The current study examined the relationship between intimate partner violence (IPV), maternal parenting behaviors, and child effortful control in a diverse sample of 705 families living in ...predominantly low-income, rural communities. Using structural equation modeling, the authors simultaneously tested whether observed sensitive parenting and/or harsh-intrusive parenting over the toddler years mediated the relationship between early IPV and later effortful control. Results suggest that parenting behaviors fully mediate this relationship. Although higher levels of IPV were associated with both higher levels of harsh-intrusive parenting and lower levels of sensitive supportive parenting, only sensitive supportive parenting was associated with later effortful control when both parenting indices were considered in the same model.
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Families as systems COX, M. J; PALEY, B
Annual review of psychology,
01/1997, Volume:
48, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
In this chapter, we discuss theoretical and conceptual models that use an organismic or systems metaphor for understanding families. We suggest that such theories are important for stimulating new ...research and organizing existing data, and that advances in these theories over the past few decades have expanded the potential for understanding child development, as well as adult adaptation and the development of close relationships. These paradigms follow from models that view development as resulting from the transactional regulatory processes of dynamic systems. Such models are helpful for considering multiple influences on development and adaptation and have implications for the design of effective interventions. We focus on the specifics of systems theories as applied to families, and the research generated by or consistent with these views. Our review is not exhaustive; rather, we intend to give a sense of the direction of this work and its importance for the understanding of development and adaptation.
The ancestors of fungi are believed to be simple aquatic forms with flagellated spores, similar to members of the extant phylum Chytridiomycota (chytrids). Current classifications assume that ...chytrids form an early-diverging clade within the kingdom Fungi and imply a single loss of the spore flagellum, leading to the diversification of terrestrial fungi. Here we develop phylogenetic hypotheses for Fungi using data from six gene regions and nearly 200 species. Our results indicate that there may have been at least four independent losses of the flagellum in the kingdom Fungi. These losses of swimming spores coincided with the evolution of new mechanisms of spore dispersal, such as aerial dispersal in mycelial groups and polar tube eversion in the microsporidia (unicellular forms that lack mitochondria). The enigmatic microsporidia seem to be derived from an endoparasitic chytrid ancestor similar to Rozella allomycis, on the earliest diverging branch of the fungal phylogenetic tree.
The current study examines relations of mean-level estimates, linear changes, and instability in income and family processes to child outcomes and addresses whether income, through its impact on ...family functioning, matters more for children living in poverty. Temporal changes and instability in family processes, but not income, predicted children's adjustment. Cross-sectional mediational analyses indicated that for families living at the poverty threshold, family processes fully mediated the effect of average income over the study period on social behavior but only partially mediated its effect on cognitive-linguistic development. The strength of these associations diminished as average income exceeded the poverty threshold. That is, income had a greater impact on the family functioning and development of poor children than of nonpoor children.
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Despite evidence that individuals living in low-income and rural communities may be at heightened risk for intimate partner violence (IPV), little is known about the prevalence and nature of IPV ...occurring in these communities. The goal of the current study, therefore, was to characterize IPV occurring in a population-based sample of families living in communities characterized by rural poverty. Specifically, we examined the prevalence, severity, and chronicity of IPV occurring in this high-risk sample, as well as the demographic correlates thereof. Using data from multiple assessments across the first 5 years of their child’s life, we also examined changes in the prevalence of IPV across this time. Results indicate that IPV was most prevalent around the birth of the target child and that the population-level prevalence of IPV decreased significantly over the subsequent 5 years. Although previous research suggests that children under the age of five are at heightened risk for IPV relative to older children, this is the first study to our knowledge to demonstrate that there are changes in the prevalence of IPV within this high-risk age period.
This study prospectively examined the effect of intimate partner violence (IPV) on adrenocortical reactivity and recovery during early childhood. The sample (n = 1102 mother-infant dyads; 49.2% male) ...was racially diverse and from predominantly low-income, rural communities. To measure IPV exposure mothers completed the Conflicts Tactics Scale, and her caretaking behaviors were observed when her child was approximately 7, 15, and 24 months of age. Children's saliva samples, later assayed for cortisol, were collected around challenge tasks designed to elicit emotional reactivity. IPV was related to a trajectory of increased cortisol reactivity from infancy to toddlerhood. By contrast, the trajectory for non-IPV-exposed children decreased in cortisol reactivity across 7 to 24 months of age. At the 24-month assessment, on average, toddlers did not exhibit a cortisol reaction; however, those exposed to high levels of violence continued to have reactivity. Accumulative levels of IPV across the first 2 years of life predicted cortisol reactivity at 24 months of age. Early (7-month) sensitive maternal behavior moderated this relationship, so that only children exposed to both early insensitivity and high accumulated IPV exhibited increased reactivity at the 24-month assessment. Findings are discussed in relation to the risky family framework.
The current study is one of the first prospective examinations of longitudinal associations between observed father caregiving behaviors and child cortisol reactivity and regulation in response to ...emotional arousal. Observations of father and mother caregiving behaviors and child cortisol levels in response to challenges at 7 months and 24 months of child age were collected. Analyses were based on a subsample of children from the Family Life Project who lived with both their biological mothers and fathers and for whom there was at least partial cortisol data (7 months: n = 717; 24 months: n = 579). At the challenge conducted at 7 months of child age, 49.0% of the sample were girls; racial composition of the sample was 25.8% African American and 74.2% European American. At the challenge conducted at 24 months of child age 49.9% of the sample were girls; racial composition was 24.7% African American and 75.3% European American. We conducted analyses across assessment points simultaneously using mixed linear modeling for repeated measures data to test for differential effects of fathering across infancy and toddlerhood. Concurrent measures of father negativity were positively associated with greater increases in child cortisol levels in response to emotion challenge at 7 months (p = .01) and with higher overall levels of cortisol at 24 months (p < .001). However, there was no evidence that father caregiving during infancy independently predicted later cortisol activity during toddlerhood.
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Consistent with the gustatory-vagal hypothesis, vagal stimulation during breastfeeding may contribute to infants' physiological regulatory development independent of caregiving effects. This study ...examined whether breastfeeding predicted 6-month-old infants' (N = 151) and their mothers' vagal regulation during the face-to-face still-face (FFSF). Although breastfed and nonbreastfed infants showed expected vagal withdrawal during the Still-Face episode, only breastfed infants showed continued withdrawal during the reunion episode, suggesting greater physiological mobilization to repair the interaction. Breastfeeding mothers showed higher vagal tone than nonbreastfeeding mothers at baseline, suggesting greater capacity for regulation, and throughout the FFSF, suggesting calmer states. Breastfeeding effects were independent of maternal sensitivity. Findings suggest that infants' and mothers' physiological regulation may be shaped by breastfeeding independently of associated social factors.
A study quantified the degree of stability in attachment security from infancy to late adolescence, leveraging three measures of mother-child attachment security acquired from the SECCYD in early ...childhood. In contrast to our findings that attachment security was not significantly stable from 15 months to late adolescence, we found slightly stronger (although in absolute terms still weak) stability in attachment security from 24 months, as measured with the Attachment Q-sort, and from 36 months, as measured with the modified Strange Situation procedure, to late adolescence. Moreover, we found weak stability in attachment security from across early childhood (i.e., proportion of times secure in early childhood) into late adolescence.
This research examined alternative mechanisms in the etiology of attachment disorganization. The authors hypothesized that negative intrusive parenting would significantly predict children's ...attachment disorganization at age 12 months within a diverse community sample. Of more substantial interest, the authors tested moderational mechanisms in the association between negative intrusive parenting, parental strong belief in discipline and control, child difficult temperament, and children's attachment disorganization. Using a multiple regression analytic approach, this research found that negative intrusive parenting significantly predicted children's attachment disorganization. This prediction was more significantly related to children's levels of attachment disorganization when it was paired with stronger rather than weaker parental beliefs in discipline and control. In contrast, when children had difficult temperament at 6 months, it was only when parents held very weak beliefs in discipline and control that children were at higher risk for attachment disorganization. Implications of the findings were discussed accordingly.
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