Family Process最新文献

Postpartum experiences and challenges faced by fathers in Singapore are often overlooked. A more comprehensive understanding is essential to identify areas for supporting fathers' mental health and developing father-inclusive healthcare strategies, ultimately enhancing family-centered care. The perinatal period is challenging for fathers, with shifts in roles, routine changes, and societal pressures which can lead to anxiety or depression, especially during postpartum. The aim of this paper was to explore the experiences, challenges, emotional, and mental health needs of multi-racial fathers in Singapore during postpartum. We used a descriptive qualitative design. Thirteen fathers were recruited through purposive sampling from a single tertiary hospital in Singapore. They were invited to participate in a one-to-one semi-structured interview via Zoom at 1 month postpartum. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using thematic analysis. Four themes were identified: (a) great expectations and self-blame; (b) dual role of provider-caregiver; (c) when family support helps and hurts; (d) visibility of fathers' mental health. We learned that fathers often suppressed emotional struggles due to societal expectations of masculinity. While they valued caregiving support from family, conflicting parenting beliefs caused tension. Fathers also faced financial pressures, frequently assuming provider roles despite dual-income households, alongside active caregiving responsibilities. The findings highlight the need for discreet, gender-sensitive mental health support, such as routine check-ins and male-oriented services that are tailored to fathers' needs. Future research should develop diagnostic tools specific to paternal postpartum depression for better identification and support.

This study examines the longitudinal associations between relationship satisfaction and emotion regulation (ER) difficulties across 8 sessions of couple therapy. It further tests adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) as a predictor of these constructs and therapeutic alliance as a moderator of the effects of ACEs. A cross-lagged panel model was used to test actor and partner effects in a sample of 972 different-sex couples at intake, session four, and session eight of relationship therapy. Results suggest there is neither a long-term bidirectional relationship between relationship satisfaction and ER difficulties nor that ACEs are directly related to relationship satisfaction for actors. Instead, ACEs predict ER difficulties at session four, through which there is also an indirect effect on ER difficulties at session eight. Additionally, men's ER difficulties at intake predict women's relationship satisfaction at session four. The therapeutic alliance did neither predict nor moderate the effect of ACEs. Clinical implications include assessing for and intervening on the effects of ACEs, attending to men's early ER and its impact on their partners, and treating ER difficulties and relationship satisfaction concurrently in couple therapy.

With sociocultural changes in China, the traditional mother-dominated parenting model has shifted toward a more collaborative approach. However, the role of fathers in Chinese family parenting and the dyadic relationship between co-parenting behaviors and parenting stress remain insufficiently explored. This study explores the relationship between Chinese parents' co-parenting behaviors and their own and their partner's parenting stress, and further reveals the diversity of co-parenting behavior patterns in Chinese adolescent families and examines the variations in parenting stress across different co-parenting types. Participants included 1313 families in Chongqing, China (fathers: M_age = 39.78, mothers: M_age = 37.59, children: M_age = 10.08, 55.1% male). Parents completed two self-report questionnaires assessing their co-parenting behaviors and parenting stress. Results showed that both fathers' and mothers' positive/negative co-parenting behaviors were negatively/positively correlated with their parenting stress, respectively, with fathers' positive co-parenting behaviors also negatively correlating with mothers' parenting stress. Latent profile analysis identified four co-parenting behavior profiles: (a) cooperative, (b) cooperative-moderation, (c) compromising, and (d) coexisting. Parenting stress was lowest in cooperative families. Fathers in cooperative-moderation families reported significantly lower stress than those in compromising and coexisting families, with no significant differences between the latter two. For mothers, no significant differences in parenting stress were found between the cooperative and coexisting profiles or between the cooperative-moderation and compromising profiles. These findings extend the understanding of co-parenting dynamics within the changing Chinese family context and provide empirical support for family interventions aimed at reducing parenting stress.

Interparental hostility is a risk factor for adolescents' problematic smartphone use (PSU). However, the mechanisms implicated in this association remain unclear. Using three-wave, multi-informant data from 364 Chinese parent–child dyads over the junior high school years (grades 7–9, M_{child age} = 12.00, SD = 0.38, 58.8% boys), this study examined how parents' reports of interparental hostility at Grade 7 related to adolescents' reports of PSU at Grade 9, with adolescents' reports of conflict appraisals at Grade 8 (i.e., threat, self-blame, low coping efficacy) tested as potential mediators and parents' reports of interparental cooperative conflict at Grade 7 (i.e., constructive problem solving, marital warmth, and effective conflict resolution) as possible moderators. Results demonstrated that when interparental constructive problem solving at Grade 7 was low, interparental hostility at Grade 7 positively predicted adolescents' PSU at Grade 9 through a positive association with adolescents' threat at Grade 8. In contrast, when interparental constructive problem solving was high, interparental hostility at Grade 7 negatively predicted adolescents' PSU at Grade 9 through a negative association with adolescents' threat at Grade 8. Furthermore, interparental hostility at Grade 7 was negatively associated with adolescents' self-blame at Grade 8 when interparental effective conflict resolution at Grade 7 was low. These findings shed some light on the complexity in the underlying mechanisms for the links between interparental hostility and adolescents' PSU. These findings highlight the need for efforts among parents, clinicians, and policymakers to mitigate adolescents' PSU by addressing interparental conflict and adolescents' conflict appraisals.

Parent–child discrepancies in reports of perceived parenting behaviors are common and have been linked to adolescent mental health. However, little is known about these discrepancies for parenting behaviors involving the father–mother–child triad, such as coparenting, and their impact on adolescents' emotional well-being, especially during extraordinary circumstances such as lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study tested a mediating model to examine whether and how discrepancy patterns are associated with depression and anxiety in adolescents through emotion regulation strategies (e.g., expressive suppression, cognitive reappraisal) among Chinese families during the pandemic. The participants included 747 adolescents (48.6% male; M_age = 13.26 years, SD = 3.39) and both their mothers and fathers. Adolescents completed assessments of perceived parental coparenting behaviors, emotion regulation strategies, depression, and anxiety. Parents completed assessments of their own coparenting behaviors. Latent profile analysis with a person-centered approach was used to identify four profiles of parent–child discrepancies in negative coparenting and three profiles in positive coparenting. Adolescents who reported more negative coparenting (i.e., conflict and disparagement) or less positive coparenting (i.e., integrity and reprimand) than their parents adopted increased expressive suppression and decreased cognitive reappraisal, which were associated with higher levels of depression and anxiety during the pandemic. This study emphasizes the importance of comprehending the patterns of parent–child discrepancies in family dynamics and highlights the practical importance of improving emotion regulation strategies in adolescents from maladaptive family patterns to maintain their emotional well-being.

Parental technoference, which refers to the interference of parent–child interactions by technology, has been demonstrated to be a risk factor for adolescent Problematic Mobile Phone Use (PMPU). From the perspective of family systems theory, the impact of adolescent PMPU on parental technoference seems also plausible. The present research investigated the bidirectional predictive association between parental technoference and adolescent PMPU through the mediating roles of paternal and maternal attachment using a two-wave cross-lagged design. A total of 1664 Chinese adolescents (61.24% female; M_age = 16.86 ± 0.77) were surveyed at Time 1 (January 2023) and Time 2 (August 2023). Results showed that Time 1 parental technoference predicted Time 2 adolescent PMPU and Time 1 adolescent PMPU predicted Time 1 parental technoference. Furthermore, both paternal attachment and maternal attachment had longitudinal mediating effects on the reciprocal association between parental technoference and adolescent PMPU. Finally, there was no difference between boys and girls in the longitudinal relationship among parental technoference, paternal and maternal attachment, and adolescent PMPU. The findings reveal the interdependent connections between parental and child usage of electronic devices, highlighting the roles of paternal and maternal attachment separately. The findings contribute to a family-based solution for preventing and intervening in adolescent PMPU.

Intergenerational social support has been considered an important factor in overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. However, prior research has overlooked the connection between intergenerational solidarity—social cohesion between generations—and self-esteem across Western and Asian families during the pandemic. We aimed to discover common unobserved latent classes of intergenerational solidarity with older parents among middle-aged adults during the pandemic in the United States and South Korea. In addition, we sought to determine if the identified solidarity latent classes were linked to the self-esteem of middle-aged adults, and whether the above association varies according to parents' gender or cultural contexts. We used data from the 2022 surveys of the Longitudinal Study of Generations and Korean Generation Study, and conducted multigroup latent class analysis for 247 child–mother and 205 child-father groups in the United States and 229 child–mother and 155 child-father groups in South Korea. In addition, multivariate regression analysis based on the three-step approach was conducted. We identified the same three intergenerational solidarity latent classes in the four groups: tight-knit, intimate-but-distant, and detached. Furthermore, we found that middle-aged adults with a tight-knit relationship with older parents reported higher self-esteem than those who had intimate-but-distant and detached types of relationships with older parents, irrespective of parents' gender and national context. Our results suggest that fostering stronger intergenerational relationships would be beneficial for middle-aged adults in both cultures, regardless of the gender of their parents. We provide insight to clarify the understanding of the role of intergenerational solidarity in midlife in American and Korean cultural contexts.