PARENT EDUCATION PROJECT III: INCREASING AFFECTION AND RESPONSIVITY IN DEVELOPMENTALLY HANDICAPPED MOTHERS: COMPONENT ANALYSIS,GENERALIZATION, AND EFFECTS ON CHILD LANGUAGE

We evaluated the effects of a parent training program consisting of verbal instruction, modeling, and feedback on the affection and responsivity of 3 developmentally handicapped mothers towards their children. The results indicated the following: First, the training package increased maternal physical affection, praise, and imitation of child vocalizations. These parenting skills increased to levels found in comparison groups of nonhandicapped mothers. Second, the training package was more effective than verbal instruction alone, the latter being the predominant method presently used by social service workers. Third, most maternal gains were maintained over a 3- to 18-month follow-up period, although one mother required a reinforced maintenance procedure. Fourth, instructing mothers to generalize served to increase the generalization of newly acquired skills from play times (the training context) to child-care tasks (e.g., diapering, feeding). Fifth, teaching the parents to imitate child vocalizations was related to gains in both the frequency and quality of verbal behavior of the two language delayed children as measured by standardized developmental tests and in vivo comparisons with age-matched children (who had nonhandicapped parents). These results show that behavioral instruction can improve important child-rearing skills of developmentally handicapped mothers, with corresponding benefits to their children.     

青少年亲子关系与攻击性行为的关系研究

以670名小学生和初、高中学生为被试,采用问卷法考察青少年攻击性行为的特点,以及亲子关系(亲子依恋、父母教养方式)对于攻击性行为的影响。结果表明:(1)母依恋与父依恋均与攻击性行为及其各个维度有显著的负相关。(2)父母教养方式除了F4(父亲偏爱被试)、M5(母亲偏爱被试)与攻击性行为及其各个维度没有相关外,其他各个维度与攻击性行为及其各个维度均有显著的正相关或负相关。(3)亲子关系对于攻击性行为的预测上,M3(母亲拒绝、否认)、F1(父情感温暖理解)、M2(母过分干涉保护)、M4(母亲惩罚、严厉)这4个维度能预测攻击性行为23%的变异量。     

父母学习陪伴与小学生学业不良的关系:亲子学业沟通的中介作用和学习负担的调节作用

采用父母学习陪伴问卷、亲子学业沟通问卷、学习负担量表和学业成绩自我评定量表对578名4-6年级小学生及家长进行调查,探讨父母学习陪伴与小学生学业不良的关系以及亲子学业沟通四个维度（成绩沟通、习惯沟通、态度沟通和方法沟通）的中介作用和学习负担的调节作用。结果发现：（1）父母学习陪伴对学业不良具有显著的负向预测作用;（2）亲子学业态度沟通和方法沟通在父母学习陪伴与学业不良的关系中起完全中介作用;（3）学习负担在亲子学业态度沟通与学业不良之间的调节作用显著。在低学习负担条件下,亲子学业态度沟通对学业不良的改善作用更为明显。本研究结果表明,提高父母学习陪伴的时间和陪伴质量、改善亲子学业沟通方式并适当降低学习负担,可能改善小学生的学业不良。     

亲子依恋和师生关系对留守儿童内化问题的影响：同伴依恋的中介作用

为探究亲子依恋和师生关系对留守儿童内化问题的延时影响及同伴依恋在其中的中介作用,采用亲子依恋问卷、同伴依恋问卷、师生关系量表及长处与困难问卷对604名小学三年级留守儿童进行间隔半年的两次问卷调查。结果表明：师生关系负向预测留守儿童内化问题,父子依恋和母子依恋对内化问题的预测均不显著;同伴依恋在亲子依恋和师生关系与留守儿童内化问题之间均起中介作用。     

Parent-Child Interactions in Anxious Families

A considerable amount of research has examined factors associated with the etiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders in children. The familial nature of anxiety has been well-established, with genetic studies showing that approximately 30% of the variance is accounted for by genetic factors. Research into the family environment documents behavioral differences in interactions between non-anxious parent-child and anxious parent-child dyads, including less granting of autonomy, and parental withdrawal and disengagement. Recent theoretical work in the field of anxiety suggests that attachment models and coercive operant patterns could create a bi-directional coercive interaction pattern, similar to that seen in interactions of parents and aggressive children. The current study investigated parent and child behaviors coded from interaction tasks across four groups based on anxiety status: anxious parent/anxious child, non-anxious parent/anxious child, anxious parent/non-anxious child, and non-anxious parent/non-anxious child to empirically examine hypothesized interactive patterns. The study sample consisted of 158 parent-child (ages 3–12 years) dyads. Results support an interaction between parent and child anxiety on behavior within dyads. The current study provides an important step in identifying processes linked to familial anxiety.     

Understanding Manual-Based Behavior Therapy: Some Theoretical Foundations of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy

ABSTRACT

Manualized therapy has been criticized as being incompatible with behavior therapy. However, the majority of empirically supported, manual-based therapies utilize basic behavioral principles, such as positive reinforcement, to achieve positive change in the target behavior. Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), for example, is a manualized treatment that makes extensive use of the empirically-derived behavioral principles of this paradigm. Understanding how and why these fundamental principles operate is essential when attempting to tailor the program ideographically to meet clients' specific needs. The purpose of this article is to provide a model of understanding and evaluating manualized treatments by beginning with a review of the theory and data-driven principles upon which PCIT is based. As a point of illustration, several of the behavioral principles embedded in PCIT, such as reinforcement, punishment, and stimulus control, are highlighted, and clinically relevant examples are presented.     

Concept Shift and the Development of the Concept of Class in Children

The authors compared parent-related perceptions by hospitalized adolescents (i.e., who were admitted to a specialized psychiatric unit; n = 50) and delinquent adolescents (i.e., who were placed at a juvenile treatment institution; n = 51) with adolescents from the general population (n = 51). All adolescents completed a broad set of measures of attachment, perceived parenting, and separation–individuation. Contrary to initial expectations, hospitalized adolescents scored higher than controls on indices of excessive autonomy. Ambivalence regarding issues of interpersonal closeness and distance was found among delinquent adolescents. In addition, hospitalized and delinquent adolescents were found to be struggling, each in their specific way, with attachment-related experiences of trauma. Finally, delinquent adolescents also showed a stage-appropriate form of potentially adaptive narcissism. These findings add to the growing consensus in the literature that associations between adolescent psychopathology and parent-related perceptions are typically complex and somewhat counterintuitive.     

Responses of Preschoolers in Two Frustrating Episodes: Emergence of Complex Strategies for Emotion Regulation

Although research on young children's abilities to organize emotional states has increased in recent years, little is known about the emergence of complex strategies for emotion regulation in preschoolers. In the present study, emotion-regulation strategies used by 52 normally developing 3- and 4-year-olds were examined. Children and their primary caregivers (50 mothers, 2 fathers) participated in 2 controlled frustration episodes that were videotaped. Four types of strategies were coded: comforting behaviors, instrumental behaviors, distraction behaviors, and cognitive reappraisals. Results indicated that 3-year-olds used proportionately more instrumental strategies than 4-year-olds, and parents of 3-year-olds showed the same pattern, whereas parents of 4-year-olds did not. Moreover, 3-year-olds used a variety of strategies when frustrated, including cognitive reappraisals. Significant positive correlations were found between the types of strategies used by the children and by the parents to help their children. It is suggested that children may be using strategies to organize their emotional states before they are able to accurately report on them.     

Learning to say goodbye. An essay on Philip Pullman's The Amber Spyglass Volume 3 of His Dark Materials

This paper discusses the third volume of Pullman's remarkable trilogy. The two main child characters, Lyra and Will, are now entering adolescence, and the novel explores their intense and ambivalent feelings towards the parents and the variously protective or hostile parental figures who surround them. The novel devises remarkable imaginary worlds – for example the land of the mulefa, and the underworld visited by Will and Lyra – through which to explore issues of considerable intellectual and emotional depth. The ‘realism’ to which Pullman is committed is apparent in the conclusion of the book, where the two child characters, who have fallen in love with one another, have to accept the necessity of separation.