Motivation to Abstain from Drinking as a Moderator of Associations Between Parent and Offspring Problem Drinking.

OBJECTIVE: Motivational processes are key factors in the development and maintenance of problem drinking and include motivation to drink as well as motivation to abstain from drinking. Although motivation to drink has been widely studied, little research has considered motivation to abstain from drinking. The current study addresses this gap in research by exploring the role of motivation to abstain from drinking based on dispositional risk, fear of negative consequences, religious and family constraints, and indifference to alcohol in associations between mother and father problem drinking and the problem drinking of college students. METHOD: Data were collected from 337 U.S. college students (77.2% female, 86% White) who reported on their exposure to mother and father problem drinking, their own problem drinking, and their motivation to abstain from drinking for several reasons. RESULTS: Findings supported the protective role of motivation to abstain from drinking based on fear of negative consequences of drinking. Persons exposed to parental problem drinking who had low motivation to abstain from alcohol based on dispositional risk were vulnerable to the intergenerational transmission of problem drinking. In addition, motivation to abstain from drinking based religious or family constraints was associated with lower problem drinking regardless of exposure to parental problem drinking. CONCLUSIONS: Conviction-related motivation may be a powerful motivation to abstain from drinking, including among persons at risk due to parental problem drinking.

Attachment and prosocial behavior in middle childhood: The role of emotion regulation.

There is a lack of research on the development of prosocial behavior in middle childhood. The current study addressed this gap through the application of attachment theory; attachment security has been shown to promote prosocial behavior in early childhood, and emotion regulation may be an important intervening variable in this association. A sample of 199 children (aged 6-12 years) reported on their attachment internal working models for the mother-child and father-child relationships, parents reported on child emotion regulation and emotional lability/dysregulation, and children completed a sticker donation task to assess their prosocial behavior. Child emotional lability/dysregulation served as an intervening variable in the association between father-child attachment security (communication and trust) and greater sticker donation. Mother-child and father-child attachment security was also associated with child emotion regulation, but emotion regulation was not associated with sticker donation. Findings suggest that secure attachment may foster prosocial behavior toward peers in middle childhood primarily by reducing dysregulated responses to the distress of others.

Impacts of Victim Resistance and Type of Assault on Legal Decision-Making in Child Sexual Assault.

Prior studies have examined the effects of victim resistance and type of assault (attempted or completed) on perceptions of adult rape cases. However, research has not yet tested whether these findings extend to verdicts rendered in child rape cases, nor has research focused on how perceptions of victim and defendant characteristics in child rape cases may contribute to legal decision-making. In the present study, a 2 (attempted or completed sexual assault) x 3 (victim resistance: verbal-only, verbal with outside interruption, or physical) x 2 (participant sex) between-participant design was used to assess legal decision-making involving a hypothetical criminal case of child rape, with a six-year-old female victim and a 30-year-old male perpetrator. Three-hundred and thirty-five participants read a criminal trial summary and answered questions about the trial, the victim, and the defendant. Results revealed that: (a) when a victim physically resisted, compared to verbally resisted, more guilty judgments were rendered, (b) when the victim physically resisted, higher ratings for aggregated factors for Victim Credibility and Negative Perceptions of the Defendant were given, leading to more guilty verdicts, and (c) female participants were more likely than male participants to render a guilty verdict. No differences in verdict rendered between the verbal with interruption (e.g., knocking on door) and verbal-only conditions were found, nor did type of assault lead to differences in verdict rendered. Implications for child sexual assault cases and the courtroom, as well as implications for practitioners, are provided.

Salivary Markers of Stress in Grandparents Rearing Grandchildren in Rural Appalachia: The Role of Mental Health, Religiosity, and Social Support.

This study examines changes in salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase among grandparents rearing grandchildren in rural Appalachia. Grandparent-caregivers experience greater stress than non-grandparent-caregivers. Participants included 20 grandparent-caregivers and a child for which they cared, who completed questionnaires assessing family functioning and mental health via interview. Grandparent-caregivers provided morning saliva samples once a year for two years. For grandparent-caregivers low in social support and religiosity, grandparent-caregiver depressive symptoms, child depressive symptoms, and child stress were associated with increased grandparent-caregiver salivary alpha-amylase. For grandparent-caregivers high in social support and religiosity, child depressive symptoms, child stress, and child aggression were associated with increased grandparent-caregiver cortisol.

Habitual use of psychological coping strategies is associated with physiological stress responding during negative memory recollection in humans.

Research has identified a variety of strategies people use to cope with stress and that the adaptiveness of various strategies depends on the context in which they are used. However, important questions remain about the role of physiological stress response systems in supporting, influencing, or changing from coping strategies. This study works toward addressing this gap by examining associations between skin conductance level (SCL) and habitual use of coping strategies. It was hypothesized that more use of problem-focused strategies would be associated with SCL trajectories that were more stable and decreased less steeply, with the opposite trend hypothesized for more use of emotion-focused strategies. Participants were 188 college students (78% female) who reported their use of 14 coping strategies. SCL was recorded during recall of a negative family memory from childhood for five minutes. Trajectories of SCL during the recall were estimated with multilevel modeling. Greater self-distraction, planning, active coping, use of emotional support, and coping flexibility were related to trajectories of SCL that decreased less steeply and were more stable. Problem-focused coping and coping flexibility are, therefore, related to reduced SCL reactivity and promoting these skills may benefit mental health.

Child emotion lability is associated with within-task changes of autonomic activity during a mirror-tracing task.

Adaptive biological and emotional stress responding are both critical for healthy human development. However, the complex associations between the two are not fully understood. The current study addresses this gap in research by studying associations of child emotion regulation and lability with within-task changes in the biological stress response during a mirror-tracing task. Participants were 59 families including two parents and a child between 5 and 12 years old (52.2% female). Parents reported on family demographics and completed the Emotion Regulation Checklist. Child skin conductance level (SCL) and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) were recorded during a baseline task and during a 3-minute mirror-tracing task. Within-task patterns of SCL and RSA during the task were estimated with multilevel modeling (measures within persons). The emotion regulation subscale was unrelated to any facet of SCL/RSA time courses. However, lower emotion lability was related to SCL patterns that changed less during the task and were overall lower. For RSA, lower emotion lability was related to higher initial RSA that significantly decreased during the task. These findings suggest that higher child emotion lability may promote increased physiological arousal of target organs during challenging activities.

Parent Grandiose Narcissism and Child Socio-Emotional Well Being: The Role of Parenting.

Previous research has highlighted how parent narcissism relates to parenting broadly. However, research has not examined how facets of grandiose narcissism are associated with parenting tactics, nor how these facets may indirectly affect child development. The current study assesses parenting tactics as intervening variables in associations between facets of grandiose narcissism and child internalizing/externalizing. Participants were 457 parents of a child between six and 18. Parents completed a survey assessing grandiose narcissism, positive and negative parenting tactics, and reported on child internalizing/externalizing behaviors. Higher parent grandiosity and entitlement/exploitation were associated with more negative parenting tactics and less positive parenting tactics. Negative parenting tactics intervened in relations between these facets of grandiose narcissism and child internalizing and externalizing. Conversely, higher levels of leadership/authority were related to more positive parenting tactics. Results suggest that deficits in parenting may be a mechanism for how parent grandiose narcissism relates to child mental health.

Parental drinking and observations of parent-child problem-solving discussions: Do drinking motives matter?

Alcohol is often used for emotion-regulation purposes, yet there has been little research on how emotion-regulation drinking motives relate to parenting. The present study addresses this gap by investigating possible interactions between parent drinking and drinking motives in the prediction of parenting and child affectivity during a problem-solving interaction. Participants included 199 two-parent families with a child between the ages of 6 and 12 years. Mothers and fathers self-reported their drinking and drinking motivations, and each parent separately took part in a 5-min parent-child problem-solving discussion about a topic that the parent identified as a frequent source of conflict. These discussions were later coded for parent rejection and coercion and child positive and negative affectivity. Father enhancement motives were independently related to father harsh parenting and indirectly related to lower child positive affect and greater child negative affect. Mother drinking to regulate positive and negative emotions interacted with mother drinking in association with mother harsh parenting, father harsh parenting, and child positive and negative affect during father-child interactions. Although the pattern of these interactions differed, the combination of mother greater drinking and coping or enhancement motives tended to have higher harsh parenting, child positive affect, and child negative affect. These findings indicate that parents' emotion-regulation motives for drinking warrant greater attention from researchers to understand the impact of parent drinking on parenting and emotional development of children. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The Impact of Victim Demeanor on Jurors' Perceptions of a Sexual Harassment Victim.

Despite the prevalence of sexual harassment in the workplace, little research has investigated the role of victim demeanor in perceptions of sexual harassment cases. The present study varied whether the victim cried while testifying by using drawings of the victim. Participants were presented with a civil trial summary and asked to make trial-related judgments. Overall, factors representing participants' perceptions of victim credibility and victim negative emotions were higher when the victim cried than when she did not. The factor representing victim credibility also mediated the relationship between victim demeanor and trial outcomes. Finally, cognitive networks demonstrated that victim demeanor was important to participants' decision-making. The legal implications of the findings are discussed.

Exposure to intimate partner aggression during childhood is associated with blunted skin conductance recovery following stress in early adulthood.

This study examines skin conductance level (SCL) trajectories and childhood exposure to intimate partner aggression (IPA) committed between parents in a sample of college students. Although IPA among parents does not directly involve children, children frequently see or are exposed to IPA first-hand when it occurs. This exposure to IPA increases risks for psychopathology and emotional or behavioral difficulties for children or adolescents later in life. However, research has not yet examined the stress response patterns of individuals exposed to IPA, nor how reactivity to stress may be altered based on this exposure. Participants included 161 college students who completed questionnaires assessing demographics, mental health, and exposure to IPA, and also reported on family functioning and parental drinking habits. Additionally, participants completed a three-minute mirror tracing task followed by a three-minute recovery period while SCL was monitored. Multilevel modeling was used to assess whether frequency or level of exposure to IPA was related to trajectories of SCL. Neither variable was related to SCL trajectories during the mirror-tracing task. However, both frequency and level of exposure were related to SCL trajectories during the recovery period, such that for participants reporting higher levels of either IPA exposure variable, SCL trajectories during recovery declined less rapidly and did not decline to as low of a level compared to participants reporting lower levels of IPA exposure. This blunted SCL recovery may be due to wear and tear from repeated innervation, or a calibrating of the SCL response to adapt to a volatile home environment.