Katherine J. Conger

Linking Economic Hardship to Marital Quality and Instability.

Utilizing a sample of 76 white middle-class couples from a rural midwestern county in the US this study examines 2 central propositions: 1)the negative impact of economic hardship on a spouses marital quality (happiness/satisfaction) or marital instability (thoughts or actions related to divorce) is in part a function of its influence on the effective quality of marital interactions and 2) this process is particularly applicable to the hostile irritable response of men to financial difficulties. A series of analyses supported these propositions. Economic pressures had an indirect association with married couples evaluation of the marriage by promoting hostility in marital interactions and curtailing the warm and supportive behaviors spouses express toward one another. The hypothesized process was most pronounced for husbands whose behavior was more strongly associated with economic problems than wives behavior. Findings from the study are consistent with previous research that identifies negative affect as a principal behavioral correlate of marital distress; however the results also suggest that more research needs to be done on the role of warmth and supportiveness in promoting marital quality. (authors)

Personal Characteristics and Resilience to Economic Hardship and Its Consequences: Conceptual Issues and Empirical Illustrations

This article describes a theoretical model that links personal characteristics with resilience to economic hardship and its psychological and interpersonal consequences. This transactional model integrates social influence and social selection perspectives concerning the relation between socioeconomic circumstances and the development of individuals and families. In addition, this article discusses methodological and conceptual issues related to investigating the effects of personal characteristics in this context. Finally, initial empirical support for some of the key predictions from the proposed model are provided using longitudinal data collected from a sample of Midwestern families. Specifically, adolescent academic achievement, self-reports of Conscientiousness, and self-reports of low Neuroticism during adolescence predicted relevant outcomes in adulthood such as less economic pressure, more satisfying romantic relationships, and less harsh parenting behaviors. These preliminary findings support the hypothesized model and extend research concerning the life course outcomes associated with personal characteristics.

Intergenerational Transmission of Adaptive Functioning: A Test of the Interactionist Model of SES and Human Development

The interactionist model (IM) of human development (R. D. Conger & M. B. Donellan, 2007) proposes that the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and human development involves a dynamic interplay that includes both social causation (SES influences human development) and social selection (individual characteristics affect SES). Using a multigenerational data set involving 271 families, the current study finds empirical support for the IM. Adolescent personality characteristics indicative of social competence, goal-setting, hard work, and emotional stability predicted later SES, parenting, and family characteristics that were related to the positive development of a third-generation child. Processes of both social selection and social causation appear to account for the association between SES and dimensions of human development indicative of healthy functioning across multiple generations.

Development of Mastery during Adolescence: The Role of Family Problem-solving

A sense of mastery is an important component of psychological health and well-being across the life-span; however, relatively little is known about the development of mastery during childhood and adolescence. Utilizing prospective, longitudinal data from 444 adolescent sibling pairs and their parents, our conceptual model proposes that family socioeconomic status (SES) in the form of parental education promotes effective family problem-solving, which, in turn, fosters adolescent mastery. Results show: (1) a significant increase in mastery for younger and older siblings, (2) parental education promoted effective problem-solving between parents and adolescents and between siblings but not between the parents themselves, and (3) all forms of effective family problem-solving predicted greater adolescent mastery. Parental education had a direct effect on adolescent mastery as well as the hypothesized indirect effect through problem-solving effectiveness, suggesting both a social structural and social process influence on the development of mastery during adolescence.

What we learn from our sisters and brothers: For better or for worse

Siblings have considerable influence on one anothers development throughout childhood, yet most human development research has neglected sibling socialization. Through this volume, we aim to enhance our understanding of how siblings play formative roles in one anothers social and emotional development. We examine the mechanisms by which children are influenced by their brothers and sisters, clarify the ways in which these mechanisms of socialization are similar to and different from childrens socialization experiences with parents, and consider the conditions under which sibling socialization results in positive versus negative consequences for individual development.

Sibling socialization: The effects of stressful life events and experiences

Stressful life events and experiences may disrupt the typical day-to-day interactions between sisters and brothers that provide the foundation of sibling socialization. This chapter examines four experiences that may affect patterns of sibling interaction: parental marital conflict, parental divorce and remarriage, foster care placement, and a siblings developmental disability. We propose a model to guide future research on sibling socialization in distressed families and special populations in which qualities of the sibling relationship moderate the effects of stressful life experiences on child and family adjustment.

The unique effect of paternal depressive symptoms on adolescent functioning: associations with gender and father-adolescent relationship closeness.

Prospective, longitudinal data from a community sample of 451 families were used to assess the unique contribution of paternal depressive symptoms to adolescent functioning. Results indicated that paternal depressive symptoms were significantly related to subsequent depressive symptoms in adolescent offspring; this association remained significant after controlling for previous adolescent depressive symptoms, maternal depressive symptoms, gender, and family demographic variables. Adolescent gender and perception of father-adolescent relationship closeness moderated this association such that paternal depressive symptoms were positively associated with adolescent depressive symptoms for girls whose relations with fathers lacked closeness. These findings add to a growing literature on the interpersonal mechanisms through which depression runs in families, highlighting the need for future investigation of paternal mental health, adolescent gender, and intrafamily relationship quality in relation to adolescent development.

Three Visions of Masculine Success on American Farms

Anthropological, sociological, historical, and psychological approaches are combined to explore three divergent orientations to masculine success among American farmers. With a focus on the moral economy of the family, we link dimensions of work, livelihood, and marital partnership to the emotional consequences of women’s off-farm work. We contrast agrarian and industrial ideals found in Georgia, Iowa, and Illinois and connect their emergence to the transformation of the American economy over the last 100 years. Psychological and survey data from an Iowa study show some preliminary support for the Georgia findings that a more industrial notion of farmers’masculinity, emphasizing income and lifestyle and an expectation that a man will be the sole breadwinner of the family, confers a heavier emotional burden in a time of financial crisis. The Midwestern sustainable agriculture movement has given rise to a “third wave” of masculinity, a less competitive and individualistic ideology, emerging from a more global ecological awareness.

Parent Personality and Positive Parenting as Predictors of Positive Adolescent Personality Development Over Time

We investigated the degree to which parent positive personality characteristics in terms of conscientiousness, agreeableness, and emotional stability predict similar adolescent personality traits over time, as well as the role played by positive parenting in this process. Mothers and fathers of 451 White adolescents (52% female, mean age = 13.59 years) were assessed on three occasions, with 2-year lags between each assessment. Parent personality and observed positive parenting both predicted 12th graders personality. Additionally, we found evidence for an indirect link between parent personality and later adolescent personality through positive parenting. The results suggest that parents may play a significant role in the development of adolescent personality traits that promote competence and personal well-being across the life course.

Reciprocity in parenting of adolescents within the context of marital negativity.

The authors investigated the degree to which parents become more similar to each other over time in their childrearing behaviors. Mothers and fathers of 451 adolescents were assessed at 3 points in time, with 2-year lags between each assessment. Data on parent warmth, harshness, and monitoring were collected by parent self-report, adolescent report, and observer ratings of family interactions. After controlling for earlier levels of parenting, parent education, and adolescent deviancy, spouses parenting and marital negativity were significant predictors of later parenting. Marital negativity tended to be a stronger predictor of fathering than mothering. For fathers, associations between spouses parenting and later fathering were strongest in marriages characterized by low negativity.