Unsupportive parenting moderates the effects of family psychosocial intervention on metabolic syndrome in African American youth.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: Family relationships have been linked to obesity and related disorders in youth, but few studies have provided causal evidence of this association. This study tested the impact of a family psychosocial intervention on components of metabolic syndrome-a condition driven largely by abdominal obesity-in African American youth. In particular, the study tested whether effects were strongest among those who started at highest risk, that is, with high levels of unsupportive parenting at baseline. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Randomized clinical trial of a community sample of 391 African American youth (mean age=11.2 years) conducted in 2001-2002, with follow-up metabolic syndrome assessment in 2014-2015. Participants were assigned either to receive a weekly family intervention or to a control group. The primary study outcome was the number of components of metabolic syndrome that were clinically elevated at age 25, including central adiposity, blood pressure, triglycerides, glucose and low high-density lipoproteins. Unsupportive parenting was measured by questionnaires at baseline. RESULTS: Significant interaction effects were found between group assignment and baseline unsupportive parenting on counts of metabolic syndrome components in youth (beta=-0.17, P=0.03). Among those who started with higher levels of unsupportive parenting at age 11, participation in the family intervention reduced the number of clinically elevated components of the metabolic syndrome at age 25 relative to the control group. No such effect was seen among those who started with good parenting. Mediation analyses suggested that changes in the psychosocial targets of the parenting intervention partially accounted for the effects amongst those high in unsupportive parenting at baseline (effect size=-0.350, s.e.=0.178). CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that efforts to improve family relationships may be able to ameliorate the detrimental effects that harsh and unsupportive parenting have on obesity-related outcomes such as metabolic syndrome in youth.

The influence of neighborhood disadvantage, collective socialization, and parenting on African American children's affiliation with deviant peers.

This study focused on hypotheses about the contributions of neighborhood disadvantage, collective socialization, and parenting to African American children's affiliation with deviant peers. A total of 867 families living in Georgia and Iowa, each with a 10- to 12-year-old child, participated. Unique contributions to deviant peer affiliation were examined using a hierarchical linear model. Community disadvantage derived from census data had a significant positive effect on deviant peer affiliations. Nurturant/involved parenting and collective socialization processes were inversely associated, and harsh/inconsistent parenting was positively associated, with deviant peer affiliations. The effects of nurturant/involved parenting and collective socialization were most pronounced for children residing in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Linking parenting processes and self-regulation to psychological functioning and alcohol use during early adolescence.

A longitudinal transactional model was tested linking parenting and youth self-regulation to youths' psychological functioning and alcohol-use behavior. Participants included one hundred twenty 12-year-olds, their mothers, and their fathers from whom three waves of data were collected at 1-year intervals. Teachers provided assessments of self-regulation, and parenting was assessed from multiple perspectives, including youth reports, parent reports, and observer ratings. Youths reported their psychological functioning and alcohol-use behavior. The data supported the model. Parenting and youth self-regulation were stable across time, and self-regulation was linked with changes in harsh-conflicted parenting from Wave 1 to Wave 2. Parenting at Wave 2 was associated with youth self-regulation. Youth self-regulation at Wave 2 mediated the paths from parenting practices at Wave 2 to youth psychological functioning and alcohol use at Wave 3.

Heuristic model linking contextual processes to self-management in African American adults with type 2 diabetes.

PURPOSE: This article examines the influence of various environmental factors on the diabetes self-care practices of African American adults with type 2 diabetes. METHODS: A heuristic model was developed that considers how community barriers and supports, availability and use of insurance, diabetes education, medical provider-patient relationships, extended family processes, and psychological functioning may indirectly affect metabolic control through the patient's ability to regulate diabetes. RESULTS: The proposed model offers a framework to demonstrate the complexity of diabetes management that may be unique to the African American experience. CONCLUSIONS: A comprehensive view of the environmental context will lead to new and more effective approaches in diabetes education and counseling for African American adults with type 2 diabetes.

Attributions in marriage: examining the entailment model in dyadic context.

The entailment model of attributions is examined for the first time using a dyadic approach and longitudinal data. In a sample of 229 married partners with children, causal attributions were distinguished empirically from responsibility attributions and, consistent with the entailment model, the effect of causal attributions on conflict was mediated through attributions of responsibility. Only 1 path was influenced by spouse gender. Examination of cross-spouse effects revealed significant effects and provided a better fit than a model with no cross-spouse effects. The importance of including cross-spouse effects in attributional models is discussed.

African American single mothers and children in context: a review of studies on risk and resilience.

This paper presents a comprehensive review of research linking single-parent family structure to parenting processes, maternal well-being, and child developmental outcomes among African Americans. The approaches used to study these families, related methodological and conceptual concerns, and the factors linked to maternal well-being, effective parenting processes, family functioning, and child outcomes are addressed. Much work remains to be done on conceptualizing and assessing parenting processes among African Americans in general and single African American mothers in particular. Researchers must examine more carefully the circumstances that foster or impede successful parenting among these mothers. Studies also are needed to disentangle the interactions between economic stress and parenting behavior and to determine the extent to which the findings can be applied to middle-income single African American parents.

Protection and vulnerability processes relevant for early onset of substance use: a test among African American children.

This research tested predictions from a self-regulation model of factors relevant for early onset of tobacco and alcohol use with a community sample of 889 African American children (mean age = 10.5 years). Criterion variables were peer substance use, willingness to use substances, and resistance efficacy (intention to refuse substance offers). Structural modeling indicated effects of temperament dimensions were mediated through self-control and risk-taking constructs, which were related to school involvement, life events, and perceived vulnerability to harmful effects of substances. Peer use was predicted by life events, poor self-control, and parent-child conflict; willingness was predicted by life events, risk taking, and (inversely) parental support; and resistance efficacy was predicted by perceived vulnerability and (inversely) poor self-control. Findings are discussed with reference to theoretical models of early protection and vulnerability processes.

Fragile self-esteem in children and its associations with perceived patterns of parent-child communication.

We examined the extent to which 11- to 12-year-old children's (N = 174) self-esteem (SE) stability and level related to their perceptions of various aspects of parent-child communication. Compared to children with stable SE, children with unstable SE reported that their fathers were more critical and psychologically controlling, and less likely to acknowledge their positive behaviors or to show their approval in value-affirming ways. Likewise, children with low SE reported that their fathers exhibited these qualities to a greater extent than did children with high SE. In addition, fathers of children with stable high SE were viewed as especially good at problem solving. Children's SE level related to perceptions of mothers' communication styles very similarly to how it did with fathers'; with respect to SE stability, however, relationships were generally less consistent and frequently absent. Discussion centered on the role of parent-child communication in promoting unstable SE.

Linking maternal efficacy beliefs, developmental goals, parenting practices, and child competence in rural single-parent African American families.

With a sample of 139 rural, single-parent African American families with a 6- to 9-year-old child, we traced the links among family financial resource adequacy, maternal childrearing efficacy beliefs, developmental goals, parenting practices, and children's academic and psychosocial competence. A multimethod, multiinformant design was used to assess the constructs of interest. Consistent with the hypothesized paths, financial resource adequacy was linked with mothers' sense of childrearing efficacy. Efficacy beliefs were linked with parenting practices indirectly through developmental goals. Competence-promoting parenting practices were indirectly linked with children's academic and psychosocial competence through their association with children's self-regulation.

Effects of residential instability on Head Start children and their relationships with older siblings: influences of child emotionality and conflict between family caregivers.

This study examined the influence that residential dislocations have on child behavior problems, depression, peer competence, cognitive competence, and the quality of sibling relations in a sample of 70 Head Start children, aged 32 to 67 months, and their older brothers and sisters, aged 48 to 155 months. This was the first study to investigate the sibling relationship in the context of high residential mobility. Information on child characteristics was obtained from mothers and teachers. Sibling data (warmth/harmony and conflict) were obtained from coding videotaped interactions. Child emotionality was found to be an important moderator of the effects of residential mobility on young, poor children and their siblings; caregiver conflict was a less powerful moderator of these effects. Residential instability seemed to compromise the warmth/harmony of the sibling relationship. It was concluded that the effects of residential instability are complex and cannot be understood without considering child characteristics, such as temperament, and the family context in which the child lives.

Parent-child relationships, child temperament profiles and children's alcohol use norms.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine the contributions of child temperament, parents' alcohol use norms for their children and parent-child relationship quality to children's alcohol use norms. METHOD: Observational and self-report data on these variables were gathered from mothers, fathers and target children during home visits to a purposive random sample of 171 intact white families with a 10- to 12-year-old child, 85 with girls and 86 with boys. RESULTS: Liberality in children's norms was associated with active, sensation-seeking temperament, liberality in parents' norms and poor parent-child relationship quality. Positive parent-child, particularly father-child, relationships were associated with less liberal child norms even when parents' norms were liberal and children's temperaments were active and sensation oriented. CONCLUSIONS: Positive parent-child relationships have a conventionalizing effect on children's alcohol use norms that moderates the effects of temperament and parental norms. The development of alcohol use norms is best described by transactional models.

Maternal resources, parenting practices, and child competence in rural, single-parent African American families.

A family process model was tested that linked maternal education, maternal religiosity, and the adequacy of family financial resources to cognitive and psychosocial competence in the mothers' children. The sample included 156 6- to 9-year-old African American children living in single-mother-headed households in rural areas, 82% of whom lived in poverty. The distal variables of maternal education, maternal religiosity, and adequacy of financial resources were linked with the proximal variables of "no nonsense" parenting, mother-child relationship quality, and maternal involvement in the child's school activities. The proximal variables were, in turn, indirectly linked with children's cognitive competence, social competence, and internalizing problems through their association with the children's development of self-regulation.

Sibling relationship quality: its causes and consequences.

Current work on children's individual characteristics and family processes that contribute to variation in sibling relationship quality is reviewed. Findings from these studies are summarized in a heuristic model that specifies hypothesized links among family processes, intrapersonal characteristics, and variations in sibling relationship quality. The model is designed to provide researchers with a host of hypotheses to test and refine in future studies. The contributions that sibling relationships may make to cognitive and psychosocial development are then reviewed, with a suggestion that sibling relationships comprised of a balance of both prosocial and conflicted interactions create experiences that are most likely to nurture children's social, cognitive, and psychosocial development.

Maternal psychological functioning, family processes, and child adjustment in rural, single-parent, African American families.

A family process model was tested, linking adequacy of family financial resources to academic and psychosocial adjustment among 156 African American 6- to 9-year-old children with single mothers who lived in the rural South. Seventy five percent of the sample lived in poverty. Lack of adequate financial resources was associated with more depressive symptoms and lower self-esteem among mothers. Self-esteem was linked with family routines and mother-child relationship quality. The paths from mother-child relationship quality and family routines to child academic and psychosocial adjustment were mediated by the development of child self-regulation. An alternative partially mediated model improved the fit of the data for families with boys.

Hemophilia and AIDS in married men: functioning of family members. Hemophilia PAC Project.

Aspects of functioning in families of 137 hemophilic men who, in 50% of cases, were also HIV seropositive were examined in terms of psychological and physical functioning and economic pressure. Results indicated that HIV-seropositive status, but not severity of hemophilia, was associated with poorer psychological and physical functioning of the husband, a poorer mother-child relationship, less support from outside the family for both spouses, and greater economic pressure on the family.

Parent-child relationships, family problems-solving behavior, and sibling relationship quality: the moderating role of sibling temperaments.

In this study we sought to determine whether sibling temperaments moderated the associations of parent-child relationship quality and family problem-solving behavior with sibling relationship quality. Observational assessments of mother-child and father-child relationship quality, family problem-solving behavior, and sibling relationship quality were obtained from the families of 49 pairs of brothers and 46 pairs of sisters. Mean ages were 10-2 for older siblings and 7-6 for younger siblings. Parent-reported child temperament assessments were also obtained. The links among mother-older child relationship quality, father-older child relationship quality, and sibling relationship quality were moderated by the older sibling's temperament. The younger and older siblings' temperaments moderated the associations between the quality of the father-younger sibling and sibling relationships. The association between family problem-solving behavior and sibling relationship quality was not moderated by sibling temperaments.

Forecasting sibling relationships in early adolescence from child temperaments and family processes in middle childhood.

We developed a model to account for variation in the quality of sibling relationships across a 4-year span from middle childhood to early adolescence. We tested this model on a sample of 71 families, in which older siblings' ages ranged from 6 to 11 years, and those of younger siblings ranged from 4 to 9 years. We also assessed continuity and discontinuity over time in sibling relationship quality. The descriptive analyses revealed an increase of negative sibling relationship qualities and a decrease in positive qualities. The hypothesized paths involving children's temperaments, interparental conflict, positivity in parent-child relationships, and differential negativity in parent-sibling relationships were supported, accounting for 27% to 34% of the variation in sibling relationship quality.

Financial resources, parent psychological functioning, parent co-caregiving, and early adolescent competence in rural two-parent African-American families.

We proposed a family process model that links family financial resources to academic competence and socioemotional adjustment during early adolescence. The sample included 90 9-12-year old African-American youths and their married parents who lived in the rural South. The theoretical constructs in the model were measured via a multimethod, multi-informant design. Rural African-American community members participated in the development of the self-report instruments and observational research methods. The results largely supported the hypotheses. Lack of family financial resources led to greater depression and less optimism in mothers and fathers, which in turn were linked with co-caregiving support and conflict. The associations among the co-caregiving processes and youth academic and socioemotional competence were mediated by the development of youth self-regulations. Disruptions in parental co-caregiving interfered with the development of self-regulation. This interference negatively influenced youths' academic competence and socioemotional adjustment.