Responses of Physically Abused and Nonabused Children to Different Forms of Interadult Anger

Responses to various forms of interadult anger were examined in 2 groups of 6–11-year-olds: 44 low-SES children with a history of physical abuse and exposure to interspousal aggression, and 44 low-SES children exposed to interspousal aggression but with no history of physical abuse or other child maltreatment. Children were presented with videotaped segments of adults in angry and friendly interactions. Angry segments varied on ( a ) the type of anger expression (nonverbal, verbal, verbal-physical), and ( b ) whether anger was resolved. In general, physically abused children reported greater fear than nonabused children in response to all forms of interadult anger. Moreover, abused children appeared particularly sensitive to whether anger between adults was resolved. Findings are discussed with regard factors that may mediate relations between exposure to family violence and the development of psychopathology in children from highly aggressive home environments.     

Impact of child maltreatment and interadult violence on children's emotion regulation abilities and socioemotional adjustment

The present investigation sought to examine the unique and interactive effects of child maltreatment and interadult violence on children's developing strategies of emotion regulation and socioemotional adjustment, as well as the mediational role of emotion dysregulation in the link between children's pathogenic relational experiences and behavioral outcomes. Person-oriented emotion regulation patterns (EMRPs) were determined based on children's emotional behavioral and self-reported responses to simulated interadult anger. One hundred thirty-nine 4- to 6-year-olds (88 maltreated, 51 nonmaltreated) and their mothers served as participants. Maltreatment history predicted children's EMRPs, with approximately 80% of the maltreated preschoolers exhibiting dysregulated emotion patterns (i.e., undercontrolled/ambivalent and overcontrolled/unresponsive types) compared with only 37.2% of the nonmaltreated controls. Undercontrolled/ambivalent EMRPs were associated with maternal reports of child behavior problems, and were found to mediate the link between maltreatment and children's anxious/depressed symptoms. The present study's findings increase understanding of process relations in pathogenic relational environments, and provide insight into emotion regulation deficits that may impede the development of psychological well-being in maltreated children with varying histories of interadult violence exposure.     

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.     

The relationship between adult health and childhood maltreatment,as moderated by anger and ethnic background

Childhood maltreatment, anger, and racial/ethnic background were examined in relation to physical health, psychological well-being, and blood pressure outcomes. This study used data from a diverse sample of African American, Latino, and Caucasian participants (N = 198). Results from a series of multiple regressions indicated anger and total childhood maltreatment were robust predictors of poorer health. Although correlational analyses found maltreatment from the mother and father were associated with poorer health outcomes, when considered as part of the regression models, only a relationship between maltreatment from the mother and physical health was found. Greater anger scores were linked with lower blood pressure, particularly systolic blood pressure. Generally, more psychological and physical symptom reporting was found with greater anger scores, and higher levels of total maltreatment also predicted physical symptoms. The pattern of interactions indicated anger was more detrimental for African American participant's (and marginally so for Latino participant's) physical health. Interestingly, interactions also indicated total childhood maltreatment was related to fewer symptoms for Latino participants. Although child maltreatment may be viewed as a moral and/or human rights issue, this study provides evidence that it can also be viewed as a public health issue. Our study demonstrated that known health risk factors such as anger and maltreatment may operate in a different pattern dependent on ethnic/cultural background. The findings suggest health and health disparities research would benefit from greater exploration of the differential impact of certain moderating variables based on racial/ethnic background.     

Children's responses to angry adult behavior as a function of marital distress and history of interparent hostility

Responses of 2-5-year-old children to angry adult behavior were examined as a function of parental report of marital distress, history of interparent verbal hostility, and history of interparent physical hostility. A trained actor engaged the child's mother in an emotionally expressive verbal exchange while the child played in the same room. The exchange was standardized and consisted of a 7-episode sequence of shifting background conditions (no emotion, friendly, no emotion, angry, no emotion, reconciliation, no emotion). Preoccupation with anger, expressed concern and support-seeking, and accepting of social responsibility (e.g., providing physical or verbal comfort to the mother) were greater in response to background anger than in response to prosocial conditions. The parents' marital adjustment was positively associated with expressed concern and support-seeking by children in response to anger. Form and degree of marital conflict interacted with age and sex in predicting children's response to anger as well. In particular, children whose parents engaged in physical aggressiveness showed increased preoccupation, concern and support-seeking, and social responsibility responses with increasing age. Implications of these findings for the study of the effects of marital discord on children are discussed.     

Child maltreatment and blood pressure in young adulthood

Adverse childhood experiences are associated with hypertension in older adults. This study assessed whether an association between child maltreatment and blood pressure is detectable in young adults and whether any association differs by sex or is modified by genetic polymorphisms known to be involved in stress sensitivity. We examined these patterns in a sample of 12,420 young adults ages 24–32 years who participated in Wave IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Participants retrospectively reported history of physical, emotional, or sexual abuse before age 18 years. Participants with a systolic blood pressure (SBP) ≥140 mmHg or a diastolic blood pressure (DBP) ≥90 mmHg were classified as hypertensive. We used sex-stratified linear and logistic regression models to assess associations between each type of childhood maltreatment and SBP, DBP, and hypertension. We created interaction terms to assess for effect modification of any relationship between maltreatment and blood pressure by sex or SLC64A genotype. Fifteen percent of females and 31.5% of males were hypertensive. Frequent physical abuse in childhood was reported by 5%, frequent emotional abuse by 12%, and any sexual abuse by 5%. No association was observed between abuse history and blood pressure in either males or females, nor was effect modification present by SLC64A genotype. Child maltreatment exposure was not associated with blood pressure or hypertension in young adults in this study. Future studies should investigate additional critical windows for the effect of child maltreatment on cardiovascular health.     

Maternal employment in a family context: effects on infant-mother and infant-father attachments

The relation between resumption of full-time employment by mothers of infants under 6 months of age, and subsequent infant-mother and infant-father attachments, was examined in this study. Attachment classifications and ratings of reunion behavior with mother and with father in Ainsworth's Strange Situation at 12 months were obtained for 57 nonemployed-mother families and 40 employed-mother families. No relation emerged between maternal work status and the quality of infants' attachments to their mothers, indicating that early resumption of employment may not impede the development of secure infant-mother attachment. A significantly higher proportion of insecure attachments to fathers in employed-mother families was found for sons but not for daughters. Joint examination of the infants' attachments to both parents revealed a trend suggesting that in employed-mother families, boys were more likely to be insecurely attached to both parents than were girls in employed-mother families or infants of either sex in nonemployed-mother families. These patterns are discussed in light of differences in maternal and paternal sex-typing behavior and of evidence suggesting boys' vulnerability to psychosocial stress.     

Mixed Message Resolution and Children's Responses to Interadult Conflict

In everyday life marital conflict resolutions may contain consistent or mixed messages (e.g., an angry apology). How do children weight content and emotion information in responding? 5–7- and 9–12-year-olds viewed videotaped interadult conflicts in which the content and emotion of endings were either consistent or discrepant. Both the younger and older children responded to content and emotion cues in their perceptions of adults' anger and conflict resolution, with positive emotion and nonconflictual endings each improving appraisals. These findings have implications for children's emotional security in reaction to marital conflict. Younger children focused on ( a ) the content of endings when estimating their own emotional distress and ( b ) adults' emotionality when suggesting interventions. Older children reacted emotionally to both content and emotion cues. They proposed task-oriented help for partially resolved conflicts and suggested mediation when conflicts were unresolved.     

Private Speech Moderates the Effects of Effortful Control on Emotionality

Research Findings: In addition to being a regulatory strategy, children’s private speech may enhance or interfere with their effortful control used to regulate emotion. The goal of the current study was to investigate whether children’s private speech during a selective attention task moderated the relations of their effortful control to their anger and sadness. The private speech of 156 preschoolers (age in months: M = 52.10, SD = 9.24, min = 36.20, max = 69.50) was transcribed and coded during a selective attention task. Effortful control was observed and reported by parents. Anger and sadness were reported by parents and observed in a frustration task. Children who used more inaudible muttering had higher levels of sadness. Effortful control interacted with private speech to explain anger. The negative relation of effortful control to anger was significant for children who used low and moderate but not high levels of task-irrelevant private speech. Practice or Policy: The presence of private speech, although it may support regulatory abilities within a task, may be an additional form of evaluation that might help teachers and caregivers decide how best to support children’s learning. These findings suggest that private speech can be used as an indicator of how well children use other regulatory abilities, such as effortful control.     

Stress and Resources in Vocational Problem Solving

By adapting the job demands-resources model of Demerouti et al. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(3), 499–512, (2001) to vocational problem-solving situations, we aimed to investigate how, and to what extent, problem-solving demands and personal resources affect stress responses and task interest. Therefore, we used a problem-solving task from the business administration domain in a computer-based office simulation. We assigned 58 participants into two groups. The treatment group worked on the problem scenario, whereas the control group was instructed to inspect the computer-based scenario and to check the software’s usability without solving the problem. Problem-solving demands, perceived stress, task interest, cardiovascular parameters, and cortisol concentration were assessed before, during and after the task at several time points. The vocational problem-solving task was associated with perceived time pressure, uncertainty, mental effort, task difficulty, and perceived stress. In addition, we found higher heart rate and cortisol concentration and lower heart rate variability values in the treatment group (compared to the control group) at the end of the task. Furthermore, we found that content knowledge buffers the impact of problem-solving demands on stress responses and it maintains task interest under high mental effort. Overall, we found evidence that vocational problem-solving activities bear stress-evoking potential and personal resources may provide buffering and maintaining functions.     

Changes in and Stability of Cardiovascular Responses to Behavioral Stress: Results from a Four-Year Longitudinal Study of Children

This study examined the changes in and stability of cardiovascular responses to behavioral stress among 132 children in a 4-year longitudinal study. Children's heart rate and blood pressure were measured at rest and while performing 3 tasks: serial subtraction, mirror image tracing, and isometric exercise. This procedure was followed at study entry when children were in grades 2-12 (ages 6-18 years) and at follow-up when children were in grades 6 through post-high school (ages 11-21 years). Results showed that blood pressure and heart rate responses during the tasks were reliable across time for all measures except heart rate responses during isometric exercise. Systolic blood pressure responses to all tasks increased with age for boys, but not for girls. These results support the notion that cardiovascular responses to behavioral stress are a stable individual difference variable.     

The Closing of the Gender Gap in Schooling: The case of Thailand

The results from the 1990 national census indicate that the long standing gender gap in educational attainment favouring boys over girls has closed in Thailand at all levels. This occurred as responses to generalized questions on attitudes about schooling for boys and girls on nationally representative surveys are showing a substantial reduction in the preference for educating sons more than daughters, although some preference for sons persists. Qualitative data from focus group discussions in rural areas reveal that parental views on gender and schooling are complex and do not operate uniformly to favour one sex over the other. Moreover, the changing socioeconomic context of schooling decisions in Thailand are likely to encourage parents to favour girls at least as much as boys in education. While gender inequality in schooling is no longer important, the socioeconomic level continues to influence starkly Thai children's chances for higher levels of education.     

Prenatal Risk and Infant Regulation: Indirect Pathways via Fetal Growth and Maternal Prenatal Stress and Anger

Pathways from maternal tobacco, marijuana, stress, and anger in pregnancy to infant reactivity and regulation (RR) at 9 months of infant age were examined in a low‐income, diverse sample beginning in the first trimester of pregnancy, with fetal growth and postnatal stress/anger as potential mediators, and infant sex as a moderator. Participants were 247 dyads (173 substance‐exposed infants). There were no direct effects of prenatal risk on RR and no moderation by sex. However, there were significant indirect effects on RR via poor fetal growth and higher postnatal anger. The study adds to the sparse literature on joint effects of tobacco and marijuana, and highlights the role of fetal growth and maternal anger as important pathways from prenatal risk to infant RR.     

肱动脉血压相关因素的研究

利用20天的时间,每天10:00到15:00随机抽查,测量本校1000名大学生(男女生各500人)左右侧肱动脉血压的差异性;测量江苏省徐州市醒狮居民小区居民500名(男女各250人),年龄在20至69岁之间,探究血压与年龄和性别之间的关系。在大学生组中,将测量所得的结果通过χ2检验,u检验,其p值均大于0.05;典型相关分析检验中,相关系数约为1,说明大学生左右肱动脉血压无显著差异。在居民组中,运用matlab 7.0对数据进行拟合,结果显示随年龄的增长,舒张压、收缩压均逐渐升高,且收缩压的增长要大于舒张压的增长,男性的脉压整体高于女性,大约在45岁之后,双方差异逐渐减小。     

Children''s Beliefs about Strategies to Reduce Parental Anger

Age and sex differences in beliefs about strategies for reducing parental anger were assessed. The central question was whether direct intervention strategies are the most effective for, and reflect more advanced understanding of, anger reduction. In Study 1, 120 children ages 4-9 years generated strategies they believed would lessen a parent's anger elicited by 3 situations of increasing complexity. Across ages children proposed direct intervention strategies for the simplest situation, and there was an age increase in suggesting direct intervention strategies for the more complex situations. In Study 2, 180 children, ages 4-12 years, and their parents rated the effectiveness of the strategies generated for the most complex situation (interparental argument). There was no longer a unilinear age increase in believing direct intervention strategies effective. Unlike with older and younger children, there was no agreement between 7-9-year-olds and their parents on the efficacy of direct intervention strategies.     

Parents’ Perceptions of and Responses to Children’s Emotions: Relations With Meta-Emotion Philosophy and Adult Attachment

Objective. This study investigated how parents’ perceptions of, feelings toward, and anticipated responses to children’s emotions relate to parents’ meta-emotion philosophy and attachment. Design. Parents (112 mothers and 95 fathers) completed an online research study where they viewed photographs of unfamiliar girls and boys (aged 10–14 years) displaying varying intensities of happiness, sadness, fear, anger, and neutral expressions. Parents labeled the emotion, identified the emotion’s intensity, and reported their mirrored emotion and responses. They also completed measures assessing their meta-emotion philosophy and attachment. Results. Meta-emotion philosophy predicted parents’ responses to children’s negative emotion, in that greater emotion-coaching predicted greater accuracy in labeling emotions (boys only), a greater likelihood to interact with children, and for mothers to be further from the mean in either direction in their mirrored emotion. Attachment also predicted parents’ responses to children’s negative emotions: Parents higher in anxiety reported more mirrored emotion, and those higher in avoidance reported less mirrored emotion, lower intensity, and less willingness to interact (boys only). In exploratory models for positive emotion, parents’ meta-emotion philosophy did not predict their responses, but parents higher in attachment avoidance rated girls’ positive emotions as less intense, reported less mirrored emotion, less willingness to interact, and less supportive responses, and those higher in anxiety showed the opposite pattern. Conclusion. Despite methodological limitations, results offer new evidence that parents’ ratings on a standardized emotion perception task as well as their anticipated responses toward children’s emotion displays are predicted by individual differences in their attachment and meta-emotion philosophy.     

The role of negative parental attributions in the associations between daily stressors,maltreatment history,and harsh and abusive discipline

Negative parental attributions are related to parent and family stressors and are thought to be important predictors of subsequent disciplinary actions and, potentially, abusive parenting. We examined if negative parental attributions mediate the relation between daily stressors (i.e., low SES, parenting stress, partner-related stress) parents’ own history of child maltreatment, and harsh and abusive parenting. Mothers (n = 53) completed a computerized attribution task and reported on daily stressors, their own history of child maltreatment and their discipline strategies. Mothers’ negative parental attributions mediated the association between parenting stress (but not the other stressors) and harsh and abusive discipline. These finding implicate that interventions to decrease (the risk of) child abuse should not only focus on reducing abuse-related stressors, but also target negative parental attributions.     

Attitudes of Turkish parents, pediatric residents, and medical students toward child disciplinary practices

OBJECTIVE: The aims of the study were to: determine the attitudes of parents, pediatric residents, and medical students from a Turkish population toward childhood disciplinary methods; ascertain the association of participants' abusive childhood history with their attitudes toward discipline; and assess their attitudes about disciplinary actions, which should be reported as abuse. METHOD: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Ankara University School of Medicine, Department of Social Pediatrics. Sixty-five parents, 39 pediatric residents, and 106 medical students completed a questionnaire (Survey of Standards of Discipline). This questionnaire was designed to measure sociodemographic characteristics, attitudes toward childhood disciplinary practices, and abusive childhood experiences. There were 43 different disciplinary acts in this questionnaire. The participants were expected to give responses to these acts in three categories: (a) acceptable as discipline; (b) unacceptable as discipline; and (c) unacceptable as discipline-would report to authorities as child abuse. Based on the responses to this questionnaire, we developed the Severity Scale. Using this scale, physical severity scores, verbal severity scores, and total severity scores were measured for each participant. RESULTS: None of the participants accepted life-threatening practices as discipline, but some declared certain abusive disciplinary practices as acceptable. Some forceful disciplinary methods were not considered as reportable by participants. All severity scores of both residents and students were found to be higher than those of the parents (for verbal severity scores p=.042). Also, both verbal and physical severity scores of parents with one child were higher than those of parents with two children (for verbal severity scores p=.044). Ninety-one participants (43.3%) indicated that beating was an acceptable form of discipline. Of parents, 66.9% reported abusive childhood history by their own criteria. Of medical students with an abusive childhood experience, 56.5% accepted beating as appropriate (p=.001). Both verbal and physical severity scores were found to be higher in participants with abusive childhood history. CONCLUSIONS: Abusive childhood history and lack of education regarding appropriate discipline techniques are linked to the acceptance of certain physical discipline practices. Turkey's cultural and traditional norms may be associated with the use of physical punishment, and in some cases, physical abuse. The lack of awareness of abusive discipline methods among physicians constitutes problems for child protection and must be addressed. Thus, educational programs on child disciplinary practices are required to provide an increased awareness of child abuse among health professional trainees and parents in Turkey.     

Children's responses to different forms of expression of anger between adults

Anger is not a homogeneous stimulus, but can vary on a variety of dimensions and domains. This study examined children's responses to anger as a function of: (a) the mode of expression of anger (nonverbal, verbal, verbal-physical), and (b) whether or not anger between others was resolved. Children were presented with videotaped segments of angry and friendly interactions and asked questions concerning their responses. All angry interactions, including non-verbal anger, were perceived as negative events and elicited negative emotions. Unresolved anger was perceived as a far more negative event than resolved anger and induced greater feelings of anger and distress in children. Verbal-physical anger was perceived as the most negative form of expression of anger. Boys reported more angry feelings in response to anger than girls. Distress responding was greater in children from homes in which there was interparent physical aggression and in children with behavior problems. Finally, the utility of this methodology is supported by relatively high test-retest reliability and limited evidence of context effects.     

Learning problems, anger, perceived control, and misbehavior

Fifty-four students diagnosed as having learning disabilities (LD) and 73 students in regular education were administered the School Anger Inventory and the Perceived Control at School Scale. Teachers and parents rated student deportment and motivation. Predictably, those in the LD sample indicated higher school anger levels and were rated as exhibiting more negative behavior, less positive behavior, and lower motivation for on-task performance. The samples did not differ in their ratings of perceived control, which was moderate, and were given comparable positive teacher ratings for recall of relevant and interesting material. Significant correlations between school anger and behavior were found only in the LD sample, and there was no significant overall relationship between school anger, behavior, and perceived control within either sample. Overall, however, students who reported both a high level of anger and high perceived control were found to exhibit more negative behavior than those with high anger and low perceived control.