Adolescents\u27 Avoidance Tendencies and Physiological Reactions to Discussions about Their Parents\u27 Relationship: Implications for Postdivorce and Nondivorced Families

A model was constructed to test the argument that when the topic of the parents\u27 relationship is introduced in conversations between parents and \u27adolescents, adolescents from divorced families may be especially likely to feel caught between their parents due to a need for protection (of themselves, their parent, and their relationship), which should make them anxious (i.e., self-reported anxiety) and physiologically aroused (i.e., changes in skin conductance levels or SCL). When adolescents feel aroused, we argued that they should attempt to avoid talking about their parents\u27 relationship with their parent. Self-report and observational data, as well as physiological data, were collected from 112 parent-adolescents dyads. The results revealed that divorce predicted adolescents\u27 feelings of being caught, which influenced their need for protection. This need for protection, in turn, predicted adolescents\u27 self-reported anxiety and changes in SCL. Unlike what was hypothesized, SCL was not associated with adolescents\u27 avoidance tendencies. Nevertheless, self-reported anxiety was associated with adolescents\u27 self-reported topic avoidance. The implications of these results, and a new observational coding scheme for avoidance, are discussed

Evaluation of the Turning Points for Families Intervention (TPFF)

De-identified data and analyses for cases in the TPFF evaluation paper published in the the Journal of Family Therapy

The importance of relationship maintenance in marriage at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic

The theory of resilience and relational load (TRRL) was used to understand the disparate impact of COVID-19 on married individuals. We hypothesized that women and people of color would experience greater stress, more conflict with their marital partners, and express more anger over time due to the increased financial hardship and additional stressors of work-family life during COVID-19. Married individuals (N = 3601 at T1) completed online surveys at four time points from April to June 2020. We found few sex and racial differences. Across all groups, financial hardship at T1 was positively associated with stress the following month, which predicted conflict and anger expression over time. Moreover, relationship maintenance counteracted the effect of financial hardship on stress, conflict, and anger.</p

An Examination of Parents&rsquo; Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) History and Reported Spanking of Their Child: Informing Child Maltreatment Prevention Efforts

The current evidence indicates that spanking is harmful to children&rsquo;s health and development and should never be used by parents or other caregivers. However, the critical factors that inform effective spanking prevention strategies are still not well understood. The objective of the current study was to determine if a parent&rsquo;s own adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) history was associated with increased likelihood of reporting their child being spanked at age 10 or younger. Data were drawn from the Well-Being and Experiences Study (the WE Study), a community survey of parents and adolescents from 2017&ndash;2018 (N = 1000) from Canada. The results indicated that a parent&rsquo;s own history of physical abuse, emotional abuse, spanking, and household mental illness in childhood were associated with an increased likelihood that their child would have been spanked. These findings indicate that a parent&rsquo;s ACEs history may be related to how their own child is parented and identify families who may be more likely to rely on spanking. Preventing physical punishment is necessary for healthy child development, reducing the risk of further violence, and upholding children&rsquo;s rights to protection. Parent&rsquo;s ACEs history may be an important factor to consider when developing and implementing child maltreatment prevention efforts

Pervasive Uncertainty under Threat: Mental Health Disorders and Experiences of Uncertainty for Correctional Workers

© 2021 International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology. Published by SAGE Publishers. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Exposure to potentially psychologically traumatic events for correctional workers is high. However, the mechanisms driving the high prevalence are relatively unexplained. Using data from a cross-sectional, online survey of correctional service workers (n = 845) in Ontario, Canada, collected in 2017–2018, we assess the prevalence of mental disorders with a specific focus on uncertainty in the workplace and between correctional roles. We find that correctional officers, institutional governance, and probation/parole officers appear most at risk of mental disorders (prevalence of any mental disorder was 56.9%, 60.3%, and 59.2%, respectively). We argue slightly lower prevalence among institutional wellness, training, and administrative staff may result in part from their more predictable work environment, where they have more control. The results reaffirm a need for evidence-based proactive mental health activities, knowledge translation, and treatment and a need to explore how authority without control (i.e., unpredictability at work) can inform employee mental health.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: R. Nicholas Carleton’s research is supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) through a New Investigator Award (FRN: 13666). Tracie O. Afifi’s research is supported by a Tier I Canada Research Chair. This research was also funded in part by a CIHR Catalyst Grant (FRN: 16234).Facultyye

Why Family Communication Matters: the Role of Co-rumination and Topic Avoidance in Understanding Post-Disaster Mental Health

Although families can be a source of support post-disaster, depending on how they communicate about their stress, their attempts at support can be helpful or harmful. This study explored the moderating role of topic avoidance and co-rumination on post-disaster mental health (MH) in a sample of 485 parent-child dyads following severe floods affecting Texas. Parents (69.0% female) and their oldest child between the ages of 10-19&nbsp;years (M = 13.75&nbsp;years, SD = 2.56) completed online surveys approximately one-year post-flooding. Participants reported their flood exposure, life stressors since the disaster, topic avoidance, co-rumination, and MH symptoms (posttraumatic stress symptoms [PTSS], depression, anxiety). Structural equation models tested a moderated-mediation model of whether communication processes moderated the associations of flood exposure and life stressors on MH. They did not moderate the association of flood exposure to PTSS, but did have a moderating role for depression and anxiety. At low levels of topic avoidance, there was no association between flood exposure and child anxiety or depression. However, at mean and high levels of topic avoidance, there was a significant, positive association between flood exposure and child anxiety and depression. Co-rumination impacted both parents and children. For parents, there was no association between flood exposure and depression or anxiety when co-rumination was low or mean-level. However, flood exposure increased risk for depression and anxiety at high levels of co-rumination. A similar pattern emerged for children. Results for life stressors were nuanced. Overall, this suggests that communication can influence post-disaster MH

Mental Health and Well-Being among Children of Public Safety Personnel in Canada

© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Public safety personnel (PSP) often experience stress due to their occupational demands that affect the family environment (e.g., work-family conflict, marital breakdown, disruption to home routines, and holidays). A substantial base of research has focused on the impact of PSP work on the marital relationship, but fewer studies have focused specifically on children’s functioning within PSP families. The current study investigated mental health, well-being, and functioning among children of PSP in Canada, as reported by PSP. Data were collected between 2016 and 2017 as part of a large pan-Canadian study of PSP. Participants (n = 2092; 72.5% women) were PSP parents who responded to questions about their 4- to 17-year-old children. Overall, a substantial proportion of PSP parents reported their children have at least some difficulties with sadness (15.4%), worries and fear (22.0%), disobedience or anger (22.0%), attention (21.0%), and friendships (11.4%). Firefighters reported the fewest problems among their children compared to other PSP groups. Almost 40% of participants indicated that their child’s problems were related to their work as a PSP. The results highlight the need to find ways to identify children that are struggling and provide support to those families. Organizations and PSP leadership should develop and prioritize efforts to support families of PSP members, with the likely outcome of enhancing PSP member well-being.This research was supported by the Canadian Institute of Public Safety Research and Treatment (CIPSRT) and the Canadian Institute of Research in Health (CIHR). Specifically, R. N. Carleton’s Research was supported by the CIHR through a New Investigator Award (FRN: 285489) and a Catalyst Grant (FRN: 162545).Facultyye

Assessing Relative Stressors and Mental Disorders among Canadian Provincial Correctional Workers

In the current study, we quantified the mean stress levels of 43 occupational stressors for 868 Correctional Workers (CWs) and analyzed the relationships between occupational stressors, exposure to potentially psychologically traumatic events (PPTEs), and mental health disorders. Our findings emphasize the importance of the occupational environment in relation to CW mental health and indicate that occupational stressors (e.g., staff shortages, inconsistent leadership style, bureaucratic red tape) are more salient contributors to CW mental health than exposure to PPTEs. Finding strategies to ameliorate staff shortages, improve leadership style and communication, and support CWs to maintain physical, mental, and social well-being would be interventions tied to significant organizational and operational stressors within the current study