Perceptions of stressful life events in Northern Irish school children: a longitudinal study

BACKGROUND: Adults' perceptions of stressful life events have been acknowledged as important moderators of the stress adjustment relationship. Until recently, however, there has been a lack of research on children's perceptions of negative life events. This study assesses children's own perceptions of the stressfulness of negative familial, academic and social events as well as events related to the political conflict in Northern Ireland. METHOD: Developmental changes in children's perceptions of events are traced over time. One hundred and sixty 8-year-old children completed a self-report measure of the perceived stressfulness of a range of negative life events. The sample was drawn from schools in the Greater Belfast area to include children of both genders, primary religious affiliations in Northern Ireland (i.e., Protestant and Roman Catholic) and of varying socio-economic status. Three years later, 113 of these children, then aged 11, were traced through the school system and completed the same measure. RESULTS: Children's perceptions of stressful events are related to a host of social factors. Girls viewed many negative events as more stressful than their male counterparts. Roman Catholic and Protestant children differed in their perceptions of conflict-related events. Perceptions of various types of negative experiences were differentially related to socio-economic status and age. CONCLUSION: Personal, social and situational factors differentially determine children's perceptions of negative life experiences.     

The relationship between parental perceptions of diabetes and glycaemic control.

AIM: To measure the relationship between perceived child competence, parental self-efficacy, and children's glycaemic control. METHODS: Cross-sectional outpatient based questionnaire survey of 78 parents of children aged 6-12 years with insulin dependent diabetes mellitus, diagnosed for at least one year. Parental perceptions of their child's competence were assessed, together with parental perceptions of their own self-efficacy in managing their child's diabetes. Glycaemic control was assessed by the average annual HbA1C level. RESULTS: The response rate was 64.5% (51 parents); 82% were mothers and the socioeconomic class and ethnicity spread was representative of the general population. The mean age of the children was 10 years and duration of diabetes 4.4 years. Poorer glycaemic control was associated with higher perceived child competence, together with lower perceived age of responsibility, lower perceived seriousness, and less frequent blood tests. Higher parental self-efficacy and higher perceived child competence predicted a higher level of normalisation, as did lower perceived seriousness, a lower perceived parental responsibility for management, and a less protective style of parenting. CONCLUSION: Parents' perceptions of their children's diabetes are significantly related to glycaemic control; however, those who appear more competent at managing diabetes may overestimate their child's capabilities, leading to poorer glycaemic control.     

Inter-parental conflict and children's academic attainment: a longitudinal analysis

BACKGROUND: Previous research suggests a link between inter-parental conflict and children's psychological development. Most studies, however, have tended to focus on two broad indices of children's psychological adaptation (internalizing symptoms and externalizing problems) in considering the effects of inter-parental conflict on children's development. The present longitudinal study extends this body of research by considering the impact of inter-parental conflict on children's low academic attainment among a sample of 230 schoolchildren (age 11-13 years) living in the United Kingdom. METHOD: Controlling for teacher reports of children's initial levels of aggression (Time 1), the proposed theoretical model linked parent and child reports of inter-parental conflict at Time 1 (1999) to children's perceptions of negative parent-child relations, appraisals of self-blame for marital conflict and teacher reports of children's aggressive behavior at Time 2 (2000), which in turn were linked to children's performance on standardized academic tests (English, Math, Science) at Time 3 (2001). Structural equation modeling was used to test all hypothesized relations in the proposed theoretical model. RESULTS: Support was found for the role of children's self-blaming attributions for parents' marital arguments, not negative parenting behavior, as a mechanism through which variation in their academic attainment is explained. CONCLUSIONS: Contrary to the focus emphasized in most current family and school-based intervention programs, findings suggest that the attributional processes engendered in children who live in households marked by high levels of inter-parental conflict and hostility have important implications for their long-term academic success.     

The role of emotional responses and physiological reactivity in the marital conflict-child functioning link

BACKGROUND: Children's emotional responses and physiological reactivity to conflict were examined as mediators and moderators in the associations between exposure to parental marital conflict and child adjustment and cognitive problems. METHOD: One hundred and eighty elementary school children participated. In response to a simulated argument, children's skin conductance level reactivity (SCLR) was examined, and their emotional responses (reported and observed anger, sadness, and fear) were assessed. RESULTS: A higher level of SCLR was a robust risk factor for various child outcomes, mediated boys' internalizing difficulties in the marital conflict-child functioning link, and functioned as a vulnerability factor for girls' externalizing, internalizing, and cognitive problems. Increased anger (for boys) and sadness (for girls) exacerbated adjustment difficulties related to marital conflict. CONCLUSIONS: Findings illustrate the aggregation of risk in relation to child and family characteristics.     

Sleep disruptions and emotional insecurity are pathways of risk for children

BACKGROUND: Sleep problems are prevalent in American children. A critical need is to identify sources and processes related to sleep disruptions and their sequelae. We examined a model linking parental marital conflict and children's emotional insecurity, sleep disruptions, and their adjustment and academic problems. METHOD: One hundred and sixty-six elementary school children reported on marital conflict and their emotional insecurity, the quantity and quality of children's sleep were examined through actigraphy, and parents and teachers reported on child functioning. RESULTS: In the context of exposure to normative levels of marital conflict, children's emotional insecurity regarding their parents' marital relationship is an intervening variable in the marital conflict-sleep disruptions link. In turn, disruptions in the quality and duration of children's sleep have a negative effect on children's behavioral, emotional, and academic performance. CONCLUSIONS: Findings highlight the importance of marital conflict and children's emotional insecurity as variables that can affect a fundamental aspect of biological regulation, sleep, which consequently influences children's adjustment and academic performance.     

School-age Children''s Perceptions of Coping with Distress: Strategies for Emotion Regulation and the Moderation of Adjustment

An inventory was developed to assess children's perceptions of what they did to feel better in stressful situations, and to examine the role of these perceptions in moderating the relationship between stress and outcome. A total of 345 6-12 year old children from diverse backgrounds were interviewed. Children's perceptions of what they do to relieve distress could be organized into six factors including the use of social support, distraction/avoidance, and other categories of coping which show continuity with those identified for infants and toddlers. Several types of coping served as compensatory moderators of the relationship between stress and self-worth.     

Teenage mothers' anger over twelve years: partner conflict, partner transitions and children's anger

BACKGROUND: This study examined the effects of maternal anger, partner transitions and partner conflict on later oppositional and angry behavior of the children of teenage mothers. METHODS: One hundred and twenty-one teenage women were interviewed prior to the birth of the baby and at 3 points subsequently, when children were newborn, 7 years old and 12 years old. Child and teacher reports of children's oppositional behavior were obtained. RESULTS: Women who showed higher levels of anger at Time 1 experienced more conflict with partners and more partner transitions over the next 12 years than women with lower levels of anger. Partner conflict was a stronger predictor of children's oppositional and angry behavior than partner transitions. Maternal anger at Time 1 was associated with maternal anger at Time 4 but neither predicted children's oppositional behavior at Time 4. CONCLUSION: There was support for the theoretical model that suggested that the personality characteristics of teenaged mothers confer some of their risk to children through children's exposure to the mothers' problematic partner relationships.     

Constructive and destructive marital conflict, emotional security and children's prosocial behavior

Background:  This study addresses the gaps in understanding the relationship between constructive and destructive marital conflict and children's prosocial behavior from a process-oriented perspective.
Method:  Data were drawn from a three-wave study of 235 families with children ages 5–7 at wave 1. Relations between constructive and destructive marital conflict, children's emotional security, warm parenting and children's prosocial behavior were examined through the use of structural equation modeling.
Results:  Even after controlling for prior levels of children's prosocial behavior at wave 1, children's emotional security acted as an intervening variable between both constructive and destructive marital conflict and children's prosocial behavior over time.
Conclusions:  These findings advance the relationship between marital conflict and children's adjustment by focusing on children's prosocial behavior and highlight the need to further investigate the impact of positive dimensions of marital conflict on dimensions of children's positive social functioning.     

Children's responses to daily social stressors: relations with parenting, children's effortful control, and adjustment

Background:  We examined children's coping and involuntary stress responses as mediators of the relations between parenting or children's effortful control (EC) and adjustment.
Method:  Two hundred and forty primarily Mexican American 7- to 12-year-old children reported on their EC, coping, involuntary stress responses, and problem behaviors. Teachers reported on children's academic competence. Parents reported on their reactions to children's negative emotions and on children's EC, problem behaviors, and academic competence.
Results:  There were significant zero-order relations between parents' affective responses to children's negative emotions, children's EC, engagement coping, disengagement coping, involuntary stress responses, and adjustment. Consistent evidence emerged that children's engagement coping and involuntary stress-responses mediate the relations between parenting or EC and adjustment.
Conclusions:  Results highlight the utility of assessing stress responses in a multidimensional manner and have implications for intervention programs.     

Coping with birthparent loss in adopted children

BACKGROUND: Relationships among adopted children's appraisals of birthparent loss, their coping strategies for managing such loss, and child and parent reports of child adjustment were investigated within the context of a stress and coping model of adoption adjustment. METHODS: Eighty-two 8-12-year-old adopted children and one of their parents participated. Children completed questionnaires assessing their negative affect about birthparent loss, their curiosity about birthparents, their use of coping strategies to manage birthparent-related distress, and their levels of depression, anxiety, and global self-worth. Parents reported on children's externalizing and internalizing behavior problems and social competence. RESULTS: Children who reported higher levels of negative affect about birthparent loss also reported higher levels of depression and lower self-worth. Curiosity about birthparents predicted parent-rated externalizing behavior. Behavioral avoidant coping was associated with greater self-reported anxiety and parent-rated externalizing behavior, whereas problem solving coping was associated with increased parent-rated social competence. CONCLUSIONS: The findings, though limited by issues of measurement and sampling, add to the knowledge base regarding adopted children's appraisal and coping behaviors, and provide partial support for a stress and coping model of adopted children's adjustment.     

Children's understanding of martial conflict and the marital relationship

Children's understanding of marital conflict and the marital relationship was investigated in 60 children of 5, 7, and 9 years old. Age differences were hypothesized in four areas of children's understanding of marital conflict and the marital relationship, based on the development between 5 and 9 years of age of children's abilities to (a) analyse complex sequences of behavior in terms of the mental states of protagonists and (b) integrate multiple social roles. The four areas investigated were: conceptions of marital conflict, conflict resolution, family triangulation, and integration of the spousal and parental roles. Children were read stories involving family interactions. Open-ended questions were asked about their understanding of these interactions and a coding scheme was devised that reflected theoretical concepts. Nine-year-olds differed from 5-year-olds on all aspects of their understanding of marital conflict and the marital relationship, and 7-year-olds showed levels of understanding between 5- and 9-year-olds. Younger children were less likely than older children to explain marital conflict in terms of the divergent goals of each parent, to understand conflict resolution as dependent on one person changing their beliefs or goals, to understand that parents were simultaneously spouses and parents and to understand the nature of triangulation. Marital conflict is interpreted very differently by children of different ages.     

Marital Disharmony and Children''s Behaviour Problems: Aspects of a Poor Marriage that Affect Children Adversely

The aim of this study was to investigate the elements of the parental marital relationship which put children at risk for behavioural and emotional problems. Data from 119 families from the general population with a child aged between 9 and 12 years were analysed for the present study. The relationship between children's emotional and behavioural problems and overt parental conflict, covert tension between parents and discrepancy on child-rearing practices was assessed. Overt parental conflict was found to relate most strongly to children's emotional and behavioural problems using mothers', fathers' and children's accounts of the children's symptoms and after controlling for other aspects of marital disharmony. Aspects of the parent-child relationship were hypothesized as mediating variables in the relationship between parental conflict and children's emotional and behavioural problems, but the data did not support this hypothesis.     

COMPETENCE AND STRESS IN SCHOOL CHILDREN: THE MODERATING EFFECTS OF INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY QUALITIES

This study examined the associations of stress exposure to various aspects of school-based competence in a normative sample of 205 children aged 8-13. Potential moderators of these relations, including child attributes of sex and IQ and environmental attributes of socioeconomic status (SES) and family qualities, were also studied. Stress exposure was indexed by a life event questionnaire. Competence was assessed by teacher ratings, peer assessments and school record data. Family attributes were derived from a set of rating scales completed by interviewers after 6 hours of interviews with a parent. Results suggest that the relations of stress exposure to competence vary as a function of individual differences as well as the competence criterion. Disadvantaged children, with lower IQ and SES, and less positive family qualities, were generally less competent and more likely to be disruptive at high stress levels. Advantaged children were more competent, and with stress positively engaged in school, but were not likely to be disruptive. Boys were less socially competent than girls and, when stress was high, appeared to be less protected by positive family qualities. Causal hypotheses for future research in this area are discussed.     

How Local is the Impact of a Specific Learning Difficulty on Premature Children's Evaluation of Their Own Competence?

The aim of this study was to determine whether children's perceptions of their own competence levels reflected their actual strengths and weaknesses (Specificity Hypothesis) or transcended these (Generality Hypothesis). Harter and Pike's measure of self-perception was administered to 163 prematurely born 6-year-olds with or without motor co-ordination and/or reading problems. Associations between children's self-perceptions and their scores on standardised tests of motor co-ordination and reading were assessed in three distinct ways. These analyses produced converging results: self-perceptions of physical competence were associated specifically with performance on the Movement ABC Test, and self-perceptions of cognitive competence were associated specifically with performance on the BAS Word Reading Scale. Our results support the Specificity Hypothesis.     

Challenging children in kin versus nonkin foster care: perceived costs and benefits to caregivers

This study uses social exchange theory as a framework for examining 102 kin and 157 nonkin foster parents' perceptions of their foster children, their relationships with them, and their own functioning. The authors argue that these perceptions reflect perceived costs and benefits of parenting these children, which may influence their investment in them. All children in the study were referred to Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) for treatment of the children's behavior problems, participating with their foster parents. Analyses showed that nonkin caregivers rated their foster children's behavior problems as significantly more severe than kin caregivers but rated themselves as significantly less stressed. Analyses predicting early treatment termination showed that kin caregivers were more likely than nonkin caregivers to complete the course of treatment in PCIT, particularly if they reported elevated levels of parental distress. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for foster children's placement stability and long-term success.     

Psychosocial Factors and Physical Health during the First Year of Life Children in a New Stockholm Suburb. A Prospective Longitudinal Study. III

The study is part of a longitudinal research project of a cohort of 501 children in a Stockholm suburb. The aim of the project is to clarify the relation between the children's health and development and their home environment. The present work deals with the children's physical health during their first year of life and comparisons were made between infants in families suffering or not suffering from psychosocial stress. Indications of psychosocial stress in the homes include reports of alcohol abuse, mental disease or criminality in one or both of the parents. Judging by reports from child welfare centres and hospital records, children from homes with psychosocial stress do not have a higher rate of somatic illnesses, retarded psychomotor development and psychosomatic problems than the control children.     

Psychosocial factors and physical health during the first year of life. Children in a new Stockholm suburb. A prospective longitudinal study. III

The study is part of a longitudinal research project of a cohort of 501 children in a Stockholm suburb. The aim of the project is to clarify the relation between the children's health and development and their home environment. The present work deals with the children's physical health during their first year of life and comparisons were made between infants in families suffering or not suffering from psychosocial stress. Indications of psychosocial stress in the homes include reports of alcohol abuse, mental disease or criminality in one or both of the parents. Judging by reports from child welfare centres and hospital records, children from homes with psychosocial stress do not have a higher rate of somatic illnesses, retarded psychomotor development and psychosomatic problems than the control children.     

Maternal perceptions of lead poisoning in children with normal and elevated lead levels.

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this study was to examine mothers' perceptions of the severity and susceptibility of their children to lead poisoning and to determine if a correlation existed between mothers' knowledge of lead poisoning and their children's blood lead levels. It was thought that mothers of children with lead poisoning (lead levels > or = 10 micrograms/dL) would score lower on a test of their perceptions and knowledge of lead poisoning than would mothers of children with normal lead levels (lead levels < or = 9 micrograms/dL). METHOD: A cross-sectional study comparing scores of a questionnaire completed by mothers whose children had elevated blood lead levels and mothers whose children had normal blood lead levels was conducted. RESULTS: No difference was found in the median test score between the 2 groups. For the correct responses on a question-by-question comparison, significant difference existed between groups; however, the percentage of correct responses was not always greater for the mothers of children with normal blood lead levels. DISCUSSION: Mothers' perceptions and knowledge of lead poisoning were not associated with their children's blood lead levels.     

Factors Related to Stress and Satisfaction with Life in Families of Children with Down''s Syndrome

In a study of families of children with Down's syndrome, measures of parent, family and child characteristics were obtained from mothers and fathers. Multivariable analyses investigated their relationships to outcome measures of psychosomatic symptoms of stress and parents' perceived satisfaction with life. Personality factors were related to outcome for both parents. For mothers, the children's levels of behaviour problems, excitability and self-sufficiency were strongly related to outcome. Coping strategies, family relationships and socio-economic factors also showed significant effects. For fathers, child characteristics were not related to outcome. The marital relationship was an important factor and there was evidence that factors external to the family acted as stressors.