Coparenting and Children's School Readiness: A Mediational Model

We examined the long‐term direct and indirect links between coparenting (conflict, communication, and shared decision‐making) and preschoolers' school readiness (math, literacy, and social skills). The study sample consisted of 5,650 children and their biological mothers and fathers who participated in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study‐Birth Cohort. Using structural equation modeling and controlling for background characteristics, we found that our conceptual model of the pathways from coparenting to child outcomes is structurally the same for cohabiting and married families. Controlling for a host of background characteristics, we found that coparenting conflict and shared decision‐making were negatively and positively, respectively, linked to children's academic and social skills and co‐parental communication was indirectly linked to academic and social skills through maternal supportiveness. Coparenting conflict was also indirectly linked to children's social skills through maternal depressive symptoms. The overall findings suggest that for both cohabiting and married families, the context of conflicted coparenting may interfere with the development of children's social competencies and academic skills, whereas collaborative coparenting promotes children's school readiness because mothers are more responsive to their children's needs. These findings have implications for programs aimed at promoting positive family processes in cohabiting and married families.     

Coparenting Interventions for Fragile Families: What Do We Know and Where Do We Need To Go Next?

With a large and growing share of American families now forming outside of marriage, triangular infant–mother–father relationship systems in “fragile families” have begun to attract the interest of family scholars and clinicians. A relatively novel conceptualization has concerned the feasibility of intervening to support the development of a sustained and positive coparenting alliance between mothers and fathers who have not made an enduring relationship commitment to one another. At this point in time, there are very few published outcome studies of programs explicitly conceived to help build coparenting alliances in such families. This article reviews what we currently know from this evolving field of study, and from those related responsible fatherhood and marriage and relationship enhancement (MRE) initiatives that included any explicit targeting, strengthening, and assessment of fragile family coparenting in their designs. We summarize lessons learned thus far from Access and Visitation (AV) programs for non‐residential fathers, from MRE programs for low‐income, unmarried couples, and from newer programs for fragile families directly designed to target and support coparenting per se. We close with recommendations for charting this important new family process terrain.     

Cooperation,Conflict, or Disengagement? Coparenting Styles and Father Involvement in Fragile Families

This paper draws on information from the Fragile Families Study (N = 2,695) to examine how different coparenting styles emerge and are related to fathers' involvement with young children in a representative sample of unmarried parents. The results show that the quantity and quality of paternal involvement is significantly higher when unmarried parents establish a cooperative as opposed to a disengaged or conflicted coparenting style. Cooperative coparenting is less likely, however, when unmarried parents have separated after the birth or were never together as a couple, when fathers are unemployed or have other risk factors, when the child has a more difficult temperament, and when parents have fewer children together. This analysis also helps clarify previously equivocal findings concerning the relationship between coparenting conflict and paternal involvement. Regression results show that paternal involvement is not significantly different among parents with cooperative and mixed coparenting styles, indicating that when unmarried parents can work together and support each other's parenting efforts, even if they argue frequently while doing so, fathers remain more involved. At the same time, conflicted coparenting leads to a larger decrease in father involvement than disengaged coparenting. In the context of poorer‐quality coparenting relationships, it was conflict that mattered for fathering, not just parents' inability to cooperate. Implications of these findings for parenting education programs are discussed.     

Understanding autism: how family therapists can support parents of children with autism spectrum disorders

The number of children diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder has increased dramatically in the last 20 years. Parents of children with autism experience a variety of chronic and acute stressors that can erode marital satisfaction and family functioning. Family therapists are well-suited to help parents stay connected to each other as they create a "new normal." However, family therapists need updated information about autism, and they need to understand how family therapy can help parents of children with autism. Because having a child with autism affects multiple domains of family life, this paper explores how family therapists can utilize an integrative approach with parents, enabling them to flexibly work with the domains of action, meaning, and emotion.     

The Effects of Parental Education and Family Income on Mother–Child Relationships,Father–Child Relationships,and Family Environments in the People's Republic of China

Using a cross‐sectional design with 407 Chinese children aged 3–5 years and their parents, this study examined the effects of socioeconomic status, specifically parents' education and family income, on the children's mother–child relationships, father–child relationships, and the social environment in their families. The results indicated that income negatively predicted conflict in father–child relationships and positively predicted family active‐recreational environments. Income also positively predicted family cohesion among girls but not boys. Maternal education negatively predicted conflict in mother–child relationships and positively predicted closeness in mother–child and father–child relationships, family cohesion, and the intellectual‐cultural and active‐recreational environments in the family. Paternal education positively predicted family cohesion and intellectual‐cultural and active‐recreational environments. Income was found to partially mediate the effects of both maternal and paternal education on family active‐recreational environments. Findings are discussed in the frameworks of the family stress model and the family investment model.     

A Preliminary Study of DSM–5 PTSD Symptom Patterns in Veterans by Trauma Type

The all-volunteer status of the military, combined with an increasing desire to employ individuals with the requisite knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform highly sophisticated tasks, has intensified competition between military and private sector organizations attempting to attract and retain qualified personnel. In an effort to remain competitive with employers in the private sector labor market, U.S. military organizations have directed their attention to various personnel support programs aimed at meeting the needs of servicemembers and contributing to their overall quality of life. More specifically, these military services have focused on the development and validation of conceptual models that link quality of life to desired military outcomes, including personnel retention, readiness, and performance. This study extended recent quality of life research efforts by determining the applicability of a model developed and validated for Navy personnel to another branch of the military, the U.S. Marine Corps. Structural equation modeling results suggested that the Navy model provided an adequate fit to the Marine Corps data for each of the subgroups considered. Results and implications are discussed.     

A study of the spin-Hamiltonian parameters for Cr5+ at the rhombically-distorted tetrahedral P5+ site of Ca2PO4Cl crystal using a two-mechanism model

The complete high-order perturbation formulae of spin-Hamiltonian (SH) parameters (g factors g_i and hyperfine structure constants A_i , where i = x, y, z) containing contributions from both the crystal-field (CF) and charge-transfer (CT) mechanisms (the latter mechanism is neglected in the widely-used CF theory) are established for d¹ ions in rhombic tetrahedra. From these formulae, the SH parameters of Cr⁵⁺ ion at the rhombically-distorted tetrahedral P⁵⁺ site of Ca₂PO₄Cl crystal are calculated. The CF and CT energy levels used in the calculation are obtained from the optical spectra of the studied Ca₂PO₄Cl : Cr⁵⁺ crystal. The calculated results showed reasonable agreement with the experimental values. The signs of the hyperfine structure constants A_i and the relative importance of the CT mechanism to SH parameters are acquired from the calculations.     

n-3系多元不饱和脂肪酸对抑郁症的影响及其机制

越来越多的实验证据表明,n-3系多元不饱和脂肪酸(n-3PUFA)与抑郁症之间存在联系,二十二碳六烯酸(DHA)和二十碳五烯酸(EPA)可能具有预防和治疗抑郁症的作用.回顾国内外关于n-3PUFA与抑郁症之间存在的负性关系的研究并介绍其主要的研究结果和现状,解释n-3PUFA引起的抗抑郁效果可能涉及的神经机制,包括神经传递、葡萄糖的新陈代谢、促炎细胞因子的分泌、5-羟色胺(5-HT)以及脑源性神经营养因子(BDNF)的水平、还有神经元的凋亡等的变化.并且总结现有研究中存在的一些问题,例如使用的n-3PUFA种类和剂量问题,DHA或EPA是否对于不同种类的抑郁症均有效,单独作用还是共同作用才能引起抗抑郁效果等等,n-3PUFA对抑郁症病理机制的具体影响可能是未来的研究方向.     

缰核在抑郁症中的作用:研究和治疗的新途径

缰核是哺乳动物神经系统中连接前脑和中脑的重要节点,这一古老的核团因其与抑郁症的密切联系,近来获得国内外研究者的关注.缰核接受来自边缘系统、基底神经节等的传入信号,向下投射到中脑5-羟色胺系统和多巴胺系统.在应激条件下缰核免疫活动增强,向下游的投射信号增强,以此调节单胺类递质释放,参与抑郁症的发病机制,并且参与抗抑郁治疗的起效途径.这些证据提示缰核在抑郁症中具有重要作用,将成为研究和治疗的新途径.未来研究应从缰核与上下游核团的神经联系、与丘脑-垂体-肾上腺轴的相互影响、以及与免疫激活的交互作用等方面进一步探索,为研究抑郁症病理机制和治疗方法提供线索.     

DSM-5: The intersectionality of spirituality,culture, and aging

Counselors practice with older adults whose religion and spirituality may be factors in assessment and treatment. The DSM-5 includes religion and spirituality as part of pathology or culture. This approach is supported in counselor education. Religion as a cultural derivative only reflects the human aspect of religion, not including a client’s perception of divine actions possibly beyond the human experience, i.e., a miracle. How does the clinician discern if a client’s experience reflects pathology or the possibility of some sort of miracle? This article includes strengths and limitations of a cultural definition of religious and spiritual experience with case applications.