Family climate in children living with parents who harmfully consume alcohol

The family climate has notable impact on cognitive, emotional, behavioural, social and physical development of children and adolescents and can be influenced by parents' health status. The present study aimed at evaluating whether living with a parent with alcohol use disorder negatively influences the perceived emotional family climate, parental attitudes and internal representations of family relationships. Forty-five children living with a parent with alcohol use disorder and 45 controls, matched for sex and age, completed the Level of Expressed Emotion Scale and the Family Attitudes Questionnaire. Their significant parent completed the Parental Attitudes Scale. The results suggested that living with a parent with an alcohol use disorder increased the risk of having perceived higher levels of emotional response, attitude towards illness and expectations from their parents; it also increased the probability of being exposed to lower parental pleasure and of having represented worse family relationships. Emotion regulation interventions might be useful to protect children living with a parent with alcohol use disorder from a potential chaotic and unpredictable family environment

Family climate, expressed emotion, and parental attitudes in families of alcoholics

Introduction: parental alcoholism may lead to adverse psychological outcomes for those who grow up in such family environments. Objectives: several studies show that children of alcoholics (COAs) live in family climates characterized by conflict, unpredictability, and manifestations of contempt. Moreover, COAs are exposed to a high level of expressed emotion due, for instance, to threats and denigration. Aims: we compared a group of COAs with a group of non COAs measuring the family climate, the level of expressed emotion and the parental attitudes on the basis of both children and parents’ point of view. Methods: 25 COAs (mean age 17,8 ± 3,3 years) and 25 non COAs (mean age 18,3 ± 3,3 years), matched for age and sex, were evaluated in the frame of an observational naturalistic study design. Self-administered rating scales were used to assess the level of expressed emotion in the family (Level of Expressed Emotion Scale - LEES), the parental (Parental Attitudes Scales - PAD) and family (Family Attitudes Questionnaire - FAQ) attitudes. Results: The two groups did differ for FAQ total score and for the FAQ subscale assessing the relation between parents. They also differed for the level of expressed emotion (i.e., LEES total score) and for the LEES subscale assessing tolerance and expectations. Conclusions: COAs are characterized by the perception of a negative family climate that is primarily expressed in terms of conflict and deterioration of relationship between parents

On the role of charge transfer excitations in non-fullerene acceptors for organic photovoltaics

Through the development of new non-fullerene electron acceptor (NFA) materials, such as Y6 and its molecular derivatives, the power conversion efficiencies of organic photovoltaics (OPVs) have now exceeded 19%. However, despite this rapid progress, our fundamental understanding of the unique optical and electronic properties of these Y-series NFAs is lacking, and this currently limits progress in material design. In this work, we provide a detailed computational-experimental characterisation of the archetypal NFA, Y6. To explain the significant broadening and red shift of the absorption spectrum observed when moving from the solution phase to the solid state, we first rule out more typical causes, such as J-aggregation. Instead, by considering the role of charge transfer (CT) excitations and their mixing with Frenkel exciton (FE) states, we can computationally reproduce the experimental absorption spectra of Y6 with excellent accuracy. Using transient absorption spectroscopy, we provide evidence for this dense manifold of FE-CT hybrid electronic excitations in Y6 through the prominent sub-picosecond relaxation events following supra band gap excitation. Furthermore, through sub band gap excitation, we also find states with polaronic character in Y6 that are in a dynamic equilibrium with the FE-CT hybrid states. Magnetic resonance spectroscopies reveal that these polaronic states are 2 polaron pairs, most likely located on neighbouring Y6 molecules, not free charge carriers, as has been previously suggested. Thus, this new understanding of how the solid-state packing motif directly controls the optical and electronic properties of Y-series NFAs opens the door to intelligently design NFA materials to further increase OPV performance.EPSRC EP/W017091/1 Leverhulme ECF (ECF-2022-445