Réactions cognitives et émotionnelles à des discriminations raciales explicites vs ambiguës

In the continuity of the works on attributional ambiguity, this research focuses on the cognitive, emotional and behavioral effects produced by explicit or implicit employment discrimination. In accordance with our hypothesis, participants within an explicit discrimination perceive more injustice and discrimination compared to those with an ambiguous one. They also show more anger and demonstrate more adjustment strategies for finding a job within the explicit discrimination than the participants among the ambiguous one. These results are confronted with those of the literature and discussed in terms of their practical implications.     

Long term marriages in Sweden: And some comparisons with similar couples in the United States

This international, five-country long term marriages study of couples who have been married, or unmarried and cohabiting, for 20 years or longer is designed to study, among other things, marital satisfaction. This first report of the Swedish part of the study reports on a Swedish version of the self-rating Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) used to investigate self-rated marital satisfaction. The couples describe high marital satisfaction and a high sense of coherence (SOC) compared to other groups. Contrary to other studies, no differences were found between men and women regarding SOC. The differences between them, that describe high relative to low marital satisfaction, pertain to matters of recreation, sex, life philosophy, time spent together, and frequency of quarrels. The men reported greater marital satisfaction than the women.     

The interrelationships and reliability of a multilevel behavior-based assessment package for distressed couples

Twenty-six couples interested in improving their marital relationships participated in a multi-level behavior based assessment battery. The measures included self-reported, self-monitored, and observed components, all of which were examined for their interrelationships. Test-retest reliability was carried out with six of the couples. Self-reported measures, self-monitored pleasing behaviors, observed positive nonverbal and some negative verbal interactions were found to be consistent. In general, the various levels of measurement were found to be significantly related to each other. Some of the findings were applied to coercion and reciprocity formulations of marital interactions.     

Conversation Orientation Moderates the Relationship between Information Sharing of Medically Assisted Reproduction and Child Adjustment

Parents who experienced infertility have increasingly used medically assisted reproduction (MAR) to add children to their families over the past few decades. These parents will need to decide if they will tell their children about being conceived using MAR. Although MAR information sharing operates within family contexts, little is known about the role of conversation orientation—one family contextual factor—in child outcomes associated with MAR information sharing in middle childhood. Derived from the Family Communication Patterns Theory, this study proposes that conversation orientation moderates the associations between MAR information sharing and children's psychosocial adjustment. This proposal was tested using a sample of 81 6- to 12-year-old MAR-conceived children from 55 families and a structured observational measure of conversation orientation. Multiple regression analyses showed that MAR information sharing interacted with conversation orientation to influence children's behavioral and attention problems but not emotional problems. In families with high conversation orientation, MAR information sharing was not significantly associated with children's behavioral and attention problems. In families with low conversation orientation, MAR information sharing was significantly associated with an increase in children's behavioral and attention problems. Results of this exploratory study demonstrate the potential significance of general communication orientation in understanding child outcomes of MAR information sharing and highlight the needed family context nuances in MAR research.     

Exploration of a Marital Typology: Implications for Marital Functioning in a Multi-Ethnic Sample

Marital conflict is associated with multiple negative outcomes for couples, including marital dissatisfaction and divorce. Little research, however, has examined conflict in Hispanic/Latino couples or its association with marital satisfaction, which creates an unfortunate knowledge gap for clinicians working with diverse client groups. The present study sought to examine both marital conflict and satisfaction using a sample of 231 European American (EA; n = 108) and Hispanic/Latino (H/L; n = 123) couples. Through observational coding, couples were placed into four groups based on their type of conflict management strategies: Harmonious, Withdrawn, Conflictual-Expressive, or Conflictual-Hostile. For both ethnic groups, couples in the Harmonious group were nondistressed and couples in the Conflictual-Hostile group were in the distressed range of marital satisfaction. Cross-ethnic differences emerged. EA couples experienced distress when both hostile (Conflictual-Hostile) and nonhostile conflict (Conflictual-Expressive) communication types were observed, while only hostile conflict was associated with distress for the H/L group. H/L couples reported similar levels of satisfaction in both the Harmonious and Conflictual-Expressive groups. H/L couples also fell within the distressed range when withdrawn communication patterns were observed; however, this was not the case for EA couples. These differences suggest that both types of conflict are associated with marital distress for EA couples, whereas hostile conflict and withdrawn behavior appear to be more negatively associated with marital satisfaction in H/L couples. Results provide support for the use of an observational coding system with H/L and EA couples and also suggest the importance of understanding how differences in expressions of conflict across ethnicities may relate to marital satisfaction.     

Intergenerational transmission of marital quality across the transition to parenthood

One of the most frequently reported changes across the transition to parenthood is a decline in marital quality after the birth of a first baby. Experiences in the family of origin may influence the trajectory of marital quality. Our study aimed to investigate the impact of recollections of family-of-origin marriage on marital quality (self-reports and clinical evaluation) from pregnancy to 1 year after the birth of a first child. A total of 62 first-time parents completed questionnaires (self-reported marital satisfaction) and clinical interviews (clinical evaluation of couples' dialogue quality). Although self-reported marital satisfaction and observed dialogue quality were highly associated, only self-reported marital satisfaction declined from pregnancy to 1 year after birth. This decrease was partly due to very high marital satisfaction during pregnancy. Different trajectories for self-reported marital satisfaction and observed dialogue quality were found for participants with recollections of low-, average-, and high-quality family-of-origin marriage. A structural equation model showed that participants who recollected a negative quality in their parents' relationship reported more negative changes in the quality of their own marriages. There seems to be an intergenerational transmission of marital quality that comes to light when couples are challenged by the birth and rearing of a baby.     

Time trends in the adjustment of Swedish teenage girls: a 26-year comparison of 15-year-olds

The aim of this study was to investigate stability and change over 26 years in self-reported adjustment of Swedish teenage girls. Data were collected with the same questionnaire from two school-cohorts in a middle-sized Swedish community: 522 girls attending Grade 8 (approximately at age 15) in 1970, and 529 girls attending Grade 8 in 1996. The first cohort was part of the longitudinal research programme Individual Development and Adaptation (IDA). In most domains, adjustment problems were approximately as common in 1996 as in 1970, with two exceptions: more girls reported problems with self-esteem and antisocial problems in 1996. In the antisocial domain, a polarization process was indicated, with an increase also in the number of girls without adjustment problems. In the relational domains, especially peer relations, there was an increase in positive adjustment. The results are discussed in relation to earlier findings and to social changes during the period.     

Adjustment to chronic low back pain--the relative influence of fear-avoidance beliefs, catastrophizing, and appraisals of control

The present study investigated the relative extent to which patients' adjustment to chronic low back pain (CLBP) was influenced by their fear-avoidance beliefs, their tendency to catastrophize, and their appraisals of control. Eighty-three CLBP patients completed a series of self-report measures before participating in a physical therapist-led intervention. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that patients' perceptions of their ability to decrease pain explained a small, but statistically significant, proportion of the variance in pain intensity. In addition, patients' levels of catastrophizing, as well as their fear-avoidance beliefs about both work and physical activity, were independently associated with levels of disability. Interestingly, however, when exploring the relative predictive utility of these three psychological factors, it became evident that fear-avoidance beliefs about physical activity (FABs-PA) were the only significant predictor of patients' disability. Specifically, those patients who exhibited higher levels of FABs-PA tended to report greater levels of disability, even after adjusting for age, sex and pain intensity.     

Body dissatisfaction in married women: the role of spousal influence and marital communication patterns

Family factors and the media have been established as determinants of body satisfaction, yet little research has looked at the contribution of spousal influence in body dissatisfaction. Marital quality and satisfaction can be a protective factor in the health of women, while high rates of criticism have been associated with poorer health outcomes. The present study investigated the relationship between perceptions of family and spousal factors and body dissatisfaction in married women. Additionally, the impact of marital communication was investigated. Seventy-seven married women completed self-report questionnaires assessing familial body-focused comments, spousal evaluation of a wife’s body, marital communication patterns, and body dissatisfaction. After controlling for weight status, women’s perceptions of familial body-focused comments and spousal evaluation emerged as significant predictors of body dissatisfaction. It was also found that more destructive communication patterns moderated the effect of perceived spousal evaluation on body dissatisfaction. This study provides some context for understanding the impact of specific influences on women’s body dissatisfaction.     

Relations between social comparison orientation and adjustment in Chinese adolescents: Moderating effects of initial adjustment status

This 1‐year longitudinal study examined relations between social comparison orientation (SCO) and socioemotional adjustment and academic achievement. A sample of Grades 7 and 8 students (N = 336, initial M age = 14.08 years) in China participated in the study. Data were collected from self‐reports, peer assessments and school records. It was found that early SCO positively contributed to later academic achievement. Moreover, the relations between early SCO and later socioemotional adjustment were moderated by the initial status of adolescents. Specifically, SCO was positively associated with social competence and negatively associated with depression in initially competent and well‐adjusted adolescents, but the pattern of the associations was opposite in initially incompetent and poorly adjusted adolescents. The results indicate that whereas SCO may contribute directly to academic achievement, its contributions to socioemotional development might depend on adolescents' initial status in adjustment.