For the kids
Paul Wright, Ashley Randall & Analisa Arroyo
Sexuality & Culture, March 2013, Pages 50-66
Abstract:
MTV's hit programs 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom have been the subject of national debate since their inception. Supporters contend that the shows inhibit pregnancy-risk behavior. Critics contend that the shows glamorize adolescent motherhood and encourage pregnancy-risk behavior. The present study explored the possibility that the association between viewing 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom and student females' pregnancy-risk behavior depends on the extent to which females' parents communicated with them about sex while they were growing up. Survey data were gathered from 313 female students. A disordinal interaction was found between father-daughter sexual communication, viewing frequency, and recent intercourse behavior. Frequent viewing was associated with an increased probability of having engaged in recent intercourse for females whose fathers did not communicate with them about sex while growing up. Conversely, frequent viewing was associated with a decreased probability of having engaged in recent intercourse for females whose fathers often communicated about sex with them while growing up. No interaction was found between mother-daughter sexual communication, viewing frequency, and recent intercourse behavior. These results suggest that fathers may play an especially important role in determining how sexual media socialize their daughters.
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Balancing Act: Career and Family During College-Educated Women's 30s
Michele Hoffnung & Michelle Williams
Sex Roles, March 2013, Pages 321-334
Abstract:
We assessed career, marriage, and motherhood expectations of 118 White Women and 82 Women of Color in 1993, when they were seniors at five northeastern U.S. colleges. Sixteen years later, in 2009, 77.5% responded to our survey and answered questions about their career, marriage, motherhood, attitudes, and life satisfaction outcomes. As seniors, they wanted it all, career, marriage, and motherhood. In 2009, nearly two thirds were employed full time, 91% had married, nearly three quarters were mothers, and about 57% were combining full-time employment and motherhood. Comparisons are made among three role-status outcome groups: Have It All (mothers, employed full time); Traditional (mothers, employed part time or not at all), and Employed Only (childfree, employed full time). Educational level of the women did not predict role status. Spouses' educational level relative to the women's predicted role status, with Have It All women more likely to be married to less educated spouses than Traditional or Employed Only women. The role-status groups did not differ in their attitudes toward women in general, but Have It All mothers had lower levels of employment-related concerns about separation from their children than Traditional mothers. Most of the women still wanted to have it all. Many Traditional women looked forward to returning to employment, and many of the Employed Only women wanted to have children. Being a mother was associated with higher life satisfaction than being childfree. Results are discussed in terms of multiple-role theory and the positive influence of having family roles in the mix.
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Kathryn Lemery-Chalfant et al.
Development and Psychopathology, February 2013, Pages 51-63
Abstract:
Biological parents pass on genotypes to their children, as well as provide home environments that correlate with their genotypes; thus, the association between the home environment and children's temperament can be genetically (i.e., passive gene-environment correlation) or environmentally mediated. Furthermore, family environments may suppress or facilitate the heritability of children's temperament (i.e., gene-environment interaction). The sample comprised 807 twin pairs (mean age = 7.93 years) from the longitudinal Wisconsin Twin Project. Important passive gene-environment correlations emerged, such that home environments were less chaotic for children with high effortful control, and this association was genetically mediated. Children with high extraversion/surgency experienced more chaotic home environments, and this correlation was also genetically mediated. In addition, heritability of children's temperament was moderated by home environments, such that effortful control and extraversion/surgency were more heritable in chaotic homes, and negative affectivity was more heritable under crowded or unsafe home conditions. Modeling multiple types of gene-environment interplay uncovered the complex role of genetic factors and the hidden importance of the family environment for children's temperament and development more generally.
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Meaningful Family Relationships: Neurocognitive Buffers of Adolescent Risk Taking
Eva Telzer et al.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, March 2013, Pages 374-387
Abstract:
Discordant development of brain regions responsible for cognitive control and reward processing may render adolescents susceptible to risk taking. Identifying ways to reduce this neural imbalance during adolescence can have important implications for risk taking and associated health outcomes. Accordingly, we sought to examine how a key family relationship - family obligation - can reduce this vulnerability. Forty-eight adolescents underwent an fMRI scan during which they completed a risk-taking and cognitive control task. Results suggest that adolescents with greater family obligation values show decreased activation in the ventral striatum when receiving monetary rewards and increased dorsolateral PFC activation during behavioral inhibition. Reduced ventral striatum activation correlated with less real-life risk-taking behavior and enhanced dorsolateral PFC activation correlated with better decision-making skills. Thus, family obligation may decrease reward sensitivity and enhance cognitive control, thereby reducing risk-taking behaviors.
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Poverty, Problem Behavior, and Promise: Differential Susceptibility Among Infants Reared in Poverty
Elisabeth Conradt, Jeffrey Measelle & Jennifer Ablow
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Do infants reared in poverty exhibit certain physiological traits that make them susceptible to the positive and negative features of their caregiving environment? Guided by theories of differential susceptibility and biological sensitivity to context, we evaluated whether high baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) operates as a susceptibility factor among infants reared in poverty (N = 73). Baseline RSA at 5 months, the quality of the attachment relationship at 17 months, and the interaction of these two factors were included in our models as predictors of problem behavior at 17 months. Consistent with theory, results showed no significant differences in problem behavior among infants with low baseline RSA; however, infants with high baseline RSA exhibited the lowest levels of problem behavior if reared in an environment that fostered security, and they exhibited the highest levels of problem behavior if reared in an environment that fostered disorganization. These results have important implications for the psychological health of infants living in poverty.
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Misaki Natsuaki et al.
Development and Psychopathology, February 2013, Pages 261-274
Abstract:
To better understand mechanisms underlying the intergenerational transmission of social anxiety, we used a prospective adoption design to examine the roles of genetic influences (inferred from birth mothers' social phobia) and rearing environment (adoptive mothers' and fathers' responsiveness) on the development of socially inhibited, anxious behaviors in children between 18 and 27 months of age. The sample consisted of 275 adoption-linked families, each including an adopted child, adoptive parents, and a birth mother. Results indicated that children whose birth mothers met criteria for the diagnosis of social phobia showed elevated levels of observed behavioral inhibition in a social situation at 27 months of age if their adoptive mothers provided less emotionally and verbally responsive rearing environments at 18 months of age. Conversely, in the context of higher levels of maternal responsiveness, children of birth mothers with a history of social phobia did not show elevated levels of behavioral inhibition. These findings on maternal responsiveness were replicated in a model predicting parent reports of child social anxiety. The findings are discussed in terms of gene-environment interactions in the intergenerational transmission of social anxiety.
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Steven Beach et al.
Journal of Family Psychology, February 2013, Pages 3-11
Abstract:
Genetic, environmental, and epigenetic influences and their transactions were examined in a sample of 155 women from the Iowa adoptee sample who had been removed from their biological parents shortly after birth and assessed when participants were an average of 41.10 years old. We observed an interactive effect of child sex abuse (CSA) and biological parent psychopathology (i.e., genetic load) on substance abuse as well as a main effect of CSA on substance abuse in adulthood. We also observed main effects of CSA and genetic load on depression and on antisocial characteristics. As predicted, CSA, but not genetic load or later substance abuse, was associated with epigenetic change. In addition, the interaction between genetic load and CSA predicted epigenetic change, indicating a potential genetic basis for a differential impact of CSA on epigenetic change. Finally, epigenetic change partially mediated the effect of CSA on antisocial characteristics. The results suggest the relevance of genetic and epigenetic processes for future theorizing regarding marital and family precursors of several forms of adult psychopathology. Implications for preventive intervention are discussed.
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Association between maternal sensitivity and externalizing behavior from preschool to preadolescence
Feihong Wang et al.
Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, March-April 2013, Pages 89-100
Abstract:
Using data from the longitudinal NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 1364), this study examined the association between mothers' sensitivity and children's externalizing behavior from preschool to preadolescence. Externalizing behavior declined on average across this period with a slowing of this decline around middle childhood. Maternal sensitivity remained relatively stable on average, and there was significant variation across mothers. A decrease in maternal sensitivity from ages 3 to 11 was related to an increase in externalizing behavior from ages 4 to 12. A model-based test of the direction of the effect suggested that the association between changes in maternal sensitivity and externalizing behavior from ages 4 to 11 was driven by child effects on mothers and not vice-versa. Between late preschool age and preadolescence, the behavior problems of children appear to strongly influence the sensitive support of mothers. Practical implications were discussed in light of these findings.
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Lauree Tilton-Weaver et al.
Developmental Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
We tested whether parents can reduce affiliation with delinquent peers through 3 forms of peer management: soliciting information, monitoring rules, and communicating disapproval of peers. We examined whether peer management interrupted 2 peer processes: selection and influence of delinquent peers. Adolescents' feelings of being overcontrolled by parents were examined as an additional moderator of delinquent selection and influence. Using network data from a community sample (N = 1,730), we tested whether selection and influence processes varied across early, middle, and late adolescent cohorts. Selection and influence of delinquent peers were evident in all 3 cohorts and did not differ in strength. Parental monitoring rules reduced the selection of delinquent peers in the oldest cohort. A similar effect was found in the early adolescent cohort, but only for adolescents who did not feel overcontrolled by parents. Monitoring rules increased the likelihood of selecting a delinquent friend among those who felt overcontrolled. The effectiveness of communicating disapproval was also mixed: in the middle adolescent network, communicating disapproval increased the likelihood of an adolescent selecting a delinquent friend. Among late adolescents, high levels of communicating disapproval were effective, reducing the influence of delinquent peers for adolescents reporting higher rates of delinquency. For those who reported lower levels of delinquency, high levels of communicating disapproval increased the influence of delinquent peers. The results of this study suggest that the effectiveness of monitoring and peer management depend on the type of behavior, the timing of its use, and whether adolescents feel overcontrolled by parents.
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Maternal Union Transitions and Household Food Insecurity: Differences by Race and Ethnicity
Daphne Hernandez & Emily Pressler
Journal of Family Issues, March 2013, Pages 373-393
Abstract:
The study investigates how transitions in maternal unions are related to household food insecurity among a low-income sample using pooled time series data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey-Birth Cohort. Pooled time series fixed effects models indicate that transitioning into unions for White and Hispanic households is associated with reductions in household food insecurity compared with White and Hispanic households who experienced no transitions. Furthermore, transitioning into unions for Hispanic households is associated with reductions in household food insecurity status compared with Hispanic households that experienced dissolving unions. Last, results indicate that maternal union transitions are not related to household food insecurity status of Black and Other race and ethnic households. The authors discuss how the findings may be related to socioeconomic factors of race and ethnic households.
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Bruce Simons-Morton et al.
Journal of Adolescent Health, forthcoming
Purpose: Teenage risky driving may be due to teenagers not knowing what is risky, preferring risk, or the lack of consequences. Elevated gravitational-force (g-force) events, caused mainly by hard braking and sharp turns, provide a valid measure of risky driving and are the target of interventions using in-vehicle data recording and feedback devices. The effect of two forms of feedback about risky driving events to teenagers only or to teenagers and their parents was tested in a randomized controlled trial.
Methods: Ninety parent-teen dyads were randomized to one of two groups: (1) immediate feedback to teens (Lights Only); or (2) immediate feedback to teens plus family access to event videos and ranking of the teen relative to other teenage drivers (Lights Plus). Participants' vehicles were instrumented with data recording devices and events exceeding .5 g were assessed for 2 weeks of baseline and 13 weeks of feedback.
Results: Growth curve analysis with random slopes yielded a significant decrease in event rates for the Lights Plus group (slope = -.11, p < .01), but no change for the Lights Only group (slope = .05, p = .67) across the 15 weeks. A large effect size of 1.67 favored the Lights Plus group.
Conclusions: Provision of feedback with possible consequences associated with parents being informed reduced risky driving, whereas immediate feedback only to teenagers did not.
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Åsa Carlsund et al.
European Journal of Public Health, February 2013, Pages 3-8
Background: The increase in shared physical custody in Sweden has been dramatic; 20 years ago only a small percentage of adolescents lived in shared physical custody, but currently ∼30% of the adolescents whose parents have separated or divorced divide their residence between parents. We hypothesized that living in shared physical custody or in a single-parent family is associated with a higher prevalence of adolescent risk behaviour than living in a two-parent family.
Methods: Data on 15-year-old adolescents from the 2005/2006 to 2009/2010 Swedish Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey were analysed using logistic regression.
Results: Adolescents living in shared physical custody had slightly higher rates of risk behaviour compared with adolescents from two-parent families, but significantly lower rates than their counterparts from single-parent families. Their odds of being a smoker or having been drunk were 60 and 50% higher, respectively, than those of their counterparts in two-parent families.
Conclusion: Shared physical custody after marriage break-up seems to constitute a health protective factor for adolescents' health and problem behaviour. In order to deepen our understanding of the positive and negative aspects of shared physical custody, our study should be followed by qualitative analyses and longitudinal studies of adolescents' experiences.
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Maternal and Paternal Imprisonment in the Stress Process
Holly Foster & John Hagan
Social Science Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Parental incarceration is now prevalent in community samples (e.g., with 11% of children reporting paternal imprisonment and 3% reporting maternal imprisonment in a national sample), pointing to a potentially important childhood trauma that should be included in work on contemporary childhood stressors in this era of mass incarceration. This paper investigates the influences of maternal and paternal imprisonment on changes in young adult mental health using a nationally representative sample. We assess four perspectives- gendered loss, same-sex role model, intergenerational stress, and maternal salience- on the joint influences of maternal and paternal incarceration within the broader stress process paradigm. The results generalize support for a gendered loss perspective developed in work on parental death and an early small study of parental incarceration. This pattern reveals maternal incarceration increases depressive symptoms while paternal incarceration increases substance role problems. Chronicity of parental imprisonment and its timing are also influential. Analyses further specify a vulnerability of male and minority young adults to high levels of mental health problems following maternal and paternal incarceration in adolescence.
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Effects of Divorce and Cohabitation Dissolution on Preschoolers' Literacy
Jay Fagan
Journal of Family Issues, April 2013, Pages 460-483
Abstract:
Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey-Birth cohort (N = 6,450), the present study hypothesized that 48-month-old children of divorced mothers would score lower on emerging literacy than the children of formerly cohabiting mothers, compared with the children of mothers in stable marriage. The children of mothers who divorced or exited cohabitation but then remained single did not have significantly lower literacy than children of mothers in stable marriage. The children of divorced parents who then cohabited with another man fared significantly more poorly on literacy tests than children of continuously married parents. The children in the divorce → cohabitation group also had significantly lower literacy than the children in the divorce → noncohabitation and cohabitation → noncohabitation groups. Mothers in consistent cohabiting relationships were also more likely than mothers in stable marriage to have children with low literacy. The association between stable cohabitation and child literacy was mediated by change in socioeconomic status.
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Time for Children: Trends in the Employment Patterns of Parents, 1967-2009
Liana Fox et al.
Demography, February 2013, Pages 25-49
Abstract:
Using data from the 1967-2009 years of the March Current Population Surveys (CPS), we examine two important resources for children's well-being: time and money. We document trends in parental employment, from the perspective of children, and show what underlies these trends. We find that increases in family work hours mainly reflect movements into jobs by parents - particularly mothers, who in prior decades would have remained at home. This increase in market work has raised incomes for children in the typical two-parent family but not for those in lone-parent households. Time use data from 1975 and 2003-2008 reveal that working parents spend less time engaged in primary childcare than their counterparts without jobs but more than employed peers in previous cohorts. Analysis of 2004 work schedule data suggests that non-daytime work provides an alternative method of coordinating employment schedules for some dual-earner families.
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Roni Pener-Tessler et al.
Development and Psychopathology, February 2013, Pages 151-162
Abstract:
Self-control, involving processes such as delaying gratification, concentrating, planning, following instructions, and adapting emotions and behavior to situational requirements and social norms, may have a profound impact on children's adjustment. The importance of self-control suggests that parents are likely to modify their parenting based on children's ability for self-control. We study the effect of children's self-control, a trait partially molded by genetics, on their mothers' parenting, a process of evocative gene-environment correlation. Israeli 3.5-year-old twins (N = 320) participated in a lab session in which their mothers' parenting was observed. DNA was available from most children (N = 228). Mothers described children's self-control in a questionnaire. Boys were lower in self-control and received less positive parenting from their mothers, in comparison with girls. For boys, and not for girls, the serotonin transporter linked polymorphic region gene predicted mothers' levels of positive parenting, an effect mediated by boys' self-control. The implications of this evocative gene-environment correlation and the observed sex differences are discussed.
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Jay Belsky & Michael Pluess
Child Development, forthcoming
Abstract:
Data from 508 Caucasian children in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development shows that the DRD4 (but not 5-HTTLPR) polymorphism moderates the effect of child-care quality (but not quantity or type) on caregiver-reported externalizing problems at 54 months and in kindergarten and teacher-reported social skills at kindergarten and first grade - but not thereafter. Only children carrying the 7-repeat allele proved susceptible to quality-of-care effects. The behavior-problem interactions proved more consistent with diathesis-stress than differential-susceptibility thinking, whereas the reverse was true of the social-skills' results. Finally, the discerned Gene × Environment interactions did not account for previously reported parallel ones involving difficult temperament in infancy.
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Child Health, Maternal Marital and Socioeconomic Factors, and Maternal Health
Dana Garbarski & Whitney Witt
Journal of Family Issues, April 2013, Pages 484-509
Abstract:
Although maternal socioeconomic status and health predict in part children's future health and socioeconomic prospects, it is possible that the intergenerational association flows in the other direction such that child health affects maternal outcomes. Previous research demonstrates that poor child health increases the risk of adverse maternal physical and mental health outcomes. The authors hypothesize that poor child health may also increase the risk of poor maternal health outcomes through an interaction between child health and factors associated with health outcomes, such as marital status, marital quality, and socioeconomic status. Using data on women in the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1979 cohort (N = 2,279), the authors find evidence that the effects of certain maternal marital quality and socioeconomic factors on maternal physical and mental health depend on child health status and vice versa.
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Jerald Bachman et al.
Developmental Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
High school students who spend long hours in paid employment during the school year are at increased risk of lower grades and higher substance use, although questions remain about whether these linkages reflect causation or prior differences (selection effects). Questions also remain about whether such associations vary by socioeconomic status (SES) and race/ethnicity. This study examines those questions using nationally representative data from two decades (1991-2010) of annual Monitoring the Future surveys involving about 600,000 students in 10th and 12th grades. White students are consistently more likely than minority students to hold paid employment during the school year. Among White and Asian American students, paid work intensity is negatively related to parental education and grade point averages (GPA) and is positively related to substance use. Also among Whites and Asian Americans, students with the most highly educated parents show the strongest negative relations between work intensity and GPA, whereas the links are weaker for those with less educated parents (i.e., lower SES levels). All of these relations are less evident for Hispanic students and still less evident for African American students. It thus appears that any costs possibly attributable to long hours of student work are most severe for those who are most advantaged - White or Asian American students with highly educated parents. Working long hours is linked with fewer disadvantages among Hispanic students and especially among African American students. Youth employment dropped in 2008-2010, but the relations described above have shown little change over two decades.
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Keith Robinson & Angel Harris
Social Science Quarterly, forthcoming
Objective: Despite numerous studies on parental involvement in children's academic schooling, there is a dearth of knowledge on how parents respond specifically to inadequate academic performance. This study examines whether (1) racial differences exist in parenting philosophy for addressing inadequate achievement, (2) social class has implications for parenting philosophy, and (3) parents' philosophies are consequential for children's academic achievement.
Methods: Using data from the Child Development Supplement (N = 1,041) to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we sort parents into two categories-those whose parenting repertoires for addressing poor achievement include punitive responses and those whose repertoires do not. We then determine whether racial differences exist between these categories and how various responses within the aforementioned categories are related to students' academic achievement.
Results: The findings show that white and black parents have markedly different philosophies on how to respond to inadequate performance, and these differences appear to impact children's achievement in dramatically different ways.
Conclusion: Educators and policymakers should pay particular attention to how parents respond to inadequate achievement as imploring parents of inadequately performing students to be more involved without providing them with some guidance might exacerbate the problem.
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Genetic and Environmental Influences on Negative Life Events From Late Childhood to Adolescence
Daniel Johnson et al.
Child Development, forthcoming
Abstract:
This multiwave longitudinal study tested two quantitative genetic developmental models to examine genetic and environmental influences on exposure to negative dependent and independent life events. Participants (N = 457 twin pairs) completed measures of life events annually from ages 9 to 16. The same genetic factors influenced exposure to dependent events across time and increased in magnitude during the transition to adolescence. Independent events were less genetically influenced than dependent events in boys, but not girls. Shared environmental influences decreased in magnitude as youth transitioned into adolescence. Nonshared environmental influences were mostly age specific and contributed significantly to both types of events at all ages. Results provide theoretical implications for developmental risk pathways to stress exposure and stress-related psychopathology.
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Time Use on Caregiving Activities: Comparing Federal Government and Private Sector Workers
Sharon Mastracci
Review of Public Personnel Administration, March 2013, Pages 3-27
Abstract:
Working mothers in federal service spend about 20 min per day less on caregiving activities, compared to their counterparts in the private sector. This result holds regardless of the type of job they hold, their educational attainment, marital status, the number and ages of their children, or the employment status of their spouse. This is an important result to federal agency recruitment, which targets a similar labor pool as does the private sector. It is also important to the retention of human capital in federal government, which has sought to establish a reputation as a model employer through the development and implementation of family-friendly workplace programs and a culture that supports overall work-life balance. However, mothers in federal service spend more time at work compared to their counterparts in the private sector, which prompts one to wonder whether less caregiving time and more work time is true balance.
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The Link between National Paid Leave Policy and Work-Family Conflict among Married Working Parents
Tammy Allen et al.
Applied Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
We investigated relationships between four dimensions of work-family conflict (time- and strain-based work interference with family, time- and strain-based family interference with work) and three key national paid leave policies (paid parental leave, paid sick leave, paid annual leave) among a sample of 643 working married parents with children under the age of 5 across 12 industrialised nations. Results provided some evidence that paid sick leave has a small but significant negative relationship with work-family conflict. Little evidence was revealed of a link between paid parental leave or of a link between paid annual leave and work-family conflict. Family-supportive organisational perceptions and family-supportive supervision were tested as moderators with some evidence to suggest that paid leave policies are most beneficial when employees' perceptions of support are higher than when they are lower. Family-supportive organisational perceptions and family-supportive supervision were both associated with less work-family conflict, providing evidence of their potential benefit across national contexts.