Relationships with Parents, Spousal Reciprocity, and Psychological Distress in Middle-Age Adults

Data from 301 middle-age couples were employed to investigate links between their recalled parents’ parenting styles and perceptions of reciprocity with their parents, as well as their current perceptions of spousal reciprocity, on their psychological distress. The research extends Baumrind’s theory of childhood parenting styles and Youniss’ theory of late adolescents’ perceived reciprocity to a developmental model for middle-age psychological distress. Differential effects were found according to the gender of both the offspring and the parent. There were significant positive findings only if the opposite-sex parent was perceived as authoritative, and significant negative findings if the same-sex parent was perceived as authoritarian. Regression models indicated mediated, integrated relationships (through maternal and spousal reciprocity) for females, but no mediations were found for males. Significantly more variance in emotional distress was explained by spousal reciprocity than by the parent related variables, and for the men than for the women.     

White Racial Identity Attitudes and the Ego Defense Mechanisms Used by White Counselor Trainees in Racially Provocative Counseling Situations

This exploratory study examined the relationship between racial identity attitudes and the use of ego defense mechanisms by White counselor trainees during cross‐racial counseling and supervision dyads. The sample consisted of 145 White counselor trainees enrolled in both master's and doctoral programs at 2 small private universities located in the northeastern United States. Results indicated that White counselor trainees at less mature statuses of racial identity attitudes relied on more primitive ego defenses to manage the anxiety experienced during racially provocative counseling and supervision dyads. Implications for counseling and counselor training are discussed in the context of the study's findings.     

A Revision of the Multicultural Counseling Awareness Scale

This article reports the results of 2 studies designed to test and revise the Multicultural Counseling Awareness Scale (J. G. Ponterotto et al., 1996). Collective results support the 2‐factor extraction (Knowledge and Awareness) as the best fit model and provide initial indices of validity and internal consistency reliability for the newly titled Multicultural Counseling Knowledge and Awareness Scale. Este artículo informa los resultados de 2 estudios diseñados para probar y revisar la Escala de Conciencia de Consejería Multicultural (J. G. Ponterotto et al., 1996). Los resultados colectivos sostienen la extracción de 2 factures (el Conocimiento y la Conciencia) como el mejor modelo y proporcionan los índices iniciales de validez y fiabilidad de la consistencia interna para la nuevamente titulada Escala de Conocimiento y Conciencia de Consejería Multicultural.     

Does Motivation Impact OCD Symptom Severity? An Exploration of Longitudinal Effects

Understanding the role of patient motivation in OCD treatment is of clinical importance given the requisite autonomous role of patients in Exposure and Response Prevention. The present study investigated state- and trait-like relations between three variables: two previously established motivational constructs, readiness to change (RTC) and committed action (CA), derived from the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment, and OCD symptom severity as measured by the self-report Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS-SR). Utilizing a random-intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) design, we assessed autoregressive, within-time correlations, and cross-lagged effects of RTC, CA, and Y-BOCS-SR scores at admission, month 1 of treatment, and discharge from an intensive/residential treatment program for OCD. Results revealed significant autoregressive (i.e., state-like) effects for CA and Y-BOCS-SR, negative within-time correlations between state CA and Y-BOCS-SR across all time points, a positive within-time correlation between state CA and RTC at admission, and a cross-lagged effect between state Y-BOCS-SR at month 1 of treatment and state RTC at discharge. Results also demonstrated that the stability of the RTC variable was attributable to trait-like factors in the present sample. This study is novel in its use of RI-CLPM in an OCD sample and represents an important addition to the literature on the longitudinal impacts of dynamic constructs of motivation. Our findings may provide future researchers with strategies to supplement ERP with CA-driven motivational interviewing.     

Exploring Community Mobilization in Northern Quebec: Motivators,Challenges, and Resilience in Action

Nunavimmiut (people of the land) are the Indigenous peoples of the northern peninsula of the province of Quebec. Communities of Nunavik and its regional organizations have been making concerted efforts in implementing community‐based strategies to support family wellbeing. These community strategies are grounded in many of the values underpinning community psychology: favoring empowerment‐oriented approaches, fostering community capacity, and transforming organizational cultures to allow for new modes of interaction, as well as new policies and practices that are grounded in community and culture. Despite the growing support and expectation for community mobilization, there is still very little research on the processes and challenges to such mobilization. In this study, we explored the unique challenges and facilitators to community endeavors in northern Quebec in order to better understand the complex dynamics and the strengths that Inuit build upon. We first used a focused ethnographic approach in the context of a 5‐year community mobilization project in Nunavik. We then conducted 12 individual interviews and two small group interviews with Inuit working on community‐based wellbeing‐oriented mobilization projects in four additional communities. Results expose how sociogeographical realities and colonialism influence the process of community mobilization. They also highlight the values and motivational factors that lead community members to move beyond these influences.     

The mediating role of state maladaptive emotion regulation in the relation between social anxiety symptoms and self-evaluation bias

Although social anxiety symptoms are robustly linked to biased self-evaluations across time, the mechanisms of this relation remain unclear. The present study tested three maladaptive emotion regulation strategies – state post-event processing, state experiential avoidance, and state expressive suppression – as potential mediators of this relation. Undergraduate participants (N?=?88; 61.4% Female) rated their social skill in an impromptu conversation task and then returned to the laboratory approximately two days later to evaluate their social skill in the conversation again. Consistent with expectations, state post-event processing and state experiential avoidance mediated the relation between social anxiety symptoms and worsening self-evaluations of social skill (controlling for research assistant evaluations), particularly for positive qualities (e.g. appeared confident, demonstrated social skill). State expressive suppression did not mediate the relation between social anxiety symptoms and changes in self-evaluation bias across time. These findings highlight the role that spontaneous, state experiential avoidance and state post-event processing may play in the relation between social anxiety symptoms and worsening self-evaluation biases of social skill across time.     

The Hostile Media Effect,Biased Assimilation,and Perceptions of a Presidential Debate1

This study examined the relation between 2 seemingly inconsistent phenomena: hostile media effect and biased assimilation. Participants (N = 156) reported their preference for George W. Bush or John Kerry and then viewed a live broadcast of the first Bush–Kerry Presidential debate. Consistent with biased assimilation, candidate preference influenced participants on both sides to perceive their candidate won the debate. Nevertheless, candidate preference modestly induced participants to perceive hostile bias from the debate moderator, Jim Lehrer. The influence of anticipated third‐person effects was also examined. Overall, the results suggest biased assimilation and the hostile media effect are not inconsistent. In some situations, they occur simultaneously. Moreover, the hostile media effect appears to extend beyond news reports to other forms of mediation.     

Marital Interactions,Family Intervention,and Disagreements: A Daily Diary Study in a Low‐income Sample

Little research has examined associations between low‐income married couples’ daily interactions and severity of disagreements. Similarly, few researchers have considered how family‐strengthening interventions for low‐income couples may affect the quality of daily interactions and associations between interactions and conflict experiences. This study aims to fill these gaps in the literature by leveraging daily diary data from a random assignment study of a family‐strengthening intervention with low‐income husbands and wives 30 months postenrollment. Married couples randomly assigned to the intervention participated in 10 weeks of relationship education services. Control group couples received no services. Thirty months postrandom assignment, participants reported on the severity of daily marital disagreements over a 15‐day period, as well as their positive and negative emotions during inter‐spousal interactions. Multi‐level models demonstrated associations between reports of emotions in interactions and severity of disagreements. In addition, wives assigned to the family strengthening program reported fewer negative emotions during interactions at follow‐up than wives in the control condition. Finally, negative associations between positive emotions in interactions and severity of disagreements were stronger for wives assigned to the intervention, while positive associations between negative emotions in interactions and severity of disagreements were weaker for wives assigned to the intervention. Implications for future research and intervention development are discussed.     

Parenting Perfectionism and Parental Adjustment

The parental role is expected to be one of the most gratifying and rewarding roles in life. As expectations of parenting become ever higher, the implications of parenting perfectionism for parental adjustment warrant investigation. Using longitudinal data from 182 couples, this study examined the associations between societal- and self-oriented parenting perfectionism and new mothers’ and fathers’ parenting self-efficacy, stress, and satisfaction. For mothers, societal-oriented parenting perfectionism was associated with lower parenting self-efficacy, but self-oriented parenting perfectionism was associated with higher parenting satisfaction. For fathers, societal-oriented parenting perfectionism was associated with higher parenting stress, whereas higher levels of self-oriented parenting perfectionism were associated with higher parenting self-efficacy, lower parenting stress, and greater parenting satisfaction. These findings support the distinction between societal- and self-oriented perfectionism, extend research on perfectionism to interpersonal adjustment in the parenting domain, and provide the first evidence for the potential consequences of holding excessively high standards for parenting.