Journal of Family Psychology最新文献

Guided by the Family Stress Model, this study investigated the moderating role of a culturally resilient factor (i.e., family obligation values) in the associations between maternal sociocultural stress (i.e., cultural stress and economic stress) and maternal warmth across two waves. Participants included 595 mothers (M_age = 38.39, SD = 5.74) and adolescents (54% female, M_age = 12.41, SD = 0.97) as dyads in Central Texas, United States. The results showed that maternal family obligation values played a protective role in both concurrent and longitudinal associations between cultural stress and warmth and in the concurrent link between economic stress and warmth among Mexican immigrant mothers. The findings suggest that a culturally resilient factor may buffer the negative impact of sociocultural stress on maternal warmth both concurrently and longitudinally. The findings offer significant insights for developing intervention programs aimed at enhancing maternal warmth despite experiencing high sociocultural stress. By emphasizing the importance of promoting maternal warmth and highlighting the value of promoting a culturally resilient factor (i.e., family obligation values), these programs may empower Mexican immigrant mothers to maintain resilience in the context of stress. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Economic hardship confers risk for a multitude of child development outcomes including regulatory development. A wealth of research demonstrates the adverse influence of economic hardship on behavioral regulation, but less clarity exists for physiological levels of regulation. Further, little work has examined how culturally specific parenting practices can promote adaptive physiological development. The present study drew data from 322 low-income, Mexican American mother-infant dyads to examine how economic hardship, parental affectionate touch, and their interactions would relate to changes in infant respiratory sinus arrhythmia, a physiological index of regulation, from infant age 6 to 24 weeks. Results indicated that perceived economic hardship significantly interacted with parental affectionate touch, such that more perceived economic hardship was related to a smaller increase in respiratory sinus arrhythmia at average and low levels of affectionate touch. These findings suggest that culturally relevant parenting practices, such as affectionate touch, may protect against the deleterious effects of economic hardship. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

The family stress model of economic hardship (FSM; Conger & Conger, 2002; Conger et al., 1991) provided one of the first empirically tested models to explain the mechanisms linking economic disadvantage to children's well-being and remains relevant and central to a wide range of families-both in the United States and globally-today. However, the identification of resilience processes that buffer, counteract, or mitigate the stress processes outlined in the model has remained limited. The collection of articles in this special issue of the Journal of Family Psychology seeks to advance FSM scholarship through incorporating empirical tests of resilience processes within an FSM framework. The articles reflect how the FSM can address stress processes experienced by diverse families, as well as the strengths and resources that help them adapt and succeed. Two invited commentaries are also included. The first provides a brief social history of the FSM and future directions, and the second provides a synthesis and critique of the articles, as well as where scholarship on this topic can advance in the future. In this introduction, the authors provide a summary of prior research utilizing the FSM, an overview of the special issue, and directions for future research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Parental mind-mindedness (MM)-defined as the propensity to view children as mental agents with their own thoughts, feelings, and intentions-is thought to shape parental behavior and affect, which are also impacted by family adversity. However, little is known about whether associations between MM, parenting, and family adversity generalize across cultural contexts. This study aimed to both address this question, and to also consider whether parental MM attenuates associations between family adversity and parenting behavior/affect. Across three sites (England, Hong Kong, mainland China), 832 parent-child dyads (M_{child age} = 5.18 years; SD = 0.52) were observed remotely in a shared drawing task, with video-footage coded for parental behavior and affect. Parental MM was assessed from transcripts of parents' descriptions of their child. Our index of family adversity comprised indicators of socioeconomic status, parental mental health, negative life events, and COVID-19 related stress. Using a single-study meta-analysis design, we found across-site generalizability of associations between parenting aspects and (a) MM (summary estimate = 0.13) and (b) family adversity (summary estimate = -0.16). By contrast, the predicted effect of MM in attenuating associations between family adversity and parenting was only partially supported. That is, the association between family adversity and parental negative affect was attenuated in the context of high MM in mainland China (but not in England or Hong Kong). For parenting behavior and affect, findings indicate both cultural similarities and contrasts and are discussed within the framework of "universality without uniformity" models. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Evidence supports the positive impact of MotherWise, an individual-oriented relationship education program delivered to perinatal women and birthing people from underresourced communities, on relationship skills, attitudes, and individual and relationship functioning. This study examined whether individuals' sociodemographic disadvantage was associated with (a) preprogram levels and (b) differential program effects. Participants (M_age = 28 years) were randomly assigned to MotherWise (n = 512) or a control group (n = 437). Most participants identified as Hispanic (66%), had accessed government benefits recently (73%), and were partnered (85%). Sociodemographic factors (i.e., age, education, public assistance use, employment status, having children from previous relationships, and history of incarceration) were examined individually and as a cumulative index. Relationship skills (i.e., romantic relationship and conflict management skills), attitudes (i.e., disapproval of relationship violence), negative communication, and depressive symptoms were assessed at enrollment and 1 year and 2.5 years postenrollment. Multilevel models were conducted. MotherWise demonstrated positive long-term effects on relationship skills and attitudes, with no effects on negative communication or depression at these time points. Overall, there was no evidence of differential program effects across individual or cumulative sociodemographic risks. However, greater cumulative risk and some risks measured individually-especially incarceration history-were associated with lower baseline scores for skills and attitudes and higher baseline scores for negative communication and depression, suggesting greater needs among these individuals. Although MotherWise led to better outcomes for participants with varying risk factors, additional modifications or adaptations may be necessary to achieve equitable outcomes, ensuring all participants reach similar postprogram levels. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Previous research suggests that increased parental stressful life events are associated with increased risks for children's internalizing symptoms. Despite the strong support for this model, limited prior work has explored the mechanism underlying this association. The purpose of this study was to investigate the longitudinal relationships between the history of maternal and paternal stressful life events experienced during adolescence, parent-child relationship quality, and internalizing symptoms in young adulthood. Participants for the present study included 923 adolescents (T1: M_age = 17.0, T2: M_age = 23.3, 50.8% identified as female) and their parents from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. Maternal- and paternal-specific structural equation models were conducted to examine the relationship between parental stressful life events in middle adolescence and internalizing symptoms in young adulthood through parent-child relationship quality while controlling for key covariates. Father-reported stressful life events during the previous year were associated with less positive father-reported father-child relationship quality during adolescence, which was associated with an increased risk for internalizing symptoms in young adulthood. Mother-reported stressful life events did not predict mother-child relationship quality in adolescence. However, mother-child relationship quality in adolescence was associated with young adult internalizing symptoms. The indirect effects linking stressful life events to internalizing symptoms through parent-child relationship quality were not significant for either mothers or fathers. These results highlight the significance of paternal stressful life events for parent-child relationship quality and the importance of father-inclusive parenting interventions that could address these dynamics. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Children's self-regulation skills have important developmental implications for a variety of outcomes, and parenting practices are instrumental in shaping these self-regulatory skills. Given the variations in associations observed across different populations and inconsistencies in measurement methods, we specifically evaluate different dimensions of parenting styles regarding how behaviors promote, suppress, or passively contribute to child independence and development of self-regulation skills. We utilize a meta-analytic approach to investigate whether different types of parenting engagement predict children's self-regulation abilities and evaluate moderation effects attributed to measurement strategies, sample characteristics, study design, and publication source qualities. Random-effects models with the 62 total included studies yielded significant main effects for supportive (k = 42) parenting and suppressive (k = 50) parenting, but not passive (k = 10) parenting. Parenting style reporting method was confirmed to be a significant moderator for supportive parenting, suppressive parenting, and passive parenting. Findings of the present study emphasize the benefits of supportive parenting and the detriments of suppressive parenting in fostering self-regulation skills across childhood and adolescence. While the directionality of these associations was unsurprising, the alignment in magnitude and therefore near-perfectly antagonistic roles for establishing children's independent regulation is a striking new contribution to developmental science. The inclusion of passive parenting did not yield significant main effects for the child self-regulation outcome, but the positive trend observed provides a baseline for future reviews to build upon. Implications for these meta-analyses include tailoring of intervention programs to include responsive parenting practices and strategies to reduce punitive discipline approaches. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Couples living with low incomes in the United States experience greater relational distress relative to couples with more financial resources. Drawing from the family stress model, which argues that economic strain is a catalyst for relational distress, one approach to improve the relationships of couples with low incomes might be addressing and ameliorating families' financial difficulties. This study tested this possibility using secondary data from the Baby's First Years project, a randomized controlled trial of ongoing unconditional cash transfers to mothers. We examined the impact of receiving $333/month (relative to $20/month in a control group) on mothers' relationship quality and relationship status at 1 and 2 years postrandomization, which included the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Multigroup models and path analyses were employed to investigate moderators and potential mechanisms contributing to differences across conditions. Randomization into the higher cash condition was not associated with relationship quality at Year 1 (b = -0.02, p = .792) or Year 2 (b = -0.02, p = .613). Likewise, there were no significant direct effects of cash assistance on relationship status at Year 1 (OR = 0.94, 95% CI [0.62, 1.42]) or Year 2 (OR = 0.79, 95% CI [0.52, 1.20]). There was minimal evidence that effects were significant for a subset of mothers, and there were no significant indirect effects on the relational outcomes through individual or economic factors. Results of this study indicate that additional resources are likely needed to alleviate low-income couples' financial strain and improve intimate bonds. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Reports the notice of retraction of "Perceptions of partner responsiveness across the transition to parenthood" by Dave Smallen, Jami Eller, W. Steven Rholes and Jeffry A. Simpson (Journal of Family Psychology, 2022[Jun], Vol 36[4], 618-629; see record 2021-73549-001). The article is being retracted at the request of Dave Smallen, W. Steven Rholes, and Jeffry A. Simpson. Another author, Jami Eller, was unable to be reached. In the process of replicating analyses for the study, these authors found that the descriptive statistics replicated, as did the analyses supporting Hypotheses 1 and 3. However, Hypotheses 2 and 4 were no longer supported (i.e., the interaction effects were not statistically significant at p < .05). (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2021-73549-001.) This longitudinal study examined associations between perceptions of partner responsiveness and relationship satisfaction of each partner (new parents) across the first 2 years of a chronically stressful life event-the transition to parenthood. Responsiveness indexes the degree to which partners respond to each other with understanding, validation, and care. Consistent with prior work, lower ratings of responsiveness receipt and provision predicted declines in relationship satisfaction across the transition. These effects, however, were moderated by parental stress, such that among new parents who reported experiencing higher levels of parental stress, providing higher levels of responsiveness to partners was associated with declines in relationship satisfaction. Conversely, under lower stress, relationship satisfaction benefited from higher levels of both providing and receiving responsiveness. All of these effects held when controlling for both partners' levels of agreeableness, neuroticism, support-seeking, income, and work-family conflict. Post hoc moderation analyses revealed that high stress partners who reported providing higher responsiveness reported larger declines in relationship satisfaction if they scored higher in attachment avoidance or had more negative social exchanges with their partner. We discuss these novel stress moderation results in light of the need to and meaning of engaging in responsiveness, especially during chronically stressful periods of life. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

This longitudinal study sought to elucidate the role of mothers' early depressive symptoms and recent peer victimization, both independently and interactively, in the development of children's behavioral problems in middle childhood. Mothers (N = 1,090) reported their depressive symptoms from infancy through first grade and rated children's behavioral problems when children were in the third, fourth, and fifth grades. Peer victimization was reported by teachers when children were in the third grade. Analyses of growth modeling showed that mothers' early depressive symptoms and recent peer victimization independently predicted high levels of behavioral problems, particularly externalizing problems, adjusting for mothers' recent depressive symptoms. Moreover, supporting the stress sensitization model, mothers' early depressive symptoms interacted with recent peer victimization to predict developmental trajectories of internalizing but not externalizing problems. Children with high levels of mothers' early depressive symptoms tended to develop persistent and high levels of internalizing problems even in the condition of low levels of peer victimization. The findings clarify the patterns of longitudinal associations between these risk factors and behavioral adjustment and highlight the interactive role of early and recent risk factors, particularly mothers' depressive symptoms and peer victimization, in understanding the development of behavioral problems in middle childhood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).