Interparental Relationships, Parental Psychological Distress, & Child Development

描述(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痛苦的发展过程，并研究父母的关系功能和心理痛苦如何预测幼儿的社会情绪和行为适应。关系功能障碍和抑郁之间的关联很强；然而，人们对夫妻内部随时间的波动以及人际关系中敌意和焦虑的相关性知之甚少。此外，尽管父母之间的关系困境和父母的精神病理与儿童适应之间的直接联系已经被记录在案，但包括这两个父母风险因素的研究一直很少。为了解决这些差距，提出了以下具体目标：(1)探索父母间关系(即地位、适应)与父亲和母亲的心理痛苦(即抑郁、焦虑、敌意)之间的联系；(2)首先检验父母关系功能(即质量、冲突)与心理痛苦之间的动态内部关系，然后检验这些过程在伴侣之间的相互作用；以及(3)调查父母间关系质量、父母心理痛苦和子女发展结果之间的纵向路径的性质。这项提案试图通过对NICHD关于幼儿保育和青年发展的研究(SECCYD)进行二次分析来实现这些目标。除了具有成本效益外，SECCYD特别适合于完成拟议的研究，原因有几个。首先，目前的调查试图复制和扩展现有的关于人际关系和心理健康的发现，通过使用至少有一个孩子的长期夫妇(父亲和母亲)的样本来研究关系功能(包括质量和冲突)和广义的心理困扰(抑郁、焦虑和敌意)。其次，SECCYD数据集允许使用复杂的建模技术来阐明父亲和母亲之间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级别的上下文变量，预计这些变量将缓和这些途径。第三，对广泛的家庭数据进行了纵向评估，从重点关注的孩子出生到11岁。因此，父母的关系障碍和心理痛苦将与重要的青少年社会情绪和行为指标相关联，说明这些相互关联的父母风险变量如何成为儿童发展的关键背景。 项目简介：升高的心理症状令人痛苦，并高度预示着随后的精神障碍，给受苦的个人及其家庭成员带来了压倒性的挑战。伴侣和亲子关系的质量可能会受到影响。这项研究的发现有可能通过阐明将父母和孩子置于经历人际过程和心理健康之间的负面循环的风险的特征，从而促进我们努力预防和治疗伴侣功能不良与父母、夫妇和孩子的精神病理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.