Maternal Affective Disorder and Children’s Representation of Their Families

Children’s perceptions of family relationship are related to their later emotional and social adjustment. This is of particular relevance in the context of family stressors such as maternal affective disorder. This study investigated the effects of maternal postnatal depression and anxiety on children’s family representations. In our sample of postnatally depressed mothers we also explored marital conflict as mediator between maternal psychopathology and children’s representations. Family drawings of 235 4–5 year-old children (93 control, 53 depressed and 89 anxious) were examined. When compared to controls, children of depressed, but not of anxious mothers, were more likely to draw themselves as less prominent than other family members and to represent a dysfunctional family, less likely to represent themselves with a happy face and showed a greater tendency of drawing bizarre pictures. Marital conflict mediated the association between maternal depression and dysfunctionality in drawings.     

Young Children’s Physiological Reactivity during Memory Recall: Associations with Posttraumatic Stress and Parent Physiological Synchrony

Autonomic reactivity is implicated in stress response and social engagement – both key components of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) – but few studies have examined autonomic reactivity in pediatric samples, and no known studies have examined physiological synchrony among children with PTSD and caregivers. In a sample of 247 young children (94 girls, 153 boys), most (85%) of whom had exposure to trauma and 40% who met criteria for PTSD, we examined children’s patterns of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) at baseline and in response to a memory recall task, as well as correspondence between parents’ and children’s RSA. Children with PTSD demonstrated significantly higher reactivity than other groups during their recollection of a traumatic memory, but not during other memory tasks. Regarding synchrony, caregivers’ and children’s RSA were more significantly and positively correlated during the trauma recall task among children who had had exposure to a potentially traumatic event but did not meet PTSD criteria, suggesting physiological synchrony may be protective in contexts of trauma. Overall, findings demonstrate physiological reactivity differences among young children with PTSD. While more work is needed to understand the meaning of parent-child physiological synchrony, these data suggest that children’s psychopathology is associated with physiological synchrony processes among young children with exposure to trauma.     

Longitudinal Associations Between Parental and Children’s Depressive Symptoms in the Context of Interparental Relationship Functioning

Using longitudinal, multi-informant data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, the present study tested associations between trajectories of parental and child depressive symptoms from ages 11 to 15 years. Consistent with predictions, changes in mothers’ and fathers’ depressive symptoms were positively associated with change in children’s depressive symptoms over time. In addition, youth characteristics of sex and pubertal development moderated the trajectories, with children more advanced on pubertal development showing higher initial levels of depressive symptoms, and girls demonstrating steeper slopes of depressive symptoms over time. The context of interparental relationship functioning (i.e., marital conflict, marital conflict resolution) moderated both the trajectories of child depressive symptoms and the interplay between parental and child depressive symptoms in ways largely consistent with hypotheses. Implications of the findings are discussed in terms of treating youth depressive symptoms with a consideration of the broader family context, including parental and interparental functioning.     

Veterans’ Offspring’s Personality Traits and the Intergenerational Transmission of Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms

Following war and war captivity, many combat veterans and former prisoners of war (ex-POWs) may suffer from posttraumatic psychopathologies, and these may be transmitted to their offspring. Though there are considerable individual differences between offspring in this respect, the mechanisms underlying such differences remain unclear. The current longitudinal study examined the role that veterans’ offspring’s Big Five personality traits may play within this intergenerational transmission. One hundred and twenty-three dyads consisting of veterans (79 ex-POWs and 44 combat veterans) and their adult offspring were examined. Fathers’ posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and global psychiatric distress (GD) were assessed 30 and 35 years after the war, and offspring’s PTSS, GD, and Big Five personality traits were assessed 40 years after the war. Findings indicate that veterans’ psychopathologies were associated with those of their offspring. Furthermore, analyses revealed significant positive associations between offspring’s psychopathologies and their Neuroticism, and negative associations with their Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. Finally, a mediation effect was found wherein the fathers’ PTSS and GD were related to their offspring’s Neuroticism levels, and the offspring’s Neuroticism was related to their PTSS and GD levels. These findings suggest that offspring’s personality traits may indeed play a role in the transmission of posttraumatic psychopathologies from veterans to their offspring, and may explain individual differences in this respect. Specifically, high levels of Neuroticism may place offspring at risk for secondary traumatization. Possible explanations and limitations are discussed, and future research directions are suggested.     

Parents’ Reports of Children’s Internalizing Symptoms: Associations with Parents’ Mental Health Symptoms and Substance Use Disorder

This brief report examined the unique associations between parents’ ratings of child internalizing symptoms and their own depression and anxiety in families with parental substance use disorder (SUD). Further, we examined whether parental SUD (father only, mother only, both parents) was related to discrepancy in mothers’ and fathers’ reports of children’s internalizing symptoms. Participants were 97 triads (fathers, mothers) in which one or both parents met criteria for SUD. Polynomial regression analyses were conducted to examine whether father-mother reports of child internalizing symptoms had unique associations with parents’ own symptoms of depression and anxiety while controlling for child gender, child age, and SUD diagnoses. Controlling for fathers’ symptoms and other covariates, mothers experiencing more depression and anxiety symptoms reported more symptoms of child internalizing symptoms than did fathers. Mothers’ and fathers’ SUD was associated with higher anxiety symptoms among mothers after controlling for other variables. A second set of polynomial regressions examined whether father-mother reports of child internalizing symptoms had unique associations with parents’ SUD diagnoses while controlling for child gender and child age. After controlling for mothers’ symptoms and other covariates, parents’ reports of children’s internalizing symptoms were not significantly associated with either parent’s SUD or parental SUD interactions (i.e., both parents have SUD diagnoses). Taken together, mothers’ ratings of children’s internalizing symptoms may be accounted for, in part, by her reports of depression and anxiety symptoms.     

The Mediation Effect of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms on the Relationship of Intimate Partner Violence and IFN-γ Levels

Background: Women who experience intimate partner violence (IPV) report greater stress and negative health consequences than nonabused women. Although an association between psychological stress and altered immune function has been shown, IPV studies have not investigated this relationship. Objective: This study explored the association of IPV with mental health symptoms and an immune marker to determine if posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms mediate the effect of IPV on pro-inflammatory (IFN-γ) cytokine levels. Methods: A cross-sectional, comparative design was used to compare 62 women with IPV and 39 nonabused women. Results: Mean IFN-γ values were higher in abused women and in women with current PTSD symptoms. There were no significant relationships with potential confounding variables that could provide an alternative explanation for the increase in production of proinflammatory cytokines. Conclusions: PTSD symptoms mediate the association between IPV and IFN-γ levels and may partially explain the association of mental health symptoms with physical health sequelae in IPV.     

Comparing Children’s Memories for Negative Versus Positive Events in the Context of Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms

How well children remember negative events is not fully understood. Previous research has failed to simultaneously test memory and perceptions of memory for both negative and positive events. Children (n = 38, 7–17 years) recruited from a hospital following accidental injury were tested for their memory of an injury-producing accident (negative event) and a positive event (unexpectedly receiving a $50 gift voucher). Objective accuracy of memory, memory quality characteristics (e.g., how coherently the event was recalled), children’s judgments of their memory (meta-cognitive), and posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms were assessed 2 months post-injury. Children’s memories for their experiences were verified using witness/parent reports. Memory quality characteristics of children’s free recollection were coded with a previously used standardized system. Overall, children showed high levels of accuracy for both events, with little degradation over time. High PTS children showed little evidence of deficits in coherence or organization in their narratives relative to low PTS children. Although in some instances high PTS children judged their memory quality to be poor compared to low PTS children, this depended on how this was assessed (e.g., self-report questionnaire vs. coded narratives). In terms of limitations, it is unclear whether the findings will generalize for memories of repeated events. Witness verification of the accident details itself could be prone to error. In conclusion, the findings are broadly supportive of the proposal made by theorists who argue that trauma memories are recalled no less accurately than other distinctive memories. The role of meta-cognitive elements of children’s memory and reporting in PTS is less clear.     

The Role of Fathers’ Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms and Dyadic Adjustment in the Intergeneration Transmission of Captivity Trauma

This study aimed to assess the longitudinal associations between the 1973 Israeli-Arab War ex-prisoners of war’s (ex-POWs) posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms (PTSS) and dyadic adjustment (DAS) and their adult offspring’s secondary PTSS and DAS. A sample of 124 Israeli father–child dyads has been examined (fathers at 2003 and 2008; offspring at 2013–2014). Results show that fathers’ PTSS and DAS mediated the link between war captivity and offspring’s secondary PTSS and DAS, respectively. The intergenerational transmission of captivity trauma is indirectly explained by the long-term effects of the fathers’ PTSS on their offspring’s secondary PTSS and DAS.     

Severity of Children’s ADHD Symptoms and Parenting Stress: A Multiple Mediation Model of Self-Regulation

The goal of the current study was to determine the extent to which the perceived self-regulation deficits across behavioral, cognitive, and emotional domains seen in children with ADHD explain the association between the severity of ADHD symptoms and parenting stress. Participants for this study included 80 children (mean age = 10 years, 9 months) with a DSM-IV diagnosis of ADHD confirmed by a comprehensive clinical diagnostic assessment. Parents reported their own stress levels as well as the severity of their children’s ADHD symptoms, aggression, emotional lability, and executive functioning difficulties. Results indicated that the severity of children’s hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms but not their inattention related to parenting stress. Multiple mediational analyses indicated that the association between hyperactivity/impulsivity and parenting stress was explained by children’s perceived comorbid aggression levels, emotional lability, and executive functioning difficulties. No significant differences in the strength of the mediators were found. The current study provides initial data showing that the perceived impairments in children’s self-regulation across emotional, cognitive, and behavioral domains are what parents report as stressful, not simply the severity of ADHD symptoms. Due to the cross-sectional nature of this study and shared variance from relying solely on parent report, it will be critical for future research to replicate our findings using longitudinal and multi-informant data such as teacher reports and standardized assessments.     

Social Skills Deficits and Vocal Characteristics of Children with Social Phobia or Asperger’s Disorder: A Comparative Study

Social skills deficits are commonly reported among children with social phobia (SP) and children with Asperger’s Disorder (AD); however, a lack of direct comparison makes it unclear whether these groups, both of which endorse the presence of social anxiety, have similar or unique skills deficits. In this investigation, the social behaviors of children with SP (n = 30) or AD (n = 30) were compared to a typically developing (TD) peer group (n = 30) during structured role play interactions. Data were analyzed using blinded observers’ ratings of overt behaviors and digital vocal analysis of verbal communication. Compared to children with AD and TD children, children with SP exhibited less overall social skill, an ineffective ability to manage the conversational topic (pragmatic social behavior), and deficient speech production (speech and prosodic social behavior). There were no differences in observer ratings between children with AD and TD children. However, using digital analysis of vocal characteristics (i.e., intensity, pitch), distinct vocal patterns emerged. Specifically, children with AD spoke more softly than TD children, and had lower vocal pitch and less vocal pitch variability than children with SP. This pattern may be subjectively heard as monotonic speech. Consistent with a vocal pattern associated with heightened anxiety, children with SP spoke more softly and had less voice volume variation than TD children, and had higher vocal pitch and more vocal pitch variability (jitteriness) than children with AD. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Korean-english Bilingual Children’s Stress Cue Sensitivity and its Relationship with Reading in English

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research - Lexical stress plays a critical role in multisyllabic word reading in English. However, assignment of English lexical stress, which is neither fixed nor...     

Testing the Relationship Between Parents’ and Their Children’s Subjective Well-Being

Casas et al. (J Happiness Stud 9(2):197–205, 2008) found no significant relationship between paired answers given by parents and their 12–16-year-old children (N?=?266) for a single-item scale on overall life satisfaction (OLS). However, a significant, but low (.19) parent–child relationship did appear for the PWI multi-item scale. Overall, children reported higher subjective well being than parents. In this article, we present the results obtained from confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), using more scales and a bigger sample (N?=?1,250) of paired parents and children. The study uses three multiple-item scales: the PWI, the SWLS and the BMSLSS, and six single-item scales: the OLS, two items from Russell’s scale on core affects, one on overall happiness, Fordyce’s happiness item and the optional item of the BMSLSS on overall life satisfaction. Separate CFA for each of the 3 multi-item scales showed good fit statistics. In order to check comparability between parents and children, we tested equal loading and intercept constraints. The models with restricted loadings fit only for the PWI and BMSLSS, but none of the models with restricted intercepts fit. Therefore, it was only possible to estimate two factor correlations for parents and their children, both very low (.16 for the PWI, .18 for BMSLSS), and it was not possible to compare factor means. When correlating scores from the 6 single-item scales for parents and children, they were all found to be significant but very low. As regards items from the multiple-item scales for parents and children many correlations are positive and significant, although very low, but others are non significant. The means of some items were substantially higher for children than for parents. For some items, differences were minor, non-significant or even reversed. All of the results suggest that parents’ well-being is very weakly related to their own children’s well-being, in spite of socialization, common material welfare and genetic influences. However, one outstanding result is that in our Catalan sample, parents’ well-being seems to have a greater influence on their female child’s well-being than on their male child’s.     

Understanding the Relationship Between Mothers’ Attitudes Toward Television and Children’s Television Exposure: A Longitudinal Study of Reciprocal Patterns and the Moderating Role of Maternal Stress

This two-wave panel study among mothers (N = 508) of children between ages six months and six years investigated a) the possibility of a reciprocal relationship between mothers’ attitudes toward television and children’s television viewing, and b) the conditional probability of this reciprocal relationship. Two-wave multigroup cross-lagged analyses provided evidence for reciprocal patterns that depend on the level of maternal stress. The findings indicated that mothers’ attitudes toward television predicted children’s subsequent television viewing among non-stressed mothers, but not among stressed mothers. Children’s television viewing predicted mothers’ subsequent negative attitudes toward television among stressed mothers, but not among non-stressed mothers. Implications for the role of parents’ attitudes regarding children’s television viewing are discussed.     

Moderators of the Relationship Between Maternal Substance Abuse Symptoms and Preschool Children’s Behavioral Outcomes

While maternal substance use problems increase the likelihood of behavior problems in children, child outcomes are varied, leading to interest in understanding additional family factors that contribute to the development of behavior problems in children impacted by maternal substance abuse. The purpose of this study is to examine harsh parenting and family conflict as potential moderators of the relationship between symptoms of maternal substance use problems and child externalizing behavior problems. The non-clinical sample for this study included 250 low-income parents whose preschool age children were enrolled in Head Start programs in a Southern state. This study utilized data collected during two home visits, an average of 10 months apart, with data on family functioning and maternal symptoms of substance use problems collected at the first time point and child externalizing behavior collected at the second time point. Over one-third of the children (38.1 %) had clinically elevated externalizing behavior scores. We used regression analysis to examine whether harsh parenting or family conflict moderated the relationship between maternal substance use symptoms and child externalizing behavior. In this community sample, we found that in the absence of family risks related to harsh parenting and family conflict, maternal symptoms of substance use problems did not have a significant impact on child externalizing behavior in preschool children. However, when high levels of family conflict or harsh parenting were present, symptoms of maternal substance use problems increased the risk of externalizing behavior problems in children.     

Parents’ Beliefs about Children’s Emotions and Parents’ Emotion-Related Conversations with Their Children

The goals of the current study were to describe parents’ emotion socialization patterns and to assess relations between parents’ emotion-related beliefs and socialization behaviors during conversations with their children. Participants were 125 parents and their 9- and 10-year-old children from three ethnic groups in the southeastern United States. Parents reported beliefs about children’s emotions. Parents and children were videotaped playing a board game to evoke emotion-related conversations, which were then coded for parents’ labeling, teaching, and encouragement of emotion. Parents used less labeling and teaching for positive than negative emotions, and greater encouragement for positive than negative emotions. Parents with stronger beliefs about the value of positive emotions engaged in less labeling of positive emotions, less teaching of all emotions, and less encouragement of negative emotions. Parents with stronger beliefs about the value of negative emotions engaged in more encouragement of negative emotions. Parents with stronger beliefs that all emotions are dangerous engaged in less labeling of negative emotions. The results of this study have potential clinical implications in helping clients to understand the foundational structures of their behaviors and how both beliefs and behaviors are distinct, yet interrelated constructs.     

Perceived Social Support and Caregiver Strain in Caregivers of Children with Tourette’s Disorder

The research on Tourette’s disorder (TD), a neuropsychological disorder consisting of motor and phonic tics, has largely focused on individuals with TD and not on the caregivers of children with TD. We investigated the effects of several variables on caregiver strain of caregivers of children with TD, including perceived social support, caregiver characteristics, and characteristics of the child’s disorder. An online survey was completed by 140 caregivers of children with TD between the ages of 6 to 18 years. We performed a path analysis to examine the outcome of caregiver strain in relation to the research variables. Our results indicated that caregiver age, symptom severity of the child’s TD, and perceived social support accounted for variance in caregiver strain, and that perceived social support was a partial mediator of child’s symptom severity and caregiver strain. Symptom severity and caregiver strain were also related to the presence of other comorbid disorders, such as Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), anxiety, or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) when compared to children either having no other comorbid disorders or other types of disorders.     

Children’s and Adolescents’ Conceptions of Happiness at School and Its Relation with Their Own Happiness and Their Academic Performance

Previous research on children’s and adolescents’ well-being at school has been focused on the possible determinants. However, no previous research has analysed children’s and adolescents’ lay-beliefs or conceptualizations of happiness at school. In the present work, we studied children’s (N = 104, 9–10-year-olds) and adolescents’ (N = 113, 15–16-year-olds) conceptualizations of happiness at school and its link with self-reported happiness (assessed 3 months later) and academic achievement (assessed 7 months later). For both samples, seven conceptualizations emerged: happiness as ‘being with friends’, ‘being praised’, ‘getting good grades’, ‘learning’, ‘leisure’, ‘enjoyment’, and ‘helping’. Age differences appeared for the conceptualizations of ‘being friends’ and ‘helping’, as children mentioned significantly more the former and adolescents the latter. No gender differences emerged. For adolescents, the conceptualizations of happiness at school as ‘being with friends’, ‘being praised’, ‘helping’, and not ‘having leisure time’ were positively related to self-reported happiness, which was positively related to academic achievement. For children, none of the conceptualizations were positively related to self-reported happiness. The conceptualization of happiness as ‘learning’ was positively related to academic achievement. The results are discussed in regards to their implications for children’s and adolescents’ well-being at school.     

The Socialization of Children’s Memory: Linking Maternal Conversational Style to the Development of Children’s Autobiographical and Deliberate Memory Skills

Data from a large-scale, longitudinal research study with an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample were utilized to explore linkages between maternal elaborative conversational style and the development of children’s autobiographical and deliberate memory. Assessments were made when the children were aged 3, 5, and 6 years old, and the results reveal concurrent and longitudinal linkages between maternal conversational style in a mother–child reminiscing task and children’s autobiographical memory performance. Maternal conversational style while reminiscing was also significantly related to children’s strategic behaviors and recall in 2 deliberate memory tasks, both concurrently and longitudinally. Results from this examination replicate and extend what is known about the linkages between maternal conversational style, children’s abilities to talk about previous experiences, and children’s deliberate memory skills as they transition from the preschool years to early elementary school years.     

Trajectories of Postpartum Maternal Depressive Symptoms and Children’s Social Skills

The vast majority of new mothers experience at least some depressive symptoms. Postpartum maternal depressive symptoms can greatly influence children’s outcomes (e.g., emotional, cognitive, language, and social development). However, there have been relatively few longitudinal studies of how maternal depressive symptoms may influence children’s social skills. The current study (n = 1363) examined the trajectory of maternal depressive symptoms (from 1 month to 36 months) and whether maternal depressive symptoms at 1 month postpartum and the change in symptoms over time (from 1 month to 3 years) predicted children’s parent- and teacher-rated social skills when they were 4.5 and 6.0 years old. A growth curve model indicated that, on average, maternal depressive symptoms declined over time in a nonlinear fashion. Further analyses indicated that after controlling for five demographic factors (child sex, family income, maternal age, mother’s marital status, and maternal education), initial maternal depressive symptoms significantly predicted children’s social skills as reported by mothers. The results support the notion that maternal depressive symptoms during children’s infancy can have long-term associations with children’s social skills. In addition, the results emphasize the importance of intervention and prevention efforts targeting maternal depressive symptoms during infancy, beginning immediately postpartum.