Dual-Earner Wives' And Husbands' Perceptions of Their Children's Day Care Experiences: Relationship to Personal Well-Being, Marital Stress, and Job Satisfaction

Dual-earner mothers and fathers whose children were enrolled in day care for at least two years were asked to rate the care environment, assess its effects on children's development and parent-child relations, and to provide assessments of marital stress, job satisfaction, and emotional support. Mothers and fathers did not differ significantly on any of the measures. A path model failed to provide support for the contention that personal well- being mediates influences from the broader social context on the parent-child relationship of day care children; however, it did show that the parent-child relationship may buffer certain influences from the broader social context on children's developmental status. The data are discussed with respect to the need to examine day care issues from an interrelated systems perspective.     

Dual-Earner Wives' And Husbands' Perceptions of Their Children's Day Care Experiences: Relationship to Personal Well-Being,Marital Stress,and Job Satisfaction

Dual-earner mothers and fathers whose children were enrolled in day care for at least two years were asked to rate the care environment, assess its effects on children's development and parent–child relations, and to provide assessments of marital stress, job satisfaction, and emotional support. Mothers and fathers did not differ significantly on any of the measures. A path model failed to provide support for the contention that personal well- being mediates influences from the broader social context on the parent–child relationship of day care children; however, it did show that the parent–child relationship may buffer certain influences from the broader social context on children's developmental status. The data are discussed with respect to the need to examine day care issues from an interrelated systems perspective.     

Congruence between Mothers' and Fathers' Differential Treatment of Siblings: Links with Family Relations and Children's Well-Being

We studied patterns of mothers' and fathers' differential treatment of firstborn (average age 10.5 years) and secondborn (average age 8 years) school-age siblings, and we examined the links between parents' differential treatment and children's well-being and dyadic family relationships. Mothers, fathers, and both siblings in 110 families were interviewed in their homes. For each dimension of parental behavior that we assessed (i.e., differential affection and discipline) we created groups of families that reflected mothers' and fathers' levels of differential treatment (e.g., discipline the firstborn more, equal treatment, discipline the secondborn more). Although we detected substantial correspondence between the 2 parents' differential treatment, we found a sizable group of families in which parents' reports were incongruent (i.e., 1 parent reported equal and the other differential treatment). Parental patterns were linked to differences between the siblings' well-being and both sibling and parent-child relationships, with younger siblings exhibiting greater vulnerability to differential treatment. Incongruence in differential warmth was associated with marital distress.     

Emotion discourse, social cognition, and social skills in children with and without developmental delays

This study examined parent-child emotion discourse, children's independent social information processing, and social skills outcomes in 146 families of 8-year-olds with and without developmental delays. Children's emergent social-cognitive understanding (internal state understanding, perspective taking, and causal reasoning and problem solving) was coded in the context of parent-child conversations about emotion, and children were interviewed separately to assess social problem solving. Mothers, fathers, and teachers reported on children's social skills. The proposed strengths-based model partially accounted for social skills differences between typically developing children and children with delays. A multigroup analysis of the model linking emotion discourse to social skills through children's prosocial problem solving suggested that processes operated similarly for the two groups. Implications for ecologically focused prevention and intervention are discussed.     

African American Fathers in Low Income, Urban Families: Development, Behavior, and Home Environment of Their Three-Year-Old Children

This study examined the relationship between paternal roles, regardless of residence, and the well-being of 175 3-year-old children from low income, African American families. There were no differences in children's cognition, receptive language, behavior, or home environment related to father presence. Fathers (or father figures) were identified in 73% of the families, and 64% participated in an interview and videotaped observation. The relationships between paternal roles (parenting satisfaction, economic support, nurturance during play, child care, and household responsibilities) and children's cognitive skills, receptive language, behavior, and home environment were examined. After controlling for maternal age, education, and parenting satisfaction, there were significant relationships between paternal roles and each index of children's well-being, suggesting that fathers' contributions were unique. Fathers who were satisfied with parenting, contributed financially to the family, and were nurturant during play had children with better cognitive and language competence; fathers who were satisfied with parenting and employed, had children with fewer behavior problems; and when fathers were living with the child, the home was more child-centered. Neither the biological relationship of the father nor the parents' marital status entered into the models. These findings support ecological theories linking paternal involvement with children's well-being and argue for the institution of family-oriented policies that promote positive father involvement.     

儿童视角看上海儿童友好家庭环境的营造

本研究采用自编"儿童友好家庭自评量表",了解上海市儿童对其家庭儿童友好环境的评价.调查发现:总体而言,上海市儿童对家庭环境持积极肯定态度,亲子关系融洽,生活满意度高;家庭环境体现无性别歧视原则,基本实现男女平等;照料养育与积极管教普遍获得认可,亲子沟通与对儿童的心理支持方面有待加强;一些家庭尚存在不同形式和不同程度的暴...     

The role of parental stress in physically abusive families

This study examines the role of several components of parental stress in physically abusive and nonabusive families with conduct-disordered children. The 123 families studied were seen in a parenting clinic aimed at improving parent-child interactions in families with a highly oppositional child. Data were collected over a several-week period and included both mother and father self-report measures and independent observations by trained researchers. Parental stress was found to play an important role in abusive families. Physically abusive families were significantly more often low income, had younger mothers with less education, more frequently reported a family history of child abuse, and were more likely to be abusing alcohol or drugs. Abusive mothers reported more stress due to frequent life events, and had a more negative perception of these events. Further, these mothers had higher rates of both depression and state anxiety. Abusive fathers spanked their children significantly more often than the nonabusive fathers, and abusive mothers had the highest frequency of critical statements directed at their children. Children from abusive households had significantly more behavior problems. Finally, abusive mothers reported more marital dissatisfaction and social isolation than their nonabusive counterparts.     

Parenting stress and harsh discipline in China: The moderating roles of marital satisfaction and parent gender

This research examined the relationships between parents’ parenting stress and their harsh discipline (psychological aggression and corporal punishment) and the moderating effects of marital satisfaction and parent gender in Chinese societies. Using a sample of 639 Chinese father–mother dyads with preschoolers, findings revealed that both mothers’ and fathers’ parenting stress were directly associated with their harsh discipline. Mothers’ marital satisfaction attenuated the association between their parenting stress and harsh discipline. However, fathers’ marital satisfaction did not moderate the association between their parenting stress and harsh discipline. Findings from the current study highlight the importance of considering how the dyadic marital relationship factors may interact with individuals’ parenting stress to influence both maternal and paternal disciplinary behaviors.     

Mother- and father-preterm infant relationship in the hospital preterm nursery

The relationships of Israeli mothers and fathers with their 38 preterm infants during hospitalization were traced in a short-term longitudinal study. Parent-infant interactions were observed and self-reports of parental feelings and perceptions were assessed twice: at the beginning and end of the nursery period. Mothers engaged in more caregiving, talking, and holding during initial contacts, but the disparity in maternal and paternal interactions decreased with time. Except for caregiving, in which mothers still surpassed fathers, fathers equaled mothers in all other activities at the time of the infants' discharge from the hospital. Fathers consistently surpassed mothers in playing and stimulating. Mothers perceived their infants to be more difficult than did fathers but reported enjoying them more. With time, parents were less disappointed and concerned over the infants' well-being but perceived them as more difficult. The data also demonstrated an association between infant behavioral states, parental feelings and perceptions, and parental behavior.     

Parenting during the Second Year: Effects of Children's Age, Sex, and Attachment Classification

70 2-parent families with 12-month-old infants and 67 2-parent families with 18-month-old toddlers participated in the study. Mothers and fathers participated in separate interviews and filled out questionnaires on family and child behaviors. Mothers and their children participated in the Ainsworth Strange Situation, and the families were observed for a total of 4 hours in their homes. Families were compared on composite measures of family environment variables, parents' perception of their children, and on process variables from home observations. Family differences in environmental stress and marital adjustment showed no effects for attachment classifications, although parents of 12-month-olds reported greater marital adjustment and more pleasure in parenting than parents of 18-months-olds. Both mothers and fathers reported that children classified as resistant were more difficult on several temperament measures. During home observations, 12-month-old children received more positive responses from mothers, and 18-month-old children received more instructions and directions from both parents. Insecure boys (both avoidant and resistant) received the least instructions and directions from both parents, but insecure-avoidant girls received the most instruction from fathers.     

Children''s Housework and Psychosocial Functioning: The Mediating Effects of Parents'' Sex-Role Behaviors and Attitudes

We examined sex-typed housework of children from dual- and single-earner families and its implications for children's adjustment as a function of congruencies between children's work and parents' sex-role behaviors and attitudes. Participants were 152 firstborn 9-12-year-olds (85 girls, 67 boys) and their parents. All fathers and 50% of mothers were employed. In home interviews parents rated their sex-role attitudes, and children rated their competence, stress, and parent-child relationships. In 7 nightly telephone interviews, children and parents described their household tasks for that day. Analyses revealed sex and earner-status differences in children's and parents' involvement in traditionally feminine and masculine tasks. Correlations between levels of parents' and children's task involvement were significant only in the case of fathers and sons in single-earner families. Regarding the connections between task performance and child adjustment, we found that incongruency between boys' sex-typed tasks and their fathers' sex-role behaviors and attitudes was linked to poorer psychosocial functioning, a pattern that did not hold for girls.     

Who cares for the child in day care? An examination of caregivers from three types of care

As part of a larger study, the Victoria Day Care Research Project, caregivers representing three different types of caregiving arrangements (licensed center-based day care, licensed family day care homes, and unlicensed family day care homes) were interviewed. The structured interviews of approximately 1 hour covered the following caregiver-related areas: caregiver personal, socioeconomic status (SES), and support system factors; caregiver relationships with the chldren's mothers and general attitudes towards maternal employment; caregivers' perceptions of their own programs and children they care for; and caregivers' satisfaction with their employment. From the interview data, distinctive profiles emerged for each of the three caregiving groups. The data on the three caregiver groups and their composite profiles are presented in the article.     

Family relationships during infancy and later mother and father vocabulary use with young children

Very little previous research has considered the contributions of family relationships and interactions on the language input of mothers and fathers to their young children. This study examined the contributions of marital love and conflict, and broader family-level conflict, cohesion, and expressiveness to mother and father vocabulary in triadic interactions with their young children in 70 dual-earner families. It was found that after controlling for parent sensitivity and parent directive behavior, marital love and family conflict when children were 12 months of age were significant predictors of both father vocabulary and mother vocabulary to children at 24 months of age. In families with higher levels of marital love when children were 12 months of age, mothers and fathers used a more diverse vocabulary with their 24-month-old children. In families with lower levels of family conflict when children were 12 months of age, mothers and fathers used a more diverse vocabulary with their 24-month-old children.     

"My family and friends": six- to twelve-year-old children's perceptions of social support

A psychometrically sound instrument is essential for the study of children's subjective impressions about social support. To evaluate such an instrument, 249 children, 6-12 years old, from a population-based sample of black and white families (50% single mothers, 50% two parents) were studied. The newly developed instrument, "My Family and Friends," consists of 12 dialogues, based on Vygotskian principles, and yields information about (a) children's perceptions of the availability of individuals in their networks to provide different types of social support and (b) their satisfaction with the help they receive. Children collaborate in interactive dialogues and manipulate personalized props. Collectively, the data indicate that subjective impressions about social support can be measured in a reliable and valid manner from early childhood through adolescence, and that children understand and care about the quality and the differentiation of support (i.e., emotional, informational, instrumental, and companionship) within their social support networks. Further, children report significant variations in social support when undergoing major family upheaval.     

Coping Socialization in Middle Childhood: Tests of Maternal and Paternal Influences

A theoretical model of parental socialization of children's coping behavior is described and tested with 310 elementary school children ( M age = 10.5 years). Mothers and fathers reported on the coping suggestions they made to their children, their own coping strategies, and their perceptions of the family environment. Children reported on their relationships with their parents and on their usual coping behavior. Children's coping efforts were associated with family environment, the quality of the parent-child relationship, parent's own coping, and parent coping suggestions, though these relationships differed by gender and were quite specific. Maternal data were more strongly associated with children's coping than paternal data, and active and support coping were predicted more successfully than avoidance strategies. Analyses supported a model of direct, rather than mediated, effects on children's coping. There was modest support for the interactive effects of maternal coaching and modeling on girls' active coping and boys' avoidant coping.     

Parental perceived control over caregiving and its relationship to parent-infant interaction

In this sample of 66 dual-earner mothers and fathers and their 1-year-old infants, associations among parental ratings of infant difficulty, parental perceived control over caregiving outcomes, and parental sensitive and directive behavior were examined during a triadic free-play session in the home. Perceived infant difficulty was related to maternal directiveness for mothers with low perceived control. Fathers with low perceived control exhibited more directiveness, regardless of their ratings of infant difficulty. For both mothers and fathers, there was a negative association between sensitivity and directiveness but no association between sensitive behavior and parental perceived control. Although parents scored similarly overall on various other measures, mothers with low perceived control demonstrated more categorical thinking about children's development than other mothers.     

Economic well-being and children's social adjustment: the role of family process in an ethnically diverse low-income sample

Using latent variable structural equation modeling, a family economic stress model that links economic well-being to child well-being in an ethnically diverse, low-income sample of 419 elementary school-age children was evaluated. The sample was 57% African American and 28% Hispanic, and most families were headed by single mothers. The results provided support for the position that family process is a critical mediator of the effects of economic hardship on children's social adjustment. Lower levels of economic well-being, and the corollary elevated perceptions of economic pressure indirectly affected parenting behavior through an adverse impact on parental psychological well-being. Distressed parents reported feeling less effective and capable in disciplinary interactions with their child and were observed to be less affectionate in parent-child interactions. In turn, less than optimal parenting predicted lower teacher ratings of children's positive social behavior and higher ratings of behavior problems. Multiple-group analyses revealed that the pathways by which economic hardship influences children's behavior appear to operate similarly for boys and girls, and for African American and Hispanic families.     

The Origins of Parenting Stress During the Transition to Parenthood: A New Family Model

This paper describes the origins of parenting stress, defined both as tensions in the parent-child relationship and as broader changes in five family domains as men and women make the transition from couple to family life. Despite significant change in their average level of functioning, parents show continuity in their level of adaptation from pregnancy through the first five years of parenthood. Parenting stress emerges from the context of parents' individual and marital adaptation before the child is born. It is possible to identify expectant parents who are at risk for later parenting stress and lower well-being across employment and family domains. Path analyses show that men's and women's prior well-being and their involvement in paid work during pregnancy are associated with higher parenting stress—and lower self-esteem, marital satisfaction, family work satisfaction, and job satisfaction—two years later when their babies are 18months old. Stress in the parent-child relationship at 18 months postpartum compounds preexisting stress in other family domains to reduce well-being in other aspects of family life. Links among parenting stress, parenting quality, and children's adaptation to school lead to suggestions for preventive interventions early in the family life cycle.