Managing Stress Levels of Parents of Children with Developmental Disabilities: A Meta‐Analytic Review of Interventions
Abstract
Parents of children diagnosed with disabilities often experience elevated levels of stress compared to those parenting children without disabilities (Baker‐Ericzén, Brookman‐Frazee, & Stahmer, 2005; Tomanik, Harris, & Hawkins, 2004). This increase in stress can have a negative impact on parent well‐being (Trute & Hiebert‐Murphy, 2002) resulting in a stress‐induced dysregulation of the immune system. In their article in this issue, Gouin, da Estrela, Desmarais, and Baker found that increased levels of social support served as protection against this dysregulation. In the current study, we exa...
Source: Family Relations - March 21, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Endia J. Lindo, Karin R. Kliemann, Bertina H. Combes, Jessica Frank Tags: Original Article Source Type: research
The Impact of Formal and Informal Support on Health in the Context of Caregiving Stress
In this study the authors investigated whether formal and informal social support act as protective factors against stress‐induced immune dysregulation. Fifty‐six parents of children with an autism spectrum disorder completed questionnaires on formal support services, informal social support, self‐rated health, and daily somatic symptoms, and they provided a blood sample for analysis of C‐reactive protein (CRP), a biomarker of inflammation. The results indicated that greater informal social support was associated with lower CRP and that a higher number of formal support services received by the family was related t...
Source: Family Relations - March 21, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Jean‐Philippe Gouin, Chelsea Estrela, Kim Desmarais, Erin T. Barker Tags: Original Article Source Type: research
Work–Family Conflict and Health Among Working Parents: Potential Linkages for Family Science and Social Neuroscience
Abstract
In this paired article the authors review research on paid work, parenting, and health in order to isolate fundamental questions and issues that remain unaddressed. Next, consistent with the theme of this special issue, the authors introduce social neuroscience and highlight how this emerging multidisciplinary science offers substantial promise for advancing key unresolved issues in the paid work, parenting, and health literature. The article concludes with suggestions for promising areas of research wherein family scientists and social neuroscientists could build collaborative research to address gaps in the work...
Source: Family Relations - March 21, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Joseph G. Grzywacz, Amy M. Smith Tags: Original Article Source Type: research
Nontoxic Family Stress: Potential Benefits and Underlying Biology
Abstract
Exposure to family stressors that are an ordinary part of daily life is essential for healthy development. Most children show a “positive” response when stressful events provoke mild or moderately intense levels of emotional arousal and provide opportunities for recovery. Through processes of habituation and practice, responding to these types of stressors can foster the development of emotion regulation and coping under normative levels of exposure. Parents influence children's opportunities to experience self‐regulation and their psychological responses to stress and thereby shape their preparation to resp...
Source: Family Relations - March 21, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Rena L. Repetti, Theodore F. Robles Tags: Original Article Source Type: research
Should Parents' Physical Punishment of Children Be Considered a Source of Toxic Stress That Affects Brain Development?
Abstract
The notion that negative childhood experiences can be sources of toxic stress that have short‐ and long‐term consequences for children's health and well‐being has gained increasing attention in recent years. The family environment can be a key source of stress, particularly when parents inflict pain on children; when that pain rises to the level of physical abuse the stress is thought to be toxic. In this article the author considers the possibility that nonabusive physical punishment may also constitute a source of toxic stress in the lives of children that affects their brain structure and functioning. The...
Source: Family Relations - March 21, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Elizabeth T. Gershoff Tags: Original Article Source Type: research
Neurobiological, Neuroimaging, and Neuropsychological Studies of Children and Adolescents with Disruptive Behavior Disorders
Abstract
The aim of this article is to review findings from the neurobiological, neuroimaging, and neuropsychological literature that have contributed to our understanding of the etiology and development of disruptive behavior disorders, with particular reference to conduct disorder. This review focuses on neurobiological systems such as the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis and neuroimaging evidence linking disruptive behavior disorders to changes in brain functioning or structure. Overall, this research suggests that brain areas involved in emotional processing and regulation are particularly compromised in childre...
Source: Family Relations - March 21, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Ignazio Puzzo, Areti Smaragdi, Karen Gonzalez, Nayra Martin‐Key, Graeme Fairchild Tags: Original Article Source Type: research
The Influence of Family Characteristics on Problem Behaviors in a Sample of High‐Risk Caribbean Adolescents
Abstract
Drawing on the social development model, the authors examine family risk and protective factors thought to influence problem behaviors among adolescents. They estimate the impact of family risk and protective factors on a variety of antisocial and health risk behaviors. Data are drawn from a sample of nearly 2,500 adolescents attending high‐risk schools in Trinidad and Tobago, a developing nation in the eastern Caribbean. The findings show that certain family risk factors play a more consistent role in shaping adolescent problem behaviors than others. In particular, adult history of antisocial behavior and paren...
Source: Family Relations - March 21, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Edward R. Maguire, Diana H. Fishbein Tags: Original Article Source Type: research
Neurobiological Bases of Executive Function and Social‐Emotional Development: Typical and Atypical Brain Changes
Abstract
Neuroscience research has uncovered dynamic brain changes during typical and atypical development. Although these neurobiological processes have been recognized in behaviors such as reading and learning, they are applicable as well to children's self‐regulation, decision making, and sociomoral behavior. In this article the authors focus on brain systems mediating these complex aspects of human development and highlight the key role of the prefrontal cortex. This region is unique in size, anatomy, and physiology in humans and requires multiple decades to mature. It is sensitive to social influences and underlies ...
Source: Family Relations - March 21, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Christina Barrasso‐Catanzaro, Paul J. Eslinger Tags: Original Article Source Type: research
Family Ecologies and Child Risk for Obesity: Focus on Regulatory Processes
This article focuses on how proximal regulatory processes connect biological risk for obesity and family systems. Response to satiety, distress during feeding, organization of family routines, and exposure to food marketing are provided as examples of the complexity of risk for obesity. The article concludes with recommendations for practice and policy to prevent childhood obesity and to empower families to take an active role in their community. (Source: Family Relations)
Source: Family Relations - March 21, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Barbara H. Fiese, Kelly K. Bost Tags: Original Article Source Type: research
Stress and Pediatric Obesity: Neurobiology and Behavior
Abstract
Pediatric and adolescent obesity commonly coexist with stress‐related symptoms and disorders. Stress, the state of threatened homeostasis, is associated with the acute activation of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis and the sympathetic nervous system. However, the chronic activation of hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal and sympathetic nervous system axes during chronic or intense stress can lead to a variety of psychopathological and physical conditions. Behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms link chronic stress with pediatric obesity, in a bidirectional relation. Chronically stressed individuals a...
Source: Family Relations - March 21, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Panagiota Pervanidou, George P. Chrousos Tags: Original Article Source Type: research
Family Socioeconomic Status, Immigration, and Children's Transitions into School
Abstract
Family scholars have contributed a great deal to the growing literature documenting how children's transitions into elementary school serve as a critical period in their educational careers and, more broadly, in socioeconomic and demographic disparities in long‐term educational attainment. The purpose of this review is to describe how this school transition works, why it has short‐ and long‐term ramifications for educational inequality, and how it may be amenable to policy intervention. The review then elucidates how research that looks inside children—including neuroscience—may deepen and build on what ...
Source: Family Relations - March 21, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Robert Crosnoe, Arya Ansari Tags: Original Article Source Type: research
Child Care and Cortisol Across Infancy and Toddlerhood: Poverty, Peers, and Developmental Timing
Abstract
Evidence suggests that relations between child care and children's development—behaviorally and physiologically—likely differ between children from high‐ versus low‐risk contexts. Using data from the Family Life Project (N = 1,155), the authors tested (a) whether within‐ and between‐child differences in children's child care experiences (i.e., quantity, type, caregiver responsivity, and peer exposure) were predictive of their cortisol levels across infancy and toddlerhood and (b) whether these relations differed for children experiencing different levels of environmental risk. They found some evidence ...
Source: Family Relations - March 21, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Daniel Berry, Clancy Blair, Douglas A. Granger, Tags: Original Article Source Type: research
Descriptive Analysis of Intervention for Parents of Young Children Having Sleep Problems
Abstract
The aim of this qualitative study was to describe an intervention for parents at a nurse‐led clinic for children age 6–24 months with sleeping problems. Data were gathered from 10 families. Intervention sessions were recorded. The nurse also wrote field notes and kept a reflection diary about the interventions. The data were coded in a search for categories of meaning and then grouped and raised to a higher level of abstraction to describe the intervention. Three themes were constructed. Theme 1: Sharing Stories, includes establishing a working relationship and learning about the family. Theme 2: Empowering, i...
Source: Family Relations - March 21, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Arna Skúladóttir Tags: Original Article Source Type: research
Addressing Early Adversity Through Mental Health Consultation in Early Childhood Settings
This article shares best practices from the field of early childhood mental health consultation (ECMHC) as a strategy to help reduce the impact of stressors on young children. ECMHC embedded with child care, focused on children in foster care, and lessons learned from early work on ECMHC in home visiting are highlighted as examples of interventions to build the buffering capacities of important adults in children's lives. Policy recommendations are offered for integrating mental health services into early childhood settings to build resilience in high‐risk children and families. (Source: Family Relations)
Source: Family Relations - March 21, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Deborah F. Perry, Nicola Conners‐Burrow Tags: Original Article Source Type: research
Family Relations, Stress, and Vulnerability: Biobehavioral Implications for Prevention and Practice
Abstract
Developmental psychobiology research supports the hypothesis that individual differences in biological stress systems that are sensitive to environmental experiences are associated with individual adjustment problems. Negative social experiences, especially in family contexts, contribute to the dysregulation of set‐points and thresholds of biological stress reactivity that affects long‐term adaptation and adjustment. The goal of this review is to discuss the current findings on how negative parent–child relationships affect the biological stress system. The authors also highlight the importance of family‐b...
Source: Family Relations - March 21, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Thao Ha, Douglas A. Granger Tags: Original Article Source Type: research
