Conversation Orientation Moderates the Relationship between Information Sharing of Medically Assisted Reproduction and Child Adjustment.

Parents who experienced infertility have increasingly used medically assisted reproduction (MAR) to add children to their families over the past few decades. These parents will need to decide if they will tell their children about being conceived using MAR. Although MAR information sharing operates within family contexts, little is known about the role of conversation orientation-one family contextual factor-in child outcomes associated with MAR information sharing in middle childhood.

Parental Conformity Expectations' Effect on Twins' and Singletons' Parent-Adolescent Relationships: Associations With Change in Adjustment From Middle Childhood to Adolescence.

Growing use of in vitro fertilization (IVF) has resulted in an elevated twin birth rate, and a burgeoning population of IVF twins who are now aging into adolescence and beyond. This study tests a model examining whether parental conformity expectations have differential effects on twins' versus singletons' parent-adolescent relationship satisfaction, and if this effect is indirectly associated with relative changes in twins' and singletons' internalizing and externalizing behavior from middle childhood to adolescence. Using a sample of 278 IVF twins and singletons, path models demonstrate that twin status and conformity expectations interact to influence parent-adolescent relationships.

Observed Mother- and Father-Child Interaction Differences in Families with Medically Assisted Reproduction-Conceived Twins and Singletons.

Increased medically assisted reproduction (MAR) use to treat infertility has resulted in a growing twin birth rate. Little is known about parent-child relationships for twin relative to singleton children in middle childhood. This study fills this gap by examining parent-child relationships in 57 families with eighty 6- to 12-year-old MAR twin and singleton children using observational data (warm and supportive communication, control, and hostility).

Discussions about Racial and Ethnic Differences in Internationally Adoptive Families: Links with Family Engagement, Warmth, & Control.

Discussions about racial and ethnic differences may allow international, transracial adoptive families to construct multiracial and/or multiethnic family identities. However, little is known about the ways family communication influences how discussions about racial and ethnic differences occur. This study examined associations between observed family communication constructs, including engagement, warmth, and control, and how adoptive families discuss racial and ethnic differences using a sample of families with adolescent-aged children adopted internationally from South Korea ( = 111 families, 222 adolescents).

Conformity expectations: Differential effects on IVF twins and singletons' parent-child relationships and adjustment.

Increased utilization of in vitro fertilization (IVF) to treat infertility has resulted in a growing twin birthrate. Despite early childhood risks, twins have fewer psychosocial problems in middle childhood than singleton children. This study proposes that parents' conformity expectations for children have differential effects on parent-child relationships for twin and singleton children, which indirectly explains twins' more optimum psychosocial adjustment.

Parent involvement, sibling companionship, and adolescent substance use: A longitudinal, genetically informed design.

A large literature shows that parent and sibling relationship factors are associated with an increased likelihood of adolescent substance use. Less is known about the etiology of these associations. Using a genetically informed sibling design, we examined the prospective associations between parent involvement, sibling companionship, and adolescent substance use at 2 points in mid- and late-adolescence.

Associations between Discussions of Racial and Ethnic Differences in Internationally Adoptive Families and Delinquent Behavior among Korean Adopted Adolescents.

Internationally adopted adolescents may have more delinquent behavior than non-adopted adolescents. One explanation is these adolescents experience discrimination and loss of culture, and adoptive parents are not adequately addressing these experiences. However, studies have not examined the effects of family discussions of racial and ethnic differences within adoptive families on adopted adolescents' delinquent behavior.

Adoption status and family relationships during the transition to young adulthood.

Although adoptive family research has increased, most has focused on childhood and adolescence. Despite the known importance of parent-adolescent relationships drawn from the general population, we know little about how adoptive family relationships change or remain the same as adopted adolescents enter young adulthood. Using the Sibling Interaction and Behavior Study, the purpose of this study was to build on previous research to explore differences in conflict, closeness, and relationship quality between adoptive and nonadoptive families during the transition from late adolescence into young adulthood.

Twins conceived using assisted reproduction: parent mental health, family relationships and child adjustment at middle childhood.

Study Question: Compared with singletons, what is the parent mental health, parent-child and couple relationship satisfaction, and child adjustment of 6- to 12-year-old assisted reproduction technology (ART) twins and their families?

Summary Answer: There are no differences between 6- and 12-year-old ART twin and singleton families in parent mental health or family relationships; however, twins had significantly fewer behavior and attention problems than singletons in middle childhood.

What Is Known Already: When ART twins are younger than 5 years old, parents have more mental health difficulties and poorer parent-child relationship quality, and no differences have been found in ART twin and singletons' psychosocial adjustment. However, studies have only examined the implications of ART twin status in families with infant and toddler aged children.

Contributions of parent-adolescent negative emotionality, adolescent conflict, and adoption status to adolescent externalizing behaviors.

Although most adopted children are well adjusted, research has consistently found that adopted adolescents are at an increased risk for externalizing behaviors. The present investigation tested a model whereby parent-adolescent negative emotionality traits, adolescent conflict, and adoption status contribute to adolescent externalizing behaviors. The study included 616 families with at least one parent and two adolescent siblings with a maximum 5-year age difference.

Considerations of elder sibling closeness in predicting younger sibling substance use: social learning versus social bonding explanations.

Adolescent siblings are often similar in a variety of adjustment outcomes, yet little is known about the processes that explain sibling influences during adolescence. Two alternative explanations were tested, attachment (based in social bonding theory) and anaclitic identification (based in social learning theory). Hypotheses were tested with a sample of 613 adolescent sibling pairs (206 nonadopted, 407 adopted; elder sibling mean age = 16.

Associations between Family Communication Patterns, Sibling Closeness, and Adoptive Status.

Previous research has demonstrated the protective effect of family and sibling closeness on child adjustment, but fewer studies have investigated how closeness is promoted within families. Guided by Family Communication Patterns Theory, we tested the association between family communication and sibling emotional and behavioral closeness, and whether adoptive status moderated this relationship. Participating families included 616 adoptive and non-adoptive families with two adolescent children.

The relationship between parent-child conflict and adolescent antisocial behavior: confirming shared environmental mediation.

Prior studies have indicated that the relationship between parent-child conflict and adolescent antisocial behavior is at least partially shared environmental in origin. However, all available research on this topic (to our knowledge) relies exclusively on parent and/or adolescent informant-reports, both of which are subject to various forms of rater bias. As the presence of significant shared environmental effects has often been attributed to rater bias in the past (Baker et al.

Confirming the etiology of adolescent acting-out behaviors: an examination of observer-ratings in a sample of adoptive and biological siblings.

Background: A recent meta-analysis revealed moderate shared environmental influences (C) on most forms of child and adolescent psychopathology (Burt, 2009), including antisocial behavior. Critically, however, the research analyzed in this meta-analysis relied largely on specific informant-reports (and particularly parent and child reports), each of which is subject to various sources of rater bias. Observer-ratings of children's behaviors avoid many of these biases, and are thus well suited to verify the presence of C.

The Effect of Family Communication Patterns on Adopted Adolescent Adjustment.

Adoption and family communication both affect adolescent adjustment. We proposed that adoption status and family communication interact such that adopted adolescents in families with certain communication patterns are at greater risk for adjustment problems. We tested this hypothesis using a community-based sample of 384 adoptive and 208 nonadoptive families.

Family interactions in adoptive compared to nonadoptive families.

Despite the large and growing numbers of adoptive families, little research describes interactions in families with adopted adolescents. Yet, adopted adolescents' increased risk for adjustment problems, combined with the association between family interactions and adolescent adjustment in nonadoptive families, raises questions about differences in adoptive and nonadoptive family interactions. We compared observed and self-reported family interactions between 284 adoptive and 208 nonadoptive families and within 123 families with 1 adopted and 1 nonadopted adolescent.

The Impact of Uncertainty Associated with a Child's Chronic Health Condition on Parents' Health.

We investigated whether uncertainty about the impact of children's chronic health conditions on their daily lives leads to changes in mothers' and fathers' mental and physical health. Three waves of data were collected over three years from parents of 228 children with chronic health conditions. Parents reported their level of uncertainty about how the child's health condition affected the child's daily life, as well as measures of their own mental and physical health at each wave of data collection.

Mental health of rural young adults: prevalence of psychiatric disorders, comorbidity, and service utilization.

Few studies estimate rural psychiatric disorder rates. No study has reported either DSM-III-R or DSM IV disorder prevalence and mental health service use among US rural young adults. This paper reports psychiatric disorder prevalence, comorbidity, service utilization, and disorder correlates in a community sample of 536 young adults, aged 19 to 23 years, living in the rural Midwestern US.