Cognitive correlates of adjustment for mothers and stepfathers in stepfather families

Abstract: This study relates three types of cognitions--ambiguity of the stepfather role, an optimistic perspective on stepfamilies, and myths about stepfamilies--to two areas of satisfaction, namely, (step)parent-child relationships and family/ marital/personal life. Subjects were 27 mothers and 27 stepfathers who were married to each other about three years. Compared to stepfathers, mothers had a more optimistic perspective on stepfamilies, were less likely to endorse myths regarding step families, and reported greater satisfaction with (step)parent-child relationships. Generally, cognitions were related to family/marital/ personal life satisfaction for mothers and to satisfaction with stepparent-child relationships for fathers. stepfamilies | parenting | parent-child relationships | domestic relations | stepfathers | Keywords: stepmothers Article: This study relates three types of cognitions--ambiguity of the stepfather role, an optimistic perspective on stepfamilies, and myths about stepfamilies--to two areas of satisfaction, namely, (step)parent-child relationships and family/ marital/ personal life. Subjects were 27 mothers and 27 stepfathers who were married to each other about three years. Compared to stepfathers, mothers had a more optimistic perspective on stepfamilies, were less likely to endorse myths regarding stepfamilies, and reported greater satisfaction with (step)parent-child relationships. Generally, cognitions were related to family/ marital/ personal life satisfaction for mothers and to satisfaction with stepparent-child relationships for fathers. Because divorce rates for persons remarried after a divorce are somewhat higher than those of persons married for the first time The focus of this study is on cognitions (e.g., perceptions, assumptions, beliefs, and explanations) specific to stepfather families and the relation between these cognitions and the satisfaction with life in a stepfamily for both spouses in stepfather families. Not only have cognitions been found to be related to individual adjustment (e.g., Beck, Rush, Shaw, and Emery, 1979), but they have also been linked to the development and maintenance of marital satisfaction (e.g., Kurdek, 1991). Two related theories underscore the importance of cognitions in mediating satisfaction. The first theory has an intrapersonal focus and posits that dysfunctional emotional and behavioral responses are related to appraisals of life events that are invalid or are based on unreasonable standards The second theory has an interpersonal focus and posits that cognitions are a critical component in the sequential flow of behavioral interactions. In their contextual model of marriage, Given the general importance of cognitions for satisfaction as discussed above, three kinds of cognitions specific to stepfather families are of interest in this study. These include perceptions of the ambiguity of the stepfather role, an optimistic perspective on life in a stepfather family, and myths regarding the functioning of stepfather families. Although the importance of these particular cognitions has been emphasized in the clinical stepfamily literature (e.g., Ambiguity regarding the stepfather role is of interest because it has been described as the core difficulty encountered by most stepfather families (Fine and Schwebel, in press; Giles-Sims, 1987). According to literature in the field of organizational psychology, role ambiguity includes uncertainty about the scope of one's responsibilities, uncertainty about the particular behaviors needed to fulfill one's responsibilities, uncertainty about whose expectations for role behavior must be met, and uncertainty about the effects of one's actions on the well-being of oneself and of others An optimistic perspective on stepfamily living is of interest because such a general outlook might act as a buffer against some of the stresses experienced in stepfamilies Finally, myths regarding stepfamily living are of interest in light of general findings and clinical observations that dysfunctional beliefs are negatively related to adjustment Because previous studies have found that persons in first marriages and remarriages differ in their evaluations of some aspects of their lives (e.g., family relationships) but not in others (e.g., marital interactions) Given limited information on cognitions and satisfaction in stepfather families, the first purpose of this study is to assess differences between mothers and stepfathers on cognitions and satisfaction. Differences on these variables are of interest for two reasons. First, because there is consistent evidence of gender specialization in families in the areas of marriage, family life, and parenthood The second purpose of this study is to assess the relation between cognition and satisfaction. Care was taken so that the content of the cognition measures did not overlap with that of the satisfaction measures (cf. METHOD Subjects Subjects were obtained from participants in an ongoing longitudinal study of relationship quality in newlyweds who were recruited from lists of marriage licenses published in a local newspaper (see All respondents were white. Mean ages for mothers and stepfathers were 34.74 and 36.88, respectively. On the average, both spouses had some college. Eighty-four percent of the mothers and 96% of the fathers were working. On the average, mothers earned between $15,000 to$19,999, while stepfathers earned between $25,000 and$29,999. Spouses had lived together a mean of 42.85 months and had been married a mean of 37.44 months. Twenty-one of the couples were stepfather only families, 5 were couples in which mothers' children resided with a child born to the couple, and I included both a stepmother and a stepfather. [1] There was a total of 42 stepchildren (22 boys, 20 girls), with a mean age of 12.11 years. All stepchildren lived with their mother and stepfather on a full-time basis. With regard to marital history, 8 stepfathers were married for the first time, 14 had been divorced once, and 5 were divorced more than once. Twenty-one mothers were divorced once, and 6 were divorced more than once. Background Informatio

A dyad of lymphoblastic lysosomal cysteine proteases degrades the antileukemic drug L-asparaginase

l-Asparaginase is a key therapeutic agent for treatment of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). There is wide individual variation in pharmacokinetics, and little is known about its metabolism. The mechanisms of therapeutic failure with l-asparaginase remain speculative. Here, we now report that 2 lysosomal cysteine proteases present in lymphoblasts are able to degrade l-asparaginase. Cathepsin B (CTSB), which is produced constitutively by normal and leukemic cells, degraded asparaginase produced by Escherichia coli (ASNase) and Erwinia chrysanthemi. Asparaginyl endopeptidase (AEP), which is overexpressed predominantly in high-risk subsets of ALL, specifically degraded ASNase. AEP thereby destroys ASNase activity and may also potentiate antigen processing, leading to allergic reactions. Using AEP-mediated cleavage sequences, we modeled the effects of the protease on ASNase and created a number of recombinant ASNase products. The N24 residue on the flexible active loop was identified as the primary AEP cleavage site. Sole modification at this site rendered ASNase resistant to AEP cleavage and suggested a key role for the flexible active loop in determining ASNase activity. We therefore propose what we believe to be a novel mechanism of drug resistance to ASNase. Our results may help to identify alternative therapeutic strategies with the potential of further improving outcome in childhood ALL

Correlates and Consequences of Spanking and Verbal Punishment for Low-Income White, African American, and Mexican American Toddlers

This study examined the prevalence, predictors, and outcomes of spanking and verbal punishment in 2,573 low-income White, African American, and Mexican American toddlers at ages 1, 2, and 3. Both spanking and verbal punishment varied by maternal race/ethnicity. Child fussiness at age 1 predicted spanking and verbal punishment at all three ages. Cross-lagged path analyses indicated that spanking (but not verbal punishment) at age 1 predicted child aggressive behavior problems at age 2 and lower Bayley mental development scores at age 3. Neither child aggressive behavior problems nor Bayley scores predicted later spanking or verbal punishment. In some instances, maternal race/ethnicity and/or emotional responsiveness moderated the effects of spanking and verbal punishment on child outcomes

Terminating Tableaux for Graded Hybrid Logic with Global Modalities and Role Hierarchies

We present a terminating tableau calculus for graded hybrid logic with global modalities, reflexivity, transitivity and role hierarchies. Termination of the system is achieved through pattern-based blocking. Previous approaches to related logics all rely on chain-based blocking. Besides being conceptually simple and suitable for efficient implementation, the pattern-based approach gives us a NExpTime complexity bound for the decision procedure

Progress in paleoclimate modeling

International audienceThis paper briefly surveys areas of paleoclimate modeling notable for recent progress. New ideas, including hypotheses giving a pivotal role to sea ice, have revitalized the low-order models used to simulate the time evolution of glacial cycles through the Pleistocene, a prohibitive length of time for comprehensive general circulation models (GCMs). In a recent breakthrough, however, GCMs have succeeded in simulating the onset of glaciations. This occurs at times (most recently, 115 kyr B.P.) when high northern latitudes are cold enough to maintain a snow cover and tropical latitudes are warm, enhancing the moisture source. More generally, the improvement in models has allowed simulations of key periods such as the Last Glacial Maximum and the mid-Holocene that compare more favorably and in more detail with paleoproxy data. These models now simulate ENSO cycles, and some of them have been shown to reproduce the reduction of ENSO activity observed in the early to middle Holocene. Modeling studies have demonstrated that the reduction is a response to the altered orbital configuration at that time. An urgent challenge for paleoclimate modeling is to explain and to simulate the abrupt changes observed during glacial epochs (i.e., Dansgaard-Oescher cycles, Heinrich events, and the Younger Dryas). Efforts have begun to simulate the last millennium. Over this time the forcing due to orbital variations is less important than the radiance changes due to volcanic eruptions and variations in solar output. Simulations of these natural variations test the models relied on for future climate change projections. They provide better estimates of the internal and naturally forced variability at centennial time scales, elucidating how unusual the recent global temperature trends are

Protein-coding variants implicate novel genes related to lipid homeostasis contributing to body-fat distribution.

Body-fat distribution is a risk factor for adverse cardiovascular health consequences. We analyzed the association of body-fat distribution, assessed by waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index, with 228,985 predicted coding and splice site variants available on exome arrays in up to 344,369 individuals from five major ancestries (discovery) and 132,177 European-ancestry individuals (validation). We identified 15 common (minor allele frequency, MAF ≥5%) and nine low-frequency or rare (MAF <5%) coding novel variants. Pathway/gene set enrichment analyses identified lipid particle, adiponectin, abnormal white adipose tissue physiology and bone development and morphology as important contributors to fat distribution, while cross-trait associations highlight cardiometabolic traits. In functional follow-up analyses, specifically in Drosophila RNAi-knockdowns, we observed a significant increase in the total body triglyceride levels for two genes (DNAH10 and PLXND1). We implicate novel genes in fat distribution, stressing the importance of interrogating low-frequency and protein-coding variants