Interparental Relationships, Parental Psychological Distress, & Child Development

摘要：本研究旨在探讨父母亲密关系功能和心理困扰的发展历程，以及父母关系功能和心理困扰对幼儿社会情绪和行为适应的影响途径。人际关系障碍和抑郁之间的联系是明显的；然而，随着时间的推移，夫妻之间的波动以及敌意和焦虑的人际关系却鲜为人知。此外，尽管父母关系窘迫和父母精神病理与儿童适应的直接联系已被记录，但包括父母两种风险因素的研究很少。为了解决这些差距，本文提出了以下具体目标：(1)探讨父母间关系（即地位、适应）与父母心理困扰（即抑郁、焦虑、敌意）之间的联系；(2)首先测试关系功能（即质量、冲突）与父母心理困扰之间的动态人际关系，然后测试这些过程在伴侣之间的相互作用；(3)探讨父母间关系质量、父母心理困扰与儿童发育结局之间的纵向通路性质。本提案旨在通过对NICHD早期儿童保育和青少年发展研究（SECCYD）的二次分析来实现这些目标。除了具有成本效益外，SECCYD特别适合完成拟议的研究有几个原因。首先，本研究试图通过研究关系功能（质量和冲突）和广义的心理困扰（抑郁、焦虑和敌意）来复制和扩展现有的关于人际关系和心理健康的研究结果，研究对象是至少有一个孩子的长期夫妻（父亲和母亲）。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，该数据集还包括个体和夫妻层面的上下文变量，这些变量有望调节这些途径。第三，纵向评估了一系列广泛的家庭数据，从焦点儿童出生到11岁。因此，父母的关系障碍和心理困扰将与重要的青年社会情感和行为指标联系起来，阐明这些相互关联的父母风险变量如何作为儿童发展的关键环境。

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.