Although children's security in the context of the interparental relationship has been identified as a key explanatory mechanism in pathways between family discord and child psychopathology, little ...is known about the inner workings of emotional security as a goal system. Thus, the objective of this paper is to describe how our reformulation of emotional security theory within an ethological and evolutionary framework may advance the characterization of the architecture and operation of emotional security and, in the process, cultivate sustainable growing points in developmental psychopathology. The first section of the paper describes how children's security in the interparental relationship is organized around a distinctive behavioral system designed to defend against interpersonal threat. Building on this evolutionary foundation for emotional security, the paper offers an innovative taxonomy for identifying qualitatively different ways children try to preserve their security and its innovative implications for more precisely informing understanding of the mechanisms in pathways between family and developmental precursors and children's trajectories of mental health. In the final section, the paper highlights the potential of the reformulation of emotional security theory to stimulate new generations of research on understanding how children defend against social threats in ecologies beyond the interparental dyad, including both familial and extrafamilial settings.
Infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) results in disparate degrees of tissue injury: the virus can either replicate without pathological consequences or trigger immune-mediated necroinflammatory ...liver damage. We investigated the potential for myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) to suppress T cell-mediated immunopathology in this setting. Granulocytic MDSCs (gMDSCs) expanded transiently in acute resolving HBV, decreasing in frequency prior to peak hepatic injury. In persistent infection, arginase-expressing gMDSCs (and circulating arginase) increased most in disease phases characterized by HBV replication without immunopathology, whilst L-arginine decreased. gMDSCs expressed liver-homing chemokine receptors and accumulated in the liver, their expansion supported by hepatic stellate cells. We provide in vitro and ex vivo evidence that gMDSCs potently inhibited T cells in a partially arginase-dependent manner. L-arginine-deprived T cells upregulated system L amino acid transporters to increase uptake of essential nutrients and attempt metabolic reprogramming. These data demonstrate the capacity of expanded arginase-expressing gMDSCs to regulate liver immunopathology in HBV infection.
This multi-method longitudinal study evaluated how changes in maternal sensitive parenting may operate as an indirect factor linking family instability and the development of child externalizing ...problems over time. This study also investigated how mothers' stress reactivity within the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) may moderate the association between family instability and the development of maternal sensitivity. Participants were 235 families with a young child (M
= 2.97 years at the first measurement occasion) and these families were followed for two annual measurement occasions. Maternal sensitivity was observed during two discipline tasks (i.e., forbidden toy, discipline discussion tasks), and maternal SNS stress reactivity was indicated by their salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) reactivity to an interpersonal stressor. Findings revealed significant direct effects of family instability and family instability-x-sAA reactivity interaction in association with the change in maternal sensitivity over time. For both tasks, mothers with greater sAA reactivity exhibited stronger associations between family instability and the growth of their sensitivity. Tests of indirect effects indicated that change in maternal sensitivity operated as an indirect factor between family instability-x-sAA reactivity interaction and the change in child externalizing problems. The present findings have important implications for understanding parental and child sequelae associated with unstable family contexts.
Guided by the evolutionary perspective and specialization hypothesis, this multi-method (behavioral observation, questionnaire) longitudinal study adopted a person-centered approach to explore ...children's problem-solving skills within different contexts. Participants were 235 young children (M age = 2.97 years at the first measurement occasion) and their parents assessed in two measurement occasions spaced one year apart. Latent profile analyses revealed four unique problem-solving profiles, capturing variability in children's performance, and observed engagement in abstract vs. reward-oriented (RO) problem-solving tasks at wave one. The four profiles included: (a) a high-abstract-high-RO, (b) a high-abstract-low-RO, (c) a low-abstract-high-RO, and (d) a low-abstract-low-RO classes. Contextual risks within and outside families during wave one, including greater neighborhood crime, impoverishment, and observed lower maternal sensitivity were linked to the elevated likelihood for children from the two profiles with low-abstract problem-solving, particularly those from the low-abstract-high-RO problem-solving profile. Furthermore, child problem-solving profiles were linked to meaningful differences in their socioemotional functioning one year later. The present finding has important implications in revealing the heterogeneity in child problem-solving within different contexts that responded differently to contextual risks. In addition, this study advanced the understanding of the developmental implications of child problem-solving capacity.
The aim of the current meta-analysis was to aggregate concurrent and longitudinal empirical research on associations between the interparental relationship and both children's maladjustment (i.e., ...externalizing and internalizing symptoms) and children's responses to interparental conflict (i.e., emotional, behavioral, cognitive, and physiological). Based on major theoretical frameworks, we distinguished between six dimensions of the interparental relationship: relationship quality, conflict frequency, hostile, disengaged, and unconstructive forms of conflict, and child-related conflict. A final selection of 169 studies for child maladjustment and 61 studies for child responses to conflict were included. The findings revealed by the expansive and fine-grained approach of this meta-analysis support and challenge theoretical hypotheses about the relative predictive value of dimensions of the interparental relationship for children's functioning. Although hostility was specifically more strongly associated with children's externalizing behavior and emotional responses to conflict, disengaged and unconstructive conflict behavior posed similar risks for the other domains of child functioning. In addition, relationship quality, conflict frequency, and child-related conflict warrant more attention in theoretical frameworks, as these dimensions posed similar risks to child functioning as the different forms of conflict. Moreover, most associations between the interparental relationship and child functioning endured over time. Also, developmental and gender differences appeared to depend on the specific forms of interparental conflict and the domain of child functioning. In sum, the results support the growing consensus that prevention and intervention programs aimed at children's mental health could benefit from an alternative or additional focus on the interparental relationship.
Public Significance Statement
This meta-analysis pooled findings from previous research on associations between different aspects of the interparental relationship and children's maladjustment (i.e., externalizing and internalizing problems) and responses to interparental conflict (i.e., emotional, behavioral, and physiological reactivity, and cognitive appraisals of the interparental subsystem). The findings highlight the importance of both the general quality of the relationship between parents as well as five aspects of interparental conflicts (i.e., conflict frequency, the level of hostile, disengaged and unconstructive conflict behavior, and the amount of child-related conflicts) as robust predictors of children's maladjustment, concurrently and over time. Moreover, the findings confirm that children's emotional and behavioral reactivity to interparental conflicts, and their cognitive appraisals of the interparental subsystem, are fruitful directions for understanding why interparental conflict leads to maladjustment in children.
According to spillover theory (Engfer, 1988), disruptions in one relationship (e.g., interparental) may lead to perturbations in another (e.g., parent-child), and these boundary disturbances have ...been linked to child psychopathology. Yet few studies have explored spillover from both constructive and destructive interparental conflict in relation to children's symptoms of psychopathology, and fewer have differentiated mothers' and fathers' parenting in these investigations. Thus, the purpose of the current study was to explore mothers' and fathers' problematic parenting practices-specifically, their inconsistent discipline, unsupportive reactions, and control through guilt-as indirect pathways between constructive and destructive interparental conflict and children's internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Two sequential mediation models were constructed-one for destructive interparental conflict and another for constructive interparental conflict-using 3 waves of data collected annually beginning when children (N = 235) were approximately 6 years old. Direct effects of the 2 models showed that constructive conflict was associated with lower levels of problematic parenting practices, whereas destructive conflict was associated with higher levels. Indirect effects findings showed that mothers' control through guilt was an explanatory mechanism between constructive and destructive interparental conflict and children's externalizing symptoms, whereas mothers' unsupportive reactions were a significant intermediary process between constructive interparental conflict and children's internalizing symptoms. Therefore, results of the current study support the spillover hypothesis and suggest that differentiating mothers' and fathers' problematic parenting practices-as well as distinguishing between constructive and destructive interparental conflict-remain important, as each can have distinct relations to child adjustment.
Informed by the biological sensitivity to the context (BSC) theory, this multimethod, longitudinal study sought to examine how family context may be associated with the development of child sensory ...processing sensitivity (SPS) over a year. Participants were 235 young children (Mage = 2.97 at the first measurement occasion, 55.3% were girls) and their parents (median annual household income: $55,000 to 74,999), who were followed for two annual measurement occasions. These children consisted of 56.2% White, 21.3% African American, and 16.2% mixed race. Child SPS was measured via behavioral observation within multiple laboratory tasks at both waves and exhibited moderate stability over time. A curvilinear association between environmental harshness and the change in child SPS emerged, which proved consistent with the U-shaped pattern hypothesized by the BSC theory. Children remain at similar levels of SPS over the year under low and high levels of environmental harshness but exhibited decreases in SPS under moderate levels of environmental harshness. A follow-up exploration for the developmental implication of SPS change showed that children with higher SPS benefited more from the supportive environment by developing greater cognitive and behavioral functioning.
This study addresses the links between destructive and constructive marital conflict and mothers' and fathers' parenting to understand associations with children's social and school adjustment. ...Multi‐method, longitudinal assessments of 235 mothers, fathers, and children (129 girls) were collected across kindergarten, first, and second grades (ages 5–7 at time 1; ages 7–9 at time 3). Whereas constructive marital conflict was related to both mothers' and fathers' warm parenting, destructive marital conflict was only linked to fathers' use of inconsistent discipline. In turn, both mothers' and fathers' use of psychological control was related to children's school adjustment, and mothers' warmth was related to children's social adjustment. Reciprocal links between constructs were also explored, supporting associations between destructive marital conflict and mothers' and fathers' inconsistent discipline. The merit of examining marital conflict and parenting as multidimensional constructs is discussed in relation to understanding the processes and pathways within families that affect children's functioning.
This study tested children's emotion recognition as a mediator of associations between their exposure to hostile and cooperative interparental conflict and their internalizing and externalizing ...symptoms. From 2018 to 2022, 238 mothers, their partners, and preschool children (Mage = 4.38, 52% female; 68% White; 18% Black; 14% Multiracial or another race; and 16% Latinx) participated in three annual measurement occasions. Path analyses indicated that Wave 1 observations of hostile interparental conflict predicted residualized increases in children's emotion recognition accuracy (i.e., angry, sad, and happy) at Wave 2 (β = .27). Wave 2 emotion recognition, in turn, predicted residualized decreases in children's internalizing symptoms at Wave 3 (β = −.22). Mediational findings were partly attributable to children's accuracy in identifying angry and high‐intensity expressions.
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