Objective The goal of the current 3-year longitudinal study was to evaluate the association between maternal and paternal parenting styles and sibling relationships during the early to late adolescent transition. Our original sample consisted of 272 participants in grades 9 and 11 from a high school in the Northeastern US. After three years, time…

Using a sample of 995 students living in residential housing at a selective, public research university, this study examined the relationship between student-parent interactions and adjustment to college and investigated differences between student-mother interactions and student-father interactions. Results indicate that students are generally…

This study employed mother-child playgroups as a context for examining mothers' supervision of child-peer interactions and children's adaptation to a new peer-group setting. Six playgroups, consisting of quartets of mothers and their 24- to 54-month-old children (n = 23), were observed in ten 90-minute sessions. All mothers attended the first two…

The present study includes externalizing problems, internalizing problems, mother-adolescent relationship quality, and father-adolescent relationship quality in the same structural equation model and tests the longitudinal reciprocal association among all four variables over a 1-year period. A transactional model in which adolescents'…

This longitudinal investigation examined the effects of maternal depression and concomitant negative parenting behaviors on children's emotion regulation patterns and socioemotional functioning. One hundred fifty-one mothers and their children were assessed when children were approximately 1 1/2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-years of age. Ninety-three of the…

This prospective investigation sought to discriminate children who were both aggressive towards and victimized by peers in the first grade, from those who were only aggressive, only victimized, or neither (i.e., socially adjusted), using early child and family risk factors. Two hundred thirty-eight children, their mothers, and teachers…

Examined the role of regulation in mediating the relations between maternal emotional expressivity and children's adjustment and social competence when children were 4.5 to just 8 years old, and again 2 years later. Found that at Times 1 and 2, regulation mediated the relation between positive maternal emotional expressivity and children's…

Examined relations among maternal depression, family dysfunction, emotional autonomy, and early adolescent adjustment. Found that among offspring of depressed mothers, higher emotional autonomy predicted increased internalizing and externalizing problems; among offspring of nondepressed mothers, higher emotional autonomy predicted decreases in…

Two studies addressed the normative aspects of attachments to mothers and fathers in middle childhood. Using both cross-sectional and longitudinal comparisons, we tested the hypothesis that children show no changes in perceptions of availability of attachment figures across the later middle childhood years, but do utilize attachment figures less…

Examined maternal acceptance and children's social functioning and school adjustment over four years in a Shanghai sample. Found that children's behavioral problems and peer rejection negatively and uniquely predicted maternal acceptance. Academic achievement positively predicted maternal acceptance. Maternal acceptance and rejection contributed…

Assessed whether low perceived maternal power and temperamentally fearful preschool-aged daughters predicted subsequent maternal overcontrol and internalizing symptoms in daughters 2 years later. Found that low perceived maternal power predicted subsequent maternal overcontrol with initially fearful daughters but did not predict subsequent…

Examined discrepancies in mothers' and adolescents' perceptions of decision making and behavioral autonomy. Discrepancies in decision-making judgments led to a high level of conflict. Discrepancies between adolescents' desire for and mothers' granting of autonomy led to a high conflict level and adolescent adjustment difficulties. (BC)

Examined the quality of parent-child relationships and the socioemotional and gender development of a community sample of 7-year-olds with lesbian parents, with two-parent heterosexual parents, or with single heterosexual mothers from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Found no significant differences between lesbian mothers and…

Examined whether children of alcoholic mothers were more psychologically damaged than children of nonalcoholic mothers. The subject families' potential for creating a good upbringing environment and subjects' childhoods were studied. Found that children of alcoholic mothers develop social maladjustment problems and addictions, and have a high rate…

Assessed 8-year-olds' perceptions of emotional support from mother and best friend. Found that preschool attachment security predicted age-8 maternal-support perceptions better than did mother's behavior. Identification of best friends as part of the support network related positively to social competence. The more insecurely attached children…