Parent-child Relationship Quality Research Articles

Impacts of parental technoference on parent-child relationships and child health and developmental outcomes: a scoping review protocol

BackgroundWith increases in the use of technological devices worldwide, parental technoference is a potential threat to the quality of parent-child relationships and children’s health and development. Parental technoference refers to disrupted interactions between a parent and child due to a parent’s use of a technological device. The aims of this scoping review are to map, describe, and summarize the existing evidence from published research studies on the impacts of parental technoference on parent-child relationships and children’s health and development and to identify the limitations in the studies and gaps in the literature.MethodsThis scoping review will be conducted in accordance with the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology. A search for relevant research studies will be undertaken in APA PsycInfo, MEDLINE, Central, Cochrane Database for Systematic Reviews, JBI EBP, and Embase (OVID). CINAHL (Ebsco) and Scopus will also be searched. Grey and popular literature will be excluded. This review will include primary research studies and review papers published in English with no time limit that identify the impacts of technoference on parent-child relationships and child health and developmental outcomes. Parent participants include primary caregivers, either biological, adopted, or foster parents, of children under the age of 18 who engage in technoference. Two reviewers will independently screen the titles, abstracts, and full texts of studies according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Disagreements will be resolved through discussion with a third researcher. Data will be extracted into a data charting table including author(s), year of publication, country, research aim, methodology/design, population and sample size, variables/concepts, and corresponding measures and main results. Data will be presented in tables and figures accompanied by a narrative summary.DiscussionThe goal of this scoping review is to present an overview of the evidence on the impacts of parental technoference on parent-child relationships and child and health developmental outcomes, highlighting the current risk of children of today. It will identify gaps in the literature, inform future research, advise recommendations for parents on technological device use, and possibly guide the development of interventions aimed at addressing parental technoference.Trial registrationOpen Science Framework https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/QNTS5

Sexual orientation disparities in the developmental trajectories of emotional and behavioral difficulties from childhood to early adolescence.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and asexual adolescents are at increased risk of poor mental health outcomes but it remains unknown whether this disparity emerges from early childhood and through to adolescence. This study tested sexual orientation disparities in the developmental trajectories of emotional and behavioral difficulties from ages 5 to 14 years, and the influence of early life adversities upon them. The Millennium Cohort Study, a British birth cohort, was used (4,838 boys and 5,016 girls). Parent-report emotional and behavioral difficulties at ages 5, 7, 11, and 14 were measured using the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire. Sexual orientation was measured via sexual attraction at age 17. Early life adversities in the first 5 years of life, including parental age at birth, birthweight, duration of breastfeeding, parent-child relationship quality, and parental absence, were collected prospectively. Latent growth modeling suggested that, for both sexes, sexual orientation disparities in emotional and behavioral difficulties increased from age 5 to 14 years. Homosexual and bisexual girls displayed significantly greater emotional and behavioral difficulties than heterosexual girls at ages 7, 11, and 14. Homosexual and bisexual boys displayed significantly greater emotional and behavioral difficulties than heterosexual boys at ages 11 and 14. Asexual boys and girls displayed significantly greater emotional and behavioral difficulties than their heterosexual counterparts at all four ages. For both sexes, sexual orientation disparities in emotional and behavioral difficulties only reduced slightly in magnitude after controlling for early life adversities. Sexual minority disparities in emotional and behavioral difficulties increased from childhood to early adolescence, possibly due to the accumulation of susceptibility to minority-related stressors. Sex and early life adversity may contribute to these developmental disparities.

College Students’ Perceptions of Communication Technology Use and Parent–Child Relationships

Technologically-assisted communication plays a key role in facilitating relationships between parents and emerging adult college students who are living away from home. Informed by Media Multiplexity Theory, we investigated the channels that college students use to communicate with parents and the impact that used and non-used channels have on perceived parent–child relationships. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 44 undergraduate students in the United States. Students used diverse channels to connect with parents, although some channels were used exclusively with peers. Themes related to communication repertoire size (CRS) included communication frequency, content of communication, and parent gender emerged; themes related to communication gap size (CGS) included student-perceived technology gaps, privacy concerns, and generational differences. Students in high CRS dyads perceived that communication technologies increased or maintained parent–child relationship quality, whereas students in high CGS dyads reported that communication technologies worsened or did not impact parent–child relationships.

COVID-19 Related Stressors, Parent-Child Relationship, and Alcohol Use and Mental Health Profiles Among White and Hispanic/Latinx First-Year College Students.

Transitioning to college during the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may increase risk for alcohol use and mental health problems. We examined how COVID-19 related stressors and parent–child relationships are independently and interactively associated with alcohol use and mental health profiles in a sample of first-year college students (N = 425, 34.8% Hispanic/Latinx; 74.9% female) who completed an online survey in October 2020. Latent profile analysis identified four profiles: well-adjusted (53.2%), mental health problems only (21.6%), alcohol use only (17.4%), and comorbid (7.8%). COVID-19 related stressful events increased risk of being in the alcohol use only and comorbid profiles, whereas COVID-19 related worries increased risk of being in the mental health problems only profile. Parent–child relationship quality lowered risk of being in the mental health problems only and the comorbid profiles. In addition, parent–child relationship quality moderated the role of COVID-19 related worries such that COVID-19 related worries were associated with lower odds of being in the comorbid profile when parent–child relationship quality was high but not when parent–child relationship quality was low. Strengthening parent–child relationship quality appears important for promoting college students’ well-being.

Parent-Child Relationship Quality and Internet Use in a Developing Country: Adolescents' Perspectives.

ObjectiveThe goal of the study was to explore the relationship between parent–children relationships related to using the internet among kids and potentially associated factors.Materials and MethodsA sample of 1.216 Vietnamese students between the ages of 12 and 18 agreed to participate in the cross-sectional online survey. Data collected included socioeconomic characteristics and internet use status of participants, their perceived changes in relationship and communication between parents and children since using the internet, and parental control toward the child’s internet use. An Ordered Logistic Regression was carried out to determine factors associated with parent–children relationship since using the internet.ResultsThe characteristics of the relationship between children and their parents since using the Internet were divided into three levels: deterioration (7.0%), stability (78.2%), and improvement (14.8%). The topics that children most often communicate with their parents include learning, housework, and future directions. Two-way interactive activities, such as supporting parents to use the Internet, have a positive impact on the parent–child relationship. Stubborn parental control, such as establishing rules about contact or allowing Internet access and setting up global positioning system (GPS) to track negatively affecting parent–child relationships.ConclusionFindings indicated that changes in the quality of the parent–child relationship were self-assessed by participants regard to kids’ internet use, especially in the COVID-19 epidemic context. Educational campaigns and programs to raise awareness of parents as to the dangers and negative influences that their children may encounter online, psychology of children’s behaviors and effects of different responding strategies are recommended.

Conflict Appraisals and Trauma Symptoms in Children Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence.

Children exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) are at risk for posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and alterations in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functioning. The current study investigated children's threat and self-blame appraisals about parental conflict as potential mechanisms leading to these adverse outcomes. Parent-child relationships were also examined. The sample consisted of 119 10-year-olds and their mothers who were recruited from the community as part of a larger study of IPV. Children's reports of IPV directed at their mother in the past year were not associated with PTSS; however, IPV exposure was associated with attenuated cortisol output in response to a social stressor. IPV exposure was also associated with greater threat appraisals and poorer quality parent-child relationships. These results provide further evidence that witnessing IPV is threatening for children, has negative consequences for parent-child relationships, and can impact children's HPA axis functioning.

The Effectiveness of KEEP for Families of Children with Developmental Delays: Integrating FIND Video Coaching into Parent Management Training-Oregon Model: a Randomized Trial.

Children with developmental delays or disabilities (DD) are at risk for self-regulation difficulties and behaviour problems compared to typically developing children. Intervening early is crucial to prevent long-term adjustment challenges across home and school contexts. Parenting has been identified as a malleable target of intervention for improving children's adaptive functioning across behavioural, emotional and cognitive domains. Although parent management training (PMT) is an identified best-practice, key questions remain about the critical components of interventions and how novel approaches like video feedback may offer additional benefits. Using a pre-test-post-test one group and superiority design, we evaluated the efficacy of two models of the Keeping Parents Trained and Supported (KEEP) preschool program with parent-only components among 175 families with children diagnosed or at-risk for DD. KEEP-P included core PMT (Oregon Model) methods and KEEP-V integrated KEEP with Filming Interactions to Nurture Development video coaching methods for enhancing developmentally supportive interactions. Intervention outcomes on children's behaviour problems and executive functioning, parenting stress and parent-child relationship quality were compared between groups. Both groups demonstrated significant reductions over time in child behavioural problems, developmental problems and parenting stress. Significant improvements were observed in children's executive functioning, parents' sense of competence and mindfulness in parenting. Group differences were observed in parent's sense of competence, with individuals receiving KEEP-P displaying greater increases over time. Higher intervention dosage predicted a greater reduction in stressful child behaviours and greater improvements in children's inhibitory control.

Effects of an asynchronous, fully web‐based parenting‐after‐divorce program to reduce interparental conflict, increase quality of parenting and reduce children's post‐divorce behavior problems

AbstractThis study is a randomized controlled trial of an asynchronous, fully web‐based program for divorced and separated parents, the electronic New Beginnings Program (eNBP). This program is an adaptation of a group, in‐person program for divorced parents, the New Beginnings Program (NBP), which has been shown in randomized trials to reduce a wide range of offspring problems and improve a wide range of competencies up to 15 years after participation. The 10‐module, 5‐h program uses evidence‐based, highly interactive strategies to teach skills designed to strengthen parenting after divorce and reduce interparental conflict. Participants were 131 parents (63% mothers) and 102 adolescent offspring. Parents were randomly assigned to the eNBP or a wait‐list control condition. Parents and their children completed pre‐ and post‐tests. Analyses showed that at post‐test, parents and children in the eNBP reported significantly higher parent–child relationship quality, more effective discipline, lower interparental conflict and lower child mental health problems than did those in the wait‐list control condition. These are the strongest findings in the literature on the effects of web‐based programs to reduce interparental conflict, strengthen positive parenting and reduce children's post‐divorce mental health problems. Given that parental divorce has significant individual and societal costs, widespread implementation of this program could have significant public health implications.

Parent-Child Communication, Relationship Quality, and Female Young Adult Children’s Well-Being in U.S. and Finland

Parent-child communication and parent-child relationship quality could influence young adult children’s well-being. Further, the associations between parent-child communication and relationship quality and young adult children’s well-being could differ in various cultural environments. In this study, we examined the associations among these constructs and potential cultural differences with two large samples of female college students from the U.S. ( N = 393) and Finland ( N = 264). Several major findings from structural equation modeling were revealed. For the U.S. sample, better parent-child communication, but not relationship quality, was related to female young adults’ better well-being (i.e., lower levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms and higher levels of life satisfaction). For the Finnish sample, however, better parent-child relationship quality, but not communication, was related to fewer problems in female young adults’ well-being. Further model comparisons suggested that the association between parent-child communication and well-being was much stronger among American female young adult children whereas the association between parent-child relationship quality and well-being was much stronger among Finnish female young adult children. In addition, parental divorce was negatively associated with parent-child communication and parent-child relationship quality. Other covariates included young adult children’s age, living arrangements, and family income. The models revealed similar patterns for mothers and fathers. Cultural implications were discussed.

The Effectiveness of Group Schema Therapy-based Parenting Education of Mothers on Modifying Maladaptive Schemas of the Child and Improving the Quality of the Parent-Child Relationship

Objective: This study examined the effectiveness of group schema therapy-based parenting education in modifying the child’s early maladaptive schemas and improving the parent-child relationship quality. Methods: This research is a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test-post-test design with a control group. The study’s statistical population includes all mothers and their daughters (8 to 10 years old, living in District 2 of Tehran City, Iran, who are students in 2020-2021). Among 65 mothers willing to participate in the study, 40 were selected by the available sampling method, according to the inclusion criteria. Then, they were randomly assigned to two groups of 20 people in the experimental and control groups. In this study, the schema inventory for children (by Rijkeboer & De Boo) and the parent-child relationship scale (by Pinata) were used. The data of this study were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA). Results: Data analysis showed that parenting education had a significant effect on schemas of vulnerability, mistrust/abuse, failure, submission, unrelenting standards/hypercriticalness, self-sacrifice, and entitlement/grandiosity, but on the schemas of loneliness, defectiveness/shame, enmeshment/undeveloped self, and insufficient self-control/self-discipline had no significant effect. Data analysis also showed that parenting education significantly affects the subscales of closeness, dependence, and total positive relationship but has no significant effect on the conflict subscale. Conclusion: The present study shows that group schema therapy-based parenting education for mothers is effective in modifying some of the early maladaptive schemas of children and improving the quality of the parent-child relationship.

Providing a Model for Predicting Online Game Addiction based on HEXACO Personality Traits and the Parent-Child Relationship Mediated by Impulsiveness

Aim: The present study aimed to examine the model of predicting online game addiction based on HEXACO personality traits, and the parent-child relationship mediated by impulsiveness. Methods: The present research was descriptive and correlational and its statistical population consisted of 125110 female students in the second grade of high school in Tehran in the academic year of 2020-2021. The sample size of 400 was selected based on Klein's view (2016) using the non-random convenience sampling method (online method). The samples responded to the online game addiction inventory by Wong and Chang (2002), the HEXACO personality trait inventory by De Vries (2013), the Parent-Child Relationship Quality Inventory by Fine et al. (1983), and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS) by Patton et al. (1995). The proposed model was analyzed by structural equation modeling using SPSS and AMOS24. Results: The coefficients of direct paths of honesty-humility (β=-0.560, P=0.001), excitability (β=0.205, P=0.001), extraversion (β=-0.550, P=0.001), agreeableness (β=-6.26, P=0.001), and openness to experience (β=-0.717, P=0.001) on addiction to online games were not significant. The effect of conscientiousness (β=-0.155, P=0.490) was not significant on online game addiction. The coefficient of direct paths of mother-child relationship (β=-0.318, P=0.001) was significant on online game addiction. The effect of the father-child relationship (β=0.256, P=0.291) was not significant on online game addiction. The coefficient of direct impulsiveness path (β=0.571, P=0.028) was significant on online game addiction. The indirect effects of HEXACO personality traits and parent-child relationship mediated by impulsiveness were significant on online game addiction (P=0.05). Conclusion: The modified structural model of the research had a good fit with the research data and it was an important step in identifying determinants of online game addiction in students.

A Model for Learning Disorders based on the Relationship with Parents and Perfectionism

Aim: The present study aimed to determine the learning disorder model based on the relationship with parents and perfectionism. Methods: The research was applied in terms of purpose and had descriptive survey and correlational type in terms of data collection method, and its statistical population consisted of all fifth and sixth-grade female students in Kermanshah in the academic year of 2020-2021. Furthermore, 270 female students and their parents were selected as statistical samples using the convenience sampling method and they answered the learning disability questionnaire by Wilcott et al. (2011), the parent-child relationship quality questionnaire by Fine et al. (1983), and the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale by Hewitt and Flett (1991). Results: There were significant correlations (P=0.05) between positive affect, identification with parents, trust, anger, self-oriented perfectionism, other-oriented perfectionism, and society-oriented perfectionism with learning disorders (P=0.05). Furthermore, the multiple correlation coefficient between perfectionism and the quality of the parent-child relationship with learning disorder was equal to R=0.462, and the coefficient of determination was equal to R2=0.213. Moreover, 21.3% of the variance of learning disorders could be explained by perfectionism and the quality of the child-parent relationship. Conclusion: The relationship with parents and also perfectionism contributed to the prediction of learning disorders.

Parent-child relationship quality and child psychological adjustment in families created using egg donation: children's perspectives at age 5 years.

STUDY QUESTIONWhat are children’s perspectives of the quality of their relationships with their parents and their own psychological well-being in families created using egg donation?SUMMARY ANSWERChildren’s scores indicated good parent–child relationship quality and high levels of psychological well-being, with children in families created using egg donation rating their relationships with their mothers as higher in warmth/enjoyment than children in a comparison group of families created using IVF.WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADYLittle is known about how children in families created through egg donation view their family relationships and their own psychological well-being. Research with 7-and-10-year-olds in anonymous egg donation families has indicated good parent–child relationship quality from children’s perspectives, but studies have not involved younger children or those conceived following identity-release egg donation.STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATIONThis study included 50 children who had been born through egg donation and a comparison group of 43 children conceived through IVF with the parents’ own gametes. Data were collected between April 2018 and December 2019. The sample forms part of a larger longitudinal study examining family functioning in families created through fertility treatment.PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODSChildren were aged 5 years old and had been born into families with different-sex couple parents. All families were visited at home. Children were administered the Berkeley Puppet Interview, a standardized assessment of parent–child relationship quality and psychological well-being.MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCEChildren in egg donation families rated their relationships with their mothers as higher in warmth and enjoyment than did children in IVF families. No differences were found between the two family types in children’s ratings of the father–child relationship, or in children’s ratings of their own psychological well-being.LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTIONIt is possible that children who did not consent to take part in the research had less positive perceptions of their family and themselves than children who participated.WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGSThe findings are relevant to UK clinics offering identity-release egg donation, to parents who have used egg donation to create their family and to individuals and couples considering their fertility treatment options. That children in egg donation families were more similar than different to children in IVF families in their self-concept and perception of their family relationships should prove reassuring.STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S)This research was supported by a Wellcome Trust Collaborative Award [208013/Z/17]. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBERN/A.

Multidimensional Factor Structure of the Modified Child Rearing Practices Report questionnaire (CRPR-Q) in a sample of Portuguese mothers: A bifactor approach

Parental attitudes toward child socialization influence their child-rearing practices, the quality of parent-child relationships, and children’s developmental outcomes. The Modified Child Rearing Practices Questionnaire (CRPR-Q) has been widely used to assess parenting practices across children’s development. However, the few studies investigating its two-factorial structure (nurturance and restrictiveness) have shown inconsistent findings and have not explored measurement invariance across children’s sex and age groups. The aims of this study were to (1) further investigate the factorial structure of the CRPR-Q, by using bifactor solutions (b-confirmatory factor analysis [B-CFA] and b-exploratory structural equation modeling [B-ESEM]) and (2) examine the measurement invariance of CRPR-Q across children’s sex and age groups. A community sample of 589 Portuguese mothers of children aged 3 to 15 years completed the CRPR-Q. Our findings revealed that the B-ESEM model best fit the data. A clear differentiation between the two a priori factors (nurturance and restrictiveness) was found. However, our findings suggest the need to control for content specificity and rely on a broader perspective regarding the nurturance factor. Measurement invariance was observed across children’s sex but not across children’s age groups. These findings contribute to a more in-depth understanding of the underlying relationships among the CRPR-Q items.

Attachment Representations in Children with and without Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children is associated with several adverse family characteristics, such as higher parenting stress, more conflicted parent–child relationships, lower parental competence, and higher levels of parental psychopathology. Hence, children with ADHD more often grow up under suboptimal circumstances, which may impact the development of their attachment representations. Here, we investigated whether children with ADHD have more insecure and disorganized attachment representations than their typically developing peers, and which factors could explain this association. We included 104 children between 4 and 11 years old, 74 with ADHD (without Conduct Disorder) and 30 typically developing control children. Children completed a state-of-the-art story stem task to assess their attachment representation, and we measured parents’ expressed emotion (as an index of parent–child relationship quality), parents’ perceived sense of competence, parental education levels, and parent-rated ODD symptoms of the child. We found that, after controlling for multiple comparisons, children with ADHD had less secure and more ambivalent and disorganized attachment representations relative to their typically developing peers. These group differences were independent of comorbid ODD and parental education levels. There were no group differences on avoidant attachment representations. Explorative analyses within the ADHD group showed that attachment representations were not related to parent–child relationship quality, perceived parenting competence, parental education levels, and comorbid ODD symptoms. We conclude that children with ADHD disproportionately often have attachment problems. Although this conclusion is important, treatment implications of this co-occurrence are yet unclear as research on ADHD and attachment is still in its infancy.

Emotional Availability as a Moderator of Stress for Young Children and Parents in Two Diverse Early Head Start Samples.

Positive parent-child relationship quality is critical for buffering children from the effects of stress on development. It is thus vital to develop interventions that target parent-child relationship quality for families experiencing stress. We examined the moderating role of parent-child relationship quality (as measured by parental emotional availability [EA]) in the intergenerational association between parental adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and their young children's hair cortisol concentrations (HCCs)-a physiological marker of cumulative hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA)-axis activity. Using data from 127 parent-child dyads collected by two of six ACF-funded Buffering Toxic Stress consortium sites, we tested interaction effects of parental ACEs with parental EA on young children's (Mage = 18.38, SDage = 7.10) HCC. Results revealed curvilinear main effects such that higher parental ACEs were significantly associated with greater HCC and stronger associations occurred at higher levels of parental ACEs. However, this association was moderated by parental EA. Thus, among children with higher parental history of ACEs, children of parents with higher EA had lower HCC compared to children of parents with lower EA. These findings provide support for the risk-buffering and risk-exacerbating role of parent-child relationship quality (e.g., EA) for the transmission of parents' early life adversity on their children's HPA-axis activity, documented here in a racially and ethnically diverse sample of children and parents served by Early Head Start. Findings suggest that intervention and prevention efforts targeting stress response in children of mothers with childhood adversity should also support parents in building an emotionally available relationship with their children.

The Pilot of a Therapeutic Family Camp Intervention to Improve Adoptive Family Functioning

The trauma-related emotional and behavioral struggles of adopted children can affect the adoptive family system due to the emotional interdependence of families. To meet the needs of adoptive families, a two-weekend therapeutic family camp intervention was developed from an existing 2-3 week camp model for adopted children called Hope Connection®. The current study examined the preliminary effectiveness of the revised camp, Hope Connection 2.0, to address adoptive families’ needs. A two-group (waitlist (n = 4 families) vs. intervention (n = 5 families)) pre-post design was used. The results indicated trending decreases in adopted children’s trauma-related emotional and behavioral struggles and trending increases in parent-child relationship quality and family functioning. These findings support future research of the effectiveness of Hope Connection 2.0 to improve adoptive family outcomes.

Longitudinal associations between sibling relationship quality and child adjustment after divorce

AbstractObjectiveThis study examined the interplay between the parent–child and sibling relationships in their associations with child adjustment after divorce, in order to understand the postdivorce impact of the sibling relationship more thoroughly.BackgroundThe sibling relationship is unique in its lifetime duration and frequent interactions, and is associated with child adjustment in intact families. Research on the sibling relationship in divorced families is warranted, as it is one of the few stable factors in children's lives shortly after divorce.MethodTo examine direct and moderating effects of the sibling relationship, data from N = 117 children (Mage = 12.85) of 65 families and their recently divorced parents (60 mothers, 45 fathers) were used. Longitudinal associations of sibling support, sibling conflict, parent–child relationship quality, and their interactions with child adjustment were estimated with generalized estimating equations.ResultsThe sibling relationship was related to children's (relative change in) externalizing problems and self‐esteem over time, but not to internalizing problems. Especially high sibling support was found beneficial and buffered the adversity of sibling conflict regarding children's self‐esteem. There was no substantial evidence that siblings moderated parent–child relationship quality.ConclusionsIn the context of divorce and adequate parent–child relationship quality, the sibling relationship seems to be complementary rather than compensatory to that of parents. Given the role of siblings in externalizing behaviors and self‐esteem, potential benefits of targeting the sibling relationship in (preventive) interventions aimed at divorced families should be explored.

Integrating Health Care Strategies to Prevent Poverty-Related Disparities in Development and Growth: Addressing Core Outcomes of Early Childhood.

Poverty-related disparities appear early in life in cognitive, language, and social-emotional development, and in growth, especially obesity, and have long-term consequences across the life course. It is essential to develop effective strategies to promote healthy behaviors in pregnancy and the early years of parenthood that can mitigate disparities. Primary preventive interventions within the pediatric primary care setting offer universal access, high engagement, and population-level impact at low cost. While many families in poverty or with low income would benefit from preventive services related to both development and growth, most successful interventions have tended to focus on only one of these domains. In this manuscript, we suggest that it may be possible to address both development and growth simultaneously and effectively. In particular, current theoretical models suggest alignment in mechanisms by which poverty can create barriers to parent-child early relational health (i.e., parenting practices, creating structure, and parent-child relationship quality), constituting a final common pathway for both domains. Based on these models and related empirical data, we propose a strength-based, whole child approach to target common antecedents through positive parenting and prevent disparities in both development and growth; we believe this approach has the potential to transform policy and practice. Achieving these goals will require new payment systems that make scaling of primary prevention in health care feasible, research funding to assess efficacy/effectiveness and inform implementation, and collaboration among early childhood stakeholders, including clinicians across specialties, scientists across academic disciplines, and policy makers.

Direct and Indirect Effects of Remembered Parental Rejection on Media Use among Young Adults

Problematic media use has become commonplace in recent years, especially among adolescents and young adults. This study examined the association between problematic media use and parent-child relationship quality as mediated by social intimacy with best friends. Data from 228 university students between the ages of 19 through 26 years (Mage = 22.90) were collected. Measures used were the mother and father versions of the Adult Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire (PARQ, short form), the Usage Subscale of the Media and Technology Usage and Attitude Scale, and the Miller Social Intimacy Scale. Results showed significant associations for both men and women among all the variables. This indicated that the more parental (maternal and paternal) rejection the young adults experienced in childhood the lower was their social intimacy with best friends, but the greater was their self-reported media and technology usage. Findings from hierarchical multiple regression analyses confirmed that remembered parental (both maternal and paternal) rejection had a strong direct effect on media and technology usage among both men and women. But the analyses also showed a significant indirect effect of low social intimacy with best friends on media and technology usage. The findings have implications for parents, teachers, educators, mental health professionals and policy makers.