Parental Conflict in the Context of Multiethnoracial Relationships.

The percent of families with parents from different racial or ethnic backgrounds has risen exponentially in the last decades. Approximately 14% of children were born into multiethnoracial (MER) families in the United States in 2015, more than double the rate from 1980. Studies show that MER couples are more likely to separate or divorce than their monoethnoracial (MoER) counterparts. With the growing rates of MER couples, there has been increased interest and research addressing the unique benefits and challenges of being in a MER relationship. It is likely that the challenges that arise in MER families peak across the transition to parenthood when couples must negotiate how to merge their respective values, behaviors, and beliefs into a new family unit. Our study examines how the ethnoracial composition of couples (i.e., same versus different racial/ethnic backgrounds) predicts levels and increases in coparental conflict across early parenthood; and, in addition, the role of familial support as both a mediator and moderator of this relationship. We found that mothers in MER dyads report more coparenting conflict and lower familial support than their MoER counterparts across early parenthood. Additionally, fathers in MER dyads had marginally lower family support than their MoER counterparts predicting greater coparenting conflict across early parenthood. Identifying the processes linking couples' ethnoracial composition to the quality of family relationships could help inform parent interventions to better support MER parents across the transition to parenthood.

Profiles of Adjustment in Pediatric Cancer Survivors and Their Prediction by Earlier Psychosocial Factors.

Objective: To examine individual differences in pediatric cancer survivors' psychosocial adjustment and test the psychosocial predictors, assessed 2-3 years earlier, of those differences. Method: Pediatric cancer survivors (n = 209, aged 8-17 years at baseline) and their parents were followed for 4 years. They provided reports of survivors' psychosocial adjustment at 3 years post-baseline, and latent profile analysis (LPA) was used to identify subgroups of survivors who differed on those reports. Multinomial logistic regression was used to predict group membership from self- and parent-reported psychosocial factors at baseline (child adjustment, disposition, and parental functioning) and at 1 year post-baseline (child social relations). Results: The LPA revealed a 3-class model as the best fit: a "Resilient" group (65%), characterized by good psychosocial adjustment; a "Self-Reported At-Risk" group (23%), characterized by subclinical elevations in self-reported internalizing and attention problems; and a "Parent-Reported At-Risk" group (12%), characterized by subclinical elevations in parent-reported internalizing, externalizing, and attention problems and in self-reported attention problems. Several psychosocial predictors, including child posttraumatic stress, affectivity, and connectedness to school, as well as parental distress and overprotection, differentiated the Resilient group from the other groups, in expected directions. Conclusions: The majority of pediatric cancer survivors exhibit enduring resilience. The protective factors identified for them-including positive affectivity and strong connectedness to school-may inform targeted prevention strategies for the minority of survivors who are at risk for maladjustment.

Trajectories of Mental Health-Related Service Use Among Adolescents With Histories of Early Externalizing Problems.

PURPOSE: To inform efforts to reduce costly service utilization, the present study examined longitudinal trajectories of mental health-related outpatient and residential service use among at-risk youth with a history of early externalizing problems. METHODS: A cohort of 809 children in the Fast Track Project, a multisite longitudinal study of children at risk for conduct disorder, were followed prospectively from kindergarten through 12th grade. They resided in high-risk areas with high rates of poverty, crime, and violence. Their outpatient and residential service use was assessed annually between sixth and 12th grades through parent report. Growth mixture modeling was applied to model individual differences in trajectories of service use during this period. Teacher, parent, and observer-reported childhood predictors of those trajectories were also examined. RESULTS: Most youths had minimal service use during preadolescence into adolescence. However, approximately 31% had moderate probability of using outpatient counseling services, and approximately 8% had elevated probability of seeing a family doctor for mental health needs. For residential services, approximately 6% had moderate to high probability of service use that peaked during transition to high school, whereas close to 5% had service use that dramatically increased during high school. Childhood predictors of these trajectories included earlier externalizing, internalizing, and emotion regulation problems. CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first to use person-centered analytic methods to examine longitudinal trajectories in mental health-related service use among at-risk adolescents. Timely treatment for severe externalizing problems, comorbid internalizing problems, and emotion dysregulation during childhood may be crucial for preventing chronic service use.

Physical activity in aging: comparison among young, aged, and nonagenarian individuals.

Physical activity (PA) is known to decline with age; however, there is a paucity of data on activity in persons who are in their nineties and beyond. We used objective and reliable methods to measure PA in nonagenarians (>or=90 yr; n=98) and hypothesized that activity would be similar to that of aged (60-74 yr; n=58) subjects but less than in young (20-34 yr; n=53) volunteers. Total energy expenditure (TEE) was measured by doubly labeled water over 14 days and resting metabolic rate (RMR) by indirect calorimetry. Measures of PA included activity energy expenditure adjusted for body composition, TEE adjusted for RMR, physical activity level (PAL), and activity over 14 days by accelerometry expressed as average daily durations of light and moderate activity. RMR and TEE were lower with increasing age group (P<0.01); however, RMR was not different between aged and nonagenarian subjects after adjusting for fat-free mass, fat mass, and sex. Nonagenarians had a lower PAL and were more sedentary than the aged and young groups (P<0.01); however, the nonagenarians who were more active on a daily basis walked further during a timed test, indicating higher physical functionality. For all measures of activity, no differences were found between young and aged volunteers. PA was markedly lower in nonagenarians compared with young and aged adults. Interestingly, PA was similar between young volunteers and those who were in their 60s and 70s, likely due to the sedentary nature of our society, particularly in young adults.

The association between flow-mediated dilation and physical function in older men.

UNLABELLED: The probability that an individual is able to live independently decreases sharply below the threshold score of 57 units on the physical functional performance (PFP-10) test. PURPOSE: To examine the relation between brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (BAFMD) on individual and total scores on the PFP-10. We hypothesized that lower scores on the PFP-10 test would be associated with lower BAFMD. METHODS: Sixty-four men (age, 84 +/- 11 yr) from the Louisiana Healthy Aging Study were studied. Participants were classified by their performance on the PFP-10 test (Class I, score <26; Class II, score between 26 and 57; and Class III, score > 57). BAFMD was assessed after 5 min of forearm occlusion, using high-resolution ultrasonography. RESULTS: The average total score on the PFP-10 test and BAFMD were 42.9 +/- 22 U and 2.76 +/- 2.13%, respectively. The BAFMD was associated with total PFP-10 score (r = 0.45, P = 0.0001) and age (r = -0.36, P = 0.003). BAFMD was significantly different (P = 0.001) between the PFP-10 classes (Class I, 1.44% [95% CI, 0.49-2.39]; Class II, 2.67% [95% CI, 1.95-3.38]; and Class III, 4.01% [95% CI, 3.16-4.85]). CONCLUSIONS: This study reports significant relationships between BAFMD and individual and combined measures of physical function in elderly men. More specifically, when individuals were categorized based on their PFP-10 total score, those in the highest functional class, exhibited the highest BAFMD, compared to those in the middle class, who had greater vasoreactivity than those in the lowest functional class.