Did Mom Really Love You Best? Developmental Histories,Status Transitions,and Parental Favoritism in Later Life Families

In this paper, we draw upon insights from the developmental psychological literature on younger families to investigate within-family differences in parent–adult child relations in later life families. Using data from 30 families, we examine whether mothers aged 65–75 report greater closeness to particular adult children, and the extent to which patterns of closeness can be explained by within-family differences in the children's status transitions and developmental histories. Eighty percent of the mothers reported being closer to at least one of their adult children. Further, mothers were more likely to report that the children to whom they were closest had experienced nonnormative status transitions or other problematic events that had been involuntary and had made the children more dependent on their mothers. In contrast, mothers were least likely to name children who experienced voluntary problematic events. Comparison of the data from mothers with that from adult children revealed substantial discrepancies in reporting developmental histories, thus demonstrating the limitations imposed by collecting data from only one generation. Taken together, these findings suggest that examining within-family variations in social structural transitions and developmental histories, in combination with collecting data from multiple generations, may shed light on the quality of intergenerational relations.     

A Qualitative Examination of the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Individuals with Neuro-developmental Disabilities and their Families

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Individuals with neuro-developmental disabilities (NDD) have been profoundly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on focus groups with 24 service providers...     

Painfully bored: the role of negative urgency and history of Non-Suicidal Self-Injury in Self-Administering painful stimuli

Motivation and Emotion - The current study aims to examine the causal effect of boredom on non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), expanding prior experimental research by including an anger induction to...     

All Absences Are Not the Same: What Happens to the Group Climate When Someone is Absent From Group?

Clinical wisdom dictates that group member absences are harmful to the group; however, this has not been empirically examined. How do group member absences affect the group’s climate, and do absences earlier or later in a group’s life differentially impact group climate? The current study examined the relationship between group member absence and the climate perceptions for attending members, during earlier and later sessions in a group’s development. As hypothesized, a significant interaction was found for group climate and time such that absences during early sessions were significantly related to higher levels of engagement and lower levels of avoidance (a more productive group atmosphere), while absences during later sessions were related to lower levels of engagement and higher levels of avoidance. Implications are discussed.