Interparental Relationships, Parental Psychological Distress, & Child Development

研究内容（申请人提供）：本研究的双重目的是阐明父母之间亲密关系功能和心理困扰的发展过程，并检查父母的关系功能和心理困扰预测幼儿社会情绪和行为适应的途径。关系障碍和抑郁症之间的关联是强大的;然而，随着时间的推移，对夫妻内的波动以及敌意和焦虑的人际相关性知之甚少。此外，虽然父母间的关系困扰和父母的精神病理学与儿童适应的直接联系已被证明，包括父母的风险因素的研究已经很少。为了解决这些差距，提出了以下具体目标：（1）探讨父母间关系之间的联系（即，地位，调整）和父亲和母亲的心理困扰（即，抑郁、焦虑、敌意）;（2）首先测试关系功能之间的动态人内关系（即，（3）探讨亲子关系质量、父母心理困扰与儿童发展结果之间的纵向路径性质。该提案旨在通过对NICHD幼儿保育和青年发展研究（SECCYD）的二级分析来实现这些目标。除了具有成本效益外，SECCYD还特别适合完成拟议的研究，原因有几个。首先，本调查旨在复制和扩展现有的研究结果，人际关系和心理健康的关系功能（质量和冲突）和广泛定义的心理困扰（抑郁，焦虑和敌意）使用的样本，长期的夫妇（父亲和母亲）谁至少有一个孩子。其次，SECCYD数据集允许复杂的建模技术，以澄清父亲和母亲的关系功能和心理困扰之间的动态，纵向路径。此外，该数据集包括个人和夫妇水平的上下文变量，预计这些途径的温和。第三，从焦点儿童出生到11岁，对大量的家庭数据进行了纵向评估。因此，父母的关系功能障碍和心理困扰将检查有关重要的青年社会情绪和行为指标，阐明这些相互关联的父母风险变量如何作为一个关键的背景下，为儿童的发展。 项目叙述：升高的心理症状使他们自己感到痛苦，并高度预测随后的精神障碍，对受影响的个人及其家庭成员构成了压倒性的挑战。伴侣和亲子关系的质量可能会受到影响。这项研究的结果有可能通过阐明使父母和儿童处于人际关系过程和心理健康之间的负循环风险的特征来有益于公共卫生，从而推动我们努力预防和治疗父母，夫妇和儿童的不良伴侣功能和精神病理学之间的纵向相互作用。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The two-fold aim of this research is to elucidate the developmental course of intimate relationship functioning and psychological distress among fathers and mothers, and to examine the pathways through which parents' relationship functioning and psychological distress predict young children's socio-emotional and behavioral adjustment. The association between relationship dysfunction and depression is robust; however, less is known about within-couple fluctuations over time and interpersonal correlates of hostility and anxiety. Furthermore, although direct linkages of both interparental relationship distress and parental psychopathology with child adjustment have been documented, studies that include both parental risk factors have been rare. To address these gaps, the following specific aims are proposed: (1) To explore linkages between interparental relationships (i.e., status, adjustment) and fathers' and mothers' psychological distress (i.e., depression, anxiety, hostility); (2) To first test dynamic within-person relations between relationship functioning (i.e., quality, conflict) and psychological distress for fathers and mothers, and to then test the interplay of these processes between partners; and (3) To investigate the nature of longitudinal pathways among interparental relationship quality, parental psychological distress, and children's developmental outcomes. This proposal seeks to conduct these aims through secondary analysis of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD). In addition to being cost-effective, the SECCYD is uniquely suited to accomplish the proposed research for several reasons. First, the present investigation seeks to replicate and extend existing findings on interpersonal relationships and mental health by studying relationship functioning (both quality and conflict) and broadly-defined psychological distress (depression, anxiety, and hostility) using a sample of longer-term couples (fathers and mothers) who have at least one child. Second, the SECCYD dataset permits sophisticated modeling techniques to clarify dynamic, longitudinal pathways among fathers' and mothers' relationship functioning and psychological distress. Furthermore, the dataset includes individual- and couple-level contextual variables that are expected to moderate these pathways. Third, an extensive array of family data was assessed longitudinally, from birth of the focal child through age 11. Thus, relationship dysfunction and psychological distress of parents will be examined in relation to important youth socio-emotional and behavioral indicators, illuminating how these interrelated parental risk variables serve as a critical context for the development of children. PROJECT NARRATIVE: Elevated psychological symptoms, which are distressing themselves and highly predictive of subsequent mental disorders, pose overwhelming challenges to afflicted individuals and their family members. Partner and parent-child relationship quality is likely to suffer. Findings from this research have the potential to benefit public health by elucidating characteristics that place parents and children at risk for experiencing a negative cycle between interpersonal processes and mental health, thereby advancing our efforts to prevent and treat the longitudinal interplay between poor partner functioning and psychopathology for parents, couples, and children.