Journal of Family Psychology最新文献

During times of stress, families are tasked with maintaining or reestablishing a state of equilibrium in order to cope with stress on the family system. The pandemic context represents an opportunity to study the interdependencies between family members and relationships under duress. The present study examined the transactional effects linking the marital and sibling subsystems throughout the early months of the pandemic. It was hypothesized that more marital conflict would predict more sibling relationship challenges, and vice versa, across the pandemic and that COVID-19 stress would moderate this relationship. Participants included 505 caregivers who reported on two children (sibling dyads) in the home at four time points (T1: May 2020; T2: July 2020; T3: September 2020; T4: November 2020). Caregivers reported on pandemic-related stress at T1, and marital conflict and sibling relationship challenges (conflict and lack of support) at T1-T4. Using a four-wave random-intercept cross-lagged panel model, results showed that, on average, more marital conflict was related to more sibling relationship challenges (p < .001). However, negative cross-lagged effects linked marital and sibling relationship challenges throughout the pandemic, such that greater sibling challenges at T1 predicted less marital conflict at T2 (p = .04), which in turn predicted greater sibling relationship challenges at T3 (p = .03). Degree of pandemic-related stress did not moderate the cross-lagged effects between marital conflict and sibling relationship challenges (p = .22). Differential mechanisms linking sibling and marital functioning may account for stable between-family differences (i.e., spillover) as compared with within-family fluctuations over time (i.e., compensation). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Studies have found that Latinx cultural values play a crucial role in the acceptance process of Latinx caregivers of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people. Guided by minority stress framework, in this study we quantitatively examine whether Latinx cultural values buffered the effects of acceptance on mental health outcomes among Latinx caregivers of LGBTQ people. In a national survey of 315 Latinx caregivers (age: M = 37.9; SD = 9.6) of LGBTQ people (age: M = 18.9, SD = 7.0), we assessed (a) the relation between acceptance, mental health outcomes (i.e., depression and anxiety), and Latinx cultural values (i.e., familism support, familism referents, respeto, religion, and traditional gender roles) and (b) whether Latinx cultural values buffered the effects of acceptance on mental health outcomes among Latinx caregivers of LGBTQ people. Main effect and moderation analyses were conducted. Findings revealed that (a) Latinx cultural values of family referents, religion, and traditional gender norms were associated with caregiver acceptance; (b) acceptance was a significant predictor of both lower depression and anxiety among caregivers; (c) Latinx cultural factors such as traditional gender roles were found to be predictive of higher depression and anxiety; and (d) Latinx cultural factors did not moderate the relationship between caregiver acceptance and mental health. Findings shed light on the important role of culture on acceptance and mental health outcomes among Latinx caregivers of LGBTQ people. We provide implications for working with Latinx caregivers of LGBTQ people such as using evidence-based interventions to unpack the role of Latinx culture. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Studies have found that parental care is closely associated with child self-control. In addition to parents, grandparents are also important family members and play a critical role in child development. Many studies have explored the associations between grandparental care and child self-control, especially in the Chinese context. However, the existing findings are inconsistent. To take stock of the literature, this study aimed to synthesize the associations between the quantity (defined as the extent to which grandparents are involved in child rearing) and quality (defined as the quality of grandparenting behavior and coparenting relationships between grandparents and parents) of grandparental care and Chinese children's self-control. Twenty-two studies with 75 effect sizes were included (N = 30,822). Regarding the quantity of grandparental care, the more grandparents were involved in child rearing, the poorer self-control the child had (Hedge's g = -0.376, p = .002). As for the quality of grandparental care, positive grandparenting behavior was linked to children's better self-control at a marginal significance level (r = .426, p = .079). Positive coparenting relationships between grandparents and parents were significantly linked to children's better self-control (r = .220, p < .001). These findings are largely invariant across child gender, child age, study design, and the quality of article. Theoretically, this study broadens our understanding of the ecological underpinnings of child self-control. Practically, the findings underscore the importance of improving grandparents' positive rearing behavior and forging harmonious coparenting relationships between grandparents and parents to nurture Chinese children's self-control. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

This longitudinal study examined parental sensitivity and child-parent attachment security in lesbian and gay parent families formed through assisted reproduction, comparing them to thresholds established in prior research. Additionally, it investigated differences in parental sensitivity, child-parent attachment security (measured 1 year later), and the strength of their association based on parent gender and attachment figure role. Participants included 76 lesbian mothers (from 38 families) through sperm donation and 72 gay fathers (from 36 families) through surrogacy, all White and residing in Italy, with first-born children (52.70% assigned female at birth) aged 36.00 months (SD = 9.16) at Time 1 and 48.38 months (SD = 9.22) at Time 2. Within each family, parents identified the primary and secondary attachment figures. Both lesbian mothers and gay fathers exhibited high levels of sensitivity, and their children demonstrated comparable attachment security. Regardless of parent gender, primary attachment figures displayed greater sensitivity, and children showed higher attachment security to their primary attachment figure than to their secondary attachment figure. The strength of the association between parental sensitivity and child-parent attachment security did not vary by parent gender, attachment figure role, or their interaction. However, a significant positive association between parental sensitivity and attachment security was found within all groups except gay father secondary attachment figures. The findings offer valuable insights for prospective lesbian and gay parents, policymakers, and reproductive and mental health practitioners while moving beyond polarized debates on parent gender versus attachment figure role. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Economic pressure, that is, psychological stress due to not having enough money to deal with everyday expenses, represents a pressing concern for many families around the globe. Indeed, prior research has linked family economic pressure to academic, behavioral, and psychological problems among children. However, most work has been cross-sectional and used family socioeconomic status as an indicator of economic disadvantages. The longitudinal association of family economic pressure with child adjustment and the possible underlying mechanism have been less well-studied, especially among non-Western families with young children. Therefore, using a three-wave, 2-year design, this study examined the longitudinal associations of family economic pressure with child school readiness, externalizing behaviors, and internalizing behaviors among Chinese families and tested mother mindful parenting as a mediator. On three occasions separated by about 6 months, questionnaire data were collected from the mothers of 207 kindergarten children from Hong Kong, China (mean age of children at Time 1 = 4.98 years; 52% of them were girls). Mothers rated their family conditions, their parenting practices, and their children's adjustment. Path analysis showed that family economic pressure was associated with decreases in child school readiness and increases in child externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Moreover, decreases in mother mindful parenting partially mediated the longitudinal associations of family economic pressure with child school readiness and externalizing behaviors. Theoretically, findings highlighted the role of mindful parenting in understanding the possible implications of family economic pressure. Practically, findings pointed to the potential utility of targeting mindful parenting to support economically disadvantaged families. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Though Family System Theory supported that function of members in the family are shaped by their interactions with all members in the family unit, many previous studies have often focused on the perspective of only one parent without considering the dynamics between both parents. This study investigates the effects of positive coparenting perceptions on child social skills via parenting stress within the framework of the dyadic family system. Utilizing the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study, this study included 3,003 fathers and mothers who were interviewed when the focal child was 3 years old. An actor-partner interdependence model was employed to include both actor and partner effects. Results indicate a negative association between positive coparenting perceptions and parental stress for both mothers and fathers, with no significant partner effects observed. Further analysis using actor-partner interdependence model mediation models revealed that maternal parenting stress mediated the relationship between mother's perception of positive coparenting and child social skills, while no direct or indirect effects were found for father's perception of positive coparenting. These findings identify the role of positive coparenting on parenting stress within a dyadic family system and highlight roles of maternal factors in child social skills. Implications for family therapy and intervention programs are discussed. Future research is needed to deepen our understanding of coparenting dynamics and their impact on child development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Parents are everyday exposed to intense sensory and emotional stimuli. Hence, it is reasonable that the individual trait of Environmental Sensitivity (ES), capturing individual differences in sensitivity and responsivity to stimuli, holds important implications for parenting. Available evidence suggests that a higher sensitivity to stimuli in parents is mainly a risk factor, but studies are limited for the majority to self-report measures of parenting. Across two independent observational studies involving Italian parents, we investigated the role of ES in parenting during the first year of a child life. In Study 1 (N = 41 mothers and infants tracked from 3 to 9 months), a higher ES initially linked to slightly higher parental intrusiveness at 3 months but shifted to less intrusive behaviors by 9 months. No other ES-parenting associations emerged. In Study 2 (N = 55 mothers of children aged 3 months old), findings showed that a higher ES was associated with less attuned parenting behaviors and more parental stress only in the copresence of parental adverse childhood experiences, with a vulnerability effect. In the same sample, a higher ES was associated with more adaptive parental responses to the child, particularly when respiratory sinus arrhythmia, capturing physiological self-regulation, was higher. To conclude, ES was not related to worse parental competences, but rather it made mothers more receptive to environmental (adverse childhood experiences) and inner physiological (respiratory sinus arrhythmia) factors, for better and for worse. We discuss implications for parenting programs and new direction of studies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

The intergenerational transmission of psychopathology has been well documented, but limited studies have examined the link at the symptomatic level accounting for these associations. This study aimed to identify the central symptoms that bridge adolescents and parental psychopathological symptoms and the specific symptom pathways by using a novel network approach. From September to October 2021, a cross-sectional study was conducted in Wuhan, China. A total of 8,032 adolescent-primary caregiver dyads completed a questionnaire reporting their depression and anxiety symptoms. Network analysis was used to identify central symptoms and the network pathways between adolescents' and parental psychopathological symptoms. Three robust networks were identified in this study: adolescent, parent, and integrated network. The nervous was the most central symptom in the adolescent network, while the parental fatigue was the most central symptom in both the parent and integrated network. Adolescents' suicidal ideation and parental fatigue had the most bridge strength that linked the adolescents' and caregivers' psychopathological symptoms. Parental and adolescents' suicidal ideation had the strongest association in the integrated network. Significant gender differences were found in the link between adolescents' and caregivers' psychopathological symptoms. Network analysis revealed the distinctive core psychopathological symptoms across each network and the specific pathways between adolescents' and caregivers' psychopathological symptoms. Family-based interventions or therapies targeting the resolution of central and bridge symptoms may have potential to reduce the co-occurrence of psychopathological symptoms within families. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Sexual well-being contributes to satisfying relationships, yet commonly declines in long-term couples. According to theory, effective coregulation of emotions promotes couples' sexual well-being. Accurately perceiving a partner's affect (i.e., mood, emotions)-empathic accuracy-may be fundamental to coregulating emotions and promotes intimacy; thus, higher empathic accuracy might promote couples' sexual well-being. In the first test of this hypothesis, an inclusive sample of 141 cohabiting couples completed daily online measures of negative affect, perceived partner negative affect, sexual satisfaction, sexual desire, and sexual distress for 28 days. We tested how daily variations in congruence/incongruence between perceived partner negative affect and a partner's (the "target's") reported negative affect were associated with each partner's sexual well-being, controlling for relationship satisfaction, using multilevel Dyadic Response Surface Analysis. For targets, sexual satisfaction was lower on days when partners were more inaccurate at perceiving their negative affect, and desire was not associated with inaccuracy but was higher on days when partners were accurate at perceiving extreme (low or high) negative affect versus midrange levels. When perceiving partners were more inaccurate, their own sexual distress was higher and, unexpectedly, their desire was higher. Finally, when perceivers overestimated (vs. underestimated) negative affect, they reported higher sexual distress and higher desire. Couples' sexual well-being may benefit from noticing daily changes in one another's negative affect. However, there may be drawbacks for perceiving partners' desire. Future work testing mechanisms such as responsiveness and intimacy would contribute to developing evidence-based approaches to support couples' emotional coregulation and sexual well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Parents' late-life divorce usually occurs when their adult children are married or seeking a marital relationship. The effects of divorce on young children have been studied extensively, revealing psychological, emotional, and mental difficulties, and increased relationship troubles. Yet knowledge about the effect of late-life divorce on adult children's perception of marital/romantic relationships in societies that value self-determination alongside strong family ties is lacking. Accordingly, we examine the consequences of parents' late-life divorce on their adult children's experiences and perceptions of marital/romantic relationships, from the perspective of both generations in the family, in Israel. Semistructured, in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted separately with 51 participants (28 adult children; 23 parents) composed of seven family units (n = 33) and nine parent-child dyads (n = 18) and analyzed using thematic analysis and dyadic analysis. The two themes identified were adult children's shattered concept of marriage and the lessons they learned from their parents' marriage and late-life divorce and apply to their own marital/romantic relationships. Findings within both themes revealed a gap between generations regarding awareness of the long-term consequences of late-life divorce on adult children's romantic relationships. Implications include raising the awareness of families and therapists to these consequences. Developing constructive communication may enable both generations to beneficially process emotions and perception. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).