Preparing for parenthood: Validating a mixed method approach to assessing the coparenting capacity of young expectant fathers and mothers.

The transition to parenthood (TP) interview and coparenting capacity (CC) coding scheme is a mixed method approach to evaluating readiness for the interpersonal challenges of parenthood. This paper focuses on the validation of the TP-CC system with a diverse sample of 140 young expectant father/mother pairs. The TP interview is designed to assist expectant parents in expressing their thoughts and feelings about parenthood and coparenting and the CC coding scheme is designed to assess a new parent's capacity for expressing fondness, acceptance, growth, cohesion, and commitment in their relationship with their coparenting partner.

A Multi-Topic Bystander Intervention Program for Upper-Level Undergraduate Students: Outcomes in Sexual Violence, Racism, and High-Risk Alcohol Situations.

Few bystander intervention trainings programs have evaluated behavioral outcomes in previously trained upper-level undergraduate students. Rigorous study designs are necessary to understand how multi-topic programs influence student outcomes to intervene against sexual violence, racism, and high-risk alcohol situations. A single-session bystander training for emphasizing communication strategies was developed for juniors and seniors on a private, Midwestern college campus.

Barriers and facilitators of health among older adult immigrants in the United States: an integrative review of 20 years of literature.

Background: There are over seven million older adult immigrants in the United States, and that number is expected to increase. Older adult immigrants in the United States have unique factors that influence their health.

Methods: In this integrative review, we systematically review 20 years of peer-reviewed literature on the barriers (i.

Image processing and analysis methods for the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study.

The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study is an ongoing, nationwide study of the effects of environmental influences on behavioral and brain development in adolescents. The main objective of the study is to recruit and assess over eleven thousand 9-10-year-olds and follow them over the course of 10 years to characterize normative brain and cognitive development, the many factors that influence brain development, and the effects of those factors on mental health and other outcomes. The study employs state-of-the-art multimodal brain imaging, cognitive and clinical assessments, bioassays, and careful assessment of substance use, environment, psychopathological symptoms, and social functioning.

Triple jeopardy: the joint impact of racial segregation and neighborhood poverty on the mental health of black Americans.

Purpose: Because segregation may shield blacks from discrimination as well as increase their exposure to concentrated poverty, its net impact on the mental well-being of black Americans is unclear. We investigated the intersection between segregation, neighborhood poverty, race, and psychological well-being.

Methods: Using data from the nationally representative 2008-2013 National Health Interview Survey merged with U.

Young parenthood program: supporting positive paternal engagement through coparenting counseling.

Objectives: Because of their youth, adolescent parents often lack the interpersonal skills necessary to manage the relationship challenges involved in parenting, leaving them and their children vulnerable to the health risks associated with relational stress and conflict. The primary goal of this study was to test the efficacy of the Young Parenthood Program (YPP), a 10-week counseling program administered during pregnancy and designed to facilitate interpersonal skill development and positive parenting among adolescent parents.

Methods: Participants included 105 pregnant adolescents and their partners randomly assigned to YPP or treatment as usual.

Marital discord and coronary artery disease: a comparison of behaviorally defined discrete groups.

Objective: Marital difficulties can confer risk of coronary heart disease, as in a study of outwardly healthy couples (T. W. Smith et al.

The development of relational competence among young high-risk fathers across the transition to parenthood.

This study examined relationship factors associated with paternal functioning among young, high-risk fathers, with an emphasis on the role of a young mother's relational competence on her partner's paternal functioning. Participants included 60 young fathers and their coparenting partners, who were identified before childbirth and followed over 2 years. Fathers were identified as being at high risk for paternal failure based on a history of school dropout, psychopathology, and/or serial fatherhood.

Affiliation and control during marital disagreement, history of divorce, and asymptomatic coronary artery calcification in older couples.

Objective: To examine behavioral observations of affiliation (ie, warmth versus hostility) and control (ie, dominance versus submissiveness) and prior divorce as predictors of coronary artery calcification (CAC) in older couples. In some but not all studies, marital disruption and low marital quality have been shown to confer risk of coronary artery disease (CAD). Inconsistencies might reflect limitations of self-reports of marital quality compared with behavioral observations.

Early signs and symptoms of psychosis among Palauan adolescents.

Aim: This study was designed to identify early symptoms associated with the occurrence of psychosis during adolescence.

Method: Participants were recruited in the Republic of Palau, an isolated island nation in Micronesia with a prevalence rate for schizophrenia of 1.99%.

Adoption, family relations and psychotic symptoms among Palauan adolescents who are genetically at risk for developing schizophrenia.

Purpose: This paper focuses on the role of adoption and family relations as moderators of genetic risk for psychotic disorders.

Methods: Participants included 184 adolescents in the Republic of Palau identified to be at genetic risk for schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. Palau is an island nation in Micronesia with a lifetime prevalence of 1.

Conflict and collaboration in middle-aged and older couples: II. Cardiovascular reactivity during marital interaction.

Marital strain confers risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), perhaps though cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) to stressful marital interactions. CVR to marital stressors may differ between middle-age and older adults, and types of marital interactions that evoke CVR may also differ across these age groups, as relationship contexts and stressors differ with age. The authors examined cardiovascular responses to a marital conflict discussion and collaborative problem solving in 300 middle-aged and older married couples.

Conflict and collaboration in middle-aged and older couples: I. Age differences in agency and communion during marital interaction.

Prior theory and research regarding age differences in marital interaction suggest that older couples display and experience more positivity and less negativity than middle-aged couples. However, studies of overt behavior in older couples are relatively rare and have emphasized disagreement, neglecting other important contexts for older couples such as collaboration during everyday problem solving. Further, the affiliation or communion dimension of social interaction (i.

Associations of self-reports versus spouse ratings of negative affectivity, dominance, and affiliation with coronary artery disease: where should we look and who should we ask when studying personality and health?

Objective: Aspects of negative affect and social behavior studied as risk factors for coronary heart disease are usually examined separately and through self-reports. Using structural models of these personality domains, we tested associations of self-reports and spouse ratings of anxiety, depressive symptoms, anger, affiliation and dominance with coronary artery disease (CAD).

Design: In 154 healthy older couples, the authors tested cross-sectional associations with CAD of three facets of negative affectivity and two dimensions of the Interpersonal Circumplex, (IPC) using scales derived from the NEO-PI-R.

Interpartner conflict and child abuse risk among African American and Latino adolescent parenting couples.

Objective: The goal of this study was to identify links between observed conflict interactions and risk for child abuse and harsh parenting among a multiethnic sample of adolescent mothers (14-19 years) and young fathers (14-24 years).

Methods: Prior to childbirth (T1), observation-based relationship data were collected from 154 expectant adolescent couples as well as information about physical aggression between partners. Two years after childbirth (T2), data relevant to harsh disciplinary practices and child abuse-prone attitudes were collected from both young mothers and fathers.

Interpersonal behavior, psychopathology, and relationship outcomes among adolescent mothers and their partners.

This study was designed to identify predictors of relationship outcomes among 179 young (ages 14-24) coparenting couples during the transition to parenthood, with a particular focus on interpersonal process and psychopathology. Findings indicated that couples identified as hostile during the prenatal assessment were more likely to report relationship violence at follow-up (2 years postbirth). Couples identified as warm were more likely to remain together as coparents even if their romantic relationship dissolved.

Observing differences between healthy and unhealthy adolescent romantic relationships: substance abuse and interpersonal process.

Previous research on adolescent romantic relationships has been largely based on self-reports and interview data; as a result, relatively little is known about the interpersonal-behavioral dynamics of adolescent couples. In an attempt to address this gap in the previous literature on young couples, the present study used observational methods to differentiate between healthy and dysfunctional adolescent romantic relationships. Two groups of adolescent couples were recruited to participate in this study: (1) a high-risk group (n=18 couples) in which one or both partners had a substance use disorder (SUD) and (2) a low-risk group (n=12 couples) in which neither partner had a history of psychopathology.

Positive and negative characteristics of marital interaction and their association with marital satisfaction in middle-aged and older couples.

The study examined age differences in positive (e.g., warm) and negative (e.

Task control and cognitive abilities of self and spouse in collaboration in middle-aged and older couples.

Collaborative problem solving may be used by older couples to optimize cognitive functioning, with some suggestion that older couples exhibit greater collaborative expertise. The study explored age differences in 2 aspects of collaborative expertise: spouses' knowledge of their own and their spouse's cognitive abilities and the ability to fit task control to these cognitive abilities. The participants were 300 middle-aged and older couples who completed a hypothetical errand task.

Hostile personality traits and coronary artery calcification in middle-aged and older married couples: different effects for self-reports versus spouse ratings.

Objective: To examine the association between hostile personality traits and coronary artery disease (CAD) and the role of aspects of hostility, method of assessment, and age as influences on its magnitude, as prior studies of hostility and coronary artery calcification (CAC) have produced conflicting findings.

Methods: Participants included 300 married couples (mean age = 54.4 years) free from diagnosed CAD.

Expectant adolescent couples' relations and subsequent parenting behavior.

The goal of this study was to test the "spill over" hypothesis-that the quality of relations between expectant couples would predict parenting behavior-among a sample of adolescent mothers and fathers. At Time 1, self-reported and observational relationship data were collected from 36 expectant adolescent couples. At follow-up, observational data were collected from both young mothers and fathers who were asked to participate in a structured play activity with their 2-year-old children.

The transition to parenthood among young African American and Latino couples: relational predictors of risk for parental dysfunction.

This study examined relationship factors associated with parental dysfunction among young African American and Latino couples. Parent dysfunction was defined in terms of parenting stress, child abuse potential, physically punitive behavior, and paternal disengagement. Fathers who reported positive relations with their own parents and partners before childbirth reported more positive adjustments to parenthood at follow-up.