Randal D. Day

Game On… Girls: Associations Between Co-playing Video Games and Adolescent Behavioral and Family Outcomes

PURPOSE Video game use has been associated with several behavioral and health outcomes for adolescents. The aim of the current study was to assess the relationship between parental co-play of video games and behavioral and family outcomes. METHOD Participants consisted of 287 adolescents and their parents who completed a number of video game-, behavioral-, and family-related questionnaires as part of a wider study. Most constructs included child, mother, and father reports. RESULTS At the bivariate level, time spent playing video games was associated with several negative outcomes, including heightened internalizing and aggressive behavior and lowered prosocial behavior. However, co-playing video games with parents was associated with decreased levels of internalizing and aggressive behaviors, and heightened prosocial behavior for girls only. Co-playing video games was also marginally related to parent-child connectedness for girls, even after controlling for age-inappropriate games played with parents. CONCLUSIONS This is the first study to show positive associations for co-playing video games between girls and their parents.

Couple Communication, Emotional and Sexual Intimacy, and Relationship Satisfaction

Emotional and sexual aspects of intimacy in romantic relationships are important correlates of couples’ relationship satisfaction. However, few studies have examined the effect of emotional and sexual aspects of intimacy on relationship satisfaction within the context of the interpersonal relationship processes. In addition, the association between emotional and sexual aspects of intimacy remains unclear. With a sample of 335 married couples from the Flourishing Families Project, the authors examined the associations between couple communication, emotional intimacy, sexual satisfaction, and relationship satisfaction, using the couple as the unit of analysis. The results of path analysis suggested that sexual satisfaction significantly predicted emotional intimacy for husbands and wives, while emotional intimacy did not appear to have a significant influence on sexual satisfaction. Further, mediation associations were suggested within as well as between spouses. Within spouses (for each spouse), emotional intimacy and sexual satisfaction mediated the association between spouses’ appraisal of their partners’ communication and their own relationship satisfaction. Gender differences were revealed in terms of how a spouses perception of sexual satisfaction is associated with his or her partners relationship satisfaction. In this study, although wives’ relationship satisfaction was not associated with their husbands’ sexual satisfaction, husbands tended to report high levels of relationship satisfaction when their wives reported greater sexual satisfaction. Findings suggest that both components of intimacy—emotional and sexual—should be comprehensively addressed in research and clinical work with couples.

A model for the analysis of paired data

There is a certain opposition between the ideal of equal opportunity and that of family responsibility. Responsibility involves autonomy, which will produce divergence among families, which, in turn, will mean divergent conditions for the children; that is, unequal opportunities. (Charles Horton Cooley, cited in Blau & Duncan, 1967, p. vii) This quote, from a turn-of-the-century social philosopher, reflects the longstanding importance social scientists have placed on the family as an agent in the generation of social and economic well-being. Perhaps the most accepted fact in the social sciences is that what goes on in the family is important for understanding the opportunities and constraints children face as they grow into adults, Indeed, a substantial body of literature has evolved in an attempt to measure the impact of family background, broadly conceived, on attainment and well-being. Unfortunately, while the family is given theoretical primacy, the methodological tools most commonly applied to study the effects of families are inadequate. The most common and damaging deficiency is that data from one level of analysis, individuals, are used to examine relationships at another level of analysis, families. This is a common problem, and one that has long been recognized. For example, several articles appeared in the 1982 special methodology issue of Journal of Marriage and the Family that argued for the use of measurement and statistical procedures appropriate to the consideration of relationships between and within dyads (Gottman, 1982; Hill & Scanzoni, 1982; Huston & Robins, 1982; Thompson & Walker, 1982; Thomson & Williams, 1982). Based on work by Acock and Schumm (1992) and Hauser (1984, 1988), we expand on the approach taken by Thomson and Williams (1982) by outlining a procedure by which data collected from individuals can be used to examine statistical relationships between concepts on more than one level. The basic requirement of the procedure is that paired data be collected from two or more members of the same group (for our purposes, a family). This is a common feature of many data bases, given the fact that households are often the smallest sampling unit in a survey. The procedure proposed to analyze such data is based on a latent-variable structural equation model and allows for consideration of both within- and between-family variation in patterns of effects. The model assumes that measurements on individuals can serve as indicators of family-level concepts. The pedagogical example used focuses on mental ability and grades in high school, The analysis uses data on siblings collected in a large, national study of educational attainment. While the example is sometimes contrived, it is sufficiently complex to illustrate the wide variety of issues that can be addressed with the model proposed. THE PROBLEM Consider the sources of variation between children in different families that may be attributed to family background. These include, but are not limited to, genetic heritage, parental financial and human resources, parental standards and forms of parent-child interaction (barring substantial temporal change in family form due to factors like divorce and remarriage), and a common social environment involving neighborhoods, schools, and time-specific historical conditions (wars, business cycles, local labor market conditions). Even this limited list indicates the diversity of sources of variation in child well-being that can be attributed to families. Indeed, many of these factors may not represent what some researchers would ordinarily consider to be direct influences of the family, but are, rather, more indirect effects operating through accidents of history or the decisions families make concerning residential mobility and so on. It remains true, though, that each of these sources of variation are tied to membership in a family. To avoid confusion with prior research, we use the term family environment to reference broader sources of variation between families, while the term family background is used in a more limited sense to indicate more standard measures of parental characteristics and family composition. …

Compelling Family Processes

This article introduces the idea of family process research and asserts that the study of family processes is an indispensable component of any effort to conceptualize and measure family life. Within this article the family process approach is defined through the use of several domains that categorize core constructs. Further, several key assumptions are identified that form the foundation this family process approach. A related objective of this article advances the notion that family process–oriented research has grown increasingly sophisticated over the years, often in ways that have helped to shape and define the discipline of family science. This article instructs readers about using a family process approach, especially within the context of employing a large national data set such as the NLSY97.

Miscarriage: A Special Type of Family Crisis.

Miscarriage is generally overlooked as a potentially disruptive stressor event. Little research has been done to identify its general magnitude of disruption or the speed of individual recovery. One hundred two randomly selected Midwestern women were surveyed about their experience with miscarriage. It was found that family resource variables were a much stronger predictor of level of crisis and recovery than were personal or community resource variables. Specifically, adaptation and cohesion were significant in predicting speed of recovery and level of crisis, respectively. Additionally, suggestions were made about dealing with miscarriage before, during, and after it occurs.

Some Indicators of Fathering Behaviors in the United States: A Crosscultural Examination of Adult Male-Child Interaction

It has been charged that American men are derelict in their paternal duties. This is an important assertion given that the family is the primary socialization agent and that father interaction and nurturing behavior could be just as important to the developing child as such behavior on the part of the mother. In this study, the adult male-child dyads offive countries (United States, Ireland, Spain, Japan, and Mexico) were examined at the proxemic level. It was found that American men (compared to American women) do not associate or interact with children much differently than men (compared to the respective women) in other countries. Of special interest were the findings that American men do associate with children in large numbers when the societal norms allow them access to the children and that American

An Alternate Standard for Evaluating American Fathers

Since the mid-1970s social scientists have given unprecedented attention to American fathers. As birth rates have declined and more women have entered the labor force, expectations for men to assume parenting duties and responsibilities have increased, and numerous studies have compared the parenting of men and women. The studies have generally shown that the parenting of fathers is deficient in comparison to that of mothers. In the study reported here a different standard, the parenting of fathers in other societies, is used to evaluate the performance of U.S. fathers. Viewed from a cross-cultural perspective, American fathers seem typical rather than deficient.

Parent Marital Quality and the Parent–Adolescent Relationship: Effects on Adolescent and Young Adult Health Outcomes

Although a number of studies examined the implications of marital disruption for adolescent well-being, few studied the implications of marital relationship quality on health outcomes for children in married-couple families. The present study examines how parent marital quality among intact families interacts with the quality of parent–adolescent relationships to predict physical health, mental health, and substance use in middle adolescence and early adulthood. The study uses data from the NLSY97 cohort, a nationally representative sample of adolescents who are being followed into adulthood. Predictors include the quality of the parent marital relationship, the quality of the parent–adolescent relationship, marital structure, and a number of contextual covariates and control variables. Combined parent marital quality and parent–adolescent relationship groups were developed using latent class analyses and were used to predict positive and negative health behaviors during the teen and early adult years. Results indicate that adolescents in families experiencing poor marital quality fared worse on physical health, mental health, and substance use outcomes. In addition, adolescents who reported poor relationships with at least one of their parents fared worse on outcomes. Adolescents whose parents have low-quality relationships and also have poor parent–adolescent relationships tended to fare least well across health measures. Adolescents whose parents have a high-quality relationship and who have a good parent–adolescent relationship with both parents consistently had the best outcomes. Overall, poor relationships consistently undermine mental health, physical health, and substance use. Family religious activities also consistently predict better health outcomes.

Parent Marital Quality and the Parent–Adolescent Relationship: Profiles of Relationship Quality

Rigorous studies repeatedly have demonstrated the negative effects of parental divorce on outcomes for families. However, very few studies have examined the quality of the marital relationship within intact families or how the quality of the marital relationship interacts with the quality of the parent–adolescent relationship. The present study examines how aspects of parent marital quality, such as marital support and conflict between the couple, existed within married families and examines how patterns of mother–adolescent and father–adolescent relationships quality varied longitudinally from 1997 to 1999. The study uses data from the NLSY97 cohort, a nationally representative sample of adolescents who are being followed into adulthood. Four profiles of parent marital quality were developed using latent class analyses. Four growth profiles for the mother–adolescent relationship and for the father–adolescent relationship were created using latent growth class analysis in Mplus. To examine how the parent marital quality profiles and the parent–adolescent relationship quality interact, we examined how they overlapped. Six distinct groups were evident from this examination: (1) high marital quality and good relationships with both parents, (2) high marital quality and a good relationship with only one parent, (3) high support and high conflict marital quality and a good relationship with at least one parent, (4) low marital quality and a good relationship with at least one parent, (5) high marital quality and bad relationships with both parents, and (6) low marital quality and bad relationships with both parents.

A Friend Request from Dear Old Dad: Associations Between Parent–Child Social Networking and Adolescent Outcomes

This study examined the relationship between parent-child social networking, connection, and outcomes for adolescents. Participants (491 adolescents and their parents) completed a number of questionnaires on social networking use, feelings of connection, and behavioral outcomes. Social networking with parents was associated with increased connection between parents and adolescents. Feelings of connection then mediated the relationship between social networking with parents and behavioral outcomes, including higher prosocial behavior and lower relational aggression and internalizing behavior. Conversely, adolescent social networking use without parents was associated with negative outcomes, such as increased relational aggression, internalizing behaviors, delinquency, and decreased feelings of connection. These results indicate that although high levels of social networking use may be problematic for some individuals, social networking with parents may potentially strengthen parent-child relationships and then lead to positive outcomes for adolescents.