Introduction to The Special Issue: Advances in Methods and Measurement in Family Psychology

This special issue presents a collection of reports that highlight recent advances in methods and measurement and also shed light on the complexity of family psychology. The importance of theory in guiding solid family science is evident throughout these reports. The reports include guides for researchers who incorporate direct observation into their research protocols and the ever-expanding field of tele-health interventions. Advanced analytic approaches are offered in the areas of grid sequence analysis, latent fixed-effects models, and the Factors of Curves Model (FOCUS). These sophisticated analytic approaches may be applied to advance systemic thinking in family psychology. The last set of articles illustrate how complex and innovative methodologies are applied to address important societal issues. Work experiences and marital relationships in African American couples address the importance of spillover effects in contemporary families. The creation of biobehavioral plasticity index has the potential to inform gene x environment contributions to family functioning. Finally, the unique methodological issues that are particularly germane to the diverse nature of stepfamilies and nonresident fathers are addressed. We hope that readers of this special issue will return to these reports as resources and examples of theory-driven methods and measurements

Measuring Children’s Perceptions of Their Mother’s Depression: The Children’s Perceptions of Others’ Depression Scale – Mother Version

Several theoretical perspectives suggest that knowledge of children’s perceptions of and beliefs about their parents’ depression may be critical for understanding its impact on children. This paper describes the development and preliminary evidence for the psychometric properties of a new measure, the Children’s Perceptions of Others’ Depression – Mother Version (CPOD-MV), which assesses theoretically- and empirically driven constructs related to children’s understanding and beliefs about their mothers’ depression. These constructs include children’s perceptions of the severity, chronicity, and impairing nature of their mothers’ depression; self-blame for their mother’s depression; and beliefs about their abilities to deal with their mother\u27s depression by personally coping or alleviating the mother’s depression. The CPOD-MV underwent two stages of development. First: (1) a review of the literature to identify the key constructs; (2) focus groups to help generate items; and (3) clinicians’ ratings on the relevance and comprehensibility of the drafted items. Second was a study of the measure’s psychometric properties. The literature review, focus groups, and item reduction techniques yielded a 21-item measure. Reliability, factor structure, and discriminant, convergent and concurrent validity were tested in a sample of 91 10- to17- year-old children whose mothers had been treated for depression. The scale had good internal consistency, factor structure suggestive of a single construct, discriminant, concurrent, convergent, and incremental validity, suggesting the importance of measuring children’s perceptions of their mothers’ depression, beyond knowledge of mothers’ depression symptom level, when explaining which children have the greatest risk for emotional and behavioral problems among children of depressed mothers. These findings support continued development and beginning clinical applications of the scale

Depressive symptoms and trust of healthcare provider in rural adolescents: Relationships and predictors

The purpose of this study was to evaluate associations among depressive symptoms, trust of healthcare provider, and health behavior in adolescents who live in a rural area. Two hundred twenty-four adolescents aged 14-19 years old attending public high school in the Midwestern United States were surveyed. Results showed a diagnosis of depression, trust of healthcare provider, health awareness, and stress management predicted depressive symptoms in adolescents living in a rural area. Healthcare providers should take extra care to promote trust in the healthcare provider-patient relationship with adolescents and to follow guidelines for annual screening of adolescents for depressive symptoms. Nursing implications include adolescent psychoeducation to improve health awareness and stress management.National Institutes of Health; Rural Nurses Organizatio

Variable- and Person-Centered Approaches to the Analysis of Early Adolescent Substance Use: Linking Peer, Family, and Intervention Effects With Developmental Trajectories

This 4-year study of 698 young adolescents examined the covariates of early onset substance use from Grade 6 through Grade 9. The youth were randomly assigned to a family-centered Adolescent Transitions Program (ATP) condition. Variable-centered (zero-inflated Poisson growth model) and person-centered (latent growth mixture model) approaches were taken to examine treatment effects on patterns of substance-use development across early adolescence. Variable-centered analyses revealed treatment effects both on decreasing the likelihood of initiating substance use and on the rate of growth in substance use among those who initiated use. Person-centered analyses revealed the following five trajectories of early substance use: (1) no use, (2) low/rare use, (3) early accelerating use, (4) late-accelerating use, and (5) early high but decreasing use. Of note, random assignment to the ATP intervention was strongly predictive of following the decreasing-use trajectory. In addition, the early high but decreasing group was most likely to engage in the Family Check-Up and linked intervention services. These findings suggest that covariates of early adolescent substance us, as well as the effectiveness of prevention strategies, vary as a function of the developmental pattern underlying early adolescent risk

Effects of depression and past-year binge drinking on cognitive control processes during a flanker task in college-aged adults

<p><i>Background</i>: Recent but largely separate literatures have examined neurocognitive alterations related to both depression and binge drinking, suggesting similar patterns of impairments in attention control and decisional processes. However, depression and problematic alcohol use tend to co-occur, and few studies have examined whether cognitive processing effects of depression and binge drinking are independent or interacting. <i>Objective</i>: The current study examined joint effects of depressive symptoms and past-year binge drinking on cognitive processing (measured via EEG assessment). <i>Methods</i>: University students aged 18 and over (<i>N</i> = 46; 63.4% female) were recruited based on self-reported depressive symptoms and also provided reports of alcohol use (51% reported significant depression; 46% reported at-least one past-year binge-drinking episode). Participants completed a computerized flanker task, assessing cognitive control processes. Forty-one participants providing useable data were included in analyses. <i>Results</i>: Past-year binge drinking was associated with slower and more accurate behavioral responding. The interaction of binge-drinking and depressive symptoms was related to the magnitude of early attentional components (N1 and N2), with individuals reporting high depressive symptoms and a history of binge-drinking exhibiting attenuated early attentional engagement (e.g., less negative N1) coupled with enhanced attention control processing (e.g., more negative N2). Depressive symptoms also predicted a lack of discriminated P3 amplitudes on congruent versus incongruent trials. <i>Conclusion</i>. The data suggest that depression and binge drinking in the past-year jointly interact to predict early attentional processing, with the pattern of responding consistent with a compensatory response process. Results highlight the importance of future work on binge-drinking accounting for co-occurring depression.</p