Bringing It All Back Home: How Outside Stressors Shape Families' Everyday Lives

ABSTRACT— Families are dynamic systems that are permeable to influences from the outside world, such as daily stressors at work and at school. Our research uses naturalistic methods to investigate how family interactions change in response to such experiences and how other family members contribute to that process. We argue that the short-term effects of daily stressors on family dynamics can have cumulative, long-term implications for family health and functioning. Naturalistic studies that incorporate daily diary, observational, and physiological measures can offer new insights into families' everyday stress responding and coping processes.     

Classroom social experiences as predictors of academic performance

A model linking children's peer acceptance in the classroom to academic performance via academic self-concept and internalizing symptoms was tested in a longitudinal study. A sample of 248 children was followed from 4th to 6th grade, with data collected from different informants in each year of the study to reduce respondent bias. A path analysis supported the model; a lack of peer acceptance in the classroom in 4th grade predicted lower academic self-concept and more internalizing symptoms the following year, which in turn, predicted lower academic performance in 6th grade. An alternative path with internalizing symptoms predicting declines in peer acceptance was tested and received some support as well. Implications of the findings for schools are discussed.