Explore the vast range of titles available.

On March 11, 2020, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. The social isolation and economic stress resulting from pandemic have the potential to exacerbate child abuse and neglect. This study examines the association of parents’ perceived social isolation and recent employment loss to risk for child maltreatment (neglect, verbal aggression, and physical punishment) in the early weeks of the pandemic. Participants (N = 283) were adults living in the U.S. who were parents of at least one child 0–12 years of age. Participants completed an online survey approximately 2 weeks after the World Health Organization declared that COVID-19 was a pandemic. The survey asked about recent changes (i.e., in the past 2 weeks) to employment status, parenting behaviors, use of discipline, use of spanking, and depressive symptoms. Nearly 20% of parents had hit or spanked their child in the past two weeks alone. Parents’ perceived social isolation and recent employment loss were associated with self-report of physical and emotional neglect and verbal aggression against the child, even after controlling for parental depressive symptoms, income, and sociodemographic factors. Parents’ perceived social isolation was associated with parental report of changes in discipline, specifically, using discipline and spanking more often in the past 2 weeks. Associations were robust to analyses that included two variables that assessed days spent social distancing and days spent in “lockdown.” Study results point to the need for mental health supports to parents and children to ameliorate the strain created by COVID-19.

Objective: Informed by the family systems theory, the current study aimed to examine whether shared parental responsiveness between fathers and mothers with low income was associated with preschoolers' developmental outcomes. Background: Both fathers' and mothers' parental responsiveness are key contributors to their young children's development. However, the ways in which fathers and mothers work as a system, as well as the role of shared parental responsiveness in child development, are not well understood, especially among families from low-income contexts. Method: Participants were from the Building Strong Families project, a racially diverse group of families from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds (TV = 1,173). Fathers' and mothers' parental responsiveness were observed during father-child and mother-child interactions using the two-bags task. Preschoolers' child behavior problems, prosocial behaviors, and receptive language served as developmental outcomes of interest. A common fate approach to dyadic analysis was employed to create shared responsiveness and individual residual variance latent variables, which the child outcomes were regressed onto. Moderation analysis by fathers' resident status was conducted. Results: Shared responsiveness positively predicted preschoolers' prosocial behaviors (B = 0.33, p < .001) and receptive language (B = 14.85, p < .001), above and beyond individual residual variance. Fathers' resident status did not moderate any of the examined relationships. Conclusion: There may be benefits to young children's development when mothers and fathers demonstrate shared responsiveness. Implications. Interventions serving families with low income could help strengthen mother-father shared responsiveness to promote child development.

While many children in Africa face notable psychological problems, the majority do not receive needed mental health services. The My FRIENDS Youth Program, a universal cognitive-behavioral intervention for anxiety prevention and resilience enhancement, has demonstrated effectiveness across cultures in children and adolescents. This study explores whether the program’s effectiveness extends to Zambian children. Participants were 75 children and adolescents (53% female, ages 10–15) attending low-income schools in Zambia. Four schools were randomly assigned to an intervention (n = 44) or waitlist control (n = 31). The intervention consisted of 10 weekly sessions plus two booster sessions administered in group format. Assessments were conducted at pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention and 3-month follow-up. Data were analyzed using longitudinal multilevel modeling and controlled for child and parent sociodemographic characteristics. Intervention participation did not lead to reductions in anxiety, depression or parent-child relationship conflict but was associated with reductions in parent-reported internalizing and externalizing symptoms, attention problems and increases in positive parent-child relationships. However, both the intervention and control groups exhibited lower anxiety symptoms from Post-Intervention to 3-Month Follow-Up, suggesting potentially delayed effects. Future research may need to adapt this intervention to meet the needs of children in Zambia.

Gender inequality perpetuates women’s economic insecurity and a culture of violence. Parental distress caused by economic pressure may increase violence against children. High levels of gender inequality and interpersonal violence may contribute to higher levels of physical abuse. Using an ecological perspective, this study examines the association of country-level gender inequality and household-level parental physical abuse, and the moderating role of child gender in this association in low- and middle-income countries. We used data on over 420,000 households from the UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys and country-level indicators from the United Nations Development Program Human Development data. We employed multilevel logistic regression to examine the association between gender inequality with the log-odds of physical abuse after accounting for country- and individual-level covariates. In order to more fully explore our results, we calculated predicted probabilities of abuse for several scenarios. The results indicated that higher levels of gender inequality were associated with higher probabilities of physical abuse. This association was stronger for female children than for male children. The probabilities of abuse by child gender were indistinguishable, although rates of physical abuse converged as gender inequality increased, at a statistically marginal level. These findings indicate that macro-level interventions that reduce gender inequality are necessary to prevent and reduce child physical abuse.

Immigrants living in the United States tend to exhibit racially stratified outcomes, with greater socioeconomic disadvantage experienced by immigrants of color. However, few comparative studies have examined this relationship among multiple generations of immigrant women. This study compared first-, second-, and third-plus-generation immigrant mothers on seven socioeconomic outcomes. Data came from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Our sample consisted of 4056 first-, second-, and third-plus-generation immigrant mothers living in U.S. urban cities. Logistic, ordinal logistic, and linear regression analyses were conducted to predict socioeconomic outcomes. Among immigrants of color, increased generation status was associated with worse socioeconomic outcomes. Among White immigrants, generation status was largely unassociated with socioeconomic outcomes. Results underscore the need for increasing support for immigrants and their posterity. Further research is warranted investigating mechanisms that lead to racially stratified disadvantages as immigrant generation increases.

Indigenous groups worldwide exhibit disproportionally high rates of alcohol abuse. Although researchers have explored how broad socio-economic conditions contribute to this challenge, much less is known about the influence of interpersonal bonds on alcohol abuse. Prior studies have shown that anxious and avoidant attachment styles are predictors of alcohol abuse; however, this relationship has not been examined among many indigenous populations, or among individuals raised in stepfamilies. To respond to these gaps, this study examined whether anxious and avoidant attachment styles predicted alcohol abuse among 340 American Indian emerging adults in the USA who were raised in stepfamilies. A graded response and structural equation model were constructed, wherein latent constructs of anxious and avoidant attachment predicted an ordinal dependent variable, alcohol abuse. Results showed that anxious attachment style significantly predicted an increase in the odds of advancing alcohol abuse (e.g. moving from the ‘None’ category to the ‘Once a month or less’ category). However, avoidant attachment style did not predict alcohol abuse. Findings suggest a potential vulnerability of abusing alcohol among American Indians who were raised in a stepfamily and developed an anxious attachment style.

A number of protective factors associated with being American Indian exist; however, research shows that American Indians tend to experience higher rates of depressive symptoms than individuals of other racial or ethnic groups. Although prior research has examined sociocultural predictors of American Indian depression, less is known about the influence of familial functioning. This is particularly true for American Indian emerging adults who grew up in stepfamilies. This study examined retrospective data from 203 American Indians raised in stepfamilies on whether perceived coparenting between biological parents (post-stepfamily formation) was related to depression in emerging adulthood. Combining graded response and structural equation modeling, authors found that retrospectively perceived negative coparenting behaviors were significantly associated with depressive symptoms. Findings elucidate a particular risk for American Indians who perceive that their biological parents engage in poor coparenting behaviors post stepfamily formation. Findings also encourage further research that examines associations between stepfamily functioning and mental health outcomes among American Indians.

Children living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are disproportionately at-risk for failing to meet their developmental potential. Meeting important social, behavioral, and cognitive milestones in childhood sets the stage for healthy development across the lifespan. More research is needed to determine how to leverage the rich population heterogeneity, cultural diversity, and strengths found in LMICs, while reducing risks to child development. Parental discipline behaviors have the potential to both promote and hinder child outcomes across the world. However, relatively little research has examined how parental discipline behaviors interact with contextual factors to predict child outcomes in LMICs. Leaning on family stress and bioecological theories, this dissertation examined how contextual factors (i.e., country, child age, country-level human development, and country-level gender inequality) shaped the associations between aggressive and non-aggressive parental discipline behaviors with child aggression, distraction, and prosocial behavior. Data came from rounds four (2009-2013) and five (2012-2017) of the United Nations Children’s Fund Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys. First, nationally representative prevalence estimates of 11 parental discipline behaviors were estimated across 58 LMICs. Next, Bayesian multilevel logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the associations between 11 parental discipline behaviors with child outcomes, and whether the strength of these associations varied by country. Finally, traditional frequentist multilevel logistic regression analyses examined whether the associations between parental discipline behaviors and child outcomes varied by child age, country-level human development, and country-level gender inequality. Results suggest that physical aggression, psychological aggression, and taking away privileges were harmful to child developmental outcomes, while verbal reasoning and redirection were helpful. Refraining from physical and psychological aggression were most important in countries with lower human development and higher gender inequality, whereas verbal reasoning and redirection were most important in countries with higher human development and lower gender inequality. Results underscore the need for cross-functional and multilevel interventions in LMICs to promote child socioemotional development.

Human ALS/FTD patient iPSC-derived neurons are used to uncover mechanisms by which C9ORF72 mutations cause neurodegeneration. An intronic GGGGCC repeat expansion in C9ORF72 is the most common cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), but the pathogenic mechanism of this repeat remains unclear. Using human induced motor neurons (iMNs), we found that repeat-expanded C9ORF72 was haploinsufficient in ALS. We found that C9ORF72 interacted with endosomes and was required for normal vesicle trafficking and lysosomal biogenesis in motor neurons. Repeat expansion reduced C9ORF72 expression, triggering neurodegeneration through two mechanisms: accumulation of glutamate receptors, leading to excitotoxicity, and impaired clearance of neurotoxic dipeptide repeat proteins derived from the repeat expansion. Thus, cooperativity between gain- and loss-of-function mechanisms led to neurodegeneration. Restoring C9ORF72 levels or augmenting its function with constitutively active RAB5 or chemical modulators of RAB5 effectors rescued patient neuron survival and ameliorated neurodegenerative processes in both gain- and loss-of-function C9ORF72 mouse models. Thus, modulating vesicle trafficking was able to rescue neurodegeneration caused by the C9ORF72 repeat expansion. Coupled with rare mutations in ALS2, FIG4, CHMP2B, OPTN and SQSTM1 , our results reveal mechanistic convergence on vesicle trafficking in ALS and FTD.