Journal of Family Psychology最新文献

This study explores the associations between consistent family mealtime schedules, parental and child control of food intake at 24 months, and children's internalizing and externalizing (EXT) symptoms at 36 months. Data were drawn from an observational cohort of 300 parent-child dyads, with analyses conducted on 270 families for whom complete data were available. Using both observational assessments and caregiver reports, we examined whether mealtime consistency and feeding strategies predicted internalizing and EXT symptoms, with the family's emotional climate during mealtimes as a potential moderator. Internalizing and EXT symptoms were measured using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, and family climate was coded from videos of family meals in the child's home at 24 months. Linear regression analyses, adjusting for gestational age, maternal education, race, and income, revealed that consistent family mealtime schedules were inversely associated with EXT symptoms at 36 months (β = -0.27, p < .05). Consistent mealtime schedules predicted lower EXT symptoms when mealtime emotional climate was high-quality (β = -0.58, p = .0003) but not when it was low-quality (β = 0.10, p = .56). These findings suggest that structured mealtime schedules, combined with warm, positive family interactions, may foster emotional security and support behavioral regulation in early childhood. Given the scarcity of observational studies on home mealtime environments, this study provides valuable insights into how family meals influence child behavior. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

We investigated the influence of parental depressive symptoms on interactive synchrony, an indicator of parent-infant interaction quality. Although research has shown the negative impact of maternal depressive symptoms-both prenatal and postnatal-on interactive synchrony, little is known about the impact of paternal depressive symptoms, particularly prenatal ones. From a family systems perspective, parental mental health is interdependent, with one parent's symptoms often associated with their partner's. However, it has not been investigated whether prenatal and postnatal depressive symptoms in one parent are associated with their partner's interactive synchrony with the infant. We hypothesized that higher prenatal depressive symptoms reported by both parents would be associated with reduced interactive synchrony in their own (actor effects) and in their partner's (partner effects; no directional hypothesis was specified based on previous findings) interactions with the infant. We also hypothesized postnatal depressive symptoms as mediators of target associations. Using an actor-partner interdependence mediation model, we analyzed data from 86 families. Both parents reported their symptoms at 36-38 weeks of pregnancy and 3-4 months after birth. Interactive synchrony was observed during a lab visit at the postnatal assessment. For mothers only, we found significant actor effects between higher prenatal symptoms and reduced interactive synchrony. No partner effects emerged nor did postnatal symptoms play a mediator role. A total effect from paternal prenatal symptoms to mother-infant interactive synchrony emerged. These findings highlight the importance of both parents in research on interactive synchrony to improve the understanding of reciprocal influences within the family. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Latina immigrant mothers living in emerging immigrant destinations often face geographic isolation, discrimination, and socioeconomic stress that adversely affect parenting and mental health. This longitudinal mixed-methods study examined whether neighborhood cohesion contributed to parental knowledge among Latina immigrant mothers in predominantly rural Midwestern communities and whether maternal mental health mediated this relation. Quantitative data (N = 232, M_age = 38.7 years, 60% married, median household income = $30k-$40k) showed that higher neighborhood cohesion at Wave 1 was associated with greater parental knowledge at Wave 2, indirectly through lower levels of maternal mental health problems. Qualitative interviews (N = 19) enriched these findings by revealing that even weak social connections could provide meaningful instrumental, informational, and emotional support. However, barriers like racial discrimination and resource scarcity limited the potential benefits of neighborhood cohesion for some mothers. Together, these findings highlight the indirect role of neighborhood cohesion in supporting parenting by reducing psychological distress and underscore the importance of strengthening community-based support systems for Latina immigrant mothers in emerging immigrant destinations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

The perinatal period has been identified as a transitional time for parents, which can bring the experience of positive emotions as well as new stressors. In addition, social changes that occur during the perinatal period may contribute to increases in perceived isolation or provide opportunities to forge new connections. The positive mental and physical health benefits of social connection-the extent to which people feel close and connected to others-are widely supported. Given the unique neurobiological and psychological changes that occur during pregnancy and postpartum, we propose that feelings of social connection are especially important for protecting mental health and well-being during the perinatal period, which could also affect the developing child. Here, we outline a theoretical model of perceived connectedness during the perinatal period and identify key questions for future research, with a particular focus on parents' mental health and child developmental outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Despite growing concerns regarding the development of hope among adolescents, the longitudinal relationship between parental-adolescent attachment, peer attachment, self-concept clarity, and hope remains far from being fully understood. This three-wave longitudinal study (6 months apart) across 1 year examined the relationship between attachment with parents and peers, self-concept clarity, and hope in 1,312 adolescents (age range 12-18, M_age = 14.29, SD = 1.38; 50.2% males) by using cross-lagged panel models. The results revealed a bidirectional relationship between hope and parental attachment across all three waves. In addition, hope was found to be positively associated with subsequent peer attachment across the three waves, while peer attachment at T1 was positively linked to hope at T2. Furthermore, self-concept clarity emerged as a longitudinal mediator in the relationship between both parental and peer attachment and hope. These findings underscore the potential implications for intervention programs focused on enhancing attachment and self-concept clarity to foster increased hope among adolescents. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

The present study examined the indirect association between family economic hardship and infant socioemotional competence and behavior problems via food insecurity, maternal depressive symptoms, and maternal sensitivity. The moderating role of infant temperament on these family stress processes was also examined. The sample included 299 mother-infant dyads followed at four time points from pregnancy until infants were 14 months old. Mothers reported demographics, household food insecurity, and depressive symptoms during the third trimester of pregnancy. At 2 months postpartum, mothers reported depressive symptoms and infant temperament, including negative emotionality, surgency, and effortful control. Maternal sensitivity was observed at 6 months, and mothers reported infant behavior problems and socioemotional competence and their own depressive symptoms at 14 months. Consistent with hypotheses, economic hardship was positively associated with concurrent household food insecurity, which predicted higher prenatal depressive symptoms and subsequent maternal depressive symptoms at 2 months. Maternal depressive symptoms predicted later lower maternal sensitivity, which in turn predicted lower infant socioemotional competence. There was a significant buffering effect of infant negative emotionality such that maternal sensitivity significantly predicted higher socioemotional competence when infant negative emotionality was high. Finally, the conditional indirect pathway from food insecurity to emotional competence through depressive symptoms and maternal sensitivity was significant only for infants high on negative emotionality. Results indicate that low infant negative emotionality is a unique resilience factor that protects infants from the adverse effects of economic hardship on their emotional competence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

The family stress model has illuminated pathways from economic hardship to parents' psychological distress to impaired caregiving. However, there is less family stress model research examining other risk processes that link parental stressors to parenting or resilience processes that counteract these pathways. This study examined parents' developmentally appropriate attributions (DAAs) of young children's behavior as a link between multiple dimensions of parental adversity and stress, and multiple parenting indicators. Parental DAAs were hypothesized to (a) stem from childhood, cumulative, and contemporaneous adversity and stress and (b) relate to parenting quality. Participants were 95 mothers (M = 30.26 years, SD = 5.74, range = 20.01-45.66 years; 67.4% Black, 11.6% White, 7.4% bi-/multiracial, and 13.6% other) and their 4- to 6-year-old children residing in emergency shelters in a Midwestern metro area. Mothers completed validated measures on their own childhood abuse and neglect, DAAs, cumulative sociodemographic risk, current perceived stress and psychological distress, and the 5-min speech sample, later coded for expressed emotion (EE). Mother-child dyads then completed a 20-min structured interaction subsequently coded for observed effective parenting. Mothers' higher levels of childhood neglect and perceived stress were associated with their lower DAAs. In turn, higher DAAs were related to lower EE negativity, higher EE warmth, and more effective observed parenting. Parental DAAs may be a malleable target for interventions guided by the family stress model and resilience frameworks that could help parents reframe interpretations of ambiguous child behaviors in more benign, empathic, and developmentally sensitive ways to promote more positive parenting behaviors and relationships. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

The special issue brings together studies that offer new knowledge and insights about individual and family factors, and multilevel combinations of factors that compensate for or counteract the processes outlined in the family stress model. Studies demonstrate the applicability of the family stress model to processes operating during markedly different developmental periods (e.g., infancy, later adulthood) and to environmental stressors whose origins are essentially noneconomic in nature (e.g., earthquake). Studies also continue the vital work of expanding and strengthening the family stress model by incorporating culturally relevant risks and protective processes at the individual, family, and structural levels. Some of the critical tasks that lie ahead include giving attention to measurement issues, the robustness and replicability of findings, and families (e.g., African American) and family subsystems (e.g., father-child dyad, siblings, marital or conjugal subsystem, extended family subsystem) that are underrepresented in the research literature. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

The U.S. HIV epidemic disproportionately impacts Black/African American and Latina women. Many women living with HIV are primary caregivers for children, often navigating the unique stressors of parenting while managing their chronic illness. Though much research focuses on challenges facing this population, a strengths-based approach may highlight important avenues for prevention and intervention. Guided by the family stress model and multilevel resilience frameworks, this qualitative study explored factors promoting well-being and parent-child relationship-based resilience at the individual, family, and community levels. The sample included 14 mothers or other female caregivers living with HIV (MLH) and 13 children aged 9-16 (n = 27; 50% Latine, 42.9% Black/African American, 7.1% multiracial). Individual interviews were conducted with mothers and children following participation in a larger randomized controlled trial focused on HIV disclosure. Four broad themes and several subthemes emerged, including individual resilience of each child and parent, shared resilience within the dyad, and community resources and sources of resilience. Examples of resilience factors included children's internal assets (e.g., optimism), mothers' ability to cope with their illness, parent-child closeness, positive adaptation to HIV disclosure, and access to community supports. Notably, factors that contributed to shared resilience were identified as particularly unique and impactful in this population. Further, parents and children highlighted children's emotional and behavioral stability following disclosure as an important indicator of resilience. Overall, MLH and their children offered insight into the cultivation of both individual and shared resilience experiences, highlighting potential targets for strengths-based family interventions that further bolster these resilience processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

According to the family stress model (FSM), economic stressors undermine optimal child development through negative impacts on parent psychological well-being and family relationships, which in turn disrupt positive parenting. However, few studies have examined the role of interparental conflict among these pathways and the resilience factors that buffer the FSM processes. Understanding risk and resilience is especially relevant for families in Flint, MI, for whom poverty resulting from structural racism and chronic disinvestment has coincided with public health crises. Using 199 families from low socioeconomic backgrounds in an ongoing parenting intervention in Flint, this study examined whether parent psychological distress and interparental conflict mediated the association between economic pressure at baseline (around birth) and cognitive stimulation at 9 months, and whether parenting self-efficacy and social support moderated the sequential mediation. Data were collected through parent interviews at both time points. We found that the negative association between economic pressure at baseline and cognitive stimulation at 9 months was sequentially mediated by parent psychological distress and interparental conflict. Furthermore, this negative sequential mediation was reduced and became nonsignificant when parents reported higher levels of parenting self-efficacy and social support. These findings suggest that improving interparental relationships in addition to parent mental health may promote positive parenting in at-risk two-parent families and that strength-based interventions are needed to reinforce parenting self-efficacy and facilitate parents' social networks and connections with the community to foster positive parenting. Programs should address these issues during infancy to build a strong foundation for long-term healthy development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).