Endorsement of proactively aggressive caregiving strategies moderates the relation between caregiver mental health and potentially harmful caregiving behavior

This research tested the proposition that the oft-reported relation between caregiver mental health outcomes (i.e., resentment, depression) and potentially harmful caregiver behavior (PHB) would be mediated or moderated by caregiver endorsement of proactively aggressive caregiving strategies (PA). Caregiver resentment was the strongest predictor of PHB in the sample of 417 informal caregivers who resided with their care recipients; in fact, resentment mediated the impact of caregiver depression, thus suggesting that depressed affect was associated with PHB only if depressed caregivers resented their caregiving burdens. As predicted, caregiver endorsement of PA moderated the relation between resentment and PHB, such that links between these two constructs were strongest when caregivers were high in both resentment and PA. Endorsement of PA also mediated the relations between demographic or contextual variables (i.e., income, care recipient dementia) and PHB. Implications of these results for research and intervention are discussed.     

Resource theory and power in families: life cycle considerations

We begin our discussion by outlining the usefulness of "resource theory" as a theoretical framework for the study of family power. This framework is then used to analyze changes in the balance of power between elderly parents and their middle-age children. With respect to intergenerational power relationships, we argue that the autonomy of elderly parents has increased, but their power and influence over adult children has decreased. This trend is likely to continue in coming decades. Resource theory is then utilized to analyze changes in marital power relationships as couples age. Most studies of power relationships between elderly spouses have an important limitation--they tend to reflect yesterday's definitions of male and female roles. Recent changes in these roles may significantly alter the social meanings of aging for both men and women in coming years.     

Psychological impact of colorectal cancer screening.

This article examines the psychological impact of participating in sigmoidoscopy screening for colorectal cancer prevention. The 1st study examined psychological well-being at 3 months, in relation to screening outcome, in 4,153 individuals. The 2nd study used longitudinal data to examine changes in psychological functioning from before to after screening in relation both to screening outcome and baseline indicators of vulnerability. There were few psychological differences between those who had received negative results or had polyps detected. These findings were confirmed in the longitudinal study, which also found no evidence for vulnerability to adverse effects among those who were initially most anxious or who perceived their risk of cancer to be higher. The longitudinal data suggested that screening might produce transient positive effects.     

Factors affecting the social validity of a role-play test of children's social skills

The social validity of a role-play test of children's social skills, the Social Skills Test for Children (SST-C), was evaluated by 63 subjects (33 adults and 30 children) who subjectively judged the quality of three children's role-play performances. The three children were selected as having high, medium, or low social skill based upon their performance on the SST-C. Assessment of the effects of subject characteristics upon judgments of social skill suggested that similarities in age and race between the subjects and the three children tended to diminish perceived differences in social skill among the three children. It was concluded that the social validity of the role-play test was supported only if the persons evaluating social behavior were dissimilar in age and racial characteristics from the persons who were being evaluated.     

Are moderate levels of stress particularly dangerous for relationship satisfaction? A conceptual replication of Tesser and Beach (1998)

The well-documented negative impact of daily stressors on relational well-being, juxtaposed with emerging evidence indicating that major stressors can have a positive impact on relational well-being, suggests that the association between stress and relational well-being may not be monotonic. Tesser and Beach originally raised this possibility in a 1998 study in which they found that the association between stress and individual well-being was linear, whereas the association with relational well-being was non-linear. The current study sought to conceptually replicate this study within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic by examining associations between stress and individual versus relational well-being, using a sample of 654 individuals who were in a committed relationship in the early weeks of the pandemic. Results were somewhat consistent with those of the original study: the association between stress and depression was linear, but the association between stress and relationship satisfaction was non-linear. However, the form of the association between stress and relationship satisfaction was different than observed in the original study. These results point toward the need to better understand how the severity of a stressor impacts relational outcomes, including the characteristics of stress that lead to stress spillover and the circumstances under which relational outcomes are resilient to high levels of stress.