Michael J. Rovine

Patterns of Marital Change across the Transition to Parenthood: Pregnancy to Three Years Postpartum.

The purpose of this investigation is to advance the study of marital change across the transition to parenthood by moving beyond the study of central tendencies to examine variation in the matter and extent to which spouses experiences of their mates and their marital relationships changed from the last trimester of pregnancy through 3 years postpartum. Analyses of marital data collected at 4 points in time on 128 middle and working-class families rearing a firstborn child resulted in the identification of 4 distinct patterns of marital change which were labeled ACCELERATING DECLINE LINEAR DECLINE NO CHANGE and MODEST POSITIVE INCREASE. In a series of developmentally ordered discriminant function analyses efforts were made to distinguish decliners from increasers by using demographic personality and marital information collected prenatally; data on infant temperament and change in infant temperament obtained at 3 and 9 months postpartum respectively; and data on negative life events and income change collected at 3 years postpartum. Analyses revealed that patterns of marital change are determined by multiple factors and are largely identifiable prior to the infants birth. Postnatal information on infant temperament often improved the ability to discriminate marriages that declined and improved in quality across the transition to parenthood. (authors)

The Pennsylvania Infant and Family Development Project, I: Stability and Change in Mother-Infant and Father-Infant Interaction in a Family Setting at One, Three, and Nine Months.

In order to further understanding of the development of the father-infant relationship, patterns of mothering and fathering in 72 families were observed longitudinally (at 1, 3, and 9 months) and from the perspective of the family system. Analyses of variance revealed comparable developmental change in maternal and paternal behaviors, but striking differences between parents, with mothers engaging in far more interaction at all ages studied. Analyses of individual differences in maternal and paternal behavior revealed consistent stability over time, especially from 3 to 9 months, thereby highlighting points of similarity in mothering and fathering. Within-age correlational analyses revealed consistent positive associations between measures of father-infant and husband-wife interaction, yet little relationship between measures of mother-infant and spousal interaction. These findings and others are discussed in terms of similarities and differences in mothering and fathering.

The Interpersonal Process Model of Intimacy in Marriage: A Daily-Diary and Multilevel Modeling Approach

This study used daily reports of interactions in marriage to examine predictions from the conceptualization of intimacy as the outcome of an interpersonal process. Both partners of 96 married couples completed daily diaries assessing self-disclosure, partner disclosure, perceived partner responsiveness, and intimacy on each of 42 consecutive days. Multivariate multilevel modeling revealed that self-disclosure and partner disclosure both significantly and uniquely contributed to the contemporaneous prediction of intimacy. Perceived partner responsiveness partially mediated the effects of self-disclosure and partner disclosure on intimacy. Global marital satisfaction, relationship intimacy, and demand-withdraw communication were related to daily levels of intimacy. Implications for the importance of perceived partner responsiveness in the intimacy process for married partners are discussed.

Stability and Change in Marriage Across the Transition to Parenthood: A Second Study.

This 2nd longitudinal study of the transition to parenthood focuses on 67 middle class caucasian primiparous couples residins in Pennsylvania US and substitutes a measurement system more differentiated than the widely used Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) for evaluating marital change. The instruments selected for this 2nd longitudinal study require respondents to rate their subjective evaluations of various interaction events of their partners and of the relationship in general. Data were therefore gathered on activities moods and attitudes concerning the marital relationship. An attempt is made to replicate and extend the several trends discerned in the 1st study. It is hypothesized that mean levels of satisfaction with marital interactions with the relationship in general and with the partner would decline across the transition to parenthood and that spouses characterizations of the marriage as a romance would decrease while their characterizations of the marriage as a partnership would increase. At the time of the interview couples had been married an average of 4.2 years. Fathers and mothers mean ages were 28 and 26.5 years respectively; and the 2 parents averaged 15.8 and 14.4 years of education. For 2 of every 3 couples the 1st birth was planned. Each family was studied at several points in time beginning in the last trimester of pregnancy via interviews observations and questionnaires through the 9th postpartum month. In addition at 1 3 and 9 months postpartum each family was observed at a time when both parents were home in order to assess family interaction. Across the 1-year period of study both sets of spouses became increasingly dissatisfied with the positive behaviors of their partners wishing that they were displayed more often. Spouses reported change in feelings of love satisfaction and ambivalence also reflected behavioral changes. For husbands and wives alike satisfaction and love declined linearly over time. This decline was most evident in the case of wives. Follow-up testing of the main effect for time revealed that while sense of friendship declined in a linear fashion over time sense of romance significantly decreased and sense of partnership significantly increased between the last trimester of pregnancy and the 3rd postpartum month. The naturalistic observations of marital interaction chronicled significant changes in overall engagement baby-related communication and the display of positive affection across the babys 1st 9 months of life. Husband-wife correspondence analysis reveals a consistent pattern of statistically reliable convergence between reports within a family. Discussion of these results focuses on the repeatedly found patterns of change in the marital relationship experienced by the average couple and spouse as well as the stability of individual differences. Scales such as those used in this study provide a better basis for examining the interrelations of patterns of behavior and subjective feelings over time. Yet it must be concluded that there is little difference between the picture painted using the oft-criticized DAS approach to assessing marriage and a more conceptually differentiated approach when it comes to evaluating stability and change over time.

Multilevel models for the experimental psychologist: Foundations and illustrative examples

Although common in the educational and developmental areas, multilevel models are not often utilized in the analysis of data from experimental designs. This article illustrates how multilevel models can be useful with two examples from experimental designs with repeated measurements not involving time. One example demonstrates how to properly examine independent variables for experimental stimuli or individuals that are categorical, continuous, or semicontinuous in the presence of missing data. The second example demonstrates how response times and error rates can be modeled simultaneously within a multivariate model in order to examine speed—accuracy trade-offs at the experimental-condition and individual levels, as well as to examine differences in the magnitude of effects across outcomes. SPSS and SAS syntax for the examples are available electronically.

LISREL modeling: Genetic and environmental influences on IQ revisited

Abstract This article reports a model-fitting analysis of the covariance structure of the worlds IQ data as reviewed by Bouchard and McGue (1981). A model is used which includes additive and nonadditive genetic parameters, and shared and nonshared environment parameters that permit different estimates for different types of relatives. The opportunity is taken here to explicate the use of LISREL for such purposes. The results indicate that, when assortative mating is included in the model, nonadditive, as well as additive genetic variance, is important for IQ. Broad heritability is estimated to be .51. Another interesting result is that the influence of shared environment differs in a reasonable way for different types of relatives: twins > siblings > parents and their offspring > cousins.

A comparison of training strategies to enhance use of external aids by persons with dementia

UNLABELLED The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two training approaches, Spaced Retrieval (SR) and a modified Cueing Hierarchy (CH), for teaching persons with dementia a strategy goal involving an external memory aid. Twenty-five persons with dementia living in either community or nursing home settings received training on two individual-specific strategy goals, one with each training approach. Results revealed that significantly more goals were attained using SR procedures than CH, but that a majority of participants learned to use external aids using both strategies. There were no significant differences in the number of sessions required to master goals in either condition; however, significantly more SR goals were maintained at both 1-week and 4-months post-training compared to CH goals. Mental status was not significantly correlated with goal mastery, suggesting the potential benefits of strategy training beyond the early stages of dementia. LEARNING OUTCOMES As a result of this activity, the reader will be able to (1) identify ways to enable persons with dementia to make effective use of external memory aids; (2) describe a method, Spaced Retrieval, by which persons with dementia can learn and retain information; and (3) describe two approaches to working with persons with dementia to train a strategy learning goal.

The Pennsylvania Infant and Family Development Project, II: the Development of Reciprocal Interaction in the Mother-Infant Dyad.

In order to assess stability and change in mother-infant interaction, 74 mother-infant dyads were observed at home under naturalistic conditions when infants were 1, 3, and 9 months. Both conceptually and empirically guided data-reduction procedures indicated that 4 summary constructs underlie 15 behavioral categories coded: reciprocal interaction, noninvolvement, distress, and basic care. Mean levels of reciprocal interaction remained unchanged over time, with individual differences being stable. Mean levels of noninvolvement increased from 1 to 3 months only, and remained stable across all time periods, while mean levels of distress and basic care declined linearly across the 9-month periods, with individual dyads displaying little stability. A final analysis assessed stability and change in the 9 component variables comprising the reciprocal interaction construct. Significant change was discerned with respect to several of these components, as well as a good deal of instability. These findings led to the conclusion that, in the face of sameness in mother-infant interaction across the first 9 months, there is also much change.

Sketch-map variables as predictors of way-finding performance

Abstract In a study of way-finding problem solving ability, 45 participants were individually taken to and given a tour of the downtown business area of a small town. Twenty buildings were pointed out in the course of the tour. Following the tour, participants drew sketch maps of the downtown area including as many of the buildings as they could remember. A performance task in which they had to find eight of the buildings then followed. Individual difference measures including self-efficacy, visualization, orientation, and sense-of-direction were administered. Sketch map variables were the best predictors of way-finding performance with the adjacent building score, a measure of topological accuracy of sketch map accuracy the best predictor.

Automatic search for fMRI connectivity mapping: An alternative to Granger causality testing using formal equivalences among SEM path modeling, VAR, and unified SEM

Modeling the relationships among brain regions of interest (ROIs) carries unique potential to explicate how the brain orchestrates information processing. However, hurdles arise when using functional MRI data. Variation in ROI activity contains sequential dependencies and shared influences on synchronized activation. Consequently, both lagged and contemporaneous relationships must be considered for unbiased statistical parameter estimation. Identifying these relationships using a data-driven approach could guide theory-building regarding integrated processing. The present paper demonstrates how the unified SEM attends to both lagged and contemporaneous influences on ROI activity. Additionally, this paper offers an approach akin to Granger causality testing, Lagrange multiplier testing, for statistically identifying directional influence among ROIs and employs this approach using an automatic search procedure to arrive at the optimal model. Rationale for this equivalence is offered by explicating the formal relationships among path modeling, vector autoregression, and unified SEM. When applied to simulated data, biases in estimates which do not consider both lagged and contemporaneous paths become apparent. Finally, the use of unified SEM with the automatic search procedure is applied to an empirical data example.