Journal of Family Psychology最新文献

Life-threatening earthquakes can lead to immediate and prolonged economic hardship that challenges the lives of the survivors. We know little about (a) how these economic risks impact families with preschool children, that is, the health of parents, the behavior of their children, and their relationships, and (b) the necessary family resources that support them. We utilized the Family Stress Model and multisystemic resilience theory to examine the effects of economic hardship on families with preschoolers who recently experienced an earthquake, focusing on ways to enhance their resilience. This study used an exploratory, data-driven statistical approach to analyze cross-sectional data from 377 families (children's age range = 4-6) that experienced the Kahramanmaraş earthquake in Türkiye in February 2023. Economic risk showed a direct relationship with problematic child behavior, which was associated with parental depression and the child-parent relationship, which provides additional perspectives on the Family Stress Model. Higher levels of economic hardship were associated with significantly lower levels of most family resources, with meaning making following adversity acting as a mediator for these effects. A combination of family communication, problem solving, and social and economic resources was identified as important for all family members, while lower levels of family spirituality were additionally important for children's resilience. Because most family resources were directly associated with parental depression, interventions should prioritize supporting parents so they can, in turn, better care for their young children. Future research utilizing the Family Stress Model should examine potential bidirectional effects between parental health and child behavior, particularly in disaster contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

The COVID-19 pandemic was uniquely challenging for families with early elementary-aged children, due to the dual pressures of managing children's disrupted schooling while maintaining financial stability amid job disruptions. This longitudinal, preregistered study combines the Family Stress Model with Masten's Developmental Systems Resilience Framework to examine how economic hardship during the early months of the pandemic was associated with children's directly assessed cognitive skills 2-3 years later in a socioeconomically diverse sample of 249 parent-child dyads via financial stress, parental mental health symptoms, and autonomy-supportive and controlling parenting behaviors. Additionally, we tested direct associations between family cohesion and children's cognitive skills to investigate whether family cohesion served as a compensatory factor. Results partially supported the Family Stress Model, showing that economic hardship was associated with higher financial stress, which in turn was associated with heightened depressive and anxiety symptoms. Although parents' mental health challenges did not mediate the link between economic stress and parenting behaviors, lower household income was directly associated with less autonomy-supportive parenting observed during a homework help task. Autonomy-supportive parenting was linked to higher executive functions in children, whereas controlling parenting was linked to lower math and receptive vocabulary skills a year later. Importantly, family cohesion served as a compensatory factor, supporting children's executive function and receptive vocabulary skills. These findings highlight the critical role of family cohesion for children's cognitive development during periods of disruption, emphasizing the importance of close family interactions for fostering resilience in children amid adversity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Studies emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic have documented the emotional, physical, and economic hardships experienced within families across the United States. Guided by the family stress model, this study examined parents' reports of economic hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the role of this hardship in Latinx parents' concurrent depressive symptoms and parenting behaviors and, in turn, their youths' well-being 1 year later. Further, we examined whether family cohesion mitigated the negative impact of families' economic strain. The present study utilized data from a longitudinal study of 295 Latinx families living within the U.S. Southwest. Parents and their adolescents were recruited in August 2020 and completed online surveys at two time points (about a year apart). Adolescents were approximately 13 years old (SD = 1.41 years) at Time 1 (T1), and the majority were U.S.-born (95%). Adolescents identified as male (51%), female (47%), and trans female/nonbinary (2%). Parents were 40 years old (SD = 6.27 years) at T1, and the majority were U.S.-born (58.2%) and identified as female (90%). Results indicated that families who experienced more economic hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic also reported greater depressive symptoms, which, in turn, were associated with lower parental warmth. Parental warmth predicted lower adolescent depressive symptoms 1 year later, accounting for prior levels of youth symptoms. Overall, findings supported the indirect associations between greater economic hardship and youth's lower well-being, but also suggested that greater family cohesion moderated links such that it offset the negative association between parent's depressive symptoms and parenting practices. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Mexican-origin families often face economic hardship due to systemic oppression, increasing the likelihood of adolescent marijuana use. While the family stress model provides insight into the mechanism of the association between family economic hardship and adolescent marijuana use, resilience factors are relatively unknown. The present study uses a three-wave longitudinal data set of Mexican immigrant families in the United States (Wave 1-adolescents: M_age = 12.29, SD = 0.93; mothers: M_age = 38.57, SD = 5.71) to investigate the mechanism underlying the association between family income and adolescents' likelihood of marijuana use, guided by the family stress model. The protective role of adolescent executive function (shifting task performance and working memory), which has been widely linked to adolescent marijuana use in prior research, was tested as a key resilience factor supporting behavioral regulation and adaptive coping in negative family environments. The results revealed the long-term detrimental influence of early adolescents' family income on the likelihood of using marijuana in late adolescence through family economic pressure, maternal internalizing symptoms, maternal hostility toward partner, and maternal hostility toward adolescent. The downstream link is buffered by adolescents' longer reaction times in shifting tasks and longer digit span by attenuating the influence of maternal hostility toward adolescent on the likelihood of adolescent marijuana use. Revealing the mechanism and identifying resilience factors for the association between family economic hardship and adolescent's marijuana use in Mexican-origin families shed light on the targets of interventions to help adolescents thrive and overcome economic disadvantage in Mexican-origin communities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

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).

Youth who perceive autonomy restrictions tend to have more conflicts with their parents and perceive lower support from them. This association between restrictions on autonomy and parent-youth conflicts and support may intensify when youth have stronger desires for autonomy. This study examined (a) the association of youth's perceptions of parental autonomy restrictions and their desires for autonomy with conflicts with and support from parents, and (b) the differences in autonomy restrictions and desires between youth with and without an immigration background, as well as (c) whether these associations differ for both groups. The analyses for this study were based on a sample of 975 youth in late adolescence and young adulthood (M_age = 18.12, SD = 1.94; range 16-25; 42% female; 29% with an immigration background). Results showed that perceiving more autonomy restrictions were associated with more conflicts and less support, especially for youth who reported stronger desires for autonomy. Youth with an immigration background perceived more autonomy restrictions and reported lower desires than those without an immigration background. Autonomy restrictions were not associated with parent-youth conflicts or support for youth with an immigration background, different from those without an immigration background. However, the interplay between autonomy restrictions, desires, and parent-youth conflicts and support did not differ significantly by immigration background. The findings underscore the importance of considering both youth's desire for autonomy and their immigration background when examining parenting behaviors and the parent-youth relationship. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Physical and psychological health (e.g., healthful eating behavior, physical activity, body image) are dimensions of successful young adult development. Families are an important developmental context, yet little is known about how parents contribute to their young adult children's eating behavior, body image, or weight-related health. The purpose of this study was to shed light on parents' perceived roles, practices, and concerns regarding their young adult children's eating, body image, and weight-related health. Data were drawn from 558 parents who participated in Project Eating and Activity over Time, a population-based study of eating, activity, and weight-related health, and responded to an open-ended question about parenting their young adult children regarding eating habits and weight. Thematic analysis revealed heterogeneity in parents' perceptions of their roles in their young adult children's eating and weight-related health; we identified subthemes of autonomy, loss of control, and lack of responsibility. Parents reported using an array of parenting practices and strategies (e.g., modeling) to promote healthy eating, body image, and weight-related health in their young adult children. Parents also reported numerous factors that challenged or influenced their parenting, including child characteristics, contextual influences, and lack of knowledge. Although parents' perceived roles change with their child's development, many parents are still invested and involved in their young adult children's eating, body image, and weight-related health. Our findings have implications for theory and suggest that parents may benefit from guidance about navigating their child's transition to young adulthood in ways that support their eating, body image, and weight-related health. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).