Ellen Hock

The Relation of Problem Behaviors in Preschool Children to Depressive Symptoms in Mothers and Fathers

The relation of maternal and paternal depressive symptoms to problem behaviors in a nonclinical sample of preschool children was examined. Data were collected from 46 women, their husbands, and their 4-year-old, first-born children. Observed maternal restrictive and punishing behavior and attachment security of the child were considered additional sources of risk for externalizing and internalizing problem behaviors. Different predictors for child externalizing and internalizing behaviors were identified via hierarchical multiple regression analyses. Maternal and paternal depressive symptoms and maternal restrictive and punishing behavior emerged as salient predictors of child internalizing behaviors. For externalizing behaviors, there were significant gender differences: For girls, maternal depressive symptoms made a significant contribution to the model; the model for boys was not significant. The results perhaps reflect different etiological pathways for externalizing and internalizing behaviors, supporting the suggestion that those behaviors are distinct clinical phenomena, even among very young children. The findings also suggest that nonclinical levels of parental symptomatology show systematic relations to childrens problem behaviors.

Internalizing and Externalizing Behavior of Children With Enlisted Navy Mothers Experiencing Military-Induced Separation

OBJECTIVES To examine whether children with Navy mothers exhibit higher levels of internalizing and externalizing behavior than children in civilian families and whether deployment affects childrens internalizing and externalizing behavior. METHOD Navy mothers who experienced deployment completed a measure assessing childrens internalizing and externalizing behavior before and after a deployment (and at similar intervals for the Navy and civilian comparison groups). Data collection took place between 1996 and 1998. RESULTS Navy children with deployed mothers exhibited higher levels of internalizing behavior than children with nondeployed Navy mothers. Navy children whose mothers experienced deployment were more likely to exhibit clinical levels of internalizing behavior than Navy children with nondeployed mothers or civilian children. Group differences, however, were modest and overall mean scores were in the normal range. CONCLUSIONS Findings do not suggest greater pathology in children of Navy mothers; however, findings do indicate we should be particularly attentive of deployed mothers and their children.

The Impact of Parental Separation Anxiety on Identity Development in Late Adolescence and Early Adulthood

A longitudinal study of first-year college students and seniors was conducted in order to investigate the relationships between parental separation anxiety and adolescent identity development. Data was collected from mothers, fathers, and adolescents in the autumn and again in the spring. Mothers and fathers completed the parental separation anxiety questionnaire with two subscales, Comfort with Secure Base Role, and Anxiety about Adolescent Distancing. Their adolescent children completed the Revised Extended Version of the Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status (EOM-EIS). From hierarchical multiple regressions controlling for Time 1 identity, it appears that mothers’ sense of providing a secure base for their adolescents in college influences their adolescents’identity achievement, whereas fathers’anxiety about distancing has both negative and positive consequences for their adolescents’foreclosure depending on the gender of the adolescent.

Navy Mothers Experiencing and Not Experiencing Deployment: Reasons for Staying in or Leaving the Military

Seventy-one Navy mothers were interviewed and completed standardized questionnaires before and after a scheduled deployment; 83 Navy mothers assigned to shore duty served as controls. Overall intentions to reenlist did not differ between the 2 groups. Women who experienced deployment were more likely than women in the nondeploying control group to report commitment to a Navy career as a reason for planning to stay in the Navy. Women in the control group, however, more often reported dissatisfaction with the Navy as a reason for planning to leave the military. Women in both groups were less likely to report commitment to a Navy career as a rationale for reenlistment intentions in the time between the initial and final assessment. Commitment to a Navy career, satisfaction with benefits, and a perception that work-day separations may benefit children predicted intentions to reenlist at the initial assessment. On the other hand, dissatisfaction with the Navy, concerns about balancing a Navy career with family responsibilities, and higher commitment to the motherhood role predicted intentions to leave the military. Significant predictors of reenlistment intentions at the final assessment were Time 1 reenlistment intentions, commitment to a Navy career, satisfaction with benefits, work–family concerns, and dissatisfaction with the military.

Maternal Separation Anxiety: Relations to Adult Attachment Representations in Mothers of Infants

Guided primarily by attachment theory, this longitudinal study explored how adult mental representations of attachment relationships and memories of childhood experiences with parents contributed to a mothers anxiety about separation from her own infant. The Maternal Separation Anxiety Scale, the Adult Attachment Interview, and the Mother-Father-Peer Scale were administered to a sample of 49 first-time mothers. The mothers with insecure attachment representations, when asked to remember details of their own childhood, reported more negative recollections of early parental caregiving, particularly rejection and discouragement of independence. When their own infants were 2 months old, these mothers experienced heightened levels of maternal separation anxiety. The findings provide theoretical and empirical support for the view that very high levels of maternal separation anxiety may indicate dysfunction.

Heart Rate Variability and Cardiac Response to an Auditory Stimulus

While in a state of quiet sleep, 15 full-term male, 15 full-term female, and 15 premature male infants were presented a single auditory stimulus. Heart rate was continuously monitored and scored for mean and standard deviation in the 10-sec prestimulus period, as well as for peak and trough magnitude of the response and the latencies to these points. The infants tended to show a diphasic response, acceleration followed by rebound deceleration below baseline. Prestimulus mean and variability were inversely related, and significantly predictive of the amount of acceleration. Premature infants showed a high resting heart rate, and a milder response to the stimulus. Also evident were larger accelerations and longer latencies to trough for full-term females.

Predicting children's reactions to terrorist attacks: The importance of self-reports and preexisting characteristics

Forty-eight mothers and their 11-year-old children, who were participants in a longitudinal study, were interviewed in their home after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Childrens verbatim statements were analyzed for fear, separation anxiety, denial, rationalization, anger, and empathy. In the final model, preexisting child anxiety and maternal worry significantly explained 33% of the variance in childrens self-reported fearful feelings.

A Longitudinal Study of Psychosocial Variables Affecting the Career Patterns of Women with Young Children.

The primary aim of this study was to test the predictive power of psychosocial attributes on the labor-force participation of women who were mothers of young children. In this sixyear longitudinal study, 49 women were assessed periodically from the birth of a child until the child entered kindergarten. Variables assessed included career orientation/salience, nurturance, response to stress, and concerns about infant fussiness and nonmaternal care for infants. Models including subsets of these variables accounted for 60%-72% of the variance in levels of employment during the six-year period. Thus, psychosocial characteristics are potent predictors of maternal employment, providing insight into the dynamics of the career-related decision-making process.

Maternal Separation Anxiety

One clear conclusion from the research on the effects of maternal employment is that the relationships among employment, maternal beliefs, attitudes and practices, and child development are complex and require consideration of many factors. Stolz (1960), in one of the first reviews of the topic, concluded that a striking characteristic of the research on maternal employment was the number of different and often contradictory findings, an observation shared by Hoffman (1974) when she reviewed the literature more than a decade later. Bronfenbrenner and Crouter (1982) made perhaps the most critical observation by stating, “Taken by itself, the fact that a woman works outside the home has no universally predictable effects on the child” (p. 51). The failure to obtain consistent and interpretable results is due in part to the substantial differences among women within each employment status category (Hoffman, 1961, 1984; Lamb, 1982). For example, employed women may differ in their reasons for working, peer and spouse support of their employment, numbers of hours they are employed, and type of job they hold; the list is endless. Consequently, the simple model of comparing employed and nonemployed women and their children cannot be used to examine the effects of employment, and a more complex model must be proposed (Hoffman, 1984). Researchers must identify the differences that exist within the groups of employed and nonemployed women and determine how these differences impact the effects of employment status (Hoffman, 1961, 1984; Lamb, 1982).

Dimensions of Family Relationships Associated with Depressive Symptomatology in Mothers of Young Children

Although mothers of young children have a higher incidence of depressive symptomatology than do either women who are not mothers or men, very little is known about the psychological nature of this phenomenon. This study examines the way in which psychological dimensions of family relationships are associated with or contribute to this increased risk in married Caucasian mothers raising first-born children. The relationships between maternal depressive symptomatology and recollections of parental relationships during childhood, marital satisfaction, and maternal separation anxiety were examined. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that these three factors explained 35.5% of the variance in maternal depressive symptomatology. These results, in addition to significant zero-order correlations, are discussed in light of the existing psychological literature.