Aspects Of Parent-child Relationships Research Articles

Influential domains of school climate fostering resilience in high achieving schools

ABSTRACT This study examined the strength of associations between multiple aspects of school climate and adjustment outcomes among a group recently identified as being at risk: youth attending high-achieving schools (HAS). Using three diverse high schools as samples (n = 2,508, 49% female) – one boarding, one private, and one public school – links with school climate dimensions were examined separately for boys and girls. Importantly, using multivariate analyses, salient aspects of parent-child relationships known to be significant for adolescent adjustment were first considered. Thus, analyses provided relatively stringent tests of potentially unique effects of individual school climate dimensions. Findings showed that (1) consistent differences existed across schools by region and type and (2) links between school climate dimensions and adolescent adjustment were robust after considering the quality of parent-child relationships. Among the different dimensions of school climate, negative aspects of school climate – feeling alienated by teachers and perceived tolerance of bullying – were most consistently linked to symptoms. Conversely, positive school climate indices, including having a caring adult at school and respect for diversity, were most consistently linked to positive adjustment outcomes. Findings are discussed in terms of the importance of school climate dimensions for adjustment among HAS youth.

The Effect of Widowhood on Parent–Child Relationships in Korea: Do Parents’ Filial Expectations and Geographic Proximity to Children Matter?

Although previous research based on data from the U.S. suggests that parents' widowhood is associated with increased emotional support from children, little is known about the impact of late-life widowhood on intergenerational relationships in other cultures. Using data of Korean older adults, this paper examined: (1) the effect of widowhood on both positive and negative aspects of parent-child relationships and (2) whether these effects are moderated by older adults' expectations about children's filial responsibilities and the geographic proximity to their children. Analyses are based on data from the Hallym Aging Study, a stratified multi-stage probability sample of older adults living in the cities of Seoul and Chuncheon in Korea. Compared to married older adults, widowed persons in this sample reported higher levels of ambivalence, lower levels of positive interactions, and higher levels of negative interactions with their children. Parents' notion about filial responsibilities did not have a significant moderating effect, whereas geographic proximity to children was a significant moderator. Findings suggest that widowhood is associated with greater strain in intergenerational relationships in Korea. Helping widowed older adults forge constructive relationships with their children may enhance both bereaved older adults' and their children's well-being in this cultural milieu.

Addressing behavior problems among school-aged children: traditional and controversial approaches.

Managing children's behaviors is primarily the responsibility of parents, but pediatricians can help parents be more effective managers, especially when the child involved is presenting a particular challenge. Such help can range from providing reading material and brief counseling to referring the family to mental health clinicians. First, the pediatrician must be able to identify and judge the severity of the problems to refer appropriately. Behavioral interventions, commonly based on the principles of behavior modification with an emphasis on improving the positive and reinforcing aspects of parent-child relationships, can be effective. In addition, pediatricians need to be aware of unconventional therapies in the categories of dietary and exercise interventions. They need to know what motivates parents to seek such therapies, how to judge the efficacy of these approaches, and how to help parents become better-informed consumers.

Links between sexual abuse in childhood and behavioural disorders in adolescent girls: A multivariate approach.

The purpose of this study is to assess the links between adolescent behavioural problems and sexual abuse in childhood. Besides a control group (N = 181), two clinical groups are tested, one presenting sexual behavioural problems (N = 62) and the other behavioural problems of a non-sexual nature (N = 107). The methodology is retrospective, using a set of questionnaires defining variables such as sexual abuse and its features, aspects of parent-child relationships, sociodemographic characteristics, etc. Multivariate analysis results show many links between behavioural disorders during adolescence and sexual abuse during childhood. Specifically, the girls having disclosed sexual abuse and belonging to the clinical groups are associated with frequent abuse, with penetration, perpetrated by a male and when the child was older, while the abuse revealed in the control group was less frequent, involved fondling only and occurred at an earlier age. Considering the clinical groups alone, sexually related behavioural disorders are associated with high frequency, severity, an adolescent abuser and a reaction of fear. (Abstract Adapted from Source: Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 1994. Copyright © 1994 by the Canadian Psychological Association) Juvenile Behavior Juvenile Female Juvenile Problem Behavior Behavior Causes Female Victim Female Behavior Child Abuse Effects Child Abuse Victim Child Abuse-Behavior Link Child Female Child Sexual Abuse Effects Child Sexual Abuse Victim Sexual Assault Victim Sexual Assault Effects Childhood Experience Childhood Victimization 02-02

Socioemotional Development: Enduring Issues and New Challenges

This article reviews current trends and forecasts future advances in the study of socioemotional development, with special attention to the challenges inherent in studying socioemotional functioning in relation to allied advances in cognition and self- and other-understanding, in considering the importance of the ecological context of developmental processes, and in thoughtfully applying insights from social and personality development to policy problems concerning children and their families. The topics receiving special concern in this survey include changing views of emotional development and emerging interest in emotional regulation, new perspectives on classic questions of temperament, continuing research challenges in the study of attachment (including the nature of internal representations of attachment, developmental changes in attachment processes in relation to other aspects of parent-child relationships, and problems in mapping continuity and change), a reexamination of the nature of parenting influences on offspring, and new concern with understanding the physicosocial ecology of human development.

Parent-Child Relationships and Peer-Perceived Competence During Middle Childhood and Preadolescence in Israel

This study examined parent-child relationships in middle childhood and preadolescence and their significance for children's peer-perceived social competence. A sample of 9-and 11-year-old Israeli children (n = 95 and 98, respectively) completed inventories of mothers' and fathers' perceived acceptance, rejection, psychological autonomy, and psychological control. Their mothers and fathers indicated perceptions of their child on rebellious behavior, impersistence, inability to decide, detachment, and social instability. Classmates also completed peer nomination measures of self-reliance, rebelliousness, and compliance. Eleven-year-olds perceived their parents to allow more autonomy than did 9-year-olds; 11-year-olds also perceived less acceptance by fathers. Parents perceived 9-and 11-year-olds similarly, indicating possible parental insensitivity to differences between these two age groups on characteristics such as rebelliousness, decisiveness, and persistence. Children's and parents' perceptions were associated with peer-perceived competence for 9-year-olds but not for 11-year-olds. Age-related differences in perceptions and in patterns of correlations with peer nominations of social competence imply that aspects of parent-child relationships that have typically been attributed to the adolescent years may have significant precursors in middle childhood and preadolescence.

The Social Environmental Correlates of Reading Ability

The influences of social and family characteristics on individual differences in reading and spelling ability and IQ were investigated for 550 twin children aged 13 yrs. Measures of family social circumstances, parental background, the emotional atmosphere at home and the family's reading behaviour were used as predictor variables in multiple regression analyses with reading, spelling and IQ as dependent variables. There were consistent relationships between many of these measures and the dependent variables. The findings are compared to a previous biometrical genetic analysis of the same data set. It is concluded that the results are within the limits predicted by the genetic analysis. Most of the effect of these environmental influences on children are general, i.e. related to IQ, and not specifically related to reading. After controlling for the effects of IQ on reading, only family size and some aspects of parent-child relationships were significant predictors of reading ability.

A Method to Assess Aspects of Parent-Child Relationships

A Method to Assess Aspects of Parent-Child Relationships

EXPERIMENTS IN THE MEASUREMENT OF ATTITUDES TOWARD CHILDREN 1899-1935

One of the most impressive features of contemporary literature on mental hygiene and child guidance is the frequent and emphatic reference to unwholesome parental attitudes as primary factors in the causation of behavior maladjustments in children. Attempts to measure these attitudes objectively, however, are of comparatively recent origin. Yet a survey of the literature yields almost two hundred titles reporting experiments in the measurement of parent-child relationships and the effects of parental attitudes upon the child. These are in addition to Thurston's (25) comprehensive bibliography of some 270 pages covering particularly the mental hygiene aspects of parent-child relationships.