38 results
The pernicious role of stress on intergenerational continuity of psychopathology
- Leslie D. Leve, Veronica Oro, Misaki N. Natsuaki, Gordon T. Harold, Jenae M. Neiderhiser, Jody M. Ganiban, Daniel S. Shaw, David S. DeGarmo
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- Journal:
- Development and Psychopathology , First View
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 22 February 2024, pp. 1-14
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Development and Psychopathology has been a premier resource for understanding stressful childhood experiences and the intergenerational continuity of psychopathology. Building on that tradition, we examined the unique and joint influences of maternal stress on children’s effortful control (age 7) and externalizing behavior (age 11) as transmitted via genetics, the prenatal environment, and the postnatal environment. The sample included N = 561 adopted children and their biological and adoptive parents. Path models identified a direct effect of biological mother life stress on children’s effortful control (β = −.08) and an indirect effect of her life stress on child externalizing behavior via effortful control (β = .52), but no main or indirect effects of biological parent psychopathology, prenatal stress, or adoptive mother adverse childhood experiences (ACES). Adoptive mother ACES amplified the association between biological mother life stress and child effortful control (β = −.08), externalizing behavior (β = 1.41), and the indirect effect via effortful control, strengthening associations when adoptive mothers reported average or high ACES during their own childhoods. Results suggest that novel study designs are needed to enhance the understanding of how life stress gets “under the skin” to affect psychopathology in the offspring of adults who have experienced stress.
Using genetic designs to identify likely causal environmental contributions to psychopathology
- Ruth Sellers, Lucy Riglin, Gordon T. Harold, Anita Thapar
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- Journal:
- Development and Psychopathology / Volume 34 / Issue 5 / December 2022
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 06 October 2022, pp. 1653-1665
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The multifactorial nature of psychopathology, whereby both genetic and environmental factors contribute risk, has long been established. In this paper, we provide an update on genetically informative designs that are utilized to disentangle genetic and environmental contributions to psychopathology. We provide a brief reminder of quantitative behavioral genetic research designs that have been used to identify potentially causal environmental processes, accounting for genetic contributions. We also provide an overview of recent molecular genetic approaches that utilize genome-wide association study data which are increasingly being applied to questions relevant to psychopathology research. While genetically informative designs typically have been applied to investigate the origins of psychopathology, we highlight how these approaches can also be used to elucidate potential causal environmental processes that contribute to developmental course and outcomes. We highlight the need to use genetically sensitive designs that align with intervention and prevention science efforts, by considering strengths-based environments to investigate how positive environments can mitigate risk and promote children’s strengths.
Developmental profiles of child behavior problems from 18 months to 8 years: The protective effects of structured parenting vary by genetic risk
- Leslie D. Leve, Daniel Anderson, Gordon T. Harold, Jenae M. Neiderhiser, Misaki N. Natsuaki, Daniel S. Shaw, Jody M. Ganiban, David Reiss
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- Journal:
- Development and Psychopathology / Volume 34 / Issue 5 / December 2022
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 05 August 2022, pp. 1716-1730
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Some children are more affected by specific family environments than others, as a function of differences in their genetic make-up. However, longitudinal studies of genetic moderation of parenting effects during early childhood have not been conducted. We examined developmental profiles of child behavior problems between 18 months and age 8 in a longitudinal parent–offspring sample of 361 adopted children. In toddlerhood (18 months), observed structured parenting indexed parental guidance in service of task goals. Biological parent psychopathology served as an index of genetic influences on children’s behavior problems. Four profiles of child behavior problems were identified: low stable (11%), average stable (50%), higher stable (29%), and high increasing (11%). A multinominal logistic regression analysis indicated a genetically moderated effect of structured parenting, such that for children whose biological mother had higher psychopathology, the odds of the child being in the low stable group increased as structured parenting increased. Conversely, for children whose biological mother had lower psychopathology, the odds of being in the low stable group was reduced when structured parenting increased. Results suggest that increasing structured parenting is an effective strategy for children at higher genetic risk for psychopathology, but may be detrimental for those at lower genetic risk.
Longitudinal examination of pathways to peer problems in middle childhood: A siblings-reared-apart design
- Leslie D. Leve, Amanda M. Griffin, Misaki N. Natsuaki, Gordon T. Harold, Jenae M. Neiderhiser, Jody M. Ganiban, Daniel S. Shaw, David Reiss
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- Journal:
- Development and Psychopathology / Volume 31 / Issue 5 / December 2019
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 23 August 2019, pp. 1633-1647
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To advance research from Dishion and others on associations between parenting and peer problems across childhood, we used a sample of 177 sibling pairs reared apart since birth (because of adoption of one of the siblings) to examine associations between parental hostility and children's peer problems when children were ages 7 and 9.5 years (n = 329 children). We extended conventional cross-lagged parent–peer models by incorporating child inhibitory control as an additional predictor and examining genetic contributions via birth mother psychopathology. Path models indicated a cross-lagged association from parental hostility to later peer problems. When child inhibitory control was included, birth mother internalizing symptoms were associated with poorer child inhibitory control, which was associated with more parental hostility and peer problems. The cross-lagged paths from parental hostility to peer problems were no longer significant in the full model. Multigroup analyses revealed that the path from birth mother internalizing symptoms to child inhibitory control was significantly higher for birth parent–reared children, indicating the possible contribution of passive gene–environment correlation to this association. Exploratory analyses suggested that each child's unique rearing context contributed to his or her inhibitory control and peer behavior. Implications for the development of evidence-based interventions are discussed.
Associations between schizophrenia genetic risk, anxiety disorders and manic/hypomanic episode in a longitudinal population cohort study
- Alexander Richards, John Horwood, Joseph Boden, Martin Kennedy, Ruth Sellers, Lucy Riglin, Sumit Mistry, Hannah Jones, Daniel J. Smith, Stanley Zammit, Michael Owen, Michael C. O'Donovan, Gordon T. Harold
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- Journal:
- The British Journal of Psychiatry / Volume 214 / Issue 2 / February 2019
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 26 November 2018, pp. 96-102
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- February 2019
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Background
Studies involving clinically recruited samples show that genetic liability to schizophrenia overlaps with that for several psychiatric disorders including bipolar disorder, major depression and, in a population study, anxiety disorder and negative symptoms in adolescence.
AimsWe examined whether, at a population level, association between schizophrenia liability and anxiety disorders continues into adulthood, for specific anxiety disorders and as a group. We explored in an epidemiologically based cohort the nature of adult psychopathology sharing liability to schizophrenia.
MethodSchizophrenia polygenic risk scores (PRSs) were calculated for 590 European-descent individuals from the Christchurch Health and Development Study. Logistic regression was used to examine associations between schizophrenia PRS and four anxiety disorders (social phobia, specific phobia, panic disorder and generalised anxiety disorder), schizophrenia/schizophreniform disorder, manic/hypomanic episode, alcohol dependence, major depression, and – using linear regression – total number of anxiety disorders. A novel population-level association with hypomania was tested in a UK birth cohort (Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children).
ResultsSchizophrenia PRS was associated with total number of anxiety disorders and with generalised anxiety disorder and panic disorder. We show a novel population-level association between schizophrenia PRS and manic/hypomanic episode.
ConclusionsThe relationship between schizophrenia liability and anxiety disorders is not restricted to psychopathology in adolescence but is present in adulthood and specifically linked to generalised anxiety disorder and panic disorder. We suggest that the association between schizophrenia liability and hypomanic/manic episodes found in clinical samples may not be due to bias.
Declarations of interestNone.
Using an adoption–biological family design to examine associations between maternal trauma, maternal depressive symptoms, and child internalizing and externalizing behaviors
- Aleksandria Perez Grabow, Atika Khurana, Misaki N. Natsuaki, Jenae M. Neiderhiser, Gordon T. Harold, Daniel S. Shaw, Jody M. Ganiban, David Reiss, Leslie D. Leve
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- Journal:
- Development and Psychopathology / Volume 29 / Issue 5 / December 2017
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 22 November 2017, pp. 1707-1720
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Maternal trauma is a complex risk factor that has been linked to adverse child outcomes, yet the mechanisms underlying this association are not well understood. This study, which included adoptive and biological families, examined the heritable and environmental mechanisms by which maternal trauma and associated depressive symptoms are linked to child internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Path analyses were used to analyze data from 541 adoptive mother–adopted child (AM–AC) dyads and 126 biological mother–biological child (BM–BC) dyads; the two family types were linked through the same biological mother. Rearing mother's trauma was associated with child internalizing and externalizing behaviors in AM–AC and BM–BC dyads, and this association was mediated by rearing mothers’ depressive symptoms, with the exception of biological child externalizing behavior, for which biological mother trauma had a direct influence only. Significant associations between maternal trauma and child behavior in dyads that share only environment (i.e., AM–AC dyads) suggest an environmental mechanism of influence for maternal trauma. Significant associations were also observed between maternal depressive symptoms and child internalizing and externalizing behavior in dyads that were only genetically related, with no shared environment (i.e., BM–AC dyads), suggesting a heritable pathway of influence via maternal depressive symptoms.
Variations in Climate Since 1602 as Reconstructed from Tree Rings
- Harold C. Fritts, G. Robert Lofgren, Geoffrey A. Gordon
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- Journal:
- Quaternary Research / Volume 12 / Issue 1 / July 1979
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 20 January 2017, pp. 18-46
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Spatial anomalies of tree-ring chronologies can provide information on high-frequency spatial anomalies in paleoclimate representing droughts, colder-than-normal intervals, and other synoptic-scale features. Examples are presented in which 65 tree-ring chronologies are calibrated with spatial anomalies in North American meteorological records of seasonal temperature and precipitation, and with sea-level pressure over the North American and North Pacific sectors. Multivariate transfer functions are obtained that scale and convert the past spatial variations in the tree-ring record into estimates of past variations in the meteorological record. Objective verifications of the reconstructions are obtained using independent meteorological observations for time periods other than those used in the calibration. Historical information or other proxy data from the 19th century are also used for verifying the decadal (or longer) and regional reconstructions and for identifying strengths and weaknesses of the various sources of information. The reconstructed winter and summer temperatures for the United States and southwestern Canada and winter precipitation for the Columbia Basin and California during the 17th through 19th centuries were found to differ from the 20th century means with large-scale variations evident. Extreme winters similar to 1976–77 are also identified and found to be more frequent in the past, especially in the 17th century. The climatic reconstructions in this time domain are dominated by high-frequency, synoptic-scale fluctuations that can be interpreted as cyclonic-scale changes in atmospheric circulation. Such reconstructions may be useful for testing various climatic models and estimates developed primarily from 20th-century meteorological data against the longer estimated record for the 17th through 19th centuries.
Understanding the unfolding of stress regulation in infants
- Heidemarie K. Laurent, Gordon T. Harold, Leslie Leve, Katherine H. Shelton, Stephanie H. M. Van Goozen
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- Journal:
- Development and Psychopathology / Volume 28 / Issue 4pt2 / November 2016
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 29 March 2016, pp. 1431-1440
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Early identification of problems with psychosocial stress regulation is important for supporting mental and physical health. However, we currently lack knowledge about when reliable individual differences in stress-responsive physiology emerge and which aspects of maternal behavior determine the unfolding of infants' stress responses. Knowledge of these processes is further limited by analytic approaches that do not account for multiple levels of within- and between-family effects. In a low-risk sample (n = 100 dyads), we observed infant cortisol and mother/infant behavior during regular play and stress sessions longitudinally from age 1 to 3, and used a three-level model to separately examine variability in infant cortisol trajectories within sessions, across years, and across infants. Stable individual differences in hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal axis regulation were observed in the first 3 years of life. Infants of less sensitive and more intrusive mothers manifested stress sensitization, that is, elevated cortisol levels during and following stress exposure, a profile related to behavioral distress. These findings have important practical implications, suggesting that children at risk for long-term stress dysregulation may be identified in the earliest years of life.
Contributors
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- By Mitchell Aboulafia, Frederick Adams, Marilyn McCord Adams, Robert M. Adams, Laird Addis, James W. Allard, David Allison, William P. Alston, Karl Ameriks, C. Anthony Anderson, David Leech Anderson, Lanier Anderson, Roger Ariew, David Armstrong, Denis G. Arnold, E. J. Ashworth, Margaret Atherton, Robin Attfield, Bruce Aune, Edward Wilson Averill, Jody Azzouni, Kent Bach, Andrew Bailey, Lynne Rudder Baker, Thomas R. Baldwin, Jon Barwise, George Bealer, William Bechtel, Lawrence C. Becker, Mark A. Bedau, Ernst Behler, José A. Benardete, Ermanno Bencivenga, Jan Berg, Michael Bergmann, Robert L. Bernasconi, Sven Bernecker, Bernard Berofsky, Rod Bertolet, Charles J. Beyer, Christian Beyer, Joseph Bien, Joseph Bien, Peg Birmingham, Ivan Boh, James Bohman, Daniel Bonevac, Laurence BonJour, William J. Bouwsma, Raymond D. Bradley, Myles Brand, Richard B. Brandt, Michael E. Bratman, Stephen E. Braude, Daniel Breazeale, Angela Breitenbach, Jason Bridges, David O. Brink, Gordon G. Brittan, Justin Broackes, Dan W. Brock, Aaron Bronfman, Jeffrey E. Brower, Bartosz Brozek, Anthony Brueckner, Jeffrey Bub, Lara Buchak, Otavio Bueno, Ann E. Bumpus, Robert W. Burch, John Burgess, Arthur W. Burks, Panayot Butchvarov, Robert E. Butts, Marina Bykova, Patrick Byrne, David Carr, Noël Carroll, Edward S. Casey, Victor Caston, Victor Caston, Albert Casullo, Robert L. Causey, Alan K. L. Chan, Ruth Chang, Deen K. Chatterjee, Andrew Chignell, Roderick M. Chisholm, Kelly J. Clark, E. J. Coffman, Robin Collins, Brian P. Copenhaver, John Corcoran, John Cottingham, Roger Crisp, Frederick J. Crosson, Antonio S. Cua, Phillip D. Cummins, Martin Curd, Adam Cureton, Andrew Cutrofello, Stephen Darwall, Paul Sheldon Davies, Wayne A. Davis, Timothy Joseph Day, Claudio de Almeida, Mario De Caro, Mario De Caro, John Deigh, C. F. Delaney, Daniel C. Dennett, Michael R. DePaul, Michael Detlefsen, Daniel Trent Devereux, Philip E. Devine, John M. Dillon, Martin C. Dillon, Robert DiSalle, Mary Domski, Alan Donagan, Paul Draper, Fred Dretske, Mircea Dumitru, Wilhelm Dupré, Gerald Dworkin, John Earman, Ellery Eells, Catherine Z. Elgin, Berent Enç, Ronald P. Endicott, Edward Erwin, John Etchemendy, C. Stephen Evans, Susan L. Feagin, Solomon Feferman, Richard Feldman, Arthur Fine, Maurice A. Finocchiaro, William FitzPatrick, Richard E. Flathman, Gvozden Flego, Richard Foley, Graeme Forbes, Rainer Forst, Malcolm R. Forster, Daniel Fouke, Patrick Francken, Samuel Freeman, Elizabeth Fricker, Miranda Fricker, Michael Friedman, Michael Fuerstein, Richard A. Fumerton, Alan Gabbey, Pieranna Garavaso, Daniel Garber, Jorge L. A. Garcia, Robert K. Garcia, Don Garrett, Philip Gasper, Gerald Gaus, Berys Gaut, Bernard Gert, Roger F. Gibson, Cody Gilmore, Carl Ginet, Alan H. Goldman, Alvin I. Goldman, Alfonso Gömez-Lobo, Lenn E. Goodman, Robert M. Gordon, Stefan Gosepath, Jorge J. E. Gracia, Daniel W. Graham, George A. Graham, Peter J. Graham, Richard E. Grandy, I. Grattan-Guinness, John Greco, Philip T. Grier, Nicholas Griffin, Nicholas Griffin, David A. Griffiths, Paul J. Griffiths, Stephen R. Grimm, Charles L. Griswold, Charles B. Guignon, Pete A. Y. Gunter, Dimitri Gutas, Gary Gutting, Paul Guyer, Kwame Gyekye, Oscar A. Haac, Raul Hakli, Raul Hakli, Michael Hallett, Edward C. Halper, Jean Hampton, R. James Hankinson, K. R. Hanley, Russell Hardin, Robert M. Harnish, William Harper, David Harrah, Kevin Hart, Ali Hasan, William Hasker, John Haugeland, Roger Hausheer, William Heald, Peter Heath, Richard Heck, John F. Heil, Vincent F. Hendricks, Stephen Hetherington, Francis Heylighen, Kathleen Marie Higgins, Risto Hilpinen, Harold T. Hodes, Joshua Hoffman, Alan Holland, Robert L. Holmes, Richard Holton, Brad W. Hooker, Terence E. Horgan, Tamara Horowitz, Paul Horwich, Vittorio Hösle, Paul Hoβfeld, Daniel Howard-Snyder, Frances Howard-Snyder, Anne Hudson, Deal W. Hudson, Carl A. Huffman, David L. Hull, Patricia Huntington, Thomas Hurka, Paul Hurley, Rosalind Hursthouse, Guillermo Hurtado, Ronald E. Hustwit, Sarah Hutton, Jonathan Jenkins Ichikawa, Harry A. Ide, David Ingram, Philip J. Ivanhoe, Alfred L. Ivry, Frank Jackson, Dale Jacquette, Joseph Jedwab, Richard Jeffrey, David Alan Johnson, Edward Johnson, Mark D. Jordan, Richard Joyce, Hwa Yol Jung, Robert Hillary Kane, Tomis Kapitan, Jacquelyn Ann K. Kegley, James A. Keller, Ralph Kennedy, Sergei Khoruzhii, Jaegwon Kim, Yersu Kim, Nathan L. King, Patricia Kitcher, Peter D. Klein, E. D. Klemke, Virginia Klenk, George L. Kline, Christian Klotz, Simo Knuuttila, Joseph J. Kockelmans, Konstantin Kolenda, Sebastian Tomasz Kołodziejczyk, Isaac Kramnick, Richard Kraut, Fred Kroon, Manfred Kuehn, Steven T. Kuhn, Henry E. Kyburg, John Lachs, Jennifer Lackey, Stephen E. Lahey, Andrea Lavazza, Thomas H. Leahey, Joo Heung Lee, Keith Lehrer, Dorothy Leland, Noah M. Lemos, Ernest LePore, Sarah-Jane Leslie, Isaac Levi, Andrew Levine, Alan E. Lewis, Daniel E. Little, Shu-hsien Liu, Shu-hsien Liu, Alan K. L. Chan, Brian Loar, Lawrence B. Lombard, John Longeway, Dominic McIver Lopes, Michael J. Loux, E. J. Lowe, Steven Luper, Eugene C. Luschei, William G. Lycan, David Lyons, David Macarthur, Danielle Macbeth, Scott MacDonald, Jacob L. Mackey, Louis H. Mackey, Penelope Mackie, Edward H. Madden, Penelope Maddy, G. B. Madison, Bernd Magnus, Pekka Mäkelä, Rudolf A. Makkreel, David Manley, William E. Mann (W.E.M.), Vladimir Marchenkov, Peter Markie, Jean-Pierre Marquis, Ausonio Marras, Mike W. Martin, A. P. Martinich, William L. McBride, David McCabe, Storrs McCall, Hugh J. McCann, Robert N. McCauley, John J. McDermott, Sarah McGrath, Ralph McInerny, Daniel J. McKaughan, Thomas McKay, Michael McKinsey, Brian P. McLaughlin, Ernan McMullin, Anthonie Meijers, Jack W. Meiland, William Jason Melanson, Alfred R. Mele, Joseph R. Mendola, Christopher Menzel, Michael J. Meyer, Christian B. Miller, David W. Miller, Peter Millican, Robert N. Minor, Phillip Mitsis, James A. Montmarquet, Michael S. Moore, Tim Moore, Benjamin Morison, Donald R. Morrison, Stephen J. Morse, Paul K. Moser, Alexander P. D. Mourelatos, Ian Mueller, James Bernard Murphy, Mark C. Murphy, Steven Nadler, Jan Narveson, Alan Nelson, Jerome Neu, Samuel Newlands, Kai Nielsen, Ilkka Niiniluoto, Carlos G. Noreña, Calvin G. Normore, David Fate Norton, Nikolaj Nottelmann, Donald Nute, David S. Oderberg, Steve Odin, Michael O’Rourke, Willard G. Oxtoby, Heinz Paetzold, George S. Pappas, Anthony J. Parel, Lydia Patton, R. P. Peerenboom, Francis Jeffry Pelletier, Adriaan T. Peperzak, Derk Pereboom, Jaroslav Peregrin, Glen Pettigrove, Philip Pettit, Edmund L. Pincoffs, Andrew Pinsent, Robert B. Pippin, Alvin Plantinga, Louis P. Pojman, Richard H. Popkin, John F. Post, Carl J. Posy, William J. Prior, Richard Purtill, Michael Quante, Philip L. Quinn, Philip L. Quinn, Elizabeth S. Radcliffe, Diana Raffman, Gerard Raulet, Stephen L. Read, Andrews Reath, Andrew Reisner, Nicholas Rescher, Henry S. Richardson, Robert C. Richardson, Thomas Ricketts, Wayne D. Riggs, Mark Roberts, Robert C. Roberts, Luke Robinson, Alexander Rosenberg, Gary Rosenkranz, Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal, Adina L. Roskies, William L. Rowe, T. M. Rudavsky, Michael Ruse, Bruce Russell, Lilly-Marlene Russow, Dan Ryder, R. M. Sainsbury, Joseph Salerno, Nathan Salmon, Wesley C. Salmon, Constantine Sandis, David H. Sanford, Marco Santambrogio, David Sapire, Ruth A. Saunders, Geoffrey Sayre-McCord, Charles Sayward, James P. Scanlan, Richard Schacht, Tamar Schapiro, Frederick F. Schmitt, Jerome B. Schneewind, Calvin O. Schrag, Alan D. Schrift, George F. Schumm, Jean-Loup Seban, David N. Sedley, Kenneth Seeskin, Krister Segerberg, Charlene Haddock Seigfried, Dennis M. Senchuk, James F. Sennett, William Lad Sessions, Stewart Shapiro, Tommie Shelby, Donald W. Sherburne, Christopher Shields, Roger A. Shiner, Sydney Shoemaker, Robert K. Shope, Kwong-loi Shun, Wilfried Sieg, A. John Simmons, Robert L. Simon, Marcus G. Singer, Georgette Sinkler, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Matti T. Sintonen, Lawrence Sklar, Brian Skyrms, Robert C. Sleigh, Michael Anthony Slote, Hans Sluga, Barry Smith, Michael Smith, Robin Smith, Robert Sokolowski, Robert C. Solomon, Marta Soniewicka, Philip Soper, Ernest Sosa, Nicholas Southwood, Paul Vincent Spade, T. L. S. Sprigge, Eric O. Springsted, George J. Stack, Rebecca Stangl, Jason Stanley, Florian Steinberger, Sören Stenlund, Christopher Stephens, James P. Sterba, Josef Stern, Matthias Steup, M. A. Stewart, Leopold Stubenberg, Edith Dudley Sulla, Frederick Suppe, Jere Paul Surber, David George Sussman, Sigrún Svavarsdóttir, Zeno G. Swijtink, Richard Swinburne, Charles C. Taliaferro, Robert B. Talisse, John Tasioulas, Paul Teller, Larry S. Temkin, Mark Textor, H. S. Thayer, Peter Thielke, Alan Thomas, Amie L. Thomasson, Katherine Thomson-Jones, Joshua C. Thurow, Vzalerie Tiberius, Terrence N. Tice, Paul Tidman, Mark C. Timmons, William Tolhurst, James E. Tomberlin, Rosemarie Tong, Lawrence Torcello, Kelly Trogdon, J. D. Trout, Robert E. Tully, Raimo Tuomela, John Turri, Martin M. Tweedale, Thomas Uebel, Jennifer Uleman, James Van Cleve, Harry van der Linden, Peter van Inwagen, Bryan W. Van Norden, René van Woudenberg, Donald Phillip Verene, Samantha Vice, Thomas Vinci, Donald Wayne Viney, Barbara Von Eckardt, Peter B. M. Vranas, Steven J. Wagner, William J. Wainwright, Paul E. Walker, Robert E. Wall, Craig Walton, Douglas Walton, Eric Watkins, Richard A. Watson, Michael V. Wedin, Rudolph H. Weingartner, Paul Weirich, Paul J. Weithman, Carl Wellman, Howard Wettstein, Samuel C. Wheeler, Stephen A. White, Jennifer Whiting, Edward R. Wierenga, Michael Williams, Fred Wilson, W. Kent Wilson, Kenneth P. Winkler, John F. Wippel, Jan Woleński, Allan B. Wolter, Nicholas P. Wolterstorff, Rega Wood, W. Jay Wood, Paul Woodruff, Alison Wylie, Gideon Yaffe, Takashi Yagisawa, Yutaka Yamamoto, Keith E. Yandell, Xiaomei Yang, Dean Zimmerman, Günter Zoller, Catherine Zuckert, Michael Zuckert, Jack A. Zupko (J.A.Z.)
- Edited by Robert Audi, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
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- The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy
- Published online:
- 05 August 2015
- Print publication:
- 27 April 2015, pp ix-xxx
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Concerns regarding an evaluation of MTFC-A for adolescents in English care
- Gordon T. Harold, David S. DeGarmo
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- The British Journal of Psychiatry / Volume 205 / Issue 6 / December 2014
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 02 January 2018, p. 498
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- December 2014
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Maternal caregiving and girls' depressive symptom and antisocial behavior trajectories: An examination among high-risk youth
- Gordon T. Harold, Leslie D. Leve, Hyoun K. Kim, Liam Mahedy, Darya Gaysina, Anita Thapar, Stephan Collishaw
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- Journal:
- Development and Psychopathology / Volume 26 / Issue 4pt2 / November 2014
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 25 November 2014, pp. 1461-1475
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Past research has identified maternal depression and family of origin maltreatment as precursors to adolescent depression and antisocial behavior. Caregiving experiences have been identified as a factor that may ameliorate or accentuate adolescent psychopathology trajectories. Using a multilevel approach that pools the unique attributes of two geographically diverse, yet complementary, longitudinal research designs, the present study examined the role of maternal caregiver involvement as a factor that promotes resilience-based trajectories related to depressive symptoms and antisocial behaviors among adolescent girls. The first sample comprises a group of US-based adolescent girls in foster care (n = 100; mean age = 11.50 years), each of whom had a history of childhood maltreatment and removal from their biological parent(s). The second sample comprises a group of UK-based adolescent girls at high familial risk for depression (n = 145; mean age = 11.70 years), with all girls having biological mothers who experienced recurrent depression. Analyses examined the role of maternal caregiving on girls' trajectories of depression and antisocial behavior, while controlling for levels of co-occurring psychopathology at each time point. Results suggest increasing levels of depressive symptoms for girls at familial risk for depression but decreasing levels of depression for girls in foster care. Foster girls' antisocial behavior also decreased over time. Maternal caregiver involvement was differentially related to intercept and slope parameters in both samples. Results are discussed with respect to the benefits of applying multilevel (multisample, multiple outcome) approaches to identifying family-level factors that can reduce negative developmental outcomes in high-risk youth.
Preface
- Jenny Reynolds, Catherine Houlston, Lester Coleman, Gordon Harold, University of Sussex
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- Parental Conflict
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 04 February 2022
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- 31 January 2014, pp ix-xii
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Summary
According to a recent UK government report (Casey, 2012), families experience ‘legacies of trouble’ with serious problems passed on from one generation to the next. Specifically, children who experience early trauma such as parental abuse, maltreatment, poor parenting and high levels of inter-parental conflict and violence are at serious risk not only in terms of their own wellbeing, but also in relation to the perpetuation of these behaviours across generations. Rather than offer quick-fix solutions to addressing endemic family problems, the Casey report concludes what scientific evidence has emphasised for several decades: that if we are to address the needs of children in families, we must look beyond trying to fix single problems in the short term, to addressing multiple causes and multiple outcomes associated with harsh family experiences that cause families and the individuals that comprise them significant difficulties in the short and long term. We must also recognise that remediating these problems such that improvements or positive changes in the quality of life that individuals experience takes time.
With this objective in mind, there cannot be a more important task across the complementary fields of child development research, social work and clinical practice, health and education, intervention development and family policy than the promotion of knowledge and public understanding as to what promotes healthy child development and positive family functioning – as it is recognised that healthy families are the bedrock of a healthy society.
What makes or breaks a healthy family? Many factors contribute to addressing this question of significant social, clinical and policy relevance. One of the strongest predictors of how a family functions however relates to how adults in any given family experienced family life as children. Specifically, the economic and cultural circumstances, levels of parental support and parenting experiences, the compositional type of family (e.g. cohabiting, married, single, divorced, remarried), attributes of parental mental health and the quality of relations between parents/caregivers serve as strong predictors of healthy child development and long-term wellbeing. By understanding how these factors affect children in the short and long term, we are better positioned to understand how we may help troubled families, endorse and help sustain well-functioning families and ultimately remediate the significant personal, economic and societal costs of broken families and the individuals that comprise them.
Parental Conflict
- Outcomes and Interventions for Children and Families
- Jenny Reynolds, Catherine Houlston, Lester Coleman, Gordon Harold
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- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 04 February 2022
- Print publication:
- 31 January 2014
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The book shows how children are affected by conflict, explores why they respond to conflict in different ways, and provides clear, practical guidance on the best ways to ameliorate the effects.
4 - How does inter-parental conflict affect children?
- Jenny Reynolds, Catherine Houlston, Lester Coleman, Gordon Harold, University of Sussex
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- Parental Conflict
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 04 February 2022
- Print publication:
- 31 January 2014, pp 33-50
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Summary
The previous chapter sets out how the distress children experience when exposed to conflict between parents can translate into long-term difficulties, including emotional and behavioural problems, troubled relationships and failure to settle and achieve at school (e.g. see Rhoades, 2008; Cummings and Davies, 2010). As the body of research documenting an association between a high conflict home and poor outcomes for children has grown, over the last decade research attention has turned to examining the mechanisms that explain these poor outcomes, the focus of this current chapter. Explanations fall broadly into two categories. First, inter-parental conflict affects parenting and the quality of the relationship between parent and child (i.e. conflict between parents ‘spills over’ to the parent–child relationship). Secondly, children's negative cognitive and emotional responses to conflict, including how they represent or perceive family relationships, make them vulnerable to adjustment difficulties.
Inter-parental conflict and troubled family relationships
One of the ways that inter-parental conflict influences children's adjustment is through its impact on parenting and the parent–child relationship (Schoppe-Sullivan et al., 2007; Cox et al., 2001; Erel and Burman, 1995). Distress in the couple relationship can be expressed through a range of unhelpful parenting behaviours, from highly intrusive and harsh parenting through to lax, inconsistent and emotionally unavailable parenting.
Harsh discipline and intrusive parenting
In keeping with a ‘spillover’ hypothesis, suggesting that negative emotions in the couple relationship spill over to the parent–child relationship(s), parenting in high conflict homes can be characterised by aggression, criticism, verbal and physical threat, yelling, hitting and shoving (Holden and Ritchie, 1991; Jenkins and Smith, 1991). A body of evidence links harsh parenting to children's externalising (Gonzales et al., 2000; Buehler and Gerard, 2002; Buehler et al., 2006; Benson et al., 2008; Harold et al., 2012) and internalising problems (Doyle and Markiewicz, 2005; Buehler et al., 2006) arising out of conflict between parents. Parents may also become psychologically controlling – attempting to influence children's thoughts, feelings and attitudes in line with their own expectations – again with deleterious outcomes for children (Krishnakumar et al., 2003; Doyle and Markiewicz, 2005; Buehler et al., 2006; Schoppe-Sullivan et al., 2007).
Frontmatter
- Jenny Reynolds, Catherine Houlston, Lester Coleman, Gordon Harold, University of Sussex
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References
- Jenny Reynolds, Catherine Houlston, Lester Coleman, Gordon Harold, University of Sussex
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7 - Implications for practice: How to help families
- Jenny Reynolds, Catherine Houlston, Lester Coleman, Gordon Harold, University of Sussex
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Summary
This chapter explores the implications of the findings presented in the last chapter on couple interventions. It aims to highlight what this means for those working with families in trying to help parents manage their conflict and avoid its potentially harmful influence on children. The limitations of current intervention research and new innovative ideas for dealing with inter-parental conflict are also highlighted in this chapter.
When should we intervene?
Early intervention is believed to offer benefits in longterm outcomes and is considered to be more effective than treatment-based interventions, which are provided once problems arise (Rutter, 2010). Many of the programmes presented in the last chapter focus on a prevention-based approach by identifying couples and families who may be at risk of experiencing higher stress and couple disagreement, rather than those who are already characterised by entrenched levels of conflict. Even the programmes aimed at separated and divorced parents predominately target those with a more normative and less extreme conflict style (McIntosh and Deacon-Wood, 2003). It is widely recognised that behaviour change is greater and more sustainable with earlier intervention, rather than trying to change ingrained and longstanding patterns of interaction (Dolan et al., 2010).
Early intervention is important, but how early is early enough?
The evidence from relationship education or preparation programmes indicates that couple interventions have traditionally been applied to couples entering marriage. Entry to marriage represents a key time for intervention as some couples may face significant challenges as they adapt to the changes and new commitment in their relationship. However, for many couples, marriage may not represent the beginning of a relationship in the same way as it did in the past. The majority of couples now cohabit before marriage and a growing number also have a child or children outside of marriage (Hunt, 2009; Lloyd and Lacey, 2012). These changes in relationship formation mean that interventions are also offered during other transition points and life course changes, such as the transition to parenthood.
A diverse and flexible approach of when to target relationship intervention may be best in order to reach couples when they are more receptive to help and support, and perhaps more motivated to change behaviours if necessary (Halford, 2004; Hawkins et al., 2004; Cowan et al., 2010).
5 - Risk and resilience: why are some children affected more than others?
- Jenny Reynolds, Catherine Houlston, Lester Coleman, Gordon Harold, University of Sussex
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Conflict between parents can have a long-lasting impact on children's wellbeing and development. However, as noted in Chapter 1, some children may be exposed to similar levels of hostility and aggression between parents and remain relatively unscathed by it. A comprehensive understanding of the impact of parental conflict therefore requires consideration as to why some children are more vulnerable to its impact than others. Moreover, identifying the mechanisms that explain why some children experience serious difficulties in the context of inter-parental conflict, while other children seem relatively unaffected (i.e. resilient) enables us to develop more effective support targeted at children and families most vulnerable and at risk.
This is vividly demonstrated by research into the processes occurring within the family when families experience economic pressure; a recognised risk factor for children (Conger et al., 1999). According to one well-supported theoretical model, under the strain of economic pressure parents are vulnerable to developing depression. Parental depression increases the likelihood of increased conflict and violence between parents, which in turn undermines parenting, thereby increasing the risk of children developing mental health difficulties (Conger et al., 1994). The theoretical model highlights the role of inter-parental conflict as a mediator, or vehicle through to harsh parenting practices, which in turn influence children's psychological outcomes as a result of the emotional strain of coping with difficult financial circumstances. This model focuses on economic pressure, but similar processes can apply in the case of other risk factors (e.g. parental divorce). These carefully researched explanatory models are helpful in isolating and understanding, not only the factors that may trigger increased inter-parental conflict, but also in understanding how inter-parental conflict as a factor in and of itself helps to explain poor developmental outcomes for children.
This chapter explores those factors which leave some children at risk and others resilient to the impact of conflict between parents. These factors are divided into i) the characteristics of the child, ii) characteristics of the family (including generational cycles of conflict), and iii) social, cultural or other factors outside of the family.
Child characteristics
Sex of parent and sex of child
The sex of the child and the sex of the parent and how these interact are all factors that may help to explain why some children fare better than others. Some early research appeared to suggest that boys may be more vulnerable to the impact of inter-parental conflict than girls.
3 - The impact of inter-parental conflict on children
- Jenny Reynolds, Catherine Houlston, Lester Coleman, Gordon Harold, University of Sussex
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Summary
There exists a long standing and wide ranging body of evidence, going back over 30 years, documenting children's reactions to parental conflict (for reviews see Cummings and Davies, 1994; Grych and Fincham, 2001). This includes evidence collected using experimental, longitudinal, and naturalistic approaches to data collection, as children watch recordings of adults arguing or give their reactions to different scenarios) under carefully controlled experimental conditions (e.g. Davies et al., 2006). It also includes data from interviews with, or questionnaires completed by, parents, children and teachers (Cummings et al., 2002; Cummings et al., 2003). This involves children, parents and families being followed for long periods of time (longitudinal studies; see Harold and Conger, 1997), or other innovative means of obtaining children's views, such as using puppets (Ablow and Measelle, 2009), as well as diary accounts and observational studies (Crockenberg et al., 2007).
Together the data demonstrate that, in general, children are highly sensitive to parental conflict and their distress is apparent from an early age; as early as six months old according to some studies (Cummings and Davies, 1994; Harold et al., 2004; Crockenberg et al., 2007; Moore, 2010). Children's distress is apparent in facial expressions, gestures and actions indicating fear and anxiety, in biological regulatory processes i.e. how the body and brain respond to stressful situations (Van Goozen et al., 2007; Davies et al., 2008; El-Sheikh and Erath, 2011), and in their own accounts where children talk about being angry, sad, frightened or responsible (Smart et al., 2000; Dunn and Deater-Deckard, 2001). Children may also have different emotional responses to conflict depending on the nature of the dispute. For example, one study found children react to escalating and unresolved conflict with fear, while escalating conflicts about child-rearing provoke anger and sadness (Koss et al., 2011). This chapter looks at how these immediate responses translate into long-term difficulties for children who are exposed to destructive conflict between parents.
Emotional regulation: externalising and internalising problems
Two of the most well-established and most common outcomes for children are internalising (emotional) and externalising (behavioural) problems respectively (Cummings and Davies, 1994; Grych and Fincham, 2001). Over the last decade research has built on this large body of work and sought to identify the mechanisms underlying the link between inter-parental conflict and children's internalising and externalising symptoms respectively (see Davies et al., 2002; Davies et al., 2004; El-Sheikh et al., 2008).
2 - Understanding different types of conflict
- Jenny Reynolds, Catherine Houlston, Lester Coleman, Gordon Harold, University of Sussex
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Summary
For many children conflict between parents is a natural and normal part of family life and does not signify the demise of the parents’ relationship or any serious threat to wellbeing. For other children, however, conflict between parents is a serious source of stress with debilitating implications for their emotional and behavioural development (Harold and Leve, 2012). What constitutes differences in children's adaptation to inter-parental conflict?
How this conflict is handled is of primary importance when explaining child outcomes. Important aspects are the intensity of the conflict, the negativity expressed, or emotional tone, the behaviours parents adopt towards one another, the topic of conflict, and if and how things are resolved. Indeed, Lavner and Bradbury (2012) note the importance of negative communication having the capacity to erode relationships and lead to divorce, even among ‘satisfied newly-weds’. This recent study emphasises the point that conflict and negative communication is a matter of great influence on the stability and quality of couple relationships, and one worthy of investment through intervention programmes, such as those reviewed in Chapter 6. The paper concludes:
‘Thus it may only be several years into marriage – when additional stress emerges, or when fundamental disagreements about life values boil over – that negative communication exerts its impact…the present findings reaffirm the value of targeting negative communication in preventive interventions.’ (from Lavner and Bradbury, 2012, p 8).
What type of conflict matters?
One important aspect of conflict is how often parents argue. Rather than getting used to conflict, children become more sensitive or reactive to it as they experience more of it (Erath and Bierman, 2006). In addition to the detrimental effects of frequent conflict, the content of conflict is also important in explaining effects on children. How parents argue, what they argue about, whether or not conflicts are about the child, and the extent to which conflict is resolved all influence whether or not children are adversely affected by conflict. Earlier work on children and inter-parental conflict distinguished between destructive, constructive and productive conflict suggesting that conflict could be productive when children learn from observing parents handle disagreements well. More recently, researchers have focused on the distinction between constructive and destructive conflict, rather than productive conflict (Goeke- Morey et al., 2003).