Although the relationship between parenting stress and children's externalizing problems has been well-documented, limited evidence exists in high-stress family contexts, such as those affected by inter-parental intimate partner violence (IPV), which severely impacts both parents and children. Additionally, previous studies often neglect a child-centric perspective, particularly the role of children's social competence as a potential mediator in these dynamics.

This study aimed to explore the longitudinal relationships among maternal parenting stress, children's social competence, and externalizing problems in IPV-affected families.

Using data from The Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study, 718 dyads of abused mothers and their children were included at ages 5, 9, and 15.

Cross-lagged panel models were employed to analyze the directional relationship between variables, and bootstrap analysis was used to test potential indirect pathways.

In IPV-affected families, children's externalizing problems directly increased maternal parenting stress, while children's social competence directly reduced externalizing problems. Maternal parenting stress and children's social competence showed a bidirectional relationship. Additionally, parenting stress indirectly influenced children's externalizing problems through social competence; children's social competence predicted parenting stress through externalizing problems; children's externalizing problems predicted social competence through parenting stress.

Children's externalizing problems and social competence directly influenced maternal parenting stress, whereas maternal parenting stress's effect on children's externalizing problems was indirect and mediated by social competence over a longer time frame. The findings highlight the bidirectionality of parent-child dynamics in IPV-affected families and underscore the distinct roles of parent-driven and child-driven factors.

Previous research indicates that parental monitoring protects adolescents from delinquency. While, emerging adults spend increasing amounts of time outside the family setting, they often remain in or return to reside in the parental home, possibly prolonging the period of parental monitoring. We examine whether parental monitoring, differentiating between child disclosure, parental solicitation, and parental control, is a protective factor for delinquency for emerging adults. We also examine whether monitoring occurs in educational settings, by the partner or in employment settings, and whether this monitoring is associated with delinquency. We use data from a longitudinal survey of 970 Dutch emerging adults (18-24 years), to examine monitoring, using instruments based on Stattin and Kerr's parental monitoring scale. Results indicate that parental monitoring is not associated with delinquency in emerging adulthood. Furthermore, we find no evidence of the protective role of monitoring in educational settings, by the partner or in employment settings. However, the negative relationship between monitoring of the self, self-control, delinquency during emerging adulthood increases in strength.

Parenting stress is associated with negative outcomes for both parents and their children, and it may be influenced by the quality of relationships that parents had with their own parents. To enhance understanding of this intergenerational relation, the present study examined whether stability and change in depressive symptoms mediated the association between parent-adolescent relationship quality during adolescence and subsequent parenting stress almost 25 years later. Using data from all five waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) restricted dataset from the United States, the study included adolescents who were between 12 and18 years old at Wave 1 and had at least one child at Wave 5 (2016-2018; N = 4890; Mage at Wave 1 = 15.67, SDage at Wave 1 = 1.50). A modified version of the random intercept cross-lagged model was used to account for both within- and between-person levels of depressive symptoms. Findings indicated that high levels of parent-adolescent relationship quality (with both mothers and fathers) were related to low levels of depressive symptoms that were stable over the almost 25 years of the study (between-person individual differences). In turn, low levels of depressive symptoms that were stable over time were associated with low levels of parenting stress in parenthood. Results underscore the potential long-term value of interventions that enhance parent-adolescent relationship quality in adolescence, as these could reduce enduring depressive symptoms and parenting stress in future generations.

Few studies have examined whether mothers' and fathers' disciplinary tactics may overlap or differ. Examination of both parents' disciplinary behaviors will contribute to explain potential variation in associated violence risk.

This study aims to assess if parental discipline used towards children in childhood and adolescence are individual or dyadic behaviors.

We used data from Portuguese Generation XXI cohort participants (n = 6110).

Parental discipline was reported at ages 7 and 13 using Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scale. A score was developed for each dimension. Actor-partner Interdependence (APIM) and Common-Fate (CFM) Models estimated effects of individual and shared decisions on discipline from ages 7 to 13.

APIM revealed that non-violent discipline, psychological and corporal aggression from ages 7 to 13 were actor-oriented behaviors (βactor = 0.131, 95%CI: 0.107;0.156 vs. βpartner = -0.006, 95%CI: -0.031;0.018; βactor = 0.188, 95%CI: 0.160;0.216 vs. βpartner = 0.005, 95%CI: -0.022;0.032; βactor = 0.185, 95%CI: 0.159;0.211 vs. βpartner = 0.014, 95%CI: -0.012;0.039, respectively). Severe physical assault was couple-oriented (βactor = βpartner = 0.060, 95%CI: 0.032;0.089). CFM revealed significant associations between non-violent discipline, psychological and physical aggression from ages 7 to 13, both individually and dyadically. Regarding severe discipline, dyadic latent variable showed a significant association (βshared = 0.138, 95%CI: 0.066;0.210).

Independently of the actor, the use of non-violent discipline, psychological aggression and corporal punishment in childhood predicted their use in adolescence. The consistent use of the most severe discipline was a parental shared decision. Research should consider parental discipline as a factor influencing children's risk of violence exposure and impact on health and development.

Rising rates of childhood behavioral problems are a global concern and in Portugal cases of behavioral problems in youth have been following international trends. Parenting interventions are widely regarded as one of the most effective ways to address externalizing behaviors early on, and thus their dissemination is crucial. This paper presents a feasibility randomized controlled trial (RCT) conducted in Portugal to evaluate the effectiveness of a parenting intervention for childhood behavioral problems. Our goals were threefold: a) assess feasibility parameters; b) evaluate program fidelity and acceptability; and c) examine the program's potential impact on child behavior, parenting skills, parental concern, and parental competence.

A double-blinded, two-arm design was employed. Fifty-five families of children aged 2-11 years old who reported difficulties managing their child's behavior were included. Parents were randomly assigned to either the intervention group or a waitlist control group, and the intervention group participated in the eight-week "Being a Parent" program (Portuguese version: Ser Pai & Ser Mãe). Data were collected at two time points (pre- and post-intervention) using quantitative measures.

Findings confirmed the program's successful implementation in Portugal and demonstrated significant positive effects, particularly in reducing externalizing behavior, as well as aggressive behavior, and increasing parental competence, more specifically parental satisfaction.

This study represents the first trial of the Being a Parent program conducted outside the UK, and highlights its potential for broader international application. Key challenges and clinical implications are also addressed.

ClinicalTrials.gov (nº NCT05626244).

Using a nationally representative sample, this study examined associations between fathers' adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and fathering and whether fathers' behavioral health mediated this association.

Data from 4,814 fathers who were followed from adolescence through early adulthood in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. On average, fathers were 33 years old and self-identified as non-Hispanic White (64%) followed by non-Hispanic Black (17%) or Hispanic (12%). Fathers self-reported on 13 ACEs during waves 1-4 and two measures of behavioral health (depressive symptoms and alcohol consumption) and fathering (stress and satisfaction), assessed at wave 4 or 5. A multiple mediation model was estimated using a structural equation model to examine direct and indirect pathways between fathers' ACEs and fathering, through behavioral health.

There was a significant direct effect of ACEs on fathering satisfaction (B = -0.04, standard error (se) = 0.02, p <.01), as well as a significant indirect effect through fathers' depressive symptoms (B = -0.04, se = 0.01, p <.001), resulting in a total effect of -0.08 (se = 0.02, p <.001). Fathers' ACEs were also linked to heavy drinking (B = 0.01, se = 0.00, p <.05). ACEs were not associated with fathering stress.

Findings indicate the importance of reaching and engaging ACE exposed fathers in behavioral health and parenting interventions. Given health promotion in fathers has benefits for their children, leveraging pediatric encounters to identify at-risk fathers has the potential to improve both fathers' and children's health.

Social disadvantage has been associated with early socioemotional difficulties. This study examined mechanisms that relate prenatal social disadvantage (PSD) to the development of early socioemotional problems by testing whether these associations were mediated by (1) neonatal brain volumes and/or (2) early parenting behaviors.

Women were recruited early in their pregnancies and followed prospectively. PSD encompassed access to material (e.g., income-to-needs, health insurance, area deprivation, nutrition, education) resources during pregnancy. Shortly after birth, neonates underwent structural magnetic resonance scanning. Mother-child dyads returned at child age 1 year for parenting observations, and parents reported child socio-emotional problems (ITSEA: externalizing, dysregulation, internalizing) at age 2 years (N=267; 45% female). Simple and parallel mediation models tested hypotheses.

Greater PSD was associated with increased externalizing and dysregulation symptoms at age 2 years. PSD-associated reductions in neonatal brain volumes (cortical grey matter, white matter, total brain) mediated both PSD-externalizing and PSD-dysregulation associations. The PSD-externalizing association was additionally mediated by early parenting behaviors, particularly non-supportive parenting behaviors. Thus, for externalizing symptoms, non-supportive parenting behaviors and mediating brain metrics were examined simultaneously in parallel mediation models. Non-supportive parenting remained a significant mediator, while neonatal brain volumes were no longer significant.

PSD-associated brain structural alterations at birth may serve as early risk factors for the development of multidimensional socioemotional difficulties in toddlerhood. However, parenting emerged as a stronger mediator for externalizing, lending support to parenting behaviors as key intervention targets for the prevention of externalizing problems in early childhood.

Insufficient physical activity poses a significant threat to adolescent health. Parental psychological control, as a typical negative parenting style, exerts profound influences on health-related behaviors among adolescents. This study aims to identify and elucidate the specific mechanisms through which parental psychological control impacts adolescent physical activity. Furthermore, it explores the roles of self-control ability and psychological capital in mediating the relationship between parenting styles and adolescent physical activity. The findings of this research seek to provide guidance for family education practices.

A survey was conducted on 1,010 students from the first year of junior high school to the second year of senior high school to assess parental psychological control, physical activity, self-control, and psychological capital. Data analysis and model validation were performed using SPSS 26 and AMOS 24.

A significant negative correlation was found between parental psychological control and adolescents' physical activity levels. Self-control was observed to partially mediate this relationship, while psychological capital played a negative moderating role in the adverse impact of parental psychological control on adolescents' physical activity.

Parental psychological control had a negative impact on the level of physical activity among adolescents. Enhancing adolescents' self-control and psychological capital could serve as potential strategies to mitigate this negative effect, encouraging adolescents to actively engage in physical activities. This paper provided a new theoretical perspective and practical basis for improving family education methods and promoting positive health-enhancing behaviors among adolescents.

Physical and sexual abuse have far-reaching mental and behavioral health consequences, extending across the lifespan and, in some cases, across generations. However, empirical work in this area is limited by cross-sectional study designs, short follow-up durations, and data analytic techniques that fail to capture the nuanced developmental processes through which caregivers and children impact one another. The present study investigated the cross-lagged and bidirectional pathways between maternal childhood victimization, depression, harsh parenting, and their children's externalizing symptoms over a 10-year period. Participants were 818 mother-child dyads prospectively identified as at-risk for family violence when children were four years old. Traditional cross-lagged panel modeling (CLPM) and random-intercept cross-lagged panel modeling (RI-CLPM) documented that maternal depression, harsh parenting, and child externalizing problems - all predicted by mothers' early abuse experiences - exacerbated one another across time. Discrepancies between the CLPM and RI-CLPM highlighted the advantages, disadvantages, and methodological implications of each approach. Findings highlight maternal psychopathology and parenting as key mechanisms in the intergenerational impact of abuse, emphasizing the importance of trauma-informed, parent-mediated interventions for breaking long-term cycles of family dysfunction. The present findings support separating out between-person, trait-like components when interpreting cross-lagged associations, as these may confound within-person effects.

Despite research documenting the impact of parenting styles on adolescent development, the bidirectional dynamics between adolescents' perceived parenting styles and their prosocial behavior, particularly when simultaneously considering the role of emotion regulation, remain underexplored. This study used the random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) to examine bidirectional relationships between adolescent-perceived parenting dimensions (emotional warmth, psychological control, and harsh parenting) and adolescent prosocial behavior, while exploring emotion regulation strategies as mediators. The study utilized a three-wave longitudinal design with 719 middle school students (47.43% female; Mage = 12.11 years, SD = 0.41) from southwestern China, with one-year intervals between assessments. Results showed that at the within-person level, adolescent-perceived parental warmth and adolescent prosocial behavior formed a positive bidirectional relationship mediated by cognitive reappraisal. Parental psychological control predicted decreased prosocial behavior through increased expressive suppression, while harsh parenting reduced prosocial behavior by inhibiting cognitive reappraisal strategies. Multi-group analysis revealed that the indirect pathway from parental psychological control to prosocial behavior through expressive suppression was significantly stronger for female than male adolescents. These findings identify key psychological mechanisms promoting adolescent social adaptation within family systems, highlight emotion regulation's central role in the bidirectional relationships between parenting and adolescent development, and offer important implications for family interventions.

Past studies that examined externalizing and internalizing symptoms in separate samples have found different trajectories associated with harsh parenting. The present study uses a complex set of longitudinal modeling to investigate the developmental trajectories of internalizing and externalizing symptoms associated with harsh parenting. We also explore the moderation of socioeconomic status and ethnicity by testing differences between income and racial groups. Using bivariate and multigroup latent change score modeling, we analyzed 12,909 participants from the Millennium Cohort Study. Results of the bivariate latent change score model showed that harsh parenting had a bidirectional association with externalizing symptoms but only a unidirectional association with internalizing symptoms. A further analysis using multi-group modeling showed that the association between harsh parenting and externalizing and internalizing symptoms differed across ethnic backgrounds but much less on socioeconomic status. Specifically, initial levels of harsh parenting predicted an increase in externalizing symptoms among White participants but not in non-White participants, and these ethnic differences cut across socioeconomic status classifications in a test of the interaction of ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Taken together, our findings suggest that the prevailing cultural norms surrounding harsh parenting may affect the degree to which it negatively impacts children's mental health.

The current study examined direct and indirect associations between parent and child antisocial behavior. Indirect associations were through aggressive interparental conflict and parent aggression towards children. Participants were 199 two-parent families with a child between the ages of 6 and 12 years. Mothers and fathers completed questionnaire measures of antisocial behavior, marital conflict, parenting, and child antisocial behavior. Results supported independent associations between mother and father antisocial behavior and child antisocial behavior, controlling for child age, child sex, and family income. Indirect associations were also observed in which mother antisocial behavior was associated with higher interparental conflict, interparental conflict was related to higher mother harsh parenting, and mother harsh parenting was related to greater child antisocial behavior. Findings indicate that aggressive family dynamics may play a role in the transmission of antisocial behavior from mothers to children, and that alternative mechanisms of risk may be involved in the transmission of antisocial behavior from fathers to children.

Objective: Motivational interviewing (MI) is increasingly recognized as an effective approach in forensic settings, particularly for overcoming resistance by avoiding confrontation and fostering intrinsic motivation. Research shows that interventions incorporating MI are more effective than other approaches in preventing and reducing offending behavior, highlighting its importance in improving intervention outcomes. Given this evidence, advocating for the integration of MI is crucial to enhance the effectiveness of interventions. Method: This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to systematize knowledge and assess the effectiveness of interventions incorporating MI for justice-involved people who have been sentenced to custodial or non-custodial measures. Twenty-two studies were included. The total sample size of the studies ranged from 25 to 528 individuals convicted of various offences, including intimate partner violence, violent crimes, sexual offences, property crimes, driving offences, and drug offences. Results: Results indicated that MI is more effective in increasing session attendance and reducing dropout than interventions without MI. For official recidivism, evidence favored MI with a statistically significant reduction in recidivism rates. Conclusions: These findings highlight the importance of integrating MI into forensic settings, establishing its positive impact on numerous outcomes.

Parental warmth during the transition from childhood to adolescence is a key protective factor against a host of adolescent problems, including substance use, maladjustment, and diminished well-being. Moreover, adolescents and parents often disagree in their perceptions of parenting quality, and these discrepancies may confer risk for problem outcomes. The current study applies latent profile analysis to a sample of 687 mother-father-6th grade adolescent triads to identify patterns of adolescent-parent convergence and divergence in perceptions of parental warmth. Five profiles were identified, and associations with adolescent positive well-being, substance use, and maladjustment outcomes in 9th grade were assessed. Patterns of divergence in which adolescents had a pronounced negative perception of parental warmth compared to parents, as well as those wherein pronounced divergence was present in only one adolescent-parent dyad, were associated with diminished positive well-being compared to adolescents who had more positive perceptions of warmth than parents. Having more negative perceptions of warmth compared to parents was also associated with elevated risk for alcohol and marijuana initiation, but only when the divergence was pronounced rather than more moderate. These findings add nuance to findings from previous between-family investigations of informant discrepancies, calling for further family-centered methods for investigating multiple perspectives.

Empirical findings on the associations of positive and dysfunctional parent-child relationship (PPCR/DPCR) characteristics with child shame, adaptive guilt, and maladaptive guilt were synthesized in six meta-analyses. The 65 included samples yielded 633 effect sizes (Ntotal = 19,144; Mage = 15.24 years; 59.0% female; 67.7% U.S. samples, n = 12,036 with 65% White, 12.3% Hispanic and Latinx, 10.8% Black, 6.3% mixed race, 5.6% Asian American, 0.3% Native American participants). Small positive correlations were found between DPCR and shame (r = .17), DPCR and maladaptive guilt (r = .15), and PPCR and adaptive guilt (r = .14). A small negative correlation was found between PPCR and shame (r = -.12). Sample and study moderators and sources of bias are investigated and discussed.

Fetal exposure to prenatal stress can increase risk for psychopathology but postnatal caregiving may offset risk. This study tests whether maternal sensitivity and the home environment during early childhood modify associations of prenatal stress with offspring behavior in a sample of 127 mother-child pairs (n = 127). Mothers reported on perceived stress during pregnancy. Maternal sensitivity was rated by coders during a parent-child free play task when children were 4 years old. One year later, mothers reported on the home environment, child internalizing and externalizing behaviors, and children completed an assessment of inhibitory control. As hypothesized, the early childhood caregiving environment modified associations of prenatal stress with child behavior. Specifically, prenatal stress was associated with more internalizing behaviors at lower levels of maternal sensitivity and in home environments that were lower in emotional support and cognitive stimulation, but not at mean or higher levels. Furthermore, prenatal stress was associated with lower inhibitory control only at lower levels of maternal sensitivity, but not at higher levels. Maternal sensitivity and an emotionally supportive and cognitively stimulating home environment in early childhood may be important factors that mitigate risk for mental health problems among children exposed to prenatal stress.

The goal of this study was to examine the impacts of the Smart Beginnings (SB) intervention, a tiered model that combines universal primary prevention and targeted secondary prevention, on parental negative affect during discipline and children's externalizing behavior. Analyses included 273 families who were randomly assigned to SB or control groups at birth. Parental negative affect during discipline and child externalizing behavior were assessed through parent report at age four and six, respectively. Compared to the control group, families in SB had significantly reduced parental negative affect during discipline, with indirect effects on children's externalizing behavior through impacts on parent affect during discipline, both for the full sample and specifically for families with increased risks. Findings suggest that interventions aimed at promoting positive parent-child interactions may have important impacts on parenting behaviors and may prevent the onset of child behavior problems, with important implications for the implementation of preventive interventions. This study examined the impacts of the Smart Beginnings (SB) tiered model, which combines universal primary prevention and targeted secondary prevention, on parental negative demeanor during discipline-negative parental behavioral traits that are expressed through anger, verbal aggression, or demeaning behavior-and children's externalizing behavior. Analyses included 273 families randomly assigned to SB or control groups at birth. Parental negative demeanor during discipline was assessed through parent report (Socolar Discipline Survey) at age four and child externalizing behavior (CBCL) at age six. Compared to controls, regression analyses indicated that families in SB had significantly reduced parental negative demeanor during discipline, with mediation analyses suggesting indirect effects on child externalizing through impacts on parent demeanor during discipline, moderated by family risk level. Findings indicate that interventions aimed at promoting positive parent-child interactions may impact parenting behaviors and prevent onset of child behavior problems, with important implications for implementation of preventive interventions.

Parenting styles and the developmental environment of adolescents in China have undergone significant changes. However, the development of parent-adolescent intimacy among contemporary Chinese adolescents and its impact on internalizing and externalizing problems remain unclear. To address this research gap, this study explored the development of father-child and mother-child intimacy during early and middle adolescence and examined their effects on internalizing and externalizing problems. Further, it investigates the potential gender differences in these developmental processes. In total, 1,370 early adolescents (M age T1 = 12.31, SD age T1 = 0.49; 51.17% girls) and 1381 middle adolescents (M age T1 = 15.19, SD age T1 = 0.50; 50.16% girls) participated in this one-year, three-wave longitudinal survey. The results showed that father-child and mother-child intimacy decreased over one year in early adolescents, while in middle adolescents, father-child intimacy increased, and mother-child intimacy decreased. Furthermore, the development of parent-child intimacy in both early and middle adolescents negatively predicted internalizing and externalizing problems one year later. Regarding sex differences, early adolescent girls had lower initial levels of father-child intimacy but higher initial levels of mother-child intimacy compared to boys. In middle adolescents, girls also showed higher initial levels of mother-child intimacy than boys. Additionally, the decline in father-child intimacy had a stronger impact on anxiety and aggression in early adolescent girls and a more significant effect on depression in middle adolescent girls. These findings offer new insights into how parent-child intimacy changes in Chinese adolescents and its impact on internalizing and externalizing problems, providing valuable guidance for targeted interventions.

The study probes the relationship between parenting styles and three adolescents' psychological outcome variables: impostor phenomenon, self-esteem, and emotion dysregulation. Using path analysis, it aimed at testing the mediating role played by the latter two variables in the association between parenting and adolescents' impostor feelings, while differentiating between maternal and paternal parenting effect in the context of the child's gender. The sample consisted of 103 adolescent males and 117 females whose mean age was 14.10 ± 1.53. The participants took part in an online survey, where they reported their parents' parenting styles and their psychological variables using battery of instruments. For mothers, authoritative parenting was directly associated among male adolescents and indirectly associated (via higher self-esteem) among female adolescents with lower impostor feelings. For fathers, a similar an indirect association via self-esteem was recorded solely among male adolescents. Emotion dysregulation was found to be uniquely related to authoritarian parenting among adolescent females and to permissive parenting among adolescent males. Respectively, these psychological variables mediated the relationships between parenting styles and adolescents' impostor feelings. The study contributes unique evidence for the role played by emotion dysregulation and self-esteem in explaining adolescents' impostor feelings, while considering the importance of parenting styles and parent-child gender.

Family emotional expression is considered one of the key contributors to children's development and functions as a precondition that is linked with educational equality in the preschool living environment for young children, especially those who live in rural areas. This study explored the family emotional expression of parents who were once left-behind children and its influence on their children's social-emotional competence (SEC) in less developed areas of western China. A total of 522 families and their children (Mage = 31.86 months, SDage = 5.66; 280 boys, 242 girls) from three rural counties in western China participated in this study. The parents completed the family emotional expression questionnaire, parent impulsivity questionnaire, parent acceptance-rejection questionnaire, and parenting stress scale. Their children took part in the Bayley-III assessment of social-emotional ability. The results indicated that (1) positive family emotional expression enhances children's social-emotional competence (SEC), whereas negative family emotional expression, parental acceptance and rejection, dysfunctional impulsivity, and parenting stress hinder children's SEC. (2) Family emotional expression, parenting stress, and children's SEC exhibit significant group differences between left-behind and non-left-behind parents, suggesting the unique challenges faced by children in left-behind families. (3) Parenting stress negatively predicts the development of children's SEC in both groups, highlighting the detrimental impact of stress on emotional development. (4) In non-left-behind families, positive family emotional expression predicts improvements in children's SEC, whereas negative emotional expression, parental impulsivity, and rejection negatively affect SEC development.

Since children left behind in rural areas are more prone to aggressive behavior due to incomplete families or inappropriate parenting styles, it is essential to identify influencing factors and potential mechanisms to mitigate their aggression. This study aims to examine the relationship between physical exercise and aggressive behavior among rural left-behind children in China and the mediating effects of psychological capital and self‑control.

Participants consisted of 453 rural left-behind children (Mage = 12.58, SD = 1.41; boys = 231, girls = 222) from two rural primary schools and two rural junior high schools in a city in central China. These rural left-behind children completed a questionnaire measuring physical exercise, psychological capital, self-control, and aggressive behavior. Descriptive analysis, correlation analysis, and mediation analysis were conducted using SPSS software and the Process plug-in.

The results showed that (1) physical exercise, psychological capital, and self-control were all significantly positively correlated with each other, and they were all significantly negatively correlated with aggressive behavior. (2) psychological capital and self-control partially serve as both independent and chain mediators between physical exercise and aggressive behavior.

This study provides further insight into the underlying mechanisms linking physical exercise and aggressive behavior in rural left-behind children. Physical exercise not only has a direct negative effect on aggressive behavior but also indirectly predicts aggressive behavior through its impact on psychological capital and self-control. This mediating effect model provided a valuable insight for improving their physical exercise and preventing aggressive behavior.

Previous research suggests that parenting may change with children's age, yet few studies have explored the heterogeneous developmental trajectories of parental psychological control and supportive parenting during early adolescence, and their implications for adolescent adjustment. This study employed a longitudinal accelerated design, with 4731 Chinese students from two cohorts (Grades 4 and 5; 44.9% girls; M = 10.91 years, SD = 0.72) assessed at four time points. Latent class growth modeling identified four trajectories of psychological control (increasing-decreasing, decreasing-increasing, high-stable, and low-stable) and three trajectories of supportive parenting (continually low, continually moderate, and continually high). Significant differences in internalizing and externalizing problems were found across the identified parenting trajectories. These findings underscore the importance of capturing heterogeneity in parenting patterns to better understand their developmental course and implications for adolescent mental health.

Using latent profile analysis, the study examined distinct joint parenting styles among Chinese families with preschoolers (N = 300; 51.7% girls; Mage = 55.97 months). This study incorporated maternal and paternal reports on multiple parenting dimensions that covered both Western- and Chinese-emphasized practices. Using data collected between 2017 and 2019 from Shanghai, four joint parenting styles emerged: authoritative (39.3%), moderately supportive (38.0%), strict-affectionate (14.3%), and authoritarian (8.4%). Authoritarian and moderately supportive parenting styles were linked to poorer child outcomes 1.5 years later compared to authoritative parenting. However, there were no significant differences in most child outcomes between authoritative and strict-affectionate parenting. These findings necessitate a reevaluation of the parenting typology and its effects on child development in the Chinese context.

Among early-onset conduct problems (CP), associated with more disruptive behaviors of greater intensity and stability, several domains have been proposed from a variable-centered perspective to capture their heterogeneity: oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and callous-unemotional traits (CU). Using a person-centered approach, the present study aims to identify distinct profiles of child CP, examining different predictors and developmental outcomes.

Data included parent- and teacher-reported questionnaires from an ongoing longitudinal study (ELISA). Latent profiles were identified first in a community sample (n = 2,103; age 4-8 years; 50.9% boys) and replicated in a high-CP subsample (n = 168; 70.24% boys).

Four profiles emerged in the community sample (Normative Development, Daring/Impulsive, Low prosociality + Fear; Low prosociality + Psychopathic Traits [PP]), and three in the high-CP sample (same except the normative). The identified CP profiles aligned with the ADHD and CU domains, but not the ODD domain. Differences in activity, punitive and inconsistent parenting emerge as the most significant predictors. Regarding the outcomes, the Low prosociality + PP profile stands out as the group with the most severe emotional, social and behavioral maladjustment.

These findings highlight the heterogeneity within CP, and the importance of designing specific and tailored interventions for each identified profile.

Exposure to adversity during the perinatal period has been associated with cognitive difficulties in children. Given the role of the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) in attention and impulsivity, we examined whether NAcc volume at age six mediates the relations between pre- and postnatal adversity and subsequent attention problems in offspring. 306 pregnant women were recruited as part of the Growing Up in Singapore Towards Healthy Outcomes Study. Psychosocial stress was assessed during pregnancy and across the first 5 years postpartum. At six years of age, children underwent structural MRI and, at age seven years, mothers reported on their children's attention problems. Separate factor analyses conducted on measures of pre- and postnatal adversity each yielded two latent factors: maternal mental health and socioeconomic status. Both pre- and postnatal maternal mental health predicted children's attention difficulties. Further, NAcc volume mediated the relation between prenatal, but not postnatal, maternal mental health and children's attention problems. These findings suggest that the NAcc is particularly vulnerable to prenatal maternal mental health challenges and contributes to offspring attention problems. Characterizing the temporal sensitivity of neurobiological structures to adversity will help to elucidate mechanisms linking environmental exposures and behavior, facilitating the development of neuroscience-informed interventions for childhood difficulties.

Introduction: Studies based on the self-determination theory about the antecedents in parent couples with children of school transition years are still limited. Therefore, this research examines the possible association of parental motivation, parental autonomy support, parental psychological control and the parental reports of children's outcomes. Methods: The participants for this study are 150 couples of parents with at least one child from 4 to 6 years old that have completed questionnaires regarding parental motivation, parental practices and parental reports of children's outcomes. Results: Results suggest that both parents' autonomous motivation for parenting was positively associated with parental autonomy support, while the controlled motivation for parenting was positively associated with parental psychological control. Furthermore, however, parental psychological control was positively associated with parental reports of anxiety, anger and parental autonomy support was positively associated with parental reports of social competence. Conclusion: These findings highlight the importance of motivation and supportive parenting for parents of children between 4 and 6 years.

Given the negative impact of deviant peer affiliation on adolescent behavioral development, understanding its underlying mechanisms is essential. Drawing on social development model, psychological reactance theory and adolescent-limited delinquency theory, this study examined the relationship between parenting behaviors and adolescents' deviant peer affiliation, as well as the mediating role of reactance and the moderating role of gender. The research involved 1,822 high school students (Mage = 15.28 years, SDage = 2.40) from two provinces in China. All students completed a face-to-face questionnaire administered in a computer room at their respective school. This study found that parental emotional warmth was negatively correlated with adolescent deviant peer affiliation. On the contrary, parental rejection and overprotection were positively correlated with adolescent deviant peer affiliation. Furthermore, the findings indicated that reactance significantly mediated the relationship between parental emotional warmth, rejection, overprotection, and deviant peer affiliation, with reactance fully mediating the relationship between parental overprotection and deviant peer affiliation. Finally, the gender of the adolescent was found to significantly moderate the relationship between parental rejection (β = -0.10, p =.04), emotional warmth (β = 0.16, p =.003) and deviant peer affiliation, although no moderation was observed regarding parental overprotection. These results suggest that various parenting behaviors employ complex mechanisms to influence adolescents' deviant peer affiliation, with reactance and gender differences playing pivotal roles. This study offers new insights into the mechanisms underlying adolescent deviant peer affiliation and underscores the importance of reducing deviant peer affiliation through interventions targeting reactance and parenting behaviors.

Parenting style refers to the emotional climate in which parents nurture and guide their child's social development. Despite the prominence of parenting style research, many studies still create their own psychometrically untested measures of parenting styles, use measures that do not capture the uninvolved parenting style, or use median splits to convert dimensional assessments into parenting style typologies. To address these measurement issues, the current studies developed the Parenting Styles Circumplex Inventory (PSCI) which is rooted in Contemporary Integrative Interpersonal Theory and provides a framework to unite typology and dimensional parenting style measurement approaches. The current article describes the development and initial validation of the PSCI across three samples of college students (Ns = 571, 361, 385). The 32-item PSCI consists of eight octant scales which each assess unique combinations of parental responsiveness and demandingness. The measure asks respondents to answer each question about their mother- and/or father-figure. The circumplex structure of the PSCI was confirmed and replicated across studies and the PSCI demonstrated meaningful associations with indicators of parenting practices, relationship functioning, psychopathology symptoms, and substance use. Results from this study provide initial support for the PSCI as a path forward for measuring parenting styles.

Parenting styles are often the focus of interventions aimed at mitigating disparities in children's well-being. Although research has sought to establish parenting differences across income groups, the extent to which income itself drives such differences is disputed. Little attention has focused on income volatility, despite its secular rise and recent salience and the links between volatility and parenting drawn by theories across the social and developmental sciences. I investigate whether and how income volatility affects parenting styles using data from the 2009-2022 UK Household Longitudinal Study and an empirical approach that addresses measured and unmeasured common causes of volatility and parenting. Self-reports of parenting styles are differently associated with income instability across income groups. Mothers with higher but more unstable household and labor incomes report lower warmth. When households accumulate benefit income, reports of harsh or more permissive practices become more frequent among mothers with higher incomes and less frequent among those with lower incomes. Despite instability due to labor income losses, fathers with lower incomes report higher warmth in their interactions with their children, whereas fathers with higher incomes report the opposite. These findings suggest that theories, public debates, and policies could be retailored to address the role of income changes in family life.

Externalizing and internalizing problems in childhood are associated with risk for later psychopathology. It is important to identify antecedents as they may be targets for intervention. In a sample of 501 children (M = 6.07; 54.7% male; 12.4% Hispanic; 12.2% non-White), we leveraged data from a longitudinal study to examine the transmission of parenting behaviors across two generations and its effects on children's internalizing and externalizing outcomes in the subsequent generation. The results suggested transmission of parenting behaviors, confirmed the role of parenting on children's psychopathology, and provided novel evidence of a direct and indirect role of grandparent's caregiving on children's psychopathology via parenting continuity. These findings may inform interventions addressing continuity of parenting behaviors and their subsequent effects.

Worldwide, more than one in 10 children or adolescents is diagnosed with a mental disorder. Cash transfer programs, which aim to reduce poverty and improve life outcomes by providing direct cash assistance to families and incentivizing or enabling spending on education, health service use, dietary diversity and savings, have been shown to improve the mental health and well-being of young people in low- and middle-income countries. The goal of this review is to describe cash transfer programs in the United States, to describe potential mechanisms by which cash transfer programs could improve child and adolescent mental health and to summarize any evidence of the impact of cash transfer programs. We conclude that much of the evidence on the relationship between cash transfer programs and child and adolescent mental health in the United States is based on a relatively small set of studies. Although most of these studies find that cash transfer programs are associated with reductions in emotional or behavioural health problems, effect sizes are small. For potential mechanisms of cash transfer effects, the strongest evidence is that cash transfer programs increase child-related expenditures and savings and increase time spent with children. Evidence is mixed on whether cash transfer programs improve maternal mental health, parental disciplinary practices or children's exposure to violence.

High sleep quality in parents has been linked to positive parenting outcomes, including reduced parenting stress and increased life satisfaction. However, the daily dynamics of these factors remain underexplored, especially in families of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study examined the reciprocal relationships between daily sleep quality, parenting stress, and life satisfaction among parents of children with ASD. Seventy-five Chinese parents (M = 36.21 years, SD = 3.77 years; 57 mothers) of children with ASD (M = 5.43 years, SD = 1.56 years; 67 boys) participated in a 14-day diary study. Parents reported their subjective sleep quality, parenting stress, and life satisfaction at the same time each day across 7 survey questions. Dynamic structural equation modeling revealed two significant autoregressive effects: parents' perceptions of parenting stress and life satisfaction on a given day tended to persist into the following day. Moreover, better-than-average sleep quality on a given night predicted lower parenting stress and higher life satisfaction the next day. However, daytime fluctuations in parenting stress and life satisfaction did not influence sleep quality that night. hese preliminary findings suggest a unidirectional impact of sleep quality on perceived parenting stress and life satisfaction among these parents. Target interventions aimed at improving sleep quality, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) or structured sleep hygiene programs, may be essential for reducing parenting stress and enhancing life satisfaction in parents of children with ASD. These interventions should prioritize promoting consistent sleep routines and managing stress-related sleep disruptions.

A basic tenet of Attachment Theory describes a species-wide tendency to search out an attachment figure in times of distress. Expectations of support, or lack thereof, may provide a template for socioemotional functioning. This study investigated potential concurrent predictors (i.e. time spent with one's mother and parenting style) and socioemotional correlates of children's verbally expressed preferences for their mothers (i.e. maternal preference) during hypothetical attachment- and affiliation-related situations in 185 Southeast Asian children aged 3-6 years (95 boys). Though children in the current study were cared for by several caregivers, results here suggest they nevertheless prefer their mothers. Maternal time spent did not significantly predict preferences. However, authoritative parenting style scores did. Maternal preferences predicted higher child prosocial, but not problematic behavior. Implications for future work discerning the role of mothers in children's lives are discussed.

Certain observable parenting behaviors contribute to the risk of children developing internalizing and externalizing problems. Yet parenting behaviors do not affect all children uniformly and effects may depend on identifiable child characteristics. One factor is a child's biological sensitivity to the caregiving environment, an indicator of which is a stress hormone, cortisol. This longitudinal study examines two dimensions of observable parenting behaviors, responsive and rejecting/harsh. These parenting behaviors and child cortisol awakening response (CAR) were measured during home visits in a sample of 100 mostly low-income White and Latina/Hispanic mothers and their children at ages 4-6. Children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors were assessed one year later. We tested the effects of responsive and harsh/rejecting parenting on child internalizing and externalizing and examined child CAR as a moderator. Results indicated that responsive parenting predicted better child mental health as indexed by fewer internalizing and externalizing behaviors, whereas harsh/rejecting parenting predicted more internalizing behaviors. Harsh/rejecting parenting interacted with child CAR such that harsh/rejecting parenting predicted more externalizing only among children with low CAR; there was no interaction of responsive parenting with child CAR. These results elucidate how child CAR may shape mental health outcomes associated with harsh/rejecting parenting.

This study investigated how mental health, subjective happiness, and positive parenting interrelate among 489 Greek parents (76% mothers, 20% fathers) of children aged 7-13 years. We aimed to clarify whether these constructs converge strongly or remain relatively compartmentalized. Using a network analytic framework, we first estimated a graphical LASSO partial correlation network (38 nodes) and found 257 nonzero edges out of 703 possible (37% connectivity). The mean edge weight was 0.024, and centrality metrics were robust (Correlation Stability > 0.59 at r = 0.70). We then constructed a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) via Bayesian network modeling (1000 bootstrap samples, edge retention ≥ 85%) to infer directional paths. Mental health items (MHC-SF) correlated strongly within their domain (partial correlations up to r = 0.50), as did subjective happiness items (SHS) and positive parenting items (NPP). However, cross-domain links were notably weaker, with partial correlations between NPP items and mental health or happiness rarely exceeding r = 0.20. One bridging link emerged from MH_11 ("warm and trusting relationships") to N_16 ("good relationship with extended family"), r = 0.23, highlighting only a modest cross-construct relationship. The DAG similarly showed that mental health variables exerted moderate directional influence on happiness but minimal influence on parenting nodes. Contrary to assumptions of broad reciprocity, these constructs operated in largely discrete clusters. Interventions should thus treat parental well-being and parenting skills as partially distinct targets, emphasizing more tailored, context-sensitive strategies for Greek families.

Motherhood is often associated with joy, but it can pose significant challenges, and in some instances lead to perinatal mental health problems. Maternal depressive symptoms can hinder a mother's ability to attune to her infant's needs, potentially affecting caregiving quality and emotional support. This study examines how parenting style and a cognitively stimulating home environment (i.e., individual level) and relative social deprivation (i.e., area level) contribute to the relationship between maternal depressive symptoms and offspring's neurocognitive and affective outcomes at 18 months. Participants were 479 mothers and children recruited as part of the Developing Human Connectome Project. Maternal postnatal depressive symptoms were assessed at term with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. At a median corrected age of 18.4 months (range 17.3-24.3) children's outcomes were evaluated with the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third Edition, the parent-rated Child Behaviour Checklist 1½ - 5 and the Early Childhood Behaviour Questionnaire. The Parenting Scale measured dysfunctional parenting in discipline situations; the Cognitively Stimulating Parenting Scale assessed experiences promoting cognitive stimulation in the home. Family socioeconomic status was evaluated using the Index of Multiple Deprivation. Toddler's outcomes were summarised into latent dimensions labelled 'neurocognitive' and 'affective'. Results from bootstrapped-based mediation analysis showed that a permissive parenting style and a less cognitively stimulating home environment modified the relationship between depressive symptoms and toddlers' neurocognitive outcomes. However, other factors, such as relative social deprivation and parental over-reactivity, did not alter this. Results also showed that an over-reactive parenting style modified the relationship between maternal depressive symptoms and toddlers' reduced capacity for effective emotional regulation, while relative social deprivation, permissive parenting and a cognitively stimulating home environment did not. These findings highlight the importance of understanding how environmental factors interact with parenting styles, and influence child development. The study emphasizes the need for interventions that create stable and supportive environments, mitigating the impact of suboptimal parenting on children's developmental outcomes.

Using a sample of linked adopted children, adoptive and birth parents (N = 561), and biological siblings residing in the birth parent home (N = 191), we examined the role of genetics within family stress processes. We tested parental hostility (7 years) as a mediator of the associations between socioeconomic strain and rearing parent psychopathology (4 years) and adolescent externalizing behaviors (11 years) in adoptive and biological parent homes. Next, we examined parent social support (4 years) as a moderator of paths from socioeconomic strain and parent psychopathology to parental hostility. Parental hostility significantly mediated effects of socioeconomic strain and parent psychopathology on adolescent externalizing behaviors in biological and adoptive parent homes, respectively. Equivalence testing of the paths to adolescent externalizing behaviors across family types indicated a negligible role of passive gene-environment correlation. Parent social support significantly attenuated the effect of parent psychopathology on parental hostility in biological families. Birth parent externalizing behaviors were not significantly associated with adoptee externalizing behaviors nor adoptive parent hostility, suggesting negligible heritable risk or evocative gene-environment processes. Full- and half-sibling correlations indicated that children's unique rearing contexts contributed to the parenting they received and the externalizing behavior they exhibited. Implications for intervention are discussed.

Parent-adolescent relationships are shaped by daily interactions that include both warmth and conflict, yet most research has focused on aggregate or long-term patterns rather than their day-to-day fluctuations. Guided by family systems theory, this study examined how mothers and fathers distinctly contribute to daily parent-adolescent warmth and conflict, as well as how these interactions vary across families. The sample consisted of 307 Chinese adolescents (Mage = 13.02 years, SD = 0.762 years; 49.51% girls). Participants reported their daily perceptions of warmth and conflict with both their mothers and fathers over a 10-day period. Dynamic structural equation modeling showed significant autoregressive effects for mother- and father-adolescent warmth and conflict. Cross-lagged analyses revealed that higher levels of mother-adolescent conflict, higher levels of father-adolescent warmth, and lower levels of father-adolescent conflict predicted increased mother-adolescent warmth the following day. Additionally, greater father-adolescent conflict predicted greater mother-adolescent conflict the next day. Within-family effects varied in both direction and magnitude across families and some lagged effects were moderated by adolescent age and family income. Overall, these findings emphasize the importance of considering parent gender and family-level variations when examining daily family dynamics. They also suggest that maternal warmth may be especially sensitive to the family's daily relational experiences, highlighting the need for parenting practices and interventions that acknowledge and address this responsiveness.

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated containment measures changed the daily lives of children and adolescents around the world. To investigate the individual differences in emotional maladjustment under the COVID-19 pandemic, this study focused on the roles of dispositional optimism-pessimism, knowledge about the COVID-19 disease, and conflicts with parents among Chinese early adolescents.

edge about the COVID-19 disease, and conflicts with parents among Chinese early adolescents. The participants were 2,958 early adolescents aged 10 to 14 years old who completed online questionnaires during the pandemic.

While higher pessimism and lower optimism both led to increased emotional maladjustment, pessimism made a greater contribution. Knowledge about the disease and parent-child conflicts were both risk factors for adolescents' emotional maladjustment, yet optimism and pessimism interacted with different factors. More knowledge about the disease intensified the effect of pessimism, and more parent-conflict undermined the effect of optimism.

Our findings provide directions for future aid in adolescence during hard periods depending on one's personality.

Parents can experience much stress from parenting, work, and household responsibilities. Parents' stress recovery experiences, or their lack thereof, can affect parenting practices and influence children's behavioral problems, which may thereby lead to difficulties for children later in life. Therefore, the relationships among these three factors deserve consideration. This study tested a model of the mediating role of parenting practices in the relationship between parents' stress recovery experiences and children's behavioral problems.

Parents (N = 1,112) of 14-year-old children in the third year of junior high school in Japan completed a questionnaire, yielding 583 valid responses. To accurately determine the relationship among parents' stress recovery experiences, parenting practices, and children's behavioral problems, parents of children diagnosed with developmental disabilities and parents who did not respond to the required items in the questionnaire were excluded from the analysis. As a result, 536 of the 583 (89.0%) parents met the inclusion criteria. We conducted a path analysis, following the hypothesis that parents' stress recovery experiences, via their parenting practices, are associated with children's behavioral problems.

The path analysis results indicated that parents' stress recovery experiences of relaxation and mastery were positively associated with positive nurturing attitudes, whereas mastery and control were negatively associated with negative nurturing attitudes. Furthermore, positive nurturing attitudes were negatively associated with externalizing and internalizing problem behaviors, whereas negative nurturing attitudes were positively associated with externalizing and internalizing problem behaviors. In other words, the hypothesis that parents' stress recovery experiences of relaxation, mastery, and control reduce children's behavioral problems via promoting nurturing parental attitudes was supported.

The results indicate that the higher the level of parents' stress recovery experiences, the lower the level of reported children's behavioral problems. Parents' stress recovery experiences correlated with parenting practices, which partially mediated the relationship of the parents' stress recovery with children's behavioral problems. The suggestion is that increasing parents' stress recovery experiences, improving parenting practices and related behaviors, and strengthening the parent-child relationship are important measures that can be mutually beneficial for parents, children, and the overall family relationship.

The current work aims to reveal mother-child synchronization patterns using several interaction modalities and combining them using the diffusion maps method. Twenty-two Hebrew-speaking toddlers (ages = 33 ± 5.38 months, 17 males) and their mothers (ages = 35 ± 5.79 years) participated in two interaction conditions while data was collected from several modalities, i.e. EEG, joint attention (measured through video coding of looking behavior), and motion analysis. Dimension reduction and data fusion of these modalities were performed using diffusion maps to enable a comprehensive assessment of mother-child synchronization dynamics. This multimodal approach allows better characterization of mother-child interaction and examining the associations between interaction patterns and maternal parenting style and their importance to the child's long-term language abilities.

The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between parenting styles, young children's social problem-solving skills, and the mediating role of self-concept in a sample of 200 Turkish preschoolers aged 48-72 months, with an equal distribution of male and female participants. The present study was designed using a cross-sectional survey model in order to achieve the descriptive and predictive aims of the research. Data were collected through individual sessions with the children. During these sessions, the children were administered the Wally Social Problems Test and the DeMoulin Self-Concept Development Scale, while the mothers completed the Parenting Attitudes Scale and the Demographic Information Form. The mediating role of self-esteem and self-efficacy in the relationship between parenting styles and children's social problem-solving skills was examined using PROCESS MACRO. The results supported the proposed model, demonstrating that the impact of democratic parenting style on social problem-solving skills was partially mediated by self-concept, specifically self-esteem, as a parenting measure. These findings suggest that self-esteem is an essential individual characteristic to consider in relation to preschoolers' social relationships, in addition to the influence of democratic parenting style behaviors.

Framed by attachment and cognitive theories, the current meta-analysis tested the direct and indirect links among parenting dimensions (parental support, authoritative control, psychological control, and behavioral control), self-esteem, and depressive symptoms for children and adolescents.

Based on 53 studies, and 74 independent samples, the present study used One-Stage Meta-analytic Structural Equation Modeling (OSMASEM) to investigate these links, including testing a mediation effect by self-esteem between parental support-, authoritative control-, psychological control-, behavioral control-, and depressive symptoms. It also tested for potential moderation effects by several variables.

The evidence indicated that parental support (β = .29), authoritative control (β = .23), and behavioral control (β = .07) are positive correlates of self-esteem, while psychological control (β = -.26) is a negative one. It also found that self-esteem was negatively associated with depressive symptoms (β range: -.49 to -.53). Furthermore, parental support (β = -0.14), authoritative control (β = -0.10), and behavioral control (β = -0.05) are negative correlates of depressive symptoms, while psychological control is a positive correlate (β = .11). OSMASEM also provided evidence that parental support, authoritative control, psychological control, and behavioral control are indirectly associated with depressive symptoms, via self-esteem.

Parenting dimensions are associated with depressive symptoms both directly and indirectly. That is, self-esteem partially mediates the relationships between parental support, authoritative control, psychological control, and behavioral control with depressive symptoms. Furthermore, OSMASEM moderator tests provided evidence of several significant moderators, including age, sex, parenting measurement, and self-esteem measurement.

Insensitive parenting and ineffective disciplinary strategies are known risk factors for child externalizing behavior. The Video-feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline (VIPP-SD) has documented effect in promoting sensitive parenting, but little is known on how VIPP-SD is experienced by parents. This study explores how parents of preschool children with externalizing behaviors experience change following VIPP-SD delivered by trained childcare providers.

Individual qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 9 mothers and 2 fathers to explore the parents' experiences of change following the intervention. Data were analyzed using Braun and Clarke's reflexive thematic analysis.

Four themes were generated: 1) "All of her behavior is actually just a result of how she feels, right?"-Enhanced parental understanding, 2) Meeting the child's needs in comfort and in play, 3) Learning to prevent and manage conflicts is essential-diverse experiences of gains and progress, 4) "I'm actually not a bad parent"-new positive perspectives.

Parents experienced an enhanced capacity to understand their child and positive development in their parenting behavior, skills and confidence as well as improvements in the parent-child relationship after receiving VIPP-SD. Findings also suggest potential areas for adaptation of VIPP-SD when intervening in families with a child exhibiting externalizing behaviors, as parental experiences of gains related to conflict management varied. Further research on this matter is recommended.

Suicidal ideation and behavior are critical psychological crises among children and adolescents, posing significant concerns for their mental health and safety. This cross-sectional study investigated the factors and underlying psychological mechanisms of suicidal ideation in adolescents. A total of 6474 middle school students from Sichuan and Hebei provinces, China, participated in the study. Data were collected using the Self-Assessment of Suicidal Ideation Scale, the Parental Psychological Control Scale, the Meaning in Life Scale, and the Basic Psychological Needs Scale. Statistical analyses, including mediation and chain mediation analyses, were conducted to examine the relationships between parental psychological control, basic psychological needs, meaning in life, and suicidal ideation. The results revealed the following: (1) Parental psychological control positively predicted suicidal ideation in middle school students; (2) basic psychological needs mediated the relationship between parental psychological control and suicidal ideation; (3) meaning in life mediated the relationship between parental psychological control and suicidal ideation; (4) basic psychological needs and meaning in life together played a chain-mediating role in this relationship. These findings highlight the importance of addressing parental psychological control and fostering a supportive family environment to meet adolescents' psychological needs, enhance their sense of life meaning, and reduce suicidal ideation. Insights from this study provide valuable guidance for prevention and intervention strategies aimed at safeguarding adolescents' mental health and well-being.

Research has yet to examine the interplay between indices of environmental risk and resilience processes and genetic predisposition for epigenetic aging in predicting early adolescent depressive symptoms. In the current study we examine whether adverse life events and parental acceptance moderate polygenic predisposition for GrimAge epigenetic aging in predicting trajectories of depressive symptoms across early adolescence.

Using data from the Adolescent Brain Development Study (ABCD, N = 11,875), we created polygenic scores for GrimAge, and examined whether exposure to adverse life events and parental acceptance moderated the relation between genetic risk and depressive symptom trajectories from age 10/11 to 12/13 using growth mixture modelling. We examined models separately in European American (EA), African American (AA), and Latinx (LX) subgroups of ABCD.

In the EA and AA subgroups, adverse life events moderated polygenic scores for GrimAge such that there was increased likelihood of membership in a higher vs. lower depression trajectory.

We extend literature by identifying genetic contributions to epigenetic aging as a depression diathesis in adolescence. Findings also highlight the detrimental role of adverse life events in exacerbating genetic risk for the development of depression in adolescence.

The aim of this study was to develop and psychometrically evaluate a parent-rated parenting assessment scale including positive and negative dimensions of parenting. Factorial validity, reliability, measurement invariance, latent mean differences and construct validity of the Assessment Scale of Positive and Negative Parenting Behavior (FPNE) were tested in a pooled sample of five studies of 1,879 school-aged children (6.00 to 12.11 years).

Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed on a first randomized split-half sample, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) were conducted in the second half of the sample. Measurement invariance tests were conducted to assess factor structure equivalence across gender and age.

The EFA results supported a two-factor structure and the CFA results revealed a model with two correlated factors (Positive Parenting, Negative Parenting), which included 23 items and showed acceptable model fit and good psychometric properties. ESEM did not yield a model with significantly better model fit. Internal consistencies were acceptable. Adequate concurrent validity was demonstrated by low to moderate correlations between the FPNE and similar constructs. The factor structure was invariant (configural, metric, scalar) across different age groups and gender. Tests of latent mean differences revealed that older children scored significantly higher on negative parenting than younger children, while boys showed lower levels of positive parenting and higher levels of negative parenting compared to girls. All effect sizes were small.

The results suggest that the FPNE is a reliable and valid instrument for the assessment of parenting.