Journal of Family Psychology最新文献

Coercion theory has profoundly impacted our understanding of aggressive behavior in relationships; coercive processes are linked with numerous negative psychological and physical health outcomes. Coercion theory's influence on the aggression and violence literature is remarkable given that standard measurement requires painstaking, moment-by-moment coding of direct observation of dyadic interactions-an expensive, time-consuming endeavor. Thus, we sought to develop less costly and less cumbersome ways to measure coercive conflict. To assess the preliminary psychometrics of our resulting measurement system, we examined concurrent and convergent validity of (a) globally coded observer ratings of coercion and (b) participant-reported coercion in parent-child (n = 79) and intimate partner (n = 71) dyads. Overall, our new measures show mixed but encouraging signs of convergent and concurrent validity. Future low-cost measures may allow for the assessment of coercive conflict in mental and physical health care and expand research on this important dyadic process. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

The cultural value of familism describes prioritizing family over the individual. Previous evidence supports relations between familism and health behaviors, including sleep. Using data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, this investigation explored associations of parent and adolescent familism and adolescent sleep. The sample included 438 Latino/a parent-adolescent dyads, with youth averaging 11.87 (SD = 0.67) years old (assigned female at birth: 49.78%) and parents averaging 40.51 (SD = 6.50) years old (female: 90.38%) with a majority identifying as Mexican or Mexican American (parents: 53.83%; youth: 54.51%). Most adolescents were born in the United States or its territories (94.28%). Parents and adolescents independently reported on multiple dimensions of familism, including familism support, familism obligation, and familism referent, which were combined to create an overall familism score. Adolescents wore Fitbit devices that measured objective parameters of sleep including minutes, efficiency, wake after sleep onset, latency, midpoint, and variability in minutes and midpoint. Multiple regression models were fit to determine associations of parent and adolescent familism dimensions with adolescent sleep. Youth obligation and parent support familism were related to more ideal sleep, while youth referent and parent obligation familism were related to less ideal sleep. While some dimensions of familism may pose a risk for poor sleep, others support ideal sleep and should be emphasized within the parent-adolescent relationship. As practitioners and clinicians incorporate cultural sensitivity into their practices and recommendations and families cultivate a supportive environment through familism values, Latino/a youth will be more likely to experience optimal sleep outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Adopting a diathesis-stress framework, we examined whether maternal trait-level distress reactivity (the tendency to experience poorly regulated anxiety or discomfort in response to children's negative emotions) interacted with the intensity of children's negative emotions to predict the quality of mothers' subsequent responses in real-world settings. With a sample of 53 families with a child between 3 and 5 years old (M_{child age} = 50.47 months, 28 girls), we collected 16-hr audio recordings of children in the home. From the recordings, multiple emotional episodes (range = 4-10 episodes, M = 9.47, SD = 1.34) per child were selected to code for children's negative emotional intensity and the quality of mothers' subsequent response (i.e., support and nonsupport). We also computed the percentage of maternal positive and negative emotion words for each maternal response using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count program. Mothers reported on their tendency to experience distress in response to their child's negative emotions and general difficulties with emotion regulation. Multilevel models revealed that increases in children's negative emotional intensity were associated with real-time increases in maternal nonsupport and decreases in maternal positive emotion talk, but only for mothers who reported high trait levels of distress reactivity. These findings emerged after controlling for maternal difficulties with emotion regulation. Findings highlight the importance of examining how maternal trait-level emotional characteristics in the parenting context interact with situational stressors (e.g., intensity of children's negative emotional expressions) to predict specific parenting behaviors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Pursuing compassionate goals (i.e., seeking to improve others' well-being) has generally been linked with positive emotional and relational well-being, whereas self-image goals (i.e., striving to maintain or enhance how one is perceived by others) tend to be associated with poorer well-being. However, limited research has examined these goals in the context of parenting. In this 9-day daily experience study (N = 270), we investigated whether compassionate and self-image goals in relation to children were associated with parental well-being, parenting, and child adjustment. We also tested whether empathic and negative emotions mediate these associations. Results showed that parents who pursued compassionate goals reported more optimal well-being (e.g., greater positive emotions, lower stress) and more positive parenting and child adjustment (e.g., more supportive parenting, fewer negative child behaviors) both overall and across the week, in part due to their association with greater empathic emotions and lower negative emotions. Conversely, self-image goals were largely unrelated to well-being, parenting, and child adjustment. These findings suggest that parents' efforts to support their children's well-being are associated with their own well-being, parenting, and child adjustment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Reports an error in "Parental burnout and child well-being: A dyadic analysis among mothers and fathers" by Maëlle Grandjean, Giulia Spagnulo, Laura M. Vowels and Joëlle Darwiche (Journal of Family Psychology, 2025[Sep], Vol 39[6], 767-777; see record 2026-36175-001). In the original article, the following funding information should have been included in the author note: "This research was supported by the University of Lausanne and by Swiss National Science Foundation Grant Number SNF CRSII5_213601." (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2026-36175-001). This study investigates the impact of parental burnout on children's daily well-being, a topic that currently remains underexplored in research. Using a daily diary methodology, we assessed the mean levels of child well-being as reported by parents across days and examined their relationship with both maternal and paternal burnout. Data were collected from 85 couples (85 mothers and 85 fathers) over an 8-day period, with parental burnout measured at baseline and child well-being assessed both at baseline and via daily reports. The findings indicate a significant association between maternal burnout and both mothers' and fathers' perceptions of their children's well-being, whereas the link with paternal burnout was weaker and more variable, making its interpretation more complex. While the study contributes to our understanding of the association between parental burnout and child well-being, future research should focus on incorporating children's self-reported perspectives, examining how the impact of burnout varies across ages, and considering diverse family structures. Addressing parental burnout will require interventions at both familial and societal levels to mitigate chronic stress and promote healthier family environments. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Parental harsh discipline, such as psychological aggression and corporal punishment, is a key characteristic of authoritarian parenting and has negative implications for child development. The trajectory of discipline evolves with child development, especially during childhood, potentially leading to varied cumulative effects on their well-being in adolescence. This study examined (a) distinct trajectories of maternal and paternal harsh discipline from Grades 1 to 6 in China and (b) their cumulative effects on adolescent well-being from Grades 7 to 9. Separate models were created for mothers and fathers, reflecting their unique parenting roles. A total of 1,045 children and their parents participated. Latent class growth analyses identified the predominant trajectories of parental harsh discipline were at low and moderate levels; importantly, a greater proportion of fathers than mothers followed a low-increasing trajectory. Conditional growth models over 9 years revealed that higher or increasing levels of psychological aggression and corporal punishment predicted lower initial levels of adolescent subjective well-being. Furthermore, escalating maternal corporal punishment predicted slower growth in adolescents' self-esteem. These findings highlight the importance of subgroup differences and cultural context in understanding the cumulative effects of harsh discipline in childhood on adolescence well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Among Mexican families during the early wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study tested how parental factors such as parental work-related economic stress, marital satisfaction, anxiety, depression, and resilience were associated with youth routine adherence (e.g., maintaining regular bedtimes, mealtimes, and physical activities) and social support seeking via peer interactions through phone calls, texts, and social media. Parent gender was tested as a moderator of relations. Participants were 2,369 Mexican caregivers (89.2% women, M_age = 34.21) with wide socioeconomic backgrounds, who completed online surveys of family functioning during the early waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings indicated variability in adherence to family routines and social support seeking during COVID-19. Less parental depression and greater parental resilience related to children's routine adherence and both work-related economic stress and lower marital satisfaction were indirectly related to routine adherence via lower depressive symptoms. Less depression, but greater anxiety, was associated with more youth social support seeking in models without marital satisfaction. Again, work-related economic stress was indirectly related to social support seeking via both depression and anxiety. Effects were generally small and parent gender did not moderate any relations. Parents may be gatekeepers for strategies designed to help children cope with stress, and parenting variables-most notably parental depression and broader stressors in the work and marital domains-appear to relate to how youth coped with stress in Mexico during the early waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Existing research has found that home visiting programs for families with young children can improve children's development and strengthen caregiver and family well-being. However, the pandemic created numerous challenges for home visiting programs, forcing them to deliver services online or in a hybrid format to respond to pandemic-related challenges. Questions remain about the impacts of these programs when delivered at-scale via a hybrid model, especially during this uniquely challenging time. The present study reports 12-month impacts from a randomized controlled trial of Child First-an evidence-based home visiting program that provides psychotherapeutic, parent-child intervention (children ages 0-5) embedded in a coordinated system of care-when implemented as a hybrid service. This study estimates impacts within four domains: families' receipt of services, caregiver psychological well-being and parenting, child behavior, and family economic well-being. After randomly assigning families (N = 224) to receive Child First or typical community services, the research team surveyed caregivers (N = 182) about a year after study enrollment. Results from regression models with site fixed effects revealed suggestive evidence that Child First reduced caregivers' job loss and self-reported substance abuse, and increased receipt of virtual services during the pandemic. There were null impacts on caregivers' psychological well-being, families' involvement with the child welfare system, children's behaviors, and other indicators of economic well-being. Implications for future research and policy are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

The family stress model (FSM) posits that socioeconomic status affects child developmental outcomes through parental mental health and parenting practices. Although the FSM has been validated in various contexts, there is limited research on its applicability across diverse family structures in the United States. This study uses multigroup structural equation modeling to test the FSM across three family types: biologically connected/adopted two-parent families (T-B/A), stepfamilies (ST), and single-parent families (SP) among a representative sample of children in the United States (N = 28,234; Mage = 12.5 years; 13,671 females and 14,563 males). The results show that family structure moderates three of the nine pathways in the FSM. Specifically, the association between socioeconomic status and parental mental health and the association between parental aggravation and children's grades are stronger in T-B/A families than in ST and SP families. The association between parental aggravation and children's mental health is similar between T-B/A families and ST but weaker for SP families. The remaining associations in the FSM are consistent across the three family structures. Overall, these findings confirm the theoretical utility of the FSM across common family structures and also highlight the need to incorporate family structure-related variables, such as stressors unique to ST and SP families. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

This report leveraged the subsample of romantically involved participants in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development at the most recent assessment of the cohort (n = 505; M_age = 28.6 years; 58.1% female; 81.7% White/non-Hispanic) to study the role of three theoretically salient childhood interpersonal experiences as potential antecedents of self-reported romantic relationship adjustment in early adulthood. Predictors were measured multiple times prospectively in childhood through adolescence and included (a) direct observations of maternal sensitivity in dyadic interactions with participants from age 1 month through 15 years, (b) participants' reports of the quality of their best friendships from Grade 3 to age 15 years, and (c) participants' primary caregivers' reports about the quality of their own romantic relationships when target participants were being reared. Composite assessments of these three childhood interpersonal exposures were each uniquely predictive of participants' romantic relationship adjustment in young adulthood after accounting for demographic covariates, though the overall effect size was modest (ΔR² = .05). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).