 %) 90 % follow a schema while assessing parental competence and include the factors interaction and communication skills, care and nurturing, relationship skills, attachment capabilities, teaching rules and complying with them, and the ability to foster a child. While 99 % conduct a talk with the mother, 98 % conduct at least one talk with the father; 27 % talk to both parents together, 94% talk to the child systematically, 84 % use free play and 78 % combine playing and talking. The most frequently mentioned third persons include social workers, new partners, nursery school teachers and child protective services. Approximately 77 % use standardized tests. Although the study revealed a large heterogeneity in the procedures used by forensic experts, there is more accordance concerning the understanding of the term parental competence and the assessment procedure. Possibilities to assess parental competence in more general and standardized terms are discussed.     

Efficacy of a Self-Administered Home-Based Parent Intervention on Parenting Behaviors for Preventing Adolescent Substance Use

A growing body of literature suggests that parenting practices characterized by careful monitoring, firm and consistent limit setting, and nurturing communication patterns with children are protective against adolescent substance use and other problem behaviors. Family-based prevention programs that promote these behaviors can be an effective way to prevent adolescent substance use. However, low participation rates remain problematic for many such programs, particularly programs that require parents to attend scheduled meetings outside the home. The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of a newly developed substance use prevention program when self-administered at home by parents of middle school students. As part of a randomized trial, 338 parents of middle school students either received the parent prevention program or served as control group participants. Parents completed self-report surveys at home that assessed parenting behaviors at pre-test, post-test, and one-year follow-up time points. A series of mixed model ANCOVAs were conducted, examining the post-test and one-year follow-up means for the parent outcomes, controlling for pre-test levels on these outcomes. Analyses showed that at the post-test assessment, intervention parents reported significant increases relative to controls in appropriate role modeling, disciplinary practices, family communication, and parental monitoring skills. At the one-year follow-up assessment, intervention effects on family communication skills remained significant and effects on parental role modeling were marginally significant. This study shows that a theoretically rich prevention program can be effectively self-administered by parents at home and improve key parenting skills that have been shown to prevent adolescent substance use.     

Disentangling the Relations Between Different Components of Family Socioeconomic Status and Chinese Preschoolers’ School Readiness

Family socioeconomic status (SES) has been frequently linked to children’s early development. Treating SES as an aggregated variable has many issues, as different components of SES may relate to child outcomes through divergent mechanisms. The purpose of the study was to examine whether parents’ engagement in home learning activities and children’s participation in extracurricular activities (EAs) would function as pathways through which individual SES components related to children’s school readiness. A total of 588 families with preschool‐aged children were recruited from Guangdong province in China. Children’s receptive vocabulary, Chinese reading, and early math skills were individually assessed at three time points, and children’s social skills were rated by parents. Parents reported their engagement in home learning activities with children and their children’s participation in EAs. The results showed that all three components of family SES were related to multiple aspects of children’s school readiness, but through different pathways. Parental income was related to children’s school readiness through EA participation only; parental education and occupational status were associated with school readiness via both parental engagement and child EA participation. The findings suggest that considering SES components separately will produce a more nuanced understanding of the divergent pathways through which family SES may relate to children’s school readiness. Chinese government may provide parent education programs focused on cognitive stimulation for low‐SES families to promote children’s school readiness. Furthermore, the government needs to ensure children’s equal access to EAs to prevent increasing the developmental gap among children from discrepant socioeconomic backgrounds.     

Parental Contributions to Preschoolers' Emotional Competence: Direct and Indirect Effects

The present study examines the contributions of (1) parental socialization of emotion and preschoolers' emotional interaction with parents to their emotional competence, and (2) parental socialization and child emotional competence to their general social competence. Both observational and self-report techniques were used to measure emotion socialization, emotional competence, and social competence of preschoolers (average age = 49.8 months) from 60 middle-socioeconomic-status families. Data were collected in both classroom and home settings. In general, the results suggest that parental modeling of expressive styles and emotional responsiveness to child emotions are important predictors of preschoolers' emotional competence and their overall social competence. Children whose parents were more affectively positive tended to display more positive emotion with peers, whereas children whose parents were more negative appeared less socially competent in the preschool. Parents who were better coaches of their children's emotions had children who understood emotions better. Age and sex moderated several of the study's key findings. The results are consistent with earlier research indicating that parental socialization of emotion impacts the child's emotional and social functioning both at home and in the preschool.     

Parents' Explanations of Their Child's Performance in Mathematics and Reading: A Replication and Extension of Yee and Eccles

This study was conducted to examine whether Finnish parents would endorse the the classic gender-related attribution pattern and explain their son's mathematical performance in terms of talent and their daughter's in terms of effort. In addition, we examined whether the pattern of attributions would be the opposite in regard to parental explanations of their child's reading performance. A group of parents (N = 486), both mothers and fathers, were requested to assess the level of competence of their 1st grader in mathematics and reading. The parents were also asked to recall events from their child's 1st school year in which the child succeeded and failed in mathematics and reading; they were then asked to evaluate the importance of talent, effort, and task to the child's outcomes. The parents of boys assessed their child's mathematical competence to be higher than did the parents of girls. Furthermore, the parents of boys rated talent as a more important reason for their child's mathematical success than did the parents of girls. In contrast, the parents of girls rated effort as a more important reason for their child's mathematical success. Although the girls were perceived to surpass boys in reading, the girls' positive outcomes in reading were explained by effort more than the boys' outcomes, and at the highest level of assessed competence, the boys' verbal talent was rated as a more significant cause of success in reading than the girls' verbal talent. In sum, our results suggested that in both mathematics and reading, girls were not entitled to ability-based attribution to the same extent as were boys.     

A cognitive-behavioral analysis of parental facilitation of children's social-cognitive problem solving

The present study used a case study framework to examine ways in which parental belief systems and parental teaching strategies interact to enhance children's social-cognitive problem solving and school adjustment. The focus of the investigation was to examine the robustness of several postulated typologies of interrelationship among the key variables, as well as antecedents and consequences of means-ends problem solving exhibited by children. Four intact families with second grade children were observed in the home as they participated in discussion and decision making concerning problematic social situations. The data suggested these major points: Parental behavior was generally consistent with their beliefs; parents could most effectively elicit means-ends verbalizations from children through direct questioning; families differed in the extent to which children's inputs into family decision making were valued and the degree of interparental discord concerning beliefs and strategies. The latter points suggest a reconceptualization of how parental variables can be linked to the development of social-cognitive and behavioral competence in children. Specific implications for theory and recommendations for research are discussed.     

Barriers to Adherence to Child Assessment Recommendations

We conducted a one-year follow-up study of child psychoeducational assessment cases to examine whether and how the assessments were helpful to families. The current report focuses on parents’ views of their child’s assessment as well as the parents’ adherence with the written recommendations provided to them following their child’s assessment. Fifty-one of 72 eligible parents whose child received an assessment in an urban, Midwest university clinic participated. Based on semistructured interviews with the parents about the assessment recommendations, we grouped the recommendations and any barriers to adherence the parents mentioned into categories, and we also rated the clarity and complexity of the recommendations. Findings showed that, on average, parents identified the assessment process as useful and attempted or fully adhered to 71.5?% of recommendations. Parents reported the lowest adherence when referrals were recommended for their child to be seen by other professionals such as a pediatrician or psychiatrist; and they cited significantly more stigma barriers for recommendations to seek counseling/therapy or psychotropic medication than for recommendations pertaining to changes at home or school. Higher parental compliance was predicted by a combination of parents reporting fewer barriers and receiving more home based recommendations. The results support the utility of psychological assessments from parents’ perspectives and suggest ways in which psychologists may increase the likelihood that parents will adhere to their recommendations.     

Family functioning and the social adaptation of hearing-impaired youths

This study examined the associations between important aspects of family functioning and the adjustment of hearing-impaired youths. Participants were 75 hearing-impaired youths and their hearing parents. The dependent variables were mothers' and fathers' ratings of child behavior problems and social competence. Independent variables included parental symptomatology, parental ratings of family stress, and family members' perceptions of family cohesion and family adaptability. Demographic characteristics and the youth's degree of hearing loss and mode of communication were used as control variables. Results from multiple regression analyses showed that parental ratings of the youths' behavior problems were linked with parental symptomatology, and that maternal ratings of the youths' behavior problems were associated with low family adaptability. Parental ratings of the youths' social competence were predicted by family stress. Overall, key aspects of family functioning accounted for considerably more variance than did the control variables. The methodological and conceptual implications of the findings are discussed.     

Can Communication Deviance Be Measured in a Family Problem-Solving Interaction?

Communication deviance (CD) refers to confusing and fragmented communication that prevents family members from attaining a shared focus of attention and meaning. Levels of communication deviance based on individual parental projective test protocols--Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) and Rorschach--have repeatedly been found to be higher in parents of schizophrenic offspring than in parents of normal or nonpsychotic offspring. CD has also been measured in family transactions in which parents and their offspring interact with one another around a projective test stimulus, the Consensus Rorschach. There have been relatively few attempts to measure specific CD codes in familial interaction that is not initiated around an ambiguous visual stimulus. The present article examines the reliability and construct validity of an interactional measure (ICD) obtained from family transactions in which parents and patients are working toward the solution of a salient family problem. ICD from this family problem-solving task was compared to more traditional measures of CD from parental TAT protocols in a sample of 59 parents of 37 recent-onset schizophrenic patients. Results indicated that CD could be reliably measured in an interactive setting not initiated around a projective test stimulus, and provided evidence for the construct validity of ICD.     

Girls’ perceptions of their mothers at work and home: Warm does not mean weak

Upper elementary school girls were surveyed about their mothers’ and fathers’ warmth, competence, and agency at home and how they imagine their parents at work. Mothers’ warmth at home was positively correlated with perceived competence and agency both at home and at work. Differences between daughters’ perceptions of their mothers and fathers at work are discussed.     

Parental involvement: Definition and outcomes

The purpose of this study was to seek a definition of the concept of parental involvement and to examine the relationship that may exist between school achievement and specific parental involvement activities. Data were collected from 852 parents of sixth-grade students of both genders. It was found that the involvement of parents in their children's educational process is a complex behavior that may take different forms, not all of which are related to the child's school achievement. The following six types of parental involvement were identified through factor analysis: learning at home, volunteering and decision making at school, and four different parenting tendencies (emphasizing achievement, pressure, control, and personality development). Parenting through emphasis on achievement and through personality development had a positive, statistically significant correlation with actual school achievement, while parenting through pressure had a negative such correlation. A positive correlation was also found between parental volunteering at school and the child's actual school achievement. Learning at home and parenting through control had no significant correlation with achievement. The findings of this study suggest that the six distinct types of behavior that make up parental involvement have differential effects in relation to school achievement.     

The Relation of Parental Emotionality and Related Dispositional Traits to Parental Expression of Emotion and Children's Social Functioning

The purpose of this study was to test relations between parental temperamental emotionality and regulation or related personality characteristics and parental behavior, children's regulation, and children's social functioning. Mothers and fathers reported on their own personality and/or temperament and expressivity in the family (mothers only); parents and teachers rated children (71 girls and 99 boys; M age = 73 months) on their temperamental regulation, social competence, and problem behavior. Mothers also were observed interacting with their child, and behavioral measures of children's regulation were obtained. In general, high parental regulation and low negative emotionality were associated with positive developmental outcomes in children and more positive parental behaviors, and mothers' expression of positive emotion in the family mediated some of the relations of their dispositions to children's socioemotional functioning.     

Parental involvement: Definition and outcomes

The purpose of this study was to seek a definition of the concept of parental involvement and to examine the relationship that may exist between school achievement and specific parental involvement activities. Data were collected from 852 parents of sixth-grade students of both genders. It was found that the involvement of parents in their children's educational process is a complex behavior that may take different forms, not all of which are related to the child's school achievement. The following six types of parental involvement were identified through factor analysis: learning at home, volunteering and decision making at school, and four different parenting tendencies (emphasizing achievement, pressure, control, and personality development). Parenting through emphasis on achievement and through personality development had a positive, statistically significant correlation with actual school achievement, while parenting through pressure had a negative such correlation. A positive correlation was also found between parental volunteering at school and the child's actual school achievement. Learning at home and parenting through control had no significant correlation with achievement. The findings of this study suggest that the six distinct types of behavior that make up parental involvement have differential effects in relation to school achievement.     

Communication deviances in parents of schizophrenics

In an attempt to make a multimethod assessment of communication deviance in parents of schizophrenics, a communication conflict situation (CCS) and the TAT were used to obtain qualitative and quantitative measures of communication for a sample of 50 parental couples, 21 of which were parents of schizophrenics, 9 were parents of nonpsychotic psychiatric patients, and 20 were parents of normals. The results were a general confirmation of earlier reports that communication deviance is an outstanding characteristic in families with a schizophrenic offspring. The most important finding, however, was that parents of paranoid and nonparanoid schizophrenics score very differently on a majority of the communication variables. Parents of nonparanoid schizophrenics form one extreme on a continuum of communication deviance, and parents of paranoid schizophrenics and normals the other. Egocentrism, measured by CCS, turned out to be the single qualitative variable with best discriminating power across all groups.     

ABSTRACTS OF LITERATURE

This is a clinical study attempting to discern differences in parental behavior toward children considered "normal" (that is, having never received special psychological, educational or legal attention). Sample was 25 children (11 boys and 14 girls) ages 10 to 11, from upper middle class families with both parents living at home. Families were rated on a family task, children on adjustment using the Briston Social Adjustment Guide. Children were divided into three categories—adjusted, middle, and disturbed—with nine in the first group, eight each in the second and third. Significant differences were found between the adjusted and the disturbed groups for parental behavior during the family discussion task. Disturbed mothers were found to be "over-prominent and over-attentive"; disturbed fathers were withdrawn.     

Children of Mentally Ill Parents Participating in Preventive Support Groups: Parental Diagnoses and Child Risk

In the Netherlands, preventive support groups are offered to children of mentally ill parents. Given the variety of parental diagnoses it might be questionable if offering a standardized program for all these children is the most effective response. While no overall knowledge exists about the type of parental disorder and varying risk levels and support needs among the participating children, we examined whether there are differences between these children that are related to their parents’ diagnoses. With questionnaires we assessed risk factors in 122 mentally ill parents and their children: high parental illness severity, low perceived parental competence, parent–child interaction problems, poor family functioning, difficult child temperament, and low child competence. We also assessed the children’s psychosocial problems and negative cognitions about their parent’s illness. Results showed that most parents had co-morbidity (multiple diagnoses) and/or personality disorders. Children of parents with either of these conditions were more likely to be exposed to the risk factors: high parental illness severity, low perceived parental competence, problematic parent–child interaction, and low perceived child competence, compared to children of parents without these conditions. They were also faced with more risk factors and had more psychosocial problems and negative cognitions. From these results we may conclude that children of parents with co-morbidity and/or personality disorders require more extensive support than children of parents without these conditions. We suggest strengthening the children’s competence and involving parents as important focuses of preventive interventions for children at high risk. Longitudinal studies should test these assumptions.     

Effects of different facets of paternal and maternal control behaviour on early adolescents' perceived academic competence

The purpose of this study was to examine how different aspects of paternal and maternal control behaviours influence the perceived academic competence of early adolescents indirectly via their engagement with school. The analyses are based on a longitudinal study with two waves that were separated by 12 months. The participants were 228 early adolescents (50.4% girls) with an average age of 11.62 years (SD = .41) at the outset. Structural equation modeling analyses using bootstrapping procedures revealed that parental supervision was indirectly related to the perceived academic competence of adolescents via their engagement with schools, whereas parental authoritarian control was only linked to engagement with school. The discussion focuses on the multifaceted nature of parental control and the importance of both parents for the academic success of adolescents.