Measurement invariance of the Coparenting Relationship Scale (CRS) across 10 countries.

The purpose of this study was to assess the factor structure and the measurement invariance of the Coparenting Relationship Scale (CRS) across 10 countries based on the seven-factor coparenting model (i.e., Coparenting Agreement, Coparenting Closeness, Exposure to Conflict, Coparenting Support, Endorsement of Partner's Parenting; Division of Labor) proposed by Feinberg (2003). The results of research on coparenting from numerous countries have documented its foundational importance for parent mental health, family relationship quality, child development, and psychopathology. Yet, a cross-country perspective is still lacking. Such a perspective can provide insight into which dimensions of coparenting are universally recognized and which are especially prone to variation. A unique multinational data set, comprised of 15 individual studies collected across 10 countries (Belgium, Brazil, China, Israel, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Switzerland, Turkey, USA) in nine languages was established (N = 9,292; 51.1% mothers). Measurement invariance analyses were conducted. A six-factor structure (original seven factors minus Division of Labor) of the measure was consistent across the different contexts and measurement invariance was achieved at the configural level. There was no support for metric or scalar invariance. These findings provide a basis for the CRS to be used across countries and should inspire future quantitative and qualitative research in cross-country coparenting research to understand what aspects are universal and what aspects of coparenting are linked to specific material, relational, or ideational conditions that underlie high-quality coparenting. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Cumulative family stress and externalizing problems: Secure base script knowledge as a protective factor.

The current study examined whether secure base script knowledge can buffer against higher concurrent externalizing problems and against relative increases in externalizing problems associated with cumulative family stress. We conducted a one-year longitudinal study with two waves between 2017 and 2019 in which 272 Dutch-speaking Western European children from Flanders (47.8% boys, M age = 10.20 , SD age = 0.60 ) participated. Secure base script knowledge was associated with lower concurrent externalizing problems (f2  = 0.03). High levels of secure base script knowledge also buffered against relative increases in externalizing problems associated with cumulative family risk (f2  = 0.02). These findings suggest that secure base script knowledge can mitigate the negative effects of a stressful family environment on externalizing problems.

Mild daily stress, in interaction with NR3C1 DNA methylation levels, is linked to alterations in the HPA axis and ANS response to acute stress in early adolescents.

BACKGROUND: Daily Hassles (DH) or daily stress - is a mild type of stressor with unique contributions to psychological distress. Yet, most prior studies that investigate the effects of stressful life experiences focus on childhood trauma or on early life stress and little is known about the effects of DH on epigenetic changes in stress system related genes and on the physiological response to social stressors. METHODS: In the present study, conducted among 101 early adolescents (mean age = 11.61; SD = 0.64), we investigated whether Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) (namely heart rate and heart rate variability) and Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis functioning (measured as cortisol stress reactivity and recovery) are associated with DNA methylation (DNAm) in the glucocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C1), the level of DH and their interaction. To assess the stress system functioning the TSST protocol was used. RESULTS: Our findings show that higher NR3C1 DNAm in interaction with higher levels of daily hassles, is associated with blunted HPA axis reactivity to psychosocial stress. In addition, higher levels of DH are associated with extended HPA axis stress recovery. In addition, participants with higher NR3C1 DNAm had lower ANS adaptability to stress, specifically lower parasympathetic withdrawal; for heart rate variability this effect was strongest for participants with higher level of DH. CONCLUSIONS: The observation that interaction effects between NR3C1 DNAm levels and daily stress on the functioning of the stress-systems, are already detectable in young adolescents, highlights the importance of early interventions, not only in the case of trauma, but also daily stress. This might help to prevent stress-induced mental and physical disorders later in life.

Investigating the interplay between parenting dimensions and styles, and the association with adolescent outcomes.

Research has indicated that a strictly dimensional or parental style approach does not capture the full complexity of parenting. To better understand this complexity, the current study combined these two approaches using a novel statistical technique, i.e., subspace K-means clustering. Four objectives were addressed. First, the study tried to identify meaningful groups of parents in longitudinal adolescent reports on parenting behaviour. Second, the dimensional structure of every cluster was inspected to uncover differences in parenting between and within clusters. Third, the parenting styles were compared on several adolescent characteristics. Fourth, to examine the impact of change in parenting style over time, we looked at the cluster membership over time. Longitudinal questionnaire data were collected at three annual waves, with 1,116 adolescents (mean age = 13.79 years) at wave 1. Based on five parenting dimensions (support and proactive, punitive, psychological and harsh control), subspace K-means clustering, analysed per wave separately, identified two clusters (authoritative and authoritarian parenting) in which parenting dimensions were interrelated differently. Authoritative parenting seemed to be beneficial for adolescent development (less externalising problem behaviour and higher self-concept). Longitudinal data revealed several parenting group trajectories which showed differential relations with adolescent outcomes. Change in membership from the authoritative cluster to the authoritarian cluster was associated with a decrease in self-concept and an increase in externalising problem behaviour, whereas changes from the authoritarian cluster to the authoritative cluster were associated with an increase in self-concept and a decrease in externalising problem behaviour.

The Time-Course of Ultrarapid Categorization: The Influence of Scene Congruency and Top-Down Processing.

Although categorization can take place at different levels of abstraction, classic studies on semantic labeling identified the basic level, for example, dog, as entry point for categorization. Ultrarapid categorization tasks have contradicted these findings, indicating that participants are faster at detecting superordinate-level information, for example, animal, in a complex visual image. We argue that both seemingly contradictive findings can be reconciled within the framework of parallel distributed processing and its successor Leabra (Local, Error-driven and Associative, Biologically Realistic Algorithm). The current study aimed at verifying this prediction in an ultrarapid categorization task with a dynamically changing presentation time (PT) for each briefly presented object, followed by a perceptual mask. Furthermore, we manipulated two defining task variables: level of categorization (basic vs. superordinate categorization) and object presentation mode (object-in-isolation vs. object-in-context). In contradiction with previous ultrarapid categorization research, focusing on reaction time, we used accuracy as our main dependent variable. Results indicated a consistent superordinate processing advantage, coinciding with an overall improvement in performance with longer PT and a significantly more accurate detection of objects in isolation, compared with objects in context, at lower stimulus PT. This contextual disadvantage disappeared when PT increased, indicating that figure-ground separation with recurrent processing is vital for meaningful contextual processing to occur.