The Long Arm of Child Maltreatment and Mental Health in Later Life: The Effects of Maltreatment and Family Context?

Purpose. This article examines the role of family context in shaping the influence of childhood maltreatment on later life psychological well-being in the cultural context of Chinese society. Method. Data were drawn from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) baseline. Maltreatment was measured by corporal punishment by either mother or father in childhood. We used family violence, parents’ family socioeconomic status (SES) and mental health to represent family context. Result. Our ordinary least square regression analysis shows that corporal punishment administered by a mother was associated with higher depressive symptoms (b=0.308, p<0.05) in later life while being hit by father did not result in higher depressive symptoms. Family contexts had residual (“long arm”) influence on respondents’ mental health: violence in the family, including being hit by siblings (b=0.657, p<0.001) and witnessing violence between parents (b=0.658, p<0.001) contributed significantly to higher depressive symptoms. Conclusion. Corporal punishment by parents had long term effects on mental health of their children in later life. Cultural values, such as filial piety did not eliminate the negative impacts of being hit in childhood on mental health in later life. Family contexts including violence between parents also played important roles in shaping the relationship between child maltreatment and mental health in later life. Implication. Our study offers important insights about the complex matrix of cultural traditions, social circumstances and diversity in dealing with child rearing stress and their consequences for later life mental health.

OTs' Perspectives on Family-Centered Care and Meaningful Relationships Within Complex Family Contexts

Date Presented 04/13/21 The value of family-centered care is identified in the literature, highlighting the need for therapists to use a variety of approaches. However, there is limited evidence as to how to best provide care with families dealing with complex contexts such as language, cultural, and socioeconomic differences. This session will provide the perspectives of eight OTs who identified strategies to support the primary caregiver and ways in which to build therapeutic alliances. Primary Author and Speaker: Tamera Keiter Humbert Additional Authors and Speakers: Patricia A. Henton Contributing Authors: Shelley Dean

Reflective function: A move to the level of concern

Reflective function (RF) is the capacity to reflect on one’s own thinking and feelings, as well as on that of others. It involves an increasingly complex awareness that there is more than what is visible on the surface. Most studies of RF have focused on its significance for self-development and interpersonal relationships in dyadic and family contexts. In this article, I suggest that by imparting a more accurate perception of the intra- and interpersonal reality and interrelatedness, RF is inextricably related to concern and to reaching others in widening circles. I further suggest that obstacles to its development and realization can be found at the individual, relational, and sociopolitical levels. I conclude that the construct of RF both captures and facilitates the connection between psychology and ethics, and that psychologists play a key role in exploring the conditions that affect the realization of RF, and in promoting social change in general.

Espousing Patriarchy: Conciliatory Masculinity and Homosocial Femininity in Religiously Conservative Families

Drawing on in-depth interviews with individuals in current and former plural Mormon fundamentalist families, I demonstrate how gender is structured relationally in plural marriage, dependent on noncoercive power relations. Men perform a “conciliatory masculinity” based on their position as head of the family that requires constant consensus-building skills and emotional labor to maintain family harmony. This masculinity is shaped in relation to women’s performance of “homosocial femininity” that curbs men’s power by building strong bonds among wives to deflect jealousies and negotiate household duties. I argue for the importance of studying masculinities and femininities together as a relational structure to better understand specific religious and family contexts.