Explaining Variation in Parents' and Their Children's Stress During COVID-19 Lockdowns

The coronavirus pandemic poses a substantial threat to people across the globe. In the first half of 2020, governments limited the spread of virus by imposing diverse regulations. These regulations had a particular impact on families as parents had to manage their occupational situation and childcare in parallel. Here, we examine a variation in parents' and children's stress during the lockdowns in the first half of 2020 and detect the correlates of families' stress. Between April and June 2020, we conducted an explorative online survey among n = 422 parents of 3- to 10-year-old children residing in 17 countries. Most participants came from Germany (n = 274), Iran (n = 70), UK (n = 23), and USA (n = 23). Parents estimated their own stress, the stress of their own children, and various information on potential correlates (e.g., accommodation, family constellation, education, community size, playtime for children, contact with peers, media consumption, and physical activity). Parents also stated personal values regarding openness to change, self-transcendence, self-enhancement, and conservation. The results indicate a substantial variation in the stress levels of families and their diverse reactions to regulations. Media consumption by children commonly increased in comparison to the time before the pandemic. Parents raising both pre-school- and school-aged children were at a particular risk of experiencing stress in response to regulations. Estimated stress and reactions varied with the age of children and the personal values of parents, suggesting that such variables need to be considered when implementing and evaluating regulations and supporting young families in the current and future pandemic.

Constructing global missionary families: Absence, memory, and belonging before World War I

The separation of parents and children was a quite common imperial family constellation before World War I. Many children left the respective colonial or mission territories at the beginning of their seventh year. They were sent to their parents’ regions of origin in Europe to spend their childhood and youth in the households of relatives or in missionary boarding schools specially set up for them. This article examines German-speaking missionary families in the imperial context of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and focuses on letter communications between parents and children as an expression of family construction at a distance. I will mainly focus on two families (Kaundinya, Nommensen) in order to examine from a micro-historical perspective, the construction of missionary families in a transimperial framework. Rooted in the pietistic milieu of German-speaking missionaries from the Basel Mission and the Rhenish Mission, these families enable us to compare the results of imperial and missionary family historiography, which has developed over the last 20 years within the British context, with empirical material from other national and imperial contexts.

Life expectancy, family constellation and stress in giant mole-rats ( Fukomys mechowii )

Giant mole-rats ( Fukomys mechowii ) are remarkably long-lived subterranean rodents (maximum recorded lifespan as reported here greater than 26 years) that live in families with one reproductive pair (breeders) and their non-reproductive offspring (non-breeders). Previous studies have shown that breeders live on average approximately twice as long as non-breeders, a finding contradicting the classic trade-off between reproduction and lifespan. Because recent evidence points to the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis as playing an important role in shaping the pace of ageing in mole-rats, we analysed the influence of the social environment of giant mole-rats on intrafamilial aggression levels, indicators of long-term stress, and, ultimately, mortality. Behavioural data indicated that family constellation, especially the presence or the absence of parents, influences agonistic behaviour. As a measure of long-term stress, we established a non-invasive method of extracting and measuring cortisol from hair of giant mole-rats. Interestingly, orphaned non-breeders exhibited significantly lower levels of cortisol and lower mortality rates than did non-breeders living with both parents. Because hypercortisolism is harmful in the long-term, intrafamilial stress could help explain the earlier onset of senescence in non-breeders, resulting in a shorter lifespan. Our findings suggest that the social environment should be considered as a further factor in ageing studies involving group-living animals. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Ageing and sociality: why, when and how does sociality change ageing patterns?’

Female Social Empowerment and the Psychological Expression of Endocrinological Issues during Menopause

We conducted two clinical studies: Study 1 compared high functioning narcissistic men and women against low functioning narcissistic and non-narcissistic patients as well as non-narcissistic successful individuals with prestigious careers. Results established the interconnection between narcissism, masochism, and sadism. Narcissistic women exhibited more masochistic traits, while narcissistic men were distinguished by their sadistic features. Both narcissistic males and females manifested higher sadistic tendencies than all other groups; they also exhibited histrionic and depressive trends. Since the masochistic and sadistic extremities are the opposite ends of the same dimension, an individual can internally oscillate from one pole to the other, without ever escaping the confinement of this vicious circle. Study 2 analyzed the testing records and psychotherapy notes of 14 postmenopausal women, using the FSFI, DES, and MMPI-2. Results unveiled a high correlation between reported female satisfaction with vaginal rejuvenation procedures, and the MMPI-2 Lie, Depression, and Hysteria scales, revealing a tendency to withhold or mask the truth, sustained by an emotional organization that revolves around shame and sadness. Based on the statistically significant results of the two studies we discuss a number of issues related to overall social development and healthy interpersonal relationships: The current social arrangements of several societies where women must obey and serve men, contaminates social progress by nurturing underdeveloped, deprived females whose secret accumulated rage can be either expressed in silent dullness or indifference, passive defiance leading to inactivity or inertia, or overt rebellion leading to the breakdown of the family constellation, something seen by the increasing divorce rate in several countries.

Possibilities and Challenges in Providing Psychotherapeutic Interventions to Meet the Needs of the Latinx Population in the United States

The mental health system in the United States faces challenges in adequately engaging the Latinx population with modalities that conform to the Latinx worldview, which demands incorporating holistic, family-centric, and trauma-informed models of treatment. Service provision and innovation is hampered by lack of research focusing on this population, the low numbers of Latinx clinicians available, and the lack of treatment adaptations to meet their needs. Psychotherapeutic interventions employed in the Latin American context are potentially useful when working with acculturating Latinx. In this article attention is given to barriers and facilitators for incorporating Family constellation therapy—a holistic trauma-informed treatment modality that offers conflict resolution through connection with ancestry.

The impact of older siblings on the language environment and language development of bilingual toddlers

Previous research has suggested that the language development of bilingual children benefits from more exposure and opportunities for language use. Typically, this research has used aggregated measures of exposure and use. The role of specific interlocutors and in particular older siblings has received comparatively little attention. In this study, we examine the impact of having an older sibling on the language environment and language development of a group of 31 bilingual Greek–Dutch toddlers aged 16 to 30 months growing up in the Netherlands. Approximately half (n = 14) of the toddlers had an older sibling. With respect to language environment, toddlers with older siblings were in general found to hear and use more Dutch at home than their first-born peers. There were however no differences between the two groups of toddlers in terms of parental language use. With respect to language development, toddlers with older siblings were found to score higher than first-born peers on measures of Dutch receptive vocabulary, productive vocabulary, and morphosyntactic complexity. For Greek, no such differences were observed. The findings are discussed in light of factors including family constellation, parental language proficiency, bilingual parenting strategies, and the wider sociolinguistic context.