Positive Parent-child Relationships Research Articles

Disclosure of parental HIV infection to children in the families of men with hemophilia: Description, outcomes, and the role of family processes.

Disclosure of serostatus is a difficult issue faced by individuals who have the AIDS virus, particularly when the HIV-infected individual is a parent and the question is whether to disclose to a child. The present study examined disclosure of paternal HIV status and the associations between disclosure and child functioning in the families of men who have hemophilia and are HIV infected. Results indicated that disclosure of HIV status was more common with older children, among Caucasian families, and in families in which fathers are more ill. The parent-child relationship, but not disclosure, was significantly associated with child functioning when disclosure was considered within the content of the family processes. A more positive parent-child relationship was related to lower levels of child depression and externalizing problems and to better grades.

Parental perceptions of child well-being: Relations to family structure, parental depression, and marital satisfaction

This study examined the extent to which parental perceptions of children's well-being were related to family structure, parental depression, and marital satisfaction. Data were taken from the National Survey of Families and Households. Subjects were both spouses in 1,446; 336; 57; and 32 first-marriage, stepfather, stepmother, and complex stepparent families, respectively. For both husbands and wives, parents in first-marriage families reported more positive parent-child relationships than did stepparents. In addition, parental depression and marital satisfaction were positively associated with perceptions of child well-being, although these relations were independent of those between family structure and child well-being. The unique and combined contributions of family structure, parental depression, and marital satisfaction to child well-being were small.

Parent and child views of parent-child relationship qualities and resilient outcomes among urban children.

Separate in-depth interviews were conducted with two groups of highly stressed 4th-6th grade urban children classified as stress-affected (SA) and stress-resilient (SR), and their parents. Judges identified interview items reflecting three components of a good parent-child relationship, i.e. positive parental attitudes, involvement and guidance. SR parents and children scored higher than their SA counterparts on all three relational dimensions. Additionally, SR parent-child dyads had more congruent views of their relationship than SA dyads. These findings suggest that positive parent-child relationship qualities play an important protective role that favors resilient outcomes, at ages 10-12, among children who have experienced major life stress.

Stability and change in husband-wife adaptation and the development of the positive parent-child relationship

Previous research has shown considerable stability in the quality of the husband-wife adaptation from prebirth to 2 years of age as well as a consistency in the mutual influence of the positive marital relationship and the positive parent-child relationship. This study examines if within this overall consistency there are different patterns of marital adaptation and interaction with the infant during the first 2 years of life. Using child expectation of being cared for, parent responsiveness to need, child sense of separate self, and parent's encouragement of effective autonomy as the indices of the positive parent-child relationship, it was found that by 24 months, three marital patterns were associated with a more positive family development: couples consistently high in their adaptation, those showing an initial decrease followed by an increase, and those showing an increase. It was also found that the optimal patterns of marital adaptation to the firstborn were anticipated by prebirth measures of the mother's capacity for positive relationships and adaptation-competence. The optimal patterns in turn anticipated the positive 48-month development of parent-child mutuality and psychological separateness.

Race, Social Class, and Special Needs Adoption

Approximately 800 special needs adoptive parents responded to a mailed questionnaire as part of a study of special needs adoption in relation to race and social class. Most parents reported good outcomes of the adoption as well as good relationships with their children. Minority parents, low-income parents, and less-educated parents reported more positive parent-child relationships. Controlling for numerous variables, these factors were modest predictors of good relationship in multivariate analyses. Strengths of minority and low-income adoptive families are discussed, and policy recommendations are advanced.

Anticipating the Response to Amphetamine Therapy in the Treatment of Hyperkinetic Children

It appears that there are two kinds of significant variables pertinent to a positive response to amphetamines: (1) organic factors, which appear primary, and (2) emotional factors, which, if present, counteract or interfere with the drugs' action. In general, those children responded positively to the drug who showed an organic background, positive parent-child relationship, and the absence of severe psychiatric problems in the parents. Seventy-five percent of the O and OE children with parents who were not grossly deviant improved while none became worse. As with all retrospective studies the absence of a control group prevents examination of such factors as "placebo effect" or the effect of other services received at the Center or in school. However, since positive responses were usually immediate and were maintained over extended periods of time, often after other forms of treatment were unsuccessful, it is felt that these other variables were not significant contaminants.

Principles of Positive Parent-Child Relationships in Family Life Education

Principles of Positive Parent-Child Relationships in Family Life Education