My life is a longing: Child abuse and its adult sequelae Results of the Brody longitudinal study from birth to age 30

The psychoanalytically oriented Brody longitudinal study has followed the psychological development of 76 individuals from birth to age 30. Ten suffered severe maltreatment in childhood in the form of rejection and/or physical abuse at the hands of one or both parents. This report describes the effects of child abuse on the emerging personalities of the children, as well as on their adult personalities and mental health. Specifi cally, as adults the maltreated children had signifi cantly more psychiatric illness (typically depressions and anxiety disorders), less mature psychological defense mechanisms, more insecure mental representations of attachment to their parents as indicated by the adult attachment interview, and a lower Global Assessment of Functioning than their well-treated counterparts. Additionally, their prevailing moods were joyless. Case examples show the emergence of symptoms, personality disorders, and defenses over time, as well as the workings of ameliorating infl uences. Several of the maltreated children made relatively successful adaptations as adults, indicating children's potential for resilience. Resilience, however, may be a superfi cial concept, for, in this series of cases, seemingly adequate coping in formerly mistreated children always came at the price of emotional vulnerability and compromised potential.     

Transactional Paths Between Children and Parents in Pediatric Asthma: Associations Between Family Relationships and Adaptation

The particular challenges posed by pediatric asthma may have a negative impact on the adaptation of children and their parents. From a transactional approach it is important to examine how reciprocal links between children and parents contribute to explain their adaptation and under which conditions these associations occur. This cross-sectional study aimed at examining the direct and indirect links between children’s and parents’ perceptions of family relationships and adaptation, separately (within-subjects) and across participants (cross-lagged effects), and the role of asthma severity in moderating these associations. The sample comprised 257 children with asthma, aged between 8 and 18 years-old, and one of their parents. Both family members completed self-reported questionnaires on family relationships (cohesion and expressiveness) and adaptation indicators (quality of life and psychological functioning). Physicians assessed asthma severity. Structural Equation Modeling was used to test within-subjects and cross-lagged paths between children’s and parents’ family relationships and adaptation. The model explained 47 % of children’s and 30 % of parents’ adaptation: family relationships were positively associated with adaptation, directly for children and parents, and indirectly across family members. Asthma severity moderated the association between family relationships and health-related quality of life for children: stronger associations were observed in the presence of persistent asthma. These results highlight the need of including psychological interventions in pediatric healthcare focused on family relationships as potential targets for improving children’s and parents’ quality of life and psychological functioning, and identified the children with persistent asthma as a group that would most benefit from family-based interventions.     

Maternal sensitivity during infancy and subsequent life events relate to attachment representation at early adulthood.

A prospective longitudinal research study of 86 prematurely born children from birth to age 18 years provided empirical evidence for continuity from infancy experience to representations of attachment at age 18 years. Young adults whose representation of attachment was dismissing had been objectively observed during infancy, 16-17 years earlier, to receive less sensitive maternal care than those infants who were later judged at early adulthood to have secure or preoccupied representations. Infancy experience alone did not differentiate young adults with secure representations from those with preoccupied representations. Rather, adverse life events through age 12, particularly parental divorce, reduced the likelihood of secure representations and increased the likelihood of preoccupied representations. The absence of adverse life events did not increase the likelihood of security for those who had not experienced early sensitive caregiving.     

Age of onset of child maltreatment predicts long-term mental health outcomes

The authors tested the hypothesis that children who are maltreated earlier in life are at greater risk for poor psychological functioning in adulthood than those maltreated later in life. Age of onset of maltreatment was assessed with 3 classifications: (a) continuous (ages 0-11 years); (b) dichotomous (early [ages 0-5 years] vs. later [ages 6-11 years]); and (c) developmental (infancy [ages 0-2 years], preschool [ages 3-5 years], early school age [ages 6-8 years], and school age [ages 9-11 years]). Individuals with documented cases of physical and sexual abuse and neglect prior to age 12 (N=496) were followed up and assessed in adulthood. Results indicated that an earlier onset of maltreatment, measured dichotomously and developmentally, predicted more symptoms of anxiety and depression in adulthood, while controlling for gender, race, current age, and other abuse reports. Later onset of maltreatment, measured continuously or developmentally, was predictive of more behavioral problems in adulthood. Implications for the assessment of maltreated children, the prevention of adult psychopathology, and the classification of age of maltreatment onset are discussed.     

Improved Parental Emotional Functioning After Circle of Security 20-Week Parent–Child Relationship Intervention

This study examined the effectiveness of the attachment-based Circle of Security 20-week intervention (COS) in improving parent emotional functioning in 83 families referred to a community clinical service with concerns about their young children’s behavior. Parenting stress and parent psychological symptoms were assessed pre and post intervention and mixed design repeated measures ANOVAs were used to assess change. Severity of presenting problems was considered as a moderator. Results showed clinically significant improvements in both aspects of parent emotional functioning, with changes accounted for by for those with more severe problems at the outset. Improvements for parents were associated with improved child behavior and more positive parent representations of the child and of parenting capacity. Findings suggest the intensive COS intervention is effective in reducing parenting stress and psychological symptoms in parents of children from aged 1–7 years. Questions remain about the mechanisms of change and the direction of effects.     

Migration patterns,family functioning,and life satisfaction among migrant children in China: A mediation model

There are three distinct patterns of migration among Chinese migrant children: whole‐family, single‐parent‐first, and both‐parents‐first migration. This study investigated the life satisfaction of children who migrated under the different migration patterns and examined the mediating role of family functioning in the relationship between the children's migration patterns and their life satisfaction. Participants consisted of migrant children (N = 703) from primary and junior middle schools in Chengdu, China. The results showed that (a) migrant children from the whole‐family and single‐parent‐first patterns of migration reported greater life satisfaction than did those from the both‐parents‐first pattern, and (b) family functioning partially mediated the association between migration patterns and life satisfaction. The present study highlights the importance of avoiding separation of children from both parents during migration and the need to develop interventions for migrant children's psychological adaptation by improving their families’ functioning.     

Psychological adjustment of pediatric lung transplantation candidates and their parents

Investigated psychological functioning of 45 children and adolescents (ages 5 to 17 years) and their parents presenting at a major medical center for evaluation for lung transplantation. Patients completed self-reports, and parents completed measures on their children's behavior problems and emotional distress as well as on their own symptoms of distress. In general, children and their parents reported normal functioning on standard psychological measures. Few children fell in the clinically significant range, whereas 21% of mothers and 14% of fathers reported clinically significant levels of distress. Older children reported lower levels of depressive symptoms than younger children, and patients with cystic fibrosis manifested lower levels of internalizing symptoms than those with other pulmonary diseases. Findings demonstrate the resiliency of children and their parents facing a stressful point in the child's medical status and document the usefulness of psychological screening of patients and parents to identify those in need of clinical intervention.     

Family Functioning,Parental Psychological Distress and Child Behaviours: Evidence from the Victorian Child Health and Wellbeing Study

We examined, using data from the 2006 Victorian Child Health and Wellbeing Study (VCHWS), whether family functioning is associated with parental psychological distress and children's behavioural difficulties. The VCHWS was a statewide cross‐sectional telephone survey to 5,000 randomly selected primary caregivers of 0‐ to 12‐year‐old children between October 2005 and March 2006. Only parents or guardians of children aged 4–12 years (n = 3,370) were included in this study. After adjusting for sociodemographic variables and ethnicity, parents or guardians scoring higher on the family functioning scale (i.e., from poorly functioning households) were at greater risk of psychological distress and had children with lower levels of prosocial behaviour and higher levels of behavioural difficulties relative to those from healthily functioning households. Mental health prevention programmes addressing child mental and conduct problems should consider the family environment and target those families functioning poorly.     

Overparenting and Narcissism in Young Adults: The Mediating Role of Psychological Control

Overparenting, or “helicopter parenting,” can be generally characterized as parenting that is well-intentioned, but over-involved and intrusive. This style of parenting has been especially highlighted in the lives of young adults, who may be inhibited by this form of parenting in the appropriate development of autonomy and independence. Overparenting shares conceptual similarities with parents’ psychological control practices, which involve emotional and psychological manipulation of children (e.g., inducing guilt, withholding love as a form of control). Although these constructs contain key differences, both have been linked to narcissism in young adults, by way of parental over-involvement in children’s lives. Thus, we sought to explore parental psychological control as a mediator between overparenting and narcissism, including in regard to both grandiose and vulnerable narcissistic phenotypes. Participants included 380 young adult college students (age range: 18–26 years) who completed the Pathological Narcissism Inventory, as well as reports of their parents’ behaviors related to overparenting and psychological control. Mediation analyses through Process in SPSS supported the hypothesized role of parental psychological control as a mediator between overparenting and narcissistic traits, including traits related to both grandiose and vulnerable narcissism. Effect sizes for each analysis were modest. This study further clarifies the nature of overparenting, and speaks to the need for further research in establishing the mechanisms by which overparenting may lead to narcissistic traits among young adults.     

Well-being in parents of children with cancer: The impact of parental personality,coping, and the child's quality of life

The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of parental personality, coping, and the child's quality of life on the well-being of parents of children treated for cancer. The study included 99 parents (63 mothers and 36 fathers), 41 parents during child's intensive treatment, 23 parents whose child completed intensive treatment, and 25 parents of children who completed treatment at least five years ago. The results of multivariate study have confirmed the predictive role of parental personality (especially Neuroticism); emotion-focused coping styles, and the child's quality of life (especially physical functioning) on parental well-being. About 60% of the variance in parental well-being can be attributed to the predictors. Assessing parental personality functioning and coping styles can help us identify those parents who are less emotionally stable, more prone to emotionally focused coping styles, and most likely to experience poorer well-being. Improved assessment may contribute to the development of further psychological interventions.     

Are children's faces really more appealing than those of adults? Testing the baby schema hypothesis beyond infancy

This study examined adults’ evaluations of likeability and attractiveness of children’s faces from infancy to early childhood. We tested whether Lorenz’s baby schema hypothesis (Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie (1943), Vol. 5, pp. 235-409) is applicable not only to infant faces but also to faces of children at older ages. Adult participants were asked to evaluate children’s faces from early infancy to 6 years of age in terms of their likeability and attractiveness, and these judgments were compared with those of adult faces. It was revealed that adults judged faces of younger children as more likeable and attractive than faces of older children, which were in turn judged as more likeable and attractive than adult faces. However, after approximately 4.5 years of age, the baby schema no longer affected adults’ judgments of children’s facial likeability and attractiveness. These findings suggest that the baby schema affects adults’ judgments of not only infant faces but also young children’s faces. This influence beyond infancy is likely due to the fact that facial cranial growth is gradual during early childhood and certain crucial infantile facial cues remain readily available during this period. Future studies need to identify these specific cues to better understand why adults generally show positive responses to infantile faces and how such positive responses influence the establishment and maintenance of social relationships between young children and adults.     

Healing Intergenerational Wounds: An Integrative Relational–Neurobiological Approach

Old resentments and unfinished business from the family of origin can constrain adults in current relationships with parents or siblings and negatively affect relationships with partners or children. This article explores how old wounds get reactivated in current relationships and contribute to the intergenerational transmission of painful legacies and trauma. Building on intergenerational family theory and interpersonal neurobiology, the dynamics of reactivity and pathways for growth are explored. While much of the time the human brain is on autopilot, driven by habits and emotional reactivity, we are capable of bringing prefrontal thoughtfulness and choice to close relationships. Rather than being victims of parents or our past, we can become authors of our own relational life. Interventions are offered to help adult clients “wake from the spell of childhood,” heal intergenerational wounds, and “grow up” relationships with family of origin. The damage caused by parent‐blaming in therapy is explored and contrasted with Ivan Boszormenyi‐Nagy's emphasis on rejunctive action and cultivating resources of trustworthiness in intergenerational relationships. The family is considered both in its cultural context—including stressors and resources for resilience—and in its life cycle context. Aging in the intergenerational family is discussed, focusing on ways adult children and their parents can grow and flourish with the challenges at this time of life. Throughout, the theme of relational ethics—how we can live according to our values and “reach for our best self” in intergenerational relationships—informs the discussion.     

The associations between autistic and communication traits in parents and developmental outcomes in children at familial risk of autism at 6 and 24 months of age

BackgroundSeveral studies have explored relationships between parent broader autism phenotype and offspring communication, and have reported that autistic-like traits in parents are related to offspring communication difficulties and autism severity. However, past research has focused on studying such associations in childhood and we know very little about them in infancy. With accumulating evidence that interventions administered during infancy may be most effective in reducing ASD symptoms, it is imperative to examine whether relationships between parent autistic-like traits and child communication appear even earlier during this critical period of life.MethodThis longitudinal study collected data from infant siblings of autistic children (N = 32) and infants with no family history of autism (N = 45) to explore how autistic-like traits in parents related to child developmental outcomes during infancy.ResultsParental communication difficulties and autistic-like traits were found to be associated with a range of child behaviours in the first two years of life, including social-emotional difficulties at 6 and 24 months, lower communication and emerging cognition at 24 months, and increased autistic behaviours at 24 months.ConclusionsBased on the results, it appears that some of the difficulties seen in parents are relayed to children genetically. These findings contribute to ASD research concerning early communication development in children and heritability of ASD traits and may have important implications in monitoring child development. Furthermore, since the current study found a significant association between autistic traits in parents and child social-emotional behaviour as early as 6 months of age, it provides evidence of the value of assessing interventions that target infancy.     

Antecedents of Children's Adult Outcomes in the Texas Adoption Project

ABSTRACT Four composite variables concerning life outcomes were derived from a brief mail questionnaire describing 478 adults, now in their 30s and 40s, who had participated as children in the Texas Adoption Project. Responses were obtained from the participants themselves, their parents, and their siblings. MMPI scores of the parental generation were correlated with the adult outcomes of their biologically related and unrelated children. The obtained correlations were low, but for the biological relationships positive parent adjustment went with positive life outcomes of their children, whereas for adoptive relationships the reverse was the case. Favorable MMPI scores from late adolescence were favorably related to adult outcomes, as were favorable personality ratings from childhood.     

Parents Living with HIV in China: Family Functioning and Quality of Life

In China, HIV shifts the lifestyle of not only parents living with HIV/AIDS, but also their children, partners, and extended families. We examined factors related to the quality of life of parents living with HIV and the relation between family functioning and individual quality of life. Interviews were conducted with a total of 116 parents living with HIV/AIDS. Analyses of variance, Pearson correlations, and multiple regression analyses were performed to examine the relation between family functioning and quality of life. We found a significant association between family functioning and individual quality of life for parents living with HIV. In particular, family sociability had a strong relationship with the quality of life of parents living with HIV. Parents living with HIV from families where both parents are HIV-positive reported a lower level of family sociability than those from families with only one HIV-positive parent. HIV disclosure, family sociability, and number of children per family were found to be significant predictors of overall quality of life for the population. Study findings underscore the importance of developing interventions that improve family functioning for people living with HIV/AIDS in China.     

The Long-term Effects of Early Paternal Presence on Children’s Behavior

A father’s presence in the family is important for promoting adaptive behavioral functioning in children. It is unknown however, if there is a critical time during infancy and childhood for such paternal presence and involvement to affect behaviour. Using data from the Auckland Birthweight Collaborative (ABC) study, we examined the amount of paternal presence children experienced through their first 11 years of life (measured as fathers’ time spent in the same household as their children) and its effect on their behavioral outcomes at 11 years of age. After controlling for potential confounds, children who whose fathers were minimally present (left between 0 and 3.5 years of age) were twice as likely to report clinically significant behavioural difficulties as those whose fathers were present throughout childhood. Those whose fathers were present for early childhood (left between 3.5 and 7 years of age) exhibited no significant differences in their behaviour at 11 years of age when compared to their peers whose fathers remained present. Mothers reported no significant changes in their children’s behavior. Findings suggested that paternal presence early in a child’s life might be most important with regard to promoting adaptive behavioural functioning as they age.     

Markers of Resilience and Risk: Adult Lives in a Vulnerable Population

In this report, we drew on data from an ongoing longitudinal study that began in 1978 (Hauser, Powers, Noam, Jacobson, Weiss, & Folansbee, 1984). Focusing on late, young-adult life among individuals who were psychiatrically hospitalized during adolescence, we examined markers of resilience empirically defined in terms of adult success and well-being. The study includes a demographically similar group recruited from a public high school. Major goals were to (a) develop preliminary models of adaptive functioning among adults in their 30s, (b) examine the extent to which adults with histories of serious mental disorders can be characterized by these models, and (c) explore predictors of successful adult lives from indicators of individuals' psychosocial adjustment at age 25.Results showed significant cohort effects on indexes of adaptive functioning, especially for men. Findings suggest that social relations as well as self-views of competence and relatedness play important roles in characterizing adjustment during the adult years. In addition, indexes of psychosocial adjustment as well as symptoms of psychiatric distress and hard drug use at age 25 made a difference in adult social functioning and well-being, providing hints of possible mechanisms likely to facilitate the ability to "bounce back" after a difficult adolescence.     

Age Related Effects in Children Taking the Computerized Assessment of Response Bias and Word Memory Test

The assessment of effort is a fundamental component of test performance analysis, since effort determines whether a psychological evaluation is valid. The assessment of effort in children has proven problematic. This may be related to the variable and inconsistent nature of children’s developing self-regulatory systems, and the fact that measures commonly used to assess effort were standardized on adults. If one uses effort measures designed for adults to assess children, then one must presume that the maintenance of effort in children is comparable to the same behavior in adults. However, because children’s executive functioning, including their abilities to self-regulate, attend, concentrate, and to engage in various cognitive activities improve with time (Barkley, 1997, pp. 209-234), our hypothesis is that young children’s effort regulation is dissimilar to that of adults, and the presumption of similarity is implausible. The purpose of this study was to determine whether age is a significant influence upon young children’s performances on the Computerized Assessment of Response Bias (CARB) and Word Memory Test (WMT). Statistical analysis suggests that younger children (those under 10 years of age) tended to produce poorer performance on these instruments. Younger children’s scores differed significantly from children ages 10 and older. Children 11 years and older produced CARB and WMT results similar to adult participants, suggesting a viability for adult normative comparisons with children in this age range. The current investigation concluded that children’s maintenance of effort appears to be significantly related to age and reading ability level. Consequently, the use of current adult-based norms with the CARB and WMT, without regard for a child’s developmental status and other contextual factors such as the child’s ability to read, appears ill-advised especially with children under 11 years of age.     

Health Related Quality of Life in Children with Congenital Heart Disease

Health-related quality of life in children with congenital heart disease (CHD) was compared to that of healthy children. Furthermore, agreement between child and parent reports was examined. In addition, differences in quality of life related to the severity of CHD were evaluated. One hundred children with CHD aged between 8-18 years and their parents answered a health-related quality of life-questionnaire during their visit to the paediatric cardiology outpatient department. CHD children reported reduced motor functioning and autonomy compared to healthy children. Parents of children with CHD reported their children to have a reduced quality of life in the domains of: motor functioning, autonomy and cognitive functioning. Agreement between child and parent reports was moderate. Children systematically reported lower health related quality of life on the domain of positive emotions than did parents. Health related quality of life in children with CHD appeared not to be influenced by severity of the disease. In conclusion, regardless of the severity of the disease, children with CHD reported their health related quality of life on several domains to be lower than that of healthy children. This means that on several domains, the emotional impact of problems in health status is greater for children with CHD than for healthy children. When CHD patients visit the clinic, it is important that physicians actively ask patients as well as parents about the child's motor functioning, autonomy and cognitive functioning. Children with problems in these domains can then be identified, and psychological interventions can take place at an early stage.     

Long-term effects of the death of a child on parents' adjustment in midlife.

The death of a child is a traumatic event that can have long-term effects on the lives of parents. This study examined bereaved parents of deceased children (infancy to age 34) and comparison parents with similar backgrounds (n = 428 per group) identified in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. An average of 18.05 years following the death, when parents were age 53, bereaved parents reported more depressive symptoms, poorer well-being, and more health problems and were more likely to have experienced a depressive episode and marital disruption than were comparison parents. Recovery from grief was associated with having a sense of life purpose and having additional children but was unrelated to the cause of death or the amount of time since the death. The results point to the need for detection and intervention to help those parents who are experiencing lasting grief.