Objective. To examine adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) as a prospective
predictor of the day-to-day associations between worries and positive thinking among late adolescents.
Method. Cumulative ACEs were measured from parent and youth reports between the ages of 9.9 and 18.1. Late adolescents (N = 103) reported daily worries and positive thoughts across ten days.
Results. Adverse childhood experiences predicted higher and more variable levels of day-to-day worry. Increases in positive thinking on one day predicted less next-day worry for adolescents with low, but not high, ACE scores.
Conclusions. Daily worry during late adolescence may be an important consequence of earlier exposure to ACEs. Early interventions focused on worry reduction and improved emotion regulation might mitigate worry among high-ACE youth.
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Intergenerational Associations between Parents’ and Children’s Adverse Childhood Experience Scores
Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are stressful childhood events associated with behavioral, mental, and physical illness. Parent experiences of adversity may indicate a child’s adversity risk, but little evidence exists on intergenerational links between parents’ and children’s ACEs. This study examines these intergenerational ACE associations, as well as parent factors that mediate them. Methods: The Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) 2013 Main Interview and the linked PSID Childhood Retrospective Circumstances Study collected parent and child ACE information. Parent scores on the Aggravation in Parenting Scale, Parent Disagreement Scale, and the Kessler-6 Scale of Emotional Distress were linked through the PSID 1997, 2002, and 2014 PSID Childhood Development Supplements. Multivariate linear and multinomial logistic regression models estimated adjusted associations between parent and child ACE scores. Results: Among 2205 parent-child dyads, children of parents with four or more ACEs had 3.25-fold (23.1% [95% CI 15.9–30.4] versus 7.1% [4.4–9.8], p-value 0.001) higher risk of experiencing four or more ACEs themselves, compared to children of parents without ACEs. Parent aggravation, disagreement, and emotional distress were partial mediators. Conclusions: Parents with higher ACE scores are far more likely to have children with higher ACEs. Addressing parenting stress, aggravation, and discord may interrupt intergenerational adversity cycles.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2042875
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10334492
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Children
- Volume:
- 8
- Issue:
- 9
- ISSN:
- 2227-9067
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 747
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Despite a recent surge in research examining parent–child neural similarity using fMRI, there remains a need for further investigation into how such similarity may play a role in children's emotional adjustment. Moreover, no prior studies explored the potential contextual factors that may moderate the link between parent–child neural similarity and children's developmental outcomes. In this study, 32 parent–youth dyads (parents:
M age= 43.53 years, 72% female; children:M age= 11.69 years, 41% female) watched an emotion-evoking animated film while being scanned using fMRI. We first quantified how similarly emotion network interacts with other brain regions in responding to the emotion-evoking film between parents and their children. We then examined how such parent–child neural similarity is associated with children's emotional adjustment, with attention to the moderating role of family cohesion. Results revealed that higher parent–child similarity in functional connectivity pattern during movie viewing was associated with better emotional adjustment, including less negative affect, lower anxiety, and greater ego resilience in youth. Moreover, such associations were significant only among families with higher cohesion, but not among families with lower cohesion. The findings advance our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying how children thrive by being in sync and attuned with their parents, and provide novel empirical evidence that the effects of parent–child concordance at the neural level on children's development are contextually dependent.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT What neural processes underlie the attunement between children and their parents that helps children thrive? Using a naturalistic movie-watching fMRI paradigm, we find that greater parent–child similarity in how emotion network interacts with other brain regions during movie viewing is associated with youth's better emotional adjustment including less negative affect, lower anxiety, and greater ego resilience. Interestingly, these associations are only significant among families with higher cohesion, but not among those with lower cohesion. Our findings provide novel evidence that parent–child shared neural processes to emotional situations can confer benefits to children, and underscore the importance of considering specific family contexts in which parent–child neural similarity may be beneficial or detrimental to children's development, highlighting a crucial direction for future research. -
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Abstract Objective This mixed‐methods study examined whether higher‐socioeconomic status (SES) children's digital technology use adhered to contemporaneous pediatric guidelines, how it compared to lower‐SES children, and why, as analyses showed, higher‐SES children's technology use far exceeded pediatric recommendations.
Background 2013 American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) guidelines recommended limited “screen time” for children. Higher SES families tend to follow guidelines, but digital technology use—simultaneously a health behavior and a pathway for building human capital—has complex implications.
Method Quantitative analyses provide new nationally representative estimates of the relationship between social class and 9‐ to 13‐year‐old children's technology time (including television), device access, and parenting rules (2014 PSID Child Development Supplement,
N = 427). Qualitative analyses of 77 longitudinal higher‐SES parent interviews articulated explanatory processes.Results Higher‐SES children used technology as frequently as others and in excess of recommendations. Their device access, activities, and agency in adhering to rules, however, differed from others. Qualitative analysis uncovered processes that helped explain these findings: parents' ambivalence about technology and perception that expert guidance is absent or unrealistic, and children's exercise of agency to use technology facilitated by “concerted cultivation” parenting styles, led to higher‐SES individualistic parenting practices that supported children's increased non‐television technology use.
Conclusion Cultures and structures related to children's technology use are in flux, and classed norms and understandings are emerging to construct relevant class‐based distinctions around parenting.
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https://psyarxiv.com/zgavu/ ). -
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.3390/children8090747
