Reading thousands of books and traveling thousands of miles: Diversity of life experience mediates the relationship between family SES and creativity

This study examined the relationship between family SES and children’s creativity, and tested the mediating role of diversity of life experience in this relationship. A total of 204 undergraduates (54 males and 150 females), aged between 17 and 23 years, completed a family SES questionnaire, diversity of life experience questionnaire, biographical inventory of creative behaviors, and alternative uses tasks (AUT). The results showed positive associations between family SES, diversity of life experience, and different indices of creativity. Additionally, mediation analyses indicated that diversity of life experience fully mediated the effect of family SES on creative behavior and AUT originality. In accordance with the family investment model, these results confirmed the positive association between family SES and creativity, and identified diversity of life experience as a mediating variable through which family SES influences creativity performance. Implications and future directions are discussed in detail.     

Family incivility and counterproductive work behavior: A moderated mediation model of self-esteem and emotional regulation

Drawing from the work–home resources model, we examined the relations of family incivility, counterproductive work behaviors (CWB), state self-esteem, and emotional regulation. Results from three-wave lagged data (N = 284) indicated that family incivility was positively correlated with counterproductive work behaviors, and this relationship was mediated by state self-esteem. In addition, emotional regulation mitigated the relationship between family incivility and state self-esteem. The findings suggested that family incivility, as an emotional contextual demand in the home domain, is related to negative outcome (deviant behavior) in the work context (i.e., CWB) through the depletion of the personal resource—state self-esteem, while emotional regulation is a key resource that mitigates this relationship. This paper discusses the implications of these findings with respect to applications and developments of the work–home resources model.     

Pathways of Risk and Resilience: Impact of a Family Resilience Program on Active‐Duty Military Parents

Over the past decade, studies into the impact of wartime deployment and related adversities on service members and their families have offered empirical support for systemic models of family functioning and a more nuanced understanding of the mechanisms by which stress and trauma reverberate across family and partner relationships. They have also advanced our understanding of the ways in which families may contribute to the resilience of children and parents contending with the stressors of serial deployments and parental physical and psychological injuries. This study is the latest in a series designed to further clarify the systemic functioning of military families and to explicate the role of resilient family processes in reducing symptoms of distress and poor adaptation among family members. Drawing upon the implementation of the Families Overcoming Under Stress (FOCUS) Family Resilience Program at 14 active‐duty military installations across the United States, structural equation modeling was conducted with data from 434 marine and navy active‐duty families who participated in the FOCUS program. The goal was to better understand the ways in which parental distress reverberates across military family systems and, through longitudinal path analytic modeling, determine the pathways of program impact on parental distress. The findings indicated significant cross‐influence of distress between the military and civilian parents within families, families with more distressed military parents were more likely to sustain participation in the program, and reductions in distress among both military and civilian parents were significantly mediated by improvements in resilient family processes. These results are consistent with family systemic and resilient models that support preventive interventions designed to enhance family resilient processes as an important part of comprehensive services for distressed military families.     

Relational Resilience in Māori,Pacific, and European Sole Parent Families: From Theory and Research to Social Policy

This study reports findings and policy recommendations from a research project that applied a relational resilience framework to a study of 60 sole parent families in New Zealand, with approximately equal numbers of Māori, Pacific, and European (White) participants. The sole parent families involved were already known to be resilient and the study focused on identifying the relationships and strategies underlying the achievement and maintenance of their resilience. The study was carried out to provide an evidence base for the development and implementation of policies and interventions to both support sole parent families who have achieved resilience and assist those who struggle to do so. The three populations shared many similarities in their pathways to becoming sole parents and the challenges they faced as sole parents. The coping strategies underlying their demonstrated resilience were also broadly similar, but the ways in which they were carried out did vary in a manner that particularly reflected cultural practices in terms of their reliance upon extended family‐based support or support from outside the family. The commonalities support the appropriateness of the common conceptual framework used, whereas the differences underline the importance of developing nuanced policy responses that take into account cultural differences between the various populations to which policy initiatives are directed.     

The influence of family context on life,educational and occupational ideal among middle school students in China

This study examined the relationship between family context of middle school students on their educational and occupational ideals. Middle school students (N = 2000) responded to questions assessing family location, family structure, parental educational level and family economic status, as well as to the Middle School Students' Ideals Questionnaire. Multivariate analysis of variance indicated that life, educational and occupational ideals of female students and students in lower grades were higher than that of male students and students in higher grades. Regression analysis indicated that paternal education level have a positive association with educational and occupational ideals, but not life ideals, and family economic status have a positive relation to life ideals, but not educational and occupational ideals. Moreover, the interaction between family economic status and family location has a negative association with students' life, educational and occupational ideals. These results suggest that different factors predicted different ideals of adolescents, and that family economic status had a negative moderating effect on the relationship between family location and ideals of students.     

Sibling relationships and civic engagement: A longitudinal study of Chinese young adults

This study examined the longitudinal associations of sibling intimacy and conflict with civic attitudes and behaviours among Chinese young adults. At two time points separated by about 12 months, questionnaire data were collected from 272 Chinese college students (mean age at Time 1 = 19.68 years; 69% female), students who studied in Hong Kong and had at least one sibling. Students rated their intimacy and conflict with their siblings and their parents at Time 1, and their civic attitudes and behaviours at both time points. Hierarchical regression revealed that, controlling for demographic characteristics and parent–child intimacy and conflict, sibling intimacy predicted increases in both civic attitudes and behaviours. Sibling conflict was a non-significant predictor, however. Findings highlighted the roles of siblings in understanding civic development in young adulthood and the utility of targeting sibling intimacy as means to foster young adults' positive attitudes to and active participation in civic activities.     

Gender differences in romantic relationship memories: who remembers? Who cares?

Two studies were conducted to assess patterns of gender differences in memory for romantic relationship events. Results suggested that people believe that women have better memory for romantic relationship events than men, that better relationship memory predicts higher levels of relationship well-being, and that the association between relationship memory and relationship well-being is somewhat stronger for women than for men. Women did tend to have somewhat better relationship memory than men, as assessed via subjective reports from both partners in mixed-sex relationships, and via the number of details partners provided when asked to recall a specific relationship event (i.e., their first date). Consistent with the lay theories, both own and partner’s better relationship memory predicted higher levels of relationship well-being; however, the association between better relationship memory and higher levels of relationship well-being was equally strong for both genders. Implications and future research directions are discussed.     

Communication of Information about Genetic Risks: Putting Families at the Center

Genetic information is a family affair. With the expansion of genomic technologies, many new causal genes and variants have been established and the potential for molecular diagnoses increased, with implications not only for patients but also their relatives. The need for genetic counseling and intrafamilial circulation of information on genetic risks grew accordingly. Also, the amount and, particularly, the complexity of the information to convey multiplied. Sharing information about genetic risks with family members, however, has never been an easy matter and often becomes a source of personal and familial conflicts and distress. Ethical requisites generally prevent healthcare professionals from directly contacting their consultands' relatives (affected or still at risk), who often feel unsupported throughout that process. We discuss here the communication of genetic risks to family members. We first consider genomic testing as a basis for family‐centered health care, as opposed to a predominant focus on the individual. We reviewed the literature on sharing genetic risk information with family members, and the associated ethical issues for professionals. Some clinical cases are presented and discussed, and key issues for meeting the needs of individuals and families are addressed. We argue that genetic information is inextricably linked to the family and that communicating about genetic risks is a process grounded within the broader milieu of family relationships and functioning. We conclude for the need for a more family‐centered approach and interventions that can promote sensitive attitudes to the provision of genetic information to and within the family, as well as its inclusion in educational and training programmes for genetic healthcare professionals.