Michelle L. Kelley

Cultural Differences in Child Rearing A Comparison of Immigrant Chinese and Caucasian American Mothers

To study cultural differences in child-rearing practices, 38 middle-class immigrant Chinese mothers and 38 middle-class Caucasian American mothers of 3- to 8-year-old children completed the Parenting Dimensions Inventory (PDI) and the Parenting Goals Questionnaire (PGQ). Comparison of the PDI scale scores revealed differences on all but the reasoning dimension. Caucasian American mothers scored higher on sensitivity, consistency, nonrestrictiveness, nurturance, and rule setting, whereas immigrant Chinese mothers scored higher on physical punishment and yelling at the child. Examination of the parenting goals revealed no cultural main effect, however, a main effect was found for childs age. Both immigrant Chinese and Caucasian American mothers place more emphasis on manners, school-related skills, and emotional adjustment during the early elementary school years (6 to 8 years of age) than during the preschool years (3 to 5 years of age). Results related to terns of the need for immigrant Chinese to maintain ties to their culture of origin and to accommodate to the socialization practices of the host culture.

Behavioral couples therapy for female substance-abusing patients: Effects on substance use and relationship adjustment.

Married or cohabiting female drug-abusing patients (N = 75) were randomly assigned to either a behavioral couples therapy condition (BCT; n = 37), which consisted of group, individual, and behavioral couples therapy sessions, or to an equally intensive individual-based treatment condition (IBT; n = 38), which consisted of group and individual counseling. During most of the 1-year follow-up, compared with participants who received IBT, those who received BCT reported (a) fewer days of substance use, (b) longer periods of continuous abstinence, (c) lower levels of alcohol, drug, and family problems, and (d) higher relationship satisfaction. However, differences in relationship satisfaction and number of days of substance use dissipated over the course of the posttreatment follow-up period and were not significantly different by the end of 1 year.

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.

Learning sobriety together: A randomized clinical trial examining behavioral couples therapy with alcoholic female patients.

Married or cohabiting female alcoholic patients (n = 138) and their non-substance-abusing male partners were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 equally intensive interventions: (a) behavioral couples therapy plus individual-based treatment (BCT; n = 46), (b) individual-based treatment only (IBT; n = 46), or (c) psychoeducational attention control treatment (PACT; n = 46). During treatment, participants in BCT showed significantly greater improvement in dyadic adjustment than those in IBT or PACT; drinking frequency was not significantly different among participants in the different conditions. During the 1-year posttreatment follow-up, compared with participants who received IBT or PACT, participants who received BCT reported (a) fewer days of drinking, (b) fewer drinking-related negative consequences, (c) higher dyadic adjustment, and (d) reduced partner violence.

Masculinity ideology among young African American and European American women and men in different regions of the United States.

This is a report of 2 studies. Study 1, a replication of R.F. Levant and R.G. Majors (1997), examined variations in the endorsement of traditional and nontraditional masculinity ideology, by gender and race, among 270 African American and 226 European American young men and women using the Male Role Norms Inventory (MRNI; Levant & Fischer, in press). Although both gender and race differences in masculinity ideology were significant, gender had a larger effect size. Study 2, focused on the effect of residence in different geographic regions of the country, compared the MRNI scores of the more metropolitan Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic sample of the present study with those of the more rural Southern sample used by Levant and Majors. This study found that the effect of geographic place of residence moderates the effect of race on masculinity ideology, which underscores the importance of subcultural variations (e.g., metropolitan vs. rural) within cultural groups defined by race.

Exposure to Interparental Violence and Childhood Physical and Emotional Abuse as Related to Physical Aggression in Undergraduate Dating Relationships

The present study examined whether witnessing interparental violence and experiencing childhood physical or emotional abuse were associated with college students’ perpetration of physical aggression and self-reports of victimization by their dating partners. Participants (183 males, 475 females) completed the Adult-Recall Version of the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS2-CA; Straus 2000), the Exposure to Abusive and Supportive Environments Parenting Inventory (EASE-PI; Nicholas and Bieber 1997), and the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS2; Straus et al. 1996). Results of zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) regressions demonstrated that being female and having experienced higher levels of childhood physical abuse were associated with having perpetrated physical aggression at least once. Among women, exposure to mother-to-father violence and childhood physical abuse were related to the extent of dating aggression. Among men, witnessing father-to-mother violence and childhood emotional abuse were associated with the extent of dating aggression. Witnessing interparental violence and experiencing childhood physical abuse increased the likelihood that women would report victimization, whereas childhood emotional abuse decreased the likelihood that respondents reported dating victimization. Viewing father-to-mother violence and experiencing childhood emotional abuse increased the extent that men reported being victimized by their dating partners, whereas witnessing mother-to-father violence and experiencing physical abuse decreased the extent that men reported being victimized by their dating partners. Results suggest the importance of parent and respondent gender on dating aggression.

The timeline followback spousal violence interview to assess physical aggression between intimate partners: Reliability and validity:

The psychometric properties of the Timeline Followback Spousal Violence interview (TLFB-SV), a calendar method used to assess daily patterns and frequency of spousal violence, were evaluated. Men (N = 104) entering a spousal violence treatment program, along with their female partners, were interviewed with the TLFB-SV at pretreatment, posttreatment, and quarterly thereafter for 1 year and asked to identify days of male-to-female and female-to-male physical aggression that had occurred between them. For posttreatment and follow-up interviews, participants maintained a weekly diary, in which they catalogued the days on which acts of spousal violence occurred. The subscale scores derived from the TLFB-SV, the proportion of days of any violence, and proportion of days of severe violence for each partner were calculated for each assessment interval. The TLFB-SV subscales had excellent temporal stability and concurrent and discriminant validity. Interpartner agreement on TLFB-SV subscale scores and agreement between partners on days when spousal violence occurred was low at pretreatment, but was high for the other assessment periods.

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.

Fathers’ and Mothers’ Work and Family Issues as Related to Internalizing and Externalizing Behavior of Children Attending Day Care

Relationships between work and family variables and children’s internalizing and externalizing behavior are examined in 132 dual-earner couples of preschool-age children. Mothers’ and fathers’ parenting stress and mothers’ work-family conflict predict children’s internalizing behavior; mothers’ work-family conflict, mothers’ and fathers’ parenting stress, the number of hours fathers’ worked, and mothers’ beliefs about father involvement predict externalizing symptoms in children. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of mothers’ and fathers’ work and family issues for children’s behavior.

Referential communication and response adequacy in autism and Down's syndrome

This study investigated the ability of high-functioning verbal adolescents with autism or Downs syndrome to perform a referential communication task. It was predicted that autistic subjects would require more specific prompting to convey needed information to a listener than would subjects with Downs syndrome of the same verbal level. Subjects, 13 with autism and 14 with Downs syndrome, matched on verbal mental age, learned a simple board game, and were asked to teach it to a listener who used varying levels of prompting to elicit target information. Most subjects in the autistic group required specific prompting to produce the target information, whereas most subjects with Downs syndrome did not. Response adequacy was significantly higher in the Downs syndrome group than in the autistic group at the most general prompt level. Subjects with Downs syndrome used more gesture at the most general prompt level and when producing high adequacy responses, whereas subjects with autism used more gesture when producing low adequacy responses.