Amenders and Avoiders: an examination of guilt and shame for toddlers and their older siblings.

Guilt- and shame-prone responding were examined in a sample of 146, 18-month-old toddlers and their older siblings (M = 49.5 months, SD = 10.4) during mishap tasks which were used to differentiate both toddlers and their older siblings into Amenders (low avoidance) and Avoiders (high avoidance). Toddlers and older siblings classified as Amenders expressed more concern and were less distressed by the mishap than Avoiders. Children were divided into four groups: Amender-Amender (older sibling-toddler), Amender-Avoider, Avoider-Avoider, and Avoider-Amender to examine differences in sibling interaction and moral development. Older siblings in the Avoider-Avoider group were significantly more aggressive and less empathic toward toddlers than older siblings in the Avoider-Amender group. Toddlers in the Amender-Amender, Amender-Avoider, and Avoider-Amender groups showed significant gains in moral regulation from 18 to 24 months whereas toddlers in the Avoider-Avoider group did not. In contrast, while older siblings were generally high on moral regulation when toddlers were 18 months, this was not the case for older siblings in the Avoider-Avoider group, who had lower moral regulation scores that significantly increased over time. Findings are discussed with respect to the significance of sibling socialisation for toddlers' developing moral sensibility.

Minor Illnesses, Temperament, and Toddler Social Functioning.

RESEARCH FINDINGS: Minor illnesses, such as upper respiratory infections, stomachaches, and fevers, have been associated with children's decreased activity and increased irritability. Mothers of children who are frequently ill report more child behavior problems; however, previous research in this area has yet to simultaneously examine children's temperament. This investigation examined whether experience with recurrent, minor illnesses and negative emotionality worked together to predict young children's social functioning. This multi-method study utilized a sample of 110 daycare-attending children. Nurses went to the daycare centers weekly to perform health screens on the participating children. Minor illness experience was represented using a proportion created by dividing the number of illness diagnoses by the total number of health screenings completed from the time the child was enrolled in the study through his or her second birthday. Toddlers' negative emotionality and social behavior were assessed using mothers' and fathers' reports. The two dimensions of negative emotionality and minor illness experience operated in different ways such that anger worked additively with minor illness experience and fearfulness interacted with minor illness experience to predict social behavior. Children who were described as more temperamentally angry displayed less social competence especially when they also experienced high proportions of minor illness. Temperamentally fearful children exhibited more externalizing problems when they experienced a higher frequency of illness whereas fearfulness was not associated to externalizing problems for children who experienced low proportions of illness. PRACTICE OR POLICY: Children's frequent experience with minor illnesses combined with negative emotionality appears to place toddlers at a heightened risk for exhibiting behavior problems. These findings have implications for child and family well-being as well as interactions with childcare providers and peers within childcare settings. Interventions could be developed to target "at risk" children.

Family-level Coparenting Processes and Child Gender as Moderators of Family Stress and Toddler Adjustment.

The goal of this multi-method study was to examine how child gender and coparenting processes influence associations between family stress and toddlers' social adjustment. The participants, 104 dual-earner couples and their 2-year-old children, were videotaped in their home during a freeplay activity. Mothers and fathers completed questionnaires about stress in their roles as partners, workers, and parents and their child's social-emotional adjustment. Consistent with previous research, higher levels of family stress were associated with poorer adjustment for children. Family harmony, represented by warmth and cooperation, was significantly associated with fewer internalizing problems for children even when family stress was considered. Conversely, coparental banter or 'playful humour' between parents moderated the nature of the association between family stress and children's adjustment. Banter between parents was especially protective for girls suggesting that, even in families with toddler-aged children, gender plays an important role in family-level coparenting processes. Future research needs to consider more fully the impact that child characteristics, such as gender, have on the interplay between the family context and children's development.

Sexual Hookups and Alcohol Consumption Among African American and Caucasian College Students: A Pilot Study.

This study investigated college students' sexual hooking up and its associations with alcohol consumption for men and women; furthermore, potential differences related to ethnicity were investigated. Students at a midsized southeastern university who identified as Caucasian or African American (N = 227) completed a survey assessing sexual behavior, demographics, and alcohol consumption. Heavy drinking was associated with ever hooking up, number of hookup partners, hookup frequency, and level of sexual contact during hooking up for Caucasian students, but not for their African American peers. Among Caucasians, moderate drinking men reported more intense sexual contact during hookups than their female peers who were moderate drinkers; sexual contact levels were more similar for men and women who were either nondrinkers or heavy drinkers. Limitations and strengths are discussed, as are ideas for future studies on hooking up and for educational efforts to protect against potentially negative outcomes of hooking up.

Coparenting moderates the association between firstborn children's temperament and problem behavior across the transition to siblinghood.

The contribution of individual (i.e., negative reactivity) and environmental (i.e., coparenting) characteristics in predicting firstborns' adjustment after a sibling's birth were examined. Mothers, fathers, and firstborn children from 241 families participated in a family freeplay to assess coparenting interactions before the birth of the second child and parents completed questionnaires on children's temperamental characteristics and behavior problems. Children's externalizing problems significantly increased from pre- to postbirth. Children, on average, did not display more internalizing problems after the infant sibling's birth; however, children high in negative reactivity were more sensitive to undermining coparenting behavior and displayed greater internalizing behaviors across the transition to siblinghood. Negatively reactive children also displayed increases in externalizing behavior across the transition to siblinghood when parents showed high levels of undermining coparenting and low levels of supportive coparenting. Supportive coparenting appeared to be a protective factor in the face of this transition for negatively reactive children in families where parents engaged in high levels of undermining coparenting. Findings suggest that both individual and environmental factors play an important role in firstborns' adjustment to an infant sibling's birth. Parents of temperamentally sensitive children may benefit from participating in workshops geared toward improving coparenting partnerships prior to the birth of the second child.

Parental Expressiveness as a Moderator of Coparenting and Marital Relationship Quality.

Driven by theory and extant research on the communication of emotions within the family, the current investigation examined marital quality and parents' emotional expressiveness as determinants of coparenting in a sample of 57 couples with young children. Specifically, mothers' and fathers' expressiveness was examined as moderators of the association between marital quality and coparenting behavior. Though negative expressiveness did not emerge as a significant predictor of coparenting when considered in conjunction with marital quality, parents' positive expressiveness made unique and interactive contributions to coparenting. Thus, it appears that positive expressiveness, especially fathers', may be beneficial to family functioning. Positively expressive husbands protected couples from negative coparenting interactions in the face of less supportive marriages. Couples in distressed marriages may benefit from work with practitioners and family life educators who consider the role that the communication of emotions plays in the context of coparenting.