Stepparents’ Attachment Orientation,Parental Gatekeeping,and Stepparents’ Affinity-Seeking with Stepchildren

Remarried stepfamilies are a sizable portion of American families; in a 2011 Pew Center survey, 42% of respondents reported at least one stepfamily member. Family clinicians and researchers suggest that stepparents’ ability to develop close bonds with stepchildren may be critical to the well-being of couple and family relationships. Using actor-partner interdependence models to analyze dyadic data from 291 heterosexual remarried stepfamily couples, we explored factors related to stepparents’ efforts to befriend their stepchildren. Specifically, we evaluated how remarried parents’ gatekeeping and stepparents’ perceptions of their attachment orientations were associated with their own and their spouse's perceptions of stepparents’ affinity-seeking behaviors. Securely attached stepparents and stepparents with anxious attachment orientations engaged more frequently in affinity behaviors than did stepparents with avoidant attachment orientations; there was no difference between securely attached and anxious stepparents. Stepparents’ reports of parents’ restrictive gatekeeping were strongly and negatively associated with both stepparents’ and parents’ reports of stepparent affinity-seeking (actor and partner effects). Parents’ reports of their own restrictive gatekeeping were also negatively (but more weakly) associated with parents’ reports of stepparent affinity-seeking. Implications for families, clinicians, and relationship researchers and theorists are discussed.     

Parents' perceptions of parenting

Much has been written about parenting practices from a theoretical perspective, but we know very little about what parents believe about parenting. This article begins with an overview of parenting theory, reviews briefly studies that have attempted to identify parenting characteristics, and provides a rationale for the use of the scaling techniques known as Q-methodology for rank-ordering statements of parenting behavior.     

Critical Incidents in Multicultural Training: An Examination of Student Experiences

This study examined critical incidents in graduate students' multicultural counseling training. Trainees (N = 59) were asked to describe a critical incident and their multicultural training environment by responding to a critical incident protocol and the Multicultural Environment Inventory‐Revised (D. B. Pope‐Davis, W. M. Liu, J. Nevitt, & R. L. Toporek, 2000). Results and implications of the study are discussed. Este estudio examinó incidentes críticos en los estudiantes graduados de entrenamiento de asesoramiento multicultural. Le pidieron a los aprendices (N = 59) a describer un incidente crítico y su ambiente multicultural del entrenamiento respondiendo a un protocolo del incidente crítico y El Ambiente Multicultural Inventario‐Revisado (D. B. Pope‐Davis, W. M. Liu, J. Nevitt, & R. L. Toporek, 2000). Los resultados y las implicaciones del estudio se discuten.     

Developing Multicultural Counseling Competence Through the Use of Portfolios

This investigation tested the ability of portfolios to stimulate the acquisition of multicultural counseling competence within counselors‐in‐training and compared portfolios with another method of competence development, case formulation. Results indicate that portfolios benefit the acquisition of multicultural counseling competence. Implications for training in multicultural counseling competence are discussed. Esta investigación probó la habilidad de portafolios para estimular la adquisición de competencia de terapia multicultural dentro de consejeros en instrucción y portafolios comparadas a otro método del desarrollo de la competencia, la formulación del caso. Los resultados indican que los portafolios benefician la adquisición de la competencia de terapia multicultural. Las implicaciones para entrenar en la competencia de terapia multicultural se discute.     

The role of political skill in the stressor–outcome relationship: Differential predictions for self- and other-reports of political skill

The beneficial role of political skill in stress reactions and performance evaluations has been demonstrated in a substantial amount of empirical research. Most of the research, however, has focused on self-perceptions of political skill. This study examines the differential moderating effects of self- vs. other-rated political skill in the conflict – emotional burnout and performance relationships, using two samples including non-academic staff employees of a large university (N = 839) and a variety of office and retail employees from an automotive organization (N = 142). We argue that self-reported political skill moderates the relationship between conflict and a self-reported strain-related outcome that is important to the individual (i.e., emotional burnout), but that supervisor-rated political skill does not moderate this relationship. Further, we argue that supervisor-rated political skill moderates the relationship between conflict and an outcome important to the supervisor and the organization (i.e., job performance), but that self-reported political skill does not moderate this relationship. Findings partially support our hypotheses as both self and supervisor-rated political skill neutralized the negative effects of conflict on burnout, but only supervisor-rated political skill neutralized the negative effects of conflict on performance. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.