Child-rearing antecedents of intergenerational relations in young adulthood: a prospective study

Parents' experiences of childhood abuse and neglect are differentially associated with behavioral and autonomic responses to their offspring

Although childhood maltreatment has been shown to compromise adaptive parental behavior, little is known what happens in terms of physiological regulation when parents with a history of childhood maltreatment interact with their offspring. Using a sample of 229 parents (131 women), the present study examined whether childhood maltreatment experiences are associated with parents’ behavioral and autonomic responses while resolving conflict with their offspring. Self‐reported experienced child maltreatment was measured using a questionnaire assessing abuse and neglect. Parents (M_age = 52.7 years, range_age = 26.6–88.4 years) and their offspring (M_age = 24.6 years, range_age = 7.5–65.6 years) participated in a videotaped parent–offspring conflict interaction task. Parental warmth, negativity, and emotional support were coded. In addition, their pre‐ejection period and respiratory sinus arrhythmia were measured as indicators of underlying sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system reactivity, respectively. Findings demonstrated that experiences of abuse and neglect were associated with behavioral and physiological responses in different ways. Separating these two types of maltreatment in research and in clinical practice might be important.

Conflict Strategies in the Parent-Adult Child Tie: Generation Differences and Implications for Well-Being

Objectives

Irritations often arise in intergenerational ties. Middle-aged individuals report that their relationships with adult children are more important and more negative than ties with aging parents. However, it is unclear whether midlife individuals use different interpersonal conflict strategies with adult children compared to aging parents, and whether the strategies used have implications for psychological well-being.

Method

This study examined middle-aged individuals' reports of conflict strategies with their adult children and their aging parents and their own depressive symptoms. Participants were from the Family Exchanges Study; middle-aged adults (N = 365, ages 45 to 66 years) reported on the conflict strategies used with each of their adult children and their aging parents.

Results

Models revealed that middle-aged individuals use more active strategies (e.g., discussing problems) with their adult children than their aging parents. In contrast, individuals used more passive strategies (e.g., avoidance) with aging parents than adult children. Further, passive strategies used with adult children are associated with greater depressive symptoms.

Discussion

Findings are consistent with the intraindividual stake hypothesis and imply that conflict strategies used with adult children may be more consequential for psychological well-being than those used with aging parents.

Cross-domain influences on youth risky driving behaviors: A developmental cascade analysis

We apply a developmental cascade approach to study the longitudinal, cross-domain effects of negative family influence, deviant peer associations, and individual substance use on risky driving among a sample of low-income African American youth. Participants (N = 681) were followed from age 16 to age 21. Using structural equation modeling, we examined conceptual models of pathways to risky driving. Results indicated strong associations between domains within time points among negative family environment, deviant peer associations, individual substance use, and risky driving. Deviant peer associations were related to future risky driving. Alcohol and marijuana use also predicted later deviant peer relationships. The pathways were observed both between age 16 and 18 and between age 18 and 21. Consistent with the cascade hypotheses, we found that risks in one domain manifested as risks in the same domain across time in addition to spreading to other domains.

Children's Attentional Processing of Mother and Proximity Seeking

Attachment expectations regarding the availability of mother as a source for support are supposed to influence distressed children’s support seeking behavior. Because research is needed to better understand the mechanisms related to support seeking behavior, this study tested the hypothesis that the cognitive processing of mother-related information is linked to proximity and support seeking behavior. Uncertainty in maternal support has been shown to be characterized by a biased attentional encoding of mother, reducing the breadth of children’s attentional field around her. We investigated whether this attentional bias is related to how long distressed children wait before seeking their mother’s proximity. Thirty-three children (9-11 years) participated in this study that consisted of experimental tasks to measure attentional breadth and to observe proximity seeking behavior and of questionnaires to measure confidence in maternal support and experienced distress. Results suggested that distressed children with a more narrow attentional field around their mother wait longer to seek her proximity. Key Message: These findings provide a first support for the hypothesis that the attentional processing of mother is related to children’s attachment behavior.

Intergenerational Transmission of Warm-Sensitive-Stimulating Parenting: A Prospective Study of Mothers and Fathers of 3-Year-Olds

More than 200 New Zealand men and women studied repeatedly since age 3 were videotaped interacting with their own 3-year-old children to determine (a) whether childrearing and family climate experienced in 3 distinct developmental periods while growing up (i.e., early childhood, middle childhood, early adolescence) predicted parenting and (b) whether romantic relationship quality moderated the effect of childrearing history on observed parenting. Support for the first hypothesis emerged across all 3 developmental periods for mothers (only), with no evidence of moderating effects of romantic relationship quality for mothers or fathers. Results are discussed in terms of supportive versus harsh parenting, mother-father differences, and the characteristics of the sample.