Sex Differences in Hookup Behavior: a Replication and Examination of Parent-Child Relationship Quality

In the current research, we assessed the impact of parent-child relationships on attitudes toward, and engagement in, hookup behaviors using a sample of 407 college students. Based on prior research, it was hypothesized that heterosexual participants, especially women, who do not perceive themselves as having a strong, close, positive relationship with their opposite-sex parent would be more likely to engage in or attempt to engage in casual sexual behavior (hookups). Also, men were expected to be more satisfied with, and more in agreement with, hookup behavior than women. The results were partially consistent with the hypotheses. Men were more satisfied with and more in agreement with hookup behavior than women. But, opposite sex parent-child relationship quality only affected men’s agreement with the hookup behavior of their peers. Men with lower relationship quality with their mothers agreed more with the hookup behavior of their peers. These results are discussed in relation to prior research on hooking up and prior research on parent-child relationships.

Sex Differences in Hookup Behavior: A Replication and Examination of Parent-Child Relationship Quality

In the current research, we assessed the impact of parent-child relationships on attitudes toward, and engagement in, hookup behaviors using a sample of 407 college students. Based on prior research, it was hypothesized that heterosexual participants, especially women, who do not perceive themselves as having a strong, close, positive relationship with their opposite-sex parent would be more likely to engage in or attempt to engage in casual sexual behavior (hookups). Also, men were expected to be more satisfied with, and more in agreement with, hookup behavior than women. The results were partially consistent with the hypotheses. Men were more satisfied with and more in agreement with hookup behavior than women. But, opposite sex parent-child relationship quality only affected men’s agreement with the hookup behavior of their peers. Men with lower relationship quality with their mothers agreed more with the hookup behavior of their peers. These results are discussed in relation to prior research on hooking up and prior research on parent-child relationships.

PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIP QUALITY AND THE INFLUENCE ON SOCIOMETRIC VERSUS PEER-PERCEIVED POPULARITY

The purpose of this study was to compare factors in the parent-child relationships of peer perceived popular adolescents to those of sociometrically popular adolescents. Factors included autonomy, relatedness, and idealization. Participants were 71 8th grade adolescents. Results showed similarities in parent-child relationships between perceived popular and sociometrically popular adolescents for autonomy, relatedness, and idealization. Results suggest that future research should explore other factors, such as affection from mother and father and levels of psychological control behavior to differentiate perceived popularity from sociometrically popular adolescents.

Exploring the Family Context Among Children Adopted From China: Perceptions of Pre-Adoption Factors, Post-Adoption Experiences, and the Quality of Parent-Child Relationships

Within the context of international adoption, previous research has focused on parentchild attachment relationships and various aspects of the adoption process. However, less is known about other aspects of parent-child relationships (e.g., cohesion, conflict) within internationally adoptive families. Additionally, there is a need for research that explores both parent and child perceptions of the process of adoption - including pre- and post-adoptive factors - and its connection to the quality of parent-child relationships. This research utilized a qualitatively-oriented methodology to conduct separate, in-depth interviews with 10 adoptive Canadian mothers and their adopted Chinese children (aged 9 to 11 years). Results highlight parent and child reports of mainly strong, positive relationships. Several pre-adoption experiences are examined, including institutionalization, age at the time of adoption, and parental stress/expectations. A key finding concerns the link that adoptive parents perceive between the quality of their child's pre-adoptive care (i.e., mainly early institutionalized care) and the quality of their relationship. Interestingly, this link is perceived in two different ways - either as a challenge for the parent-child relationship or as a means to strengthen it. Post-adoption experiences are also explored, including cultural socialization, creating a transracial family, discussing adoption, parental stress, and sibling involvement. A key finding involves parent and child reports that cultural socialization efforts (i.e., familiarizing children with Chinese culture) are linked to more positive parent-child relationships. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to theory and practice within the context of international adoption.

Étude exploratoire de la détérioration du lien parent-enfant : contexte d’apparition, caractéristiques et comportements des couples parentaux séparés impliqués dans ces dynamiques

L’objectif principal de cette thèse de doctorat est de déterminer, à l’aide d’une grille d’observation des comportements parentaux après la séparation , si des catégories de la grille permettent de distinguer entre eux les couples parentaux où le risque de Détérioration du Lien Parent-Enfant en contexte de séparation conflictuelle (DLPE) est très élevé des couples parentaux où le risque de DLPE est très faible. De plus, trois objectifs secondaires s’ajoutent à notre objectif principal. Premièrement, nous avons tenté de voir s’il était possible de prédire les cas où les risques de DLPE sont très élevés. Deuxièmement, nous avons exploré comment la DLPE s’inscrit dans les conséquences pouvant découler de la séparation parentale. Et enfin, troisièmement, nous avons brièvement exploré la question des allégations d’agression sexuelle envers l’enfant dans les contextes de DLPE. Cette thèse est composée de deux articles et d’une note de recherche brève. Le premier article s’intitule En quoi et pourquoi les hommes et les femmes sont-ils affectés différemment par la séparation conjugale? Cet article est une recension critique de la littérature traitant des conséquences du divorce chez les adultes ainsi que des conséquences différentielles du divorce pour les hommes et les femmes. Dans cet article, des hypothèses explicatives quant à l’origine de ces diverses conséquences sont discutées et nous proposons de les conceptualiser sous la forme d’un éventail rendant compte des impacts tant positifs que négatifs, notamment à une extrémité du continuum où se retrouvent les dynamiques DLPE. Ce continuum sur lequel s’inscrit la DLPE permet de conceptualiser et de discuter de l’adaptation ou de la mésadaptation des individus face à la séparation. Dans cet article, notre regard sur la DLPE fait ressortir les lacunes de la recherche actuelle sur ce phénomène. Il ressort un manque flagrant de connaissances du contexte d’apparition du phénomène, de connaissances empiriques sur la question des allégations d’abus sexuel se produisant dans le cadre de telles dynamiques ainsi que de connaissances des caractéristiques et des comportements des individus qui y sont impliqués. Conséquemment, notre article met l’emphase sur la nécessité qu’une tradition de recherche se développe dans le domaine de la DLPE afin de clarifier tous ces aspects. Enfin, cet article met en lumière différents facteurs de risque et différents facteurs de protection susceptibles d’expliquer que le divorce ait des conséquences différentes chez les hommes et les femmes. Le deuxième article s’intitule Étude exploratoire des caractéristiques et des comportements de couples parentaux séparés engagés dans une dynamique de Détérioration du Lien Parent-Enfant. Cet article cherchait à déterminer si les couples parentaux séparés hautement à risque d’être engagés dans une dynamique de DLPE se distinguent des couples parentaux séparés dont le risque de DLPE est faible sur certaines variables. Nous avons étudié cette question auprès de notre échantillon de 82 couples parentaux séparés pour lesquels le risque de DLPE est évalué comme étant soit très faible (groupe de comparaison) ou soit très élevé (en tenant compte du fait que la mère ou le père soit le parent dénigrant). À cette fin, nous avons utilisé un instrument de mesure, la Grille d’observation de la Détérioration du Lien Parent-Enfant après la séparation (GODLPE), adapté de celui développé par Johnston, Walters, & Olesen, (2005). Les résultats obtenus à l’aide de tests d’analyse de variance et de khi-deux démontrent que les ex-couples du groupe de comparaison se distinguent des ex-couples du groupe où le risque de DLPE est très élevé par un mariage significativement plus long et un niveau de conflit plus élevé. Également, les résultats démontrent que les parents du groupe de comparaison, les parents dénigrés et les parents dénigrants se distinguent entre eux quant à leurs comportements coparentaux aliénants, à leur relation coparentale supportante, à leur relation coparentale méfiante et à leurs comportements de renversement de rôle. Finalement, notre étude révèle que la durée du mariage et l’intensité des conflits permettent de prédire le risque de DLPE. La note de recherche brève s’intitule Étude exploratoire des allégations d’agression sexuelle envers l’enfant dans un contexte de Détérioration du Lien Parent-Enfant. Cet note de recherche s’intéresse à ce qui a longtemps été considéré comme l’une des caractéristiques déterminantes des dynamiques de DLPE, soit les allégations d’agression sexuelle envers l’enfant professées par un parent à l’endroit de l’autre parent ou d’un membre de son entourage proche. Nous avons étudié cette question chez 82 couples parentaux séparés pour lesquels le risque de DLPE était évalué comme étant très faible ou très élevé. Les résultats indiquent qu’il n’existe aucune différence significative entre les groupes relativement à cette caractéristique. Cependant, les mères auraient davantage tendance à alléguer de tels abus que les pères. Enfin, aucune des allégations professées n’a été jugée suffisamment crédible pour que la Directeur de la protection de la Jeunesse (DPJ) juge nécessaire d’intervenir. Plusieurs hypothèses sont soulevées pour expliquer ces résultats.

Parent-Child Dynamics and Emerging Adult Religiosity: Attachment, Parental Beliefs, and Faith Support

Parental religiosity has been shown to predict child and adolescent religiosity, but the role of parents in emerging adult religiosity is largely unknown. We explored associations among emerging adult religiosity, perceived parental religiosity, perceived similarity to mother's and to father's religious beliefs, parental faith support, and parental attachment. Participants were 481 alumni of two Christian colleges and completed surveys online. Emerging adult religiosity (measured by Christian orthodoxy and intrinsic religiosity) was high and similar to parents' religiosity. Perceived similarity to parents' religious beliefs, faith support, and attachment to fathers predicted emerging adult religiosity. However, parental religiosity alone was a weak predictor and functioned as a negative suppressor variable when combined with similarity to parents' beliefs and faith support. Findings underscore the importance of parental support and parent-child relationship dynamics more than the level of parental religiosity and point to possibly unique roles for mothers and fathers in emerging adult religiosity.

The Perspectives of Gay, Bisexual, and Queer Adolescent Males with Parent-Child Sex Communication

Problem: Gay, bisexual, and queer (GBQ) adolescent males are disproportionately affected by negative sexual health outcomes compared to their heterosexual counterparts. Their sex education needs are not sufficiently addressed in the home and the larger ecological systems. The omission of their sex education needs at a time when they are forming a sexual identity during adolescence compels GBQ males to seek information in unsupervised settings. Evidence-based interventions aimed at ensuring positive sexual health outcomes through sex communication cannot be carried out with these youth as research on how parents and GBQ males discuss sex in the home has been largely uninvestigated.

Methods: This naturalistic qualitative study focused on the interpretive reports of 15- to 20-year-old GBQ males’ discussions about sex-related topics with their parents. From a purposive sample of 30 male adolescents who self-identified as GBQ, participants who could recall at least one conversation about sex with their parents were recruited for one-time interviews and card sorts. This strategy revealed, using Bronfenbrenners’ Bioecological Theory, their perceptions about sex communication in the context of their reciprocal relationship and the ecological systems that GBQ males and their parents navigate.

Results: Parents received poor ratings as sex educators, were generally viewed as not confident in their communication approach, and lacked knowledge about issues pertinent to GBQ sons. Nevertheless, participants viewed parents as their preferred source of sex information and recognized multiple functions of sex communication. The value placed by GBQ youth on sex communication underscores their desire to ensure an uninterrupted parent-child relationship in spite of their GBQ sexual orientation. For GBQ children, inclusive sex communication is a proxy for parental acceptance.

Results show that the timing, prompts, teaching aids, and setting of sex communication for this population are similar to what has been reported with heterosexual samples. However, most GBQ sons rarely had inclusive guidance about sex and sexuality that matched their attraction, behavior, and identities. Furthermore, the assumption of heterosexuality resulted in the early awareness of being different from their peers which led them to covertly search for sex information. The combination of assumed heterosexuality and their early reliance on themselves for applicable information is a missed parental opportunity to positively impact the health of GBQ sons. More importantly, due to the powerful reach of new media, there is a critical period of maximum receptiveness that has been identified which makes inclusive sex communication paramount in the pre-sexual stage for this population. Our findings also indicate that there are plenty of opportunities for systemic improvements to meet this population’s sexual education needs.

Adult parent-child relationships: Relationship quality, support, and reciprocity

In accordance with Bengtson's model of intergenerational solidarity (e.g. Bengtson & Roberts, 1991), the interrelations between adult daughters' family values, their perception of the relationship quality with their parents, the support they reported to give to and to receive from their parents, and their perception of reciprocity in intergenerational support exchange were investigated for N = 265 middle-aged women in Germany. It was also asked whether the support given to parents and perceived reciprocity are related to daughters' felt burden as a result of their support. Cross-sectional, self-report data were examined with multiple and multinomial logistic regression analyses. The analyses revealed positive relations between family values, relationship quality, and support to parents. Perceived reciprocity was associated with the exchange of intergenerational support and imbalance in support had negative effects on the relationship quality. Felt burden was predicted by the extent of support and the perceived reciprocity. However, specific correlational patterns depending on the kind of support as well as differences in the importance of mother and father occurred. The findings are discussed against the background of the meaning of family obligations and reciprocity in a Western culture.

Perinatal assessment of infant, parents, and parent-infant relationship: prematurity as an example.

This article reviews the stresses for parents, infants, and other caregivers during the period surrounding the birth of the premature infant. Principles of assessment of infant discomfort, parental stress, the parent-infant relationship, and the match of the medical caregiving environment to the individual infant's needs are discussed. Relevant tools to aide in these aspects of assessment are reviewed. The role of early assessment as preventive intervention and the indication for subsequent intervention in complicated cases of premature infants and their parents are further discussed. The article offers detailed clinical examples to illustrate these and other points throughout.

Parent-adolescent relationship in youths with a chronic condition.

BACKGROUND: Suffering from a chronic disease or disability (CDD) during adolescence can be a burden for both the adolescents and their parents. The aim of the present study is to assess how living with a CDD during adolescence, the quality of parent-adolescent relationship (PAR) and the adolescent's psychosocial development interact with each other. METHODS: Using the Swiss Multicenter Adolescent Survey on Health 2002 (SMASH02) database, we compared adolescents aged 16-20 years with a CDD (n = 760) with their healthy peers (n = 6493) on sociodemographics, adolescents' general and psychosocial health, interparental relationship and PAR. RESULTS: Bivariate analyses showed that adolescents with a CDD had a poorer psychosocial health and a more difficult relationship with their parents. The log-linear model indirectly linked CDD and poor PAR through four variables: two of the adolescents' psychosocial health variables (suicide attempt and sensation seeking), the need for help regarding difficulties with parents and a highly educated mother that acted as a protective factor, allowing for a better parent-adolescent with a CDD relationship. CONCLUSION: It is essential for health professionals taking care of adolescents with a CDD to distinguish between issues in relation with the CDD from other psychosocial difficulties, in order to help these adolescents and their parents deal with them appropriately and thus maintain a healthy PAR.

Analysis of disputed single-parent/child and sibling relationships using 16 STR loci

This study describes the validation of short tandem repeat (STR) systems for the resolution of cases of disputed parentage where only a single parent is available for testing or where the claimed relationship of both parents is in doubt and also cases where sibship must be tested. Three separate multiplex systems the Second Generation Multiplex, Powerplex 1.2 and FFFL have been employed, giving a total of 16 STR loci. Both empirical and theoretical approaches to the validation have been adopted. Appropriate equations have been derived to calculate likelihood ratios for different relationships, incorporating a correction for subpopulation effects. An F(ST) point estimate of 1% has been applied throughout. Empirically, 101 cases of alleged father, alleged mother and child where analysed using six SLP systems and also using the three multiplex STR systems. Of the 202 relationships tested, 197 were independently resolved by both systems, providing either clear evidence of non-parentage or strong support for the relationship.

Taking The 'Sport' Out of Sports Parenting: Toward A Theory of Sport Related Parent-Child Communication Competency

Research has shown that over-emphasis on winning is the number one reason why approximately seventy percent of the forty million children who participate in youth sports will quit by age 13. This study utilized a constructivist grounded theory approach to investigate the role of parent-child communication within the context of youth sports. A total of 22 athletes and 20 parents were recruited through a Western university to discuss messages exchanged during youth sport participation. The results suggest that the delineation between messages of support and pressure is largely dependent on discursive work done by both parent and child. Parents who employed competent communicative strategies to avoid miscommunications regarding participation and sports goals were able to provide support and strengthen the relationship despite pressurized situations. The present study frames the youth sport dilemma within a developing conceptualization of communicative (in)competence and offers theoretical implications for sport related parent-child communication competency (SRPCCC).

Parent-child interaction and road behaviour:An exploratory study

The relationship between parent-child interaction and child pedestrian behaviour was investigated by comparing parent-child communication to road-crossing behaviour. Forty-four children and their parents were observed carrying out a communication task (the Map Task), and were covertly filmed crossing roads around a university campus. The Map Task provided measures of task focus and sensitivity to another's current knowledge, which we predicted would be reflected in road-crossing behaviour. We modelled indices of road behaviour with factor scores derived from a principal-component analysis of communication features, and background variables including the age, sex and traffic experience of the child, and parental education. A number of variables were significantly related to road crossing, including the age and sex of the child, the length of the conversation, and specific conversational features such as the checking and clarification of uncertain information by both parent and child. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Unemployment, parental distress and youth emotional well-being: The moderation roles of parent-youth relationship and financial deprivation

We investigated, in a sample of 112 unemployed parents of adolescents aged 10-19 years, the links between parental distress and change in youth emotional problems related to parental unemployment, and the moderation roles of parent-youth relationship and financial deprivation. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlations. Further, simple moderation, additive moderation, and moderated moderation models of regression were performed to analyze the effects of parental distress, parent-youth relationship and financial deprivation in predicting change in youth emotional problems related to parental unemployment. Results show that parental distress moderated by parent-youth relationship predicted levels of change in youth emotional problems related to parental unemployment. This study provides evidence that during job loss, parental distress is linked to youth emotional well-being and that parent-youth relationships play an important moderation role. This raises the importance of further researching parental distress impacts on youth well-being, especially during periods of high unemployment rates.