Distress of Japanese parents of children with intellectual disabilities: Correlations with age of parent and negative mood regulation expectancies

Parents caring for a child with an intellectual disability (ID) face many challenges. Few studies in Japan have focused on parents of children with an ID. We investigated the psychological factors that might help these parents maintain well‐being, in particular negative mood regulation expectancies (NMRE). NMRE are beliefs about one's ability to diminish one's negative moods. Research has shown NMRE to buffer the effects of stress: stronger NMRE are associated with less symptoms of distress, including depression and anxiety. We examined the associations of NMRE, coping, and severity of the child's ID with parental distress (somatization, depression, and anxiety) among 106 Japanese parents (mean age = 56.7 years) caring for at least one child with an ID. The age of the parent was negatively associated with parental distress, particularly anxiety. NMRE were also negatively related to distress, independent of the age of the parent and coping. The severity of the child's ID was not related to coping or parental distress. Stronger beliefs that they could control their negative moods and being older seemed to protect parents of an ID child from symptoms of distress.     

A psychodynamic understanding of parental stress among parents of children with learning and developmental disability and behaviours that challenge

A significant minority of parents of children with learning and developmental disability experience elevated levels of parental stress, particularly when their children present with behaviours that challenge. A small but influential number of psychoanalytic authors have made significant contributions to the learning disability field of research, however, the psychological distress of parents whose children have behaviours that challenge has received scant attention. This paper posits that distressed parents of children with learning and developmental disability and behaviours that challenge often make use of primary defences, which are linked with their children’s behaviour, albeit in a reciprocal rather than causal manner.     

The role of a parent's illness in the emotional experience of a child evidence from Klein's Narrative of a child analysis

Abstract

The analysis of Richard, described by Melanie Klein in Narrative of a Child Analysis, gives us some insight into the effect on a child of threats to the health of his parents. His mother was involved in a road accident when Richard was 2; his father collapsed during the time of the analysis when he was 10. This paper links these events with disturbances in Richard's relation to his father and to his mother, as well as with threats to his own integrity, as demonstrated in the analysis. Richard's reversal of roles with his father and mother is discussed, as are Klein's reaction to Richard's report of finding his father ‘ill and nearly fainting’ and Richard's response to her behaviour. The paper draws attention to the way in which a child's reaction to the ill health of one parent can affect relations with both parents, as well as disturbing his sense of himself.     

Parental Influence on Children during Educational Television Viewing in Immigrant Families

It has been suggested by researchers that educational television programmes may support the language and literacy development for children, especially those in immigrant families. In an immigrant family, many family characteristics appear to be related to educational television programme viewing of children at home, for example, parental acculturation (the process of adapting to the new culture) and parental mediation (supervision and guidance) of television viewing. In the present work, the parental influence on children during educational television viewing was studied quantitatively, based on a sample (n = 171) of immigrant families with children aged 3–6 years collected across the U.S. The results have revealed that significant differences existed between Asian and Hispanic groups in coviewing mediation and in their children's educational television viewing. Furthermore, language in parental acculturation significantly predicted instructive and restrictive parental mediation, and parental occupation significantly predicted language in parental acculturation. This study initiates the attention to the topic of educational television viewing in immigrant families, which warrants further investigations in the future as the Asian and Hispanic immigrant population increases rapidly in the U.S. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Parental Bonding and Its Effect on Adolescent Substance Use and Sexual Debut

The purpose of this study was to examine associations among parental bonding factors and the early onset of sexual behaviors and substance use. Significant differences were found in the levels of care among the parental status groups and among the ages of onset for alcohol use.     

Childhood Maltreatment,Adult Attachment,and Depression as Predictors of Parental Self-Efficacy in At-Risk Mothers

Childhood abuse and neglect can have far-reaching effects on adult relationships, mental health, and parenting. This study examined relations between maltreatment types, anxious and avoidant adult attachment, maternal depression, and parental self-efficacy in a community sample of 76 at-risk mothers. After controlling for other forms of maltreatment, emotional abuse uniquely predicted higher levels of anxious attachment and maternal depression. Structural equation modeling revealed that childhood maltreatment predicted lower parental self-efficacy through indirect pathways involving anxious attachment and depression. Specifically, maltreatment's influence on maternal depression was mediated by attachment anxiety, while its influence on parental self-efficacy was mediated by depressive symptoms. Results are discussed in terms of attachment theory and ways in which parental self-efficacy contributes to adaptive caregiving behavior.     

Parental goals and talk with toddlers

Myriad studies support a relation between parental beliefs and behaviours. This study adds to the literature by focusing on the specific relationship between parental goals and their communication with toddlers. Do parents with different goals talk about different topics with their children? Parents' goals for their 30‐month olds were gathered using semi‐structured interviews with 47 primary caregivers, whereas the topics of conversations that took place during interactions were investigated via coding videotapes of observations in the home. Parents' short‐ and long‐term goals spanned several areas, including educational, social–emotional, developmental and pragmatic goals. Parental utterances most frequently focused on pragmatic issues, followed by play and academic topics. Parents who mentioned long‐term educational goals devoted more of their talk to academic topics and less to pragmatic topics, controlling for socio‐economic status. Thus, parental goals differ and these differences relate to the conversations parents engage in with their children. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Relation of Personal Epistemology to Parenting Style and Goal Orientation in College Mothers

This study sought to establish the relevance of mothers’ epistemic beliefs to their parenting style and preferred academic goals for their child. College mothers (N = 163) from primarily working class families completed a variety of self-report measures including a modified version of Schommer’s [(1990). Journal of Educational Psychology, 82, 498–504] Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire, the Parental Attitudes Questionnaire-Revised [Reitman, Rhode, Hupp, & Altobello (2002). Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 24(2), 119–127], and several goal orientation scales. Results indicated that a view of learning as effortful and under the learner’s control and a view of knowledge as actively constructed were associated with an authoritative parenting style and with a preference for their child to focus on learning, improvement, and effort in approaching academic tasks. By contrast, a view of learning as quick, straightforward, relatively passive and as based in innate constraints and a view of knowledge as consisting of discreet, unambiguous facts were associated with authoritarian and permissive styles and the adoption of performance goals for one’s child. Portions of this study were presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development in Atlanta, April, 2005.     

PARENTAL INFLUENCES ON CHILDREN'S EATING BEHAVIOR AND RELATIVE WEIGHT

We investigated the relationship between selected parent behaviors, child mealtime behavior, and infant relative weight. Subjects were 7 male and 7 female children varying in age from 12 to 30 months (mean = 23.9 months). Each subject and parents were observed during the dinnertime meal on two occasions using the BATMAN (Bob and Tom's Method of Assessing Nutrition). The children spent 58% of the mealtime eating. They spent very little time making active decisions about what and how much they ate (food requests = 2% of the time; food refusals = 1% of the time). We found significant correlations between child relative weight and (a) parental prompts to eat (r = .81, p < .001), (b) parental food offers (r = .51, p < .05), and (c) parental encouragement to eat (r = .82, p < .001). Thus, the present study suggests a relationship between certain parental variables and the relative weight of their children.     

Infantile colic and parental experiences

The study comprised two groups of 33 parents each, one whose infants were identified by parents as colicky during their first 3 months and one with non-colicky infants. Parents filled out a questionnaire with one set of questions about parental experiences when infants were 3 months old and a set of parallel questions concerning current experiences (infant age 8-11 months). The results showed that the 3-month situation was more negatively described with regard to both infant behaviour and parental experiences by the parents of colicky infants. For the current situation (8-11 months), there were no significant group differences, meaning that no long-lasting effects could be demonstrated. However, in the colic group amount of crying and difficulty in comforting during the colic period were significantly related to current parental satisfaction, which suggests that these aspects of infant behaviour and experienced parental competence are of importance also in a longer perspective.