Newborn behavioral observations system in rural Pakistan: A feasibility and acceptability study

The Newborn Behavioral Observations (NBO) system is a relationship-based tool that helps parents recognize their infant's competencies and learn their behavioral cues, with the goals of enhancing parental responsiveness and satisfaction in the infant-parent relationship. In our study, a pediatrician integrated the NBO into 44 pediatric health care visits of infants in rural Pakistan villages, under the remote guidance of two U.S.-based child psychiatrists. A clinician then gave the mothers a survey about their experience of the NBO and found that the mothers were highly satisfied, reporting greater appreciation of their infant's strengths, greater understanding of their infant's behavioral cues, stronger attachment to their infant, and greater self-confidence as a mother. In their consideration of these results, the authors explore cultural reasons for the mothers’ responses and generate hypotheses to inform an outcome study of a similar intervention. This was a feasibility and acceptability study and was not randomized, had no control group, and did not use objective measures of outcome.     

Aha over Haha: Brands benefit more from being clever than from being funny

We examine whether the cleverness of a brand's humor attempt affects consumers' brand attitudes and engagement. A clever humor attempt is any humor attempt wherein the consumer feels she must make mental connections to solve the joke (e.g., understand a cultural reference, understand the dual meaning of a pun). Across five studies, we demonstrate that as the cleverness of a humor attempt increases, consumers report higher brand attitudes and are more engaged with the brand. This effect is mediated by perceptions of brand warmth and competence and moderated by consumers' need for cognition.     

Self-compassion reduces parental burnout: Mediation roles of parental psychological control and support

This study investigated the mediating role of parental psychological control (PPC) and support in the relationship between self-compassion and parental burnout syndrome. The study participants included 1185 Vietnamese parents who completed questionnaires regarding demographic information, parental burnout, self-compassion, parental support of the child, and PPC. We used data analyses, including structural equation modeling, to test the mediation roles of PPC and parental support of the child. Our main findings include: (1) self-compassion had a significant negative effect on parental burnout; (2) the mediation roles of PPC and parental support of the child were also significant. These results suggest that parents with high self-compassion tend to provide more support for children in daily parenting, which helps reduce parental burnout. In contrast, parents with low self-compassion were more likely to use PPC, which exacerbated their burnout. The results from this study provide suggestions for creating effective interventions in the family context to reduce parental burnout and improve parenting effectiveness.     

Do maternal power assertive discipline and warmth interact to influence toddlers' emotional reactivity and noncompliance?

Emotional and behavioural self-regulation emerges during infancy and toddlerhood and is heavily influenced by parenting. Parents facilitate toddlers' behavioural regulation (e.g., compliance) by using appropriate control with warmth and managing children's emotional reactivity during situational demands. In contrast, power assertive discipline may strain children's regulatory skills, for example by evoking toddlers' negative affect. However, we have more to learn about how discipline relates to toddlers' self-regulation in the moment and whether concurrent displays of parental warmth may moderate these relations. Mother–toddler dyads (N = 74, M_age = 13.30 months) from low-to-middle income Turkish families participated in a 3-min laboratory task, in which toddlers needed to delay playing with an attractive toy. Maternal discipline, warmth, toddler's emotional reactivity, and noncompliance were coded from observations. Results showed that higher power assertive discipline was associated with more frequent emotional reactivity in toddlers whose mothers' showed warmth during the <84% of the task duration. Maternal warmth was negatively associated with child noncompliance, but warmth did not interact with power assertive discipline in relation to noncompliance. Results suggest that observed power assertive discipline is meaningfully related to toddlers' emotional reactivity and higher levels of expressed maternal warmth attenuates these relations.     

Parental socialization of mental health in Chinese American families: What parents say and do,and how youth make meaning

Parental mental health socialization is a process by which parents shape how youth develop and maintain beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors regarding mental health and help-seeking behaviors. Although culture shapes parental mental health socialization, few studies have examined specific parental socialization practices regarding mental health and help-seeking, especially as a culturally anchored process. Using a qualitative approach, this study explores youth-reported parental socialization of mental health within Chinese American families by examining focus group data from 69 Chinese American high school and college students. Findings revealed that youth received parental messages that conveyed culturally anchored conceptualizations of mental health that included stigmatized views of mental illness and perceptions of mental distress as not a legitimate problem. Parents responded to youth distress in culturally consonant ways: by encouraging culturally specific coping methods, dismissing or minimizing distress, or responding with silence. Youth engaged in the active interpretation of parental messages through cultural brokering, bridging the gap between their parents’ messages and mainstream notions of mental health and help-seeking. Overall, our findings point to the significant role of culture in parental mental health socialization in Chinese American families and the need to integrate culturally specific understandings of mental health into future interventions for Asian American youth.     

Early cognitive development and parental education

Relations between cognitive development in infancy and early childhood, and parental education were examined. Previous research has found little association between measures of the parenting environment, including parental education and socio‐economic status (SES), and cognitive development in infants and children under 2 years of age. However, the earlier studies may not have reliably measured individual differences in cognitive abilities, thus, there is uncertainty as to what age elements in the parental environment affect cognitive development. Seventy‐six infants were tested on a range of cognitive tasks at 3‐month intervals between the ages of 9 and 18 months. Information on parental education (a component of SES) was collected. Seventy‐one of the children returned at 27 months and completed the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, Mental Scale, which was used as an outcome measure for the earlier tasks. The findings present a clear indication that cognitive development in early childhood is affected by the parenting environment, at least from as early as 12 months. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

父母元情绪理念与青少年问题行为:迷走神经的调节作用

探讨父母元情绪理念与青少年问题行为的关系以及青少年自身迷走神经功能对两者关系的影响。采用“心算任务范式”及问卷法, 对224名青少年及其父母进行测量与调查。结果发现:(1) 母亲情绪教导理念负向预测青少年内外化问题行为, 母亲情绪失控理念正向预测青少年内外化问题行为, 母亲情绪不干涉理念正向预测青少年外化问题行为; 父亲情绪教导理念负向预测青少年内化问题行为, 父亲情绪失控理念正向预测青少年外化问题行为。(2) 当青少年迷走张力较低时, 母亲情绪不干涉理念正向预测青少年外化问题行为; 当青少年迷走抑制较低时, 母亲情绪失控理念正向预测青少年内化、外化问题行为, 父亲情绪失控理念正向预测青少年外化问题行为。综上, 父母元情绪理念能够预测青少年问题行为, 且父母元情绪理念对青少年问题行为影响存在差异。同时, 迷走神经功能对父母元情绪理念与青少年问题行为的关系具有一定调节作用。     

父母忽视对青少年自杀意念的影响:自尊和希望的中介作用

为考察父母忽视对青少年自杀意念的影响及其作用机制,采用父母忽视量表、自尊量表、希望量表和自杀意念量表,对全国七个省份八所中学共845名初二学生进行调查。结果表明：（1）父母忽视、自尊、希望和自杀意念两两之间存在显著的相关,且父母忽视对自杀意念具有显著的正向预测作用;（2）自尊和希望在父母忽视与自杀意念的关系中起部分中介作用。具体而言,父母忽视通过三条路径影响自杀意念：一是自尊的单独中介作用;二是希望的单独中介作用;三是自尊-希望的链式中介作用。本研究揭示了父母忽视与青少年自杀意念的关系及其作用机制,对预防以及减少青少年自杀行为具有一定的现实意义。     

粗暴养育与青少年学业成绩:有调节的中介分析

以往研究表明消极的养育行为损害青少年学业成绩,但对两者之间的关系机制缺乏探究。本研究通过检验一个有调节的中介模型,考察了父母消极归因情境下努力控制在粗暴养育和青少年学业成绩之间的中介作用。880名初中生作为被试,填写粗暴养育问卷、努力控制分量表、儿童责任归因分量表,并以语文、数学和英语的成绩均值作为学业成绩的指标。结果显示：（1）控制性别、年龄、社会经济地位后,粗暴养育与学业成绩呈显著负相关;（2）努力控制是粗暴养育与学业成绩之间的中介变量;（3）粗暴养育通过努力控制对学业成绩的间接效应受父母消极归因的调节。因此,矫正父母消极的养育行为和归因模式,改善孩子的自控能力,有利于改善其学业成绩。     

家庭社会经济地位对青少年问题行为的影响:父母情感温暖和公正世界信念的链式中介作用

为探讨家庭社会经济地位对青少年问题行为的影响及其作用机制,基于生物生态学理论,采用家庭社会经济地位评估、简式父母教养方式问卷、公正世界信念量表和长处与困难问卷对全国三大片区13所中学的1337名青少年（7~12年级）进行调查。结果表明：（1）家庭社会经济地位、父母情感温暖、公正世界信念和问题行为之间两两显著相关,且家庭社会经济地位能显著负向预测问题行为;（2）父母情感温暖和公正世界信念在家庭社会经济地位与问题行为之间起显著的中介作用。具体为三条中介路径：一是父母情感温暖的单独中介作用;二是公正世界信念的单独中介作用;三是父母情感温暖和公正世界信念的链式中介作用。本研究丰富了问题行为领域的研究成果,为预防和干预青少年问题行为提供了理论基础。