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1. Tech‐Mediated and Traditional Communication Modes in Adult Adoptees' Contact With Birth Parents

   https://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12477  

   Cashen, Krystal K. ; Grotevant, Harold D. ; Wyman Battalen, Adeline ; Sellers, Christina M. ; McRoy, Ruth G. ( July 2020 , Family Relations)

   To understand how adult adoptees use traditional and tech‐mediated modes of communication in contact with birth parents. To examine associations between desire for increased use of both modes and quality of relationship.

   As tech‐mediated modes of communication become more commonplace, it is important to understand their implications for family relationship quality. Limited research has examined the use of tech‐mediated modes of communication between adult adoptees and birth parents.

   Participants (M_age = 31 years) were adopted as infants (N = 90). Participants reported their current and desired future use of traditional and tech‐mediated communication modes and their satisfaction with contact, current closeness, desired future closeness, and psychological presence of birth parents.

   Those with current contact reported using both traditional and tech‐mediated modes of communication. Desired increase of traditional modes was associated with greater psychological presence and desired future closeness with birth mothers, while both traditional and tech‐mediated were associated with these outcomes for birth fathers.

   Adult adoptees use both traditional and tech‐mediated modes of communication with their birth parents. However, these modes may play distinct roles in maintaining close relationships with birth parents.

   Family professionals should consider the unique roles traditional and tech‐mediated modes of communication may play when supporting adult adoptees in contact with birth relatives.

    

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2. Birth family contact from childhood to adulthood: Adjustment and adoption outcomes in adopted young adults

   https://doi.org/10.1177/01650254231165839  

   Lo, Albert Y. H. ; Grotevant, Harold D. ; Wrobel, Gretchen M. ( April 2023 , International Journal of Behavioral Development)

   Experiences of contact between adopted persons and birth family members have implications for psychological adjustment of adopted persons. The current study utilizes four contact trajectory groups, spanning from middle childhood to young adulthood and encompassing three aspects of birth family contact in predicting psychological adjustment and adoption-related outcomes in adopted young adults. Data come from a longitudinal study of adoptive families in which adopted persons were domestically adopted in infancy by same-race parents in the United States. Adopted young adults in the group characterized by sustained high levels of contact and satisfaction with contact over time (“Extended Contact”) displayed lower levels of psychological distress and higher levels of psychological well-being than adopted persons in the group characterized by contact that increased over time but remained limited (“Limited Contact”). Generally, adopted persons within the group characterized by consistent lack of contact (“No Contact”) and the group characterized by contact that was initially present but ended (“Stopped Contact”) did not differ in distress and well-being from those in the “Extended Contact” group. No group differences were found on adoption dynamics and identity; however, young adults in the “Extended Contact” group generally reported more positive relationships with their birth mothers than those in the other groups. Findings are discussed in the context of heterogeneity in contact experiences and implications for policy and practice.

    

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3. The Roles of Parents in Shaping Fathering Across Generations in Cebu, Philippines

   https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12568  

   Gettler, Lee T. ; Kuo, Patty X. ; Bas, Abet ; Borja, Judith B. ( April 2019 , Journal of Marriage and Family)

   Objective:This study examined how parental caregiving and parent–child closeness are associated with future fathering among 335 Filipino men who are participants in a long‐running birth cohort study.

   BackgroundFew studies have multidecade longitudinal data to test the pathways through which parenting is transmitted across generations, with most relevant research conducted in the United States, Europe, and other similar settings. The roles of mothers and fathers in shaping their sons' future parenting is particularly understudied despite fathers having the potential to positively influence child health and development.

   Method:Participants' mothers (Generation 1 [G1]) reported on caregiving during Generation 2 (G2) participants' early life, and the G2 males reported parent–child closeness during adolescence. G2 fathers reported on their own child‐care involvement and the salience of caregiving to their parenting identity. We tested whether parent–child closeness moderated the effect of early‐life care to predict later‐life fathering.

   Results:G1‐G2 closeness moderated the association between G1 parents' caregiving and G2 fathers' parenting identity (for both G1 parents) and caregiving time (for G1 fathers only). When the G1‐G2 mother–son relationship was not close, there was a negative correlation between G1 maternal care and G2 fathers' caregiving identity. For G2 men who were close to their fathers, there were positive associations between G1 paternal care and G2 fathers' caregiving identity and time, respectively. Among G2 men who were not close to their fathers, the slopes relating G1 paternal care to G2 fathers' caregiving identity and time, respectively, were negative.

   Conclusion:These findings reflect that developmental experiences with both mothers and fathers are predictive of men's identity as parents in adulthood and that closeness between fathers and sons moderates whether sons' paternal care tends to emulate or diverge from their fathers' caregiving patterns.

    

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4. The Roles of Mothers' Perceptions of Grandmothers' Gatekeeping and Fathers' Parenting Competence in Maternal Gatekeeping

   https://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12569  

   Wang, Jingyi ; Schoppe‐Sullivan, Sarah J. ( July 2021 , Family Relations)

   This study investigated how new mothers' perceptions of maternal grandmothers' gatekeeping behaviors and perceptions of fathers' parenting competence are associated with maternal gatekeeping behaviors.

   In the development of coparenting relationships at the transition to parenthood, the roles of extended family members, although important, have received little research attention. Grandmothers' gatekeeping may serve as a reference for maternal gatekeeping behaviors, but its role depends on mothers' own perceptions of fathers' parenting competence.

   Mothers from 172 dual‐earner, different‐gender couples reported their own mothers' gatekeeping behaviors and their own perceptions of fathers' parenting competence at 3 months postpartum. Maternal gatekeeping behaviors toward fathers were reported by mothers at both 3 and 9 months postpartum.

   When mothers perceived that maternal grandmothers engaged in higher levels of gatekeeping behaviors, mothers engaged in more gate‐opening behaviors but only when mothers perceived fathers as highly competent. There were no significant associations between mothers' perceptions of grandmothers' gatekeeping and maternal gate‐closing behaviors.

   Adult mothers, who likely have developed their own sets of ideas about parenting, are still susceptible to support and criticism from their own mothers.

   Practitioners would do well to encourage expectant and new parents to consider the role of extended family in the development of their coparenting relationships and to develop plans for support‐seeking, boundary management, and negotiation of conflicts. To help reduce maternal gate‐closing and enhance maternal gate‐opening behaviors, practitioners could support fathers' development of parenting skills and help mothers develop awareness of fathers' skills.

    

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5. Mothers' and fathers' joint profiles for testosterone and oxytocin in a small‐scale fishing‐farming community: Variation based on marital conflict and paternal contributions

   https://doi.org/10.1002/brb3.1367  

   Gettler, Lee T. ; Sarma, Mallika S. ; Lew‐Levy, Sheina ; Bond, Angela ; Trumble, Benjamin C. ; Boyette, Adam H. ( August 2019 , Brain and Behavior)

   Testosterone and oxytocin are psychobiological mechanisms that interrelate with relationship quality between parents and the quantity and quality of parenting behaviors, thereby affecting child outcomes. Their joint production based on family dynamics has rarely been tested, particularly cross‐culturally.

   We explored family function and salivary testosterone and oxytocin in mothers and fathers in a small‐scale, fishing‐farming society in Republic of the Congo. Fathers ranked one another in three domains of family life pertaining to the local cultural model of fatherhood.

   Fathers who were viewed as better providers had relatively lower oxytocin and higher testosterone than men seen as poorer providers, who had lower testosterone and higher oxytocin. Fathers also had higher testosterone and lower oxytocin in marriages with more conflict, while those who had less marital conflict had reduced testosterone and higher oxytocin. In contrast, mothers in conflicted marriages showed the opposite profiles of relatively lower testosterone and higher oxytocin. Mothers had higher oxytocin and lower testosterone if fathers were uninvolved as direct caregivers, while mothers showed an opposing pattern for the two hormones if fathers were seen as involved with direct care.

   These results shed new light on parents' dual oxytocin and testosterone profiles in a small‐scale society setting and highlight the flexibility of human parental psychobiology when fathers' roles and functions within families differ across cultures.

    

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