Disclosure of Divorce Plans to Children: What the Children Have to Say

Divorce has become a common experience for children. One part of the process that children of divorcing parents experience is the time when they are informed of their parents' approaching separation or divorce. In this study, 20 adults from eight families who had experienced the divorce of their parents when they were younger were interviewed using a guided interview format. At least two siblings from each family except one was interviewed. Qualitative analyses of data revealed interesting themes around the questions of how the participants were told about the impending separation or divorce, who told them, whether or not siblings were present, how they reacted to the news, and how they would have preferred being told.     

大学生人际关系质量的影响因素研究

采用Rosellberg自尊量表、EMBU、大学生价值观问卷、自编"大学生人际关系主观因素问卷"及"人际关系质量量表"为工具,对1,137名本科生进行调查,以探讨大学生自尊、价值观、父母教养方式及人际关系的主观因素与大学生人际关系质量的关系.结果表明,父母教养方式、价值观与自尊对人际关系质量的直接效应很低,它们对人际关系质量的影响要以人际关系的主观因素为中介.因此,要构建大学生和谐人际关系,应特别重视影响其人际关系质量的主观因素教育.     

父母监控与青少年的问题行为

从北京市两所普通中学选取了1090名中学生为被试,采用问卷调查的方式,要求他们分别报告父亲和母亲的主、客观监控水平和监控手段,以及自己的问题行为,以探讨父母监控与青少年问题行为之间的关系。结果表明:(1)客观监控水平越高,青少年的问题行为越少;而主观监控水平的作用却与此相反;(2)父母客观监控水平高而主观监控水平低的青少年表现的问题行为最少;(3)沟通和控制可以起到积极的监控作用,而搜寻的作用相对较弱,并且父亲使用搜寻手段还会增加青少年的违法行为;母亲搜寻手段的使用也只是对男生有一定的影响。     

What influences the quality of care in English playgroups?

In a study of the quality of care, interviews and observations of 45 playgroups in three areas of England were conducted. The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale was used as a measure of quality. The influence of area, resources, management, size, space, staffing, training, support, parental involvement and staff dissatisfaction upon quality were considered. The major influence was playgroup leader training, and parental involvement was also associated with quality of care. Parental involvement and staff training were strongly linked, indicating the confounding of family and child care characteristics and the importance of understanding family and child care interrelationships. The applicability of the measures to English playgroups was discussed.     

Children of Incarcerated Mothers

We review the literature on children whose mothers are incarcerated in jails or prisons. These children typically experience a great many risk factors besides their mothers' incarceration, including poverty, drug and alcohol problems in their families, community violence, and multiple changes in caregivers. Children's lives are greatly disrupted when mothers are arrested, and most children show emotional and behavioral problems. The impact this has depends on the age of the child, the alternate caregiving arrangements, and the course of the mother's incarceration. Children of incarcerated mothers experience internalizing (fear, withdrawal, depression, emotional disturbance) and externalizing (anger, fighting, stealing, substance abuse) problems, as well as heightened rates of school failure and eventual criminal activity and incarceration. Research in this area is scarce and often of poor quality. A research agenda which is guided by a transactional, ecological, and developmental model, and which examines children's well-being over the course of the mothers' incarceration is suggested.     

The Importance of Parental Attributions in Families of Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity and Disruptive Behavior Disorders

Presents a social-cognitive model outlining the role of parental attributions for child behavior in parent–child interactions. Examples of studies providing evidence for the basic model are presented, with particular reference to applications of the model in families of children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and/or oppositional defiant/conduct disordered behavior. Parent or child factors that may moderate the operation of links within the model are suggested, and evidence of such moderator effects is presented. The conceptualization and measurement of parental attributions also are discussed. The limitations of the model and existing evidence, as well as recommendations for future research in this area are presented throughout the paper. The paper concludes with a summary of the clinical implications of the model and research on parental attributions with regards to improving interventions for families of children with attentional and disruptive behavior problems.     

Who gets mad,sad, scared or happy at discipline? Emotion attributions explain child externalizing behaviour

Few studies have linked parental discipline with children's emotional experiences, and not much data explore children's emotional attributions to discipline linked to externalizing behaviour. With a sample from Brazil, this study examines which emotions children most aptly attribute to a protagonist facing spanking, time-out or inductive discipline for norm violations. We hypothesized that anger, sadness, and fear would have higher attribution rates at spanking or time-out, relative to inductive discipline and that happiness would have higher attribution rates at induction relative to the other discipline modalities. We expected these findings to be more pronounced in older children. Based on emotional functions, we also tested the role of neutrality and happiness attributions to discipline in children's externalizing behaviour. A two-way MANOVA, with discipline and child age as explanatory variables, showed that children attributed more anger at time-out or spanking than at induction, and more happiness and neutrality at induction than at either time-out or spanking. Older children attributed significantly more sadness and less fear or neutrality. Hierarchical regressions showed that child externalizing behaviour was negatively related to happy attributions in discipline independently of child emotion situation knowledge or demographics. The results are interpreted in light of a functional view of emotions.