The Role of Intimate Partner Violence, Couple Dissatisfaction and Parenting Behaviors in Understanding Parental Burnout

Parental burnout (PB), a relatively new and under-studied construct, is defined as a condition resulting from chronic parenting stress. While recent research confirmed its negative associations with familial variables, such as relationship satisfaction and positive parenting practices, little is known about the role of intimate partner violence (IPV) and how it relates to parental burnout. The present study, therefore, aimed to extend existing knowledge on chronic parenting stress by 1) testing for the mediational role of couple dissatisfaction in explaining the link from IPV victimization to PB as well as the link from IPV victimization to dysfunctional parenting, and 2) investigating how specialist gender roles and parental responsibilities for child care relate to IPV victimization and PB. Data collection was part of an international collaboration on factors related to parental satisfaction and exhaustion across different countries. Self-report data from Austrian mothers (N = 121) were collected online and analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results indicated that couple dissatisfaction mediates the link from IPV victimization to PB, as well as IPV victimization to dysfunctional parenting. Furthermore, only specialist gender roles were significantly related to IPV, while parental responsibilities for child care did not significantly relate to experiences of violence. Additionally, neither specialist gender roles nor parental responsibilities were significantly associated with PB in the final model. Overall, our findings connect to family models, such as the Family System Theory and Spillover Theory, underscoring the importance of couples’ relationship quality for understanding parental burnout and parenting behaviors in mothers.

Parent, Teacher and Observational Reports of Emotional and Behavioral Problems in Young Autistic Children

Emotional and behavioral problems (EBPs) frequently occur in young autistic children. Discrepancies between parents and other informants are common but can lead to uncertainty in formulation, diagnosis and care planning. This study aimed to explore child and informant characteristics are associated with reported child EBPs across settings. Participants were 83 4–8-year-old autistic children and their parents and teachers in the Autism Spectrum Treatment and Resilience (ASTAR) study. Questionnaires of child EBPs were completed by parents and teachers, and self-reported parenting stress and wellbeing measures were obtained. An observation of parent–child/researcher-child interaction was also completed. Parents reported more EBPs than teachers and parent-teacher agreement was low, particularly for emotional problems. Greater parenting stress and being verbal was associated with more parent- but not teacher-reported EBPs. More observed behaviors that challenge were displayed by minimally verbal children. More parenting stress could be associated with the presence of more EBPs in the home; alternatively, parenting stress may confound reports. It is essential for assessments of EBPs in autistic children to take a multi-informant approach. Better understanding of the associations between informant characteristics and informant discrepancies of EBPs is needed.

Resilience and Related Factors: A Comparison of Fathers and Mothers of Patients With Cleft Lip and/or Palate in China

Background: Resilience has become a hot spot in the field of positive psychology to study life-change events. However, there were little information on resilience among the fathers and mothers of patients with cleft lip and/or palate respectively. The present study aimed to explore and compare the level and potential influential factors associated with resilience among fathers/mothers of patients with cleft lip and/or palate in China.Method: A cross-sectional study was carried out between April 2019 and July 2020 among fathers/mothers of patients with cleft lip and/or palate in two cleft lip and/or palate treatment centers in China. Sixty Nine fathers and 179 mothers of patients with cleft lip and/or palate were interviewed with a questionnaire on demographic variables and the Resilience Scale-14 (RS-14), Herth Hope Index (HHI), Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), Revised Life Orientation Test (LOT-R), Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF) and Coping Health Inventory for Parents (CHIP). T-test/univariate one-way ANOVA, Pearson's r, hierarchical linear regression analysis were conducted to explore the influential factors of resilience.Results: Fathers of patients with cleft lip and/or palate had a higher level of resilience (77.77 ± 14.18) than mothers (74.52 ± 14.33) though without significance. Resilience was positively associated with hope, perceived social support, optimism and coping and negatively correlated with parenting stress both in the fathers and the mothers. Hierarchical linear regression analysis showed that hope (β = 0.400, P < 0.01), coping (β = 0.281, P < 0.05), job status, medical payments (β = −0.240, P < 0.05) were found to be associated with resilience among the fathers of patients with CL/P, and all four variables in the model could explain 42.8% of the variance in resilience; Hope (β = 0.225, P < 0.05), perceived social support (β = 0.194, P < 0.05), the age of patients (β = 0.189, P < 0.05) were found to be associated with resilience among the mothers, and all three variables in the model could explain 27.6% of the variance in resilience.Conclusion: Our study showed that, in China, fathers of patients with cleft lip and/or palate had a higher level of resilience than mothers though without significance. Hope was the only communal variable strongly associated with resilience among both the fathers and the mothers; besides, coping, job status and medical payments were found to be associated with resilience among the fathers; while perceived social support and the age of patients were found to be associated with resilience among the mothers. The results suggest that enhance hope in parents of patients with cleft lip and/or palate might greatly help improve their resilience. Besides, fathers and mothers need specific intervention to prompt their resilience.

The role of early adversity and cognitive vulnerability in postnatal stress and depression

The purpose of the present study was to examine vulnerability factors in expecting parents that might lead to mental illness in the perinatal period. Specifically, we studied how parental early adversity, attentional bias to infant faces, repetitive negative thinking, and demographic factors, were associated with pre- and postnatal depressive symptoms and parenting stress. Participants were expecting parents taking part in the Northern Babies Longitudinal Study, where assessments were made both pre- and postnatally. Assessments included both questionnaires and cognitive tasks. About half of the participants received the Newborn Behavior Observation (NBO)-intervention after birth, between pre- and postnatal assessments. Results show that repetitive negative thinking was a significant predictor of both depressive symptoms and parenting stress, while education, social support, and parity came out as protective factors, especially in mothers. Parental early adversity had an indirect effect on postnatal depressive symptoms and parenting stress, mediated by prenatal and postnatal depressive symptoms, respectively. The NBO intervention did not affect the results, signifying the importance of early childhood adverse events and negative thinking on parents' postnatal adjustment and mood, even when an intervention is provided. In conclusion, repetitive negative thinking is a significant vulnerability factor independent of the presence of depressive symptoms, and health professionals must be aware of parents’ thinking style both during pregnancy and after birth.

Maternal Depression and Early Parenting: A Comparison Between Culturally and Linguistically Diverse and Australian born Mothers

Objective: To examine the risk of perinatal depression, parenting stress and infant sleep practices in Australian culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) women. Method: Within the Mercy Pregnancy and Emotional Wellbeing Study, we examined 487 pregnant women of whom 52 were CaLD and 435 non-CaLD. Depression was measured using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. In addition, Parenting Stress Index and infant sleep measures were collected. Results: Fewer CaLD women had a depression diagnosis but there were no differences between CaLD and non-CaLD women for perinatal mental health symptoms. More mothers in the CaLD group were bed sharing with their infant during the night at six months; however, bedsharing was only associated with higher parenting stress for non-CaLD mothers. Conclusions: Findings suggest both differences in infant sleep parenting practices and in parenting stress but not general emotional wellbeing. Future research is required to replicate these findings.

Parent-Child Dyads with Greater Parenting Stress Exhibit Enhanced Inter-Brain Synchrony During Shared Play

Parent-child dyads who are mutually attuned to each other during social interactions display interpersonal synchrony that can be observed overtly, in the form of joint behaviours, and biologically, such as through the temporal coordination of brain signals called inter-brain synchrony. Joint play provides ample opportunities for parent-child dyads to engage in matching interactions which not just facilitate the formation of bonds but also alleviate parenting stress in caregivers. Despite the beneficial effects of play on parents and the parent-child relationship, no study has investigated the dyadic neural mechanism by which this occurs. The present functional Near-infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) study aimed to examine the association between parenting stress and inter-brain synchrony in the prefrontal cortex of 31 mother-child and 29 father-child dyads while they engaged in shared play for 10 minutes. Shared play was miro-analytically coded into joint (i.e., in-phase matching of dyadic behaviours) and non-joint (i.e., no matching of dyadic behaviours) segments. Inter-brain synchrony was computed using cross-correlations over 15 s, 20 s, 25 s, 30 s and 35 s fixed-length windows of joint and non-joint play segments. Analyses of Covariance revealed that dyads with more parenting stress exhibited greater inter-brain synchrony in the frontal left cluster of the prefrontal cortex, but only for the 35 s fixed-length window. This finding suggests that continuous and positive instances of joint play may disproportionately benefit dyads who reported greater parenting stress, entraining underlying brain activation patterns involved in social cognition. Mother-child dyads also showed greater inter-brain synchrony than father-child dyads, alluding to possible gender differences in the effect of play on dyads. Findings present evidence of a potential dyadic neural pathway by which play benefits the parent-child relationship.