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Attachment and family systems theories provided a framework for examining parental structure and support and adolescent delinquency, substance abuse, peer relations, and self-esteem. Three parent scales: support, watchfulness and decidedness, and eight adolescent outcome variables assessing self-esteem, peer relations, and risk-behaviors were derived from the National Educational Longitudinal Study. The sample of 16,749 adolescents was diverse regarding race and ethnicity. All participants were in the tenth grade in the first wave and continued participation in the second wave two years later.</P> Parental support was hypothesized to be associated with increased self-esteem, positive peer relationships and reduced risk behaviors. Although the research findings support the hypothesis for each of the adolescent variables, support was most related to adolescent self-esteem and peer alienation, consistent with an attachment schema. The hypothesis that parental watchfulness is linked to a reduction in adolescent high-risk behaviors was not supported. Instead, watchfulness was linked to self-esteem and peer alienation. These findings indicate that watchfulness, similar to support, is more related to internal processes rather than a mechanism for controlling behavior. Parental decidedness is associated with lower risk behaviors along with lower self-esteem and greater susceptibility to peer alienation. This construct, in contrast to support and watchfulness, presents a different direction of influence depending on the adolescent outcome. The direction of influence of decidedness is negative for self-esteem and peer relations and positive for adolescent risk reduction. The overall research findings indicate that high amounts of support and watchfulness are related to the most positive outcomes for adolescent self-esteem and peer relations. In contrast, the effect of parental decidedness was less salutary for self-esteem and peer relations. In summary, conclusions from this research have implications for theory and practice. For theory, the understanding of specific linkages between these parenting constructs and adolescent outcomes is advanced in this research. These linkages have implication for extensions and modifications of attachment and family systems theories. For practice, the findings suggest refinement in contemporary parent education and clinical work with families. / Ph. D.

Parenting stress has been closely studied largely in relation to implications for the parent and implications for children. Emotion regulation refers to the processes in which one interprets and experiences emotions. Little has been done examining how parenting stress and mother emotion regulation relates to dyadic interaction between mother and child. Because of the compounding nature of stress as identified in the ABCX model of family stress and resilience theory, understanding parenting stress in its entirety and how mothers experience and deal with said parenting stress is crucial to understanding family processes, as it is not possible to partition the mother and child into separate spheres, per family systems theory. Maternal parenting behaviors cannot be conceptualized in isolation of the mother-child dyad; therefore, it is important to understand maternal processes and behaviors that relate to parenting and also the dyad. The current study examined the moderating impact of maternal emotion regulation on the relation between maternal parenting stress and three facets of dyadic interaction, including conflict, cooperation, and reciprocity. Mothers and their 4-5.5-year-old children (n=116) participated in a teaching task wherein mothers instructed their child to build figures with interlocking blocks based on provided images. Six hypotheses were examined. Regression analyses revealed that neither maternal cognitive reappraisal nor maternal emotion suppression moderated the relation of total parenting stress to parent-child dyadic interaction. However, preliminary correlation analyses revealed that dyads with boys experienced higher scores of dyadic conflict. Boys in the sample were also younger than girls. Considerations for lack of significant findings are explored including the role of maternal characteristics, child characteristics, and goodness-of-fit. Future exploration is necessary to examine how parent characteristics like maternal emotion regulation and parenting stress may relate to dyadic interactions with children. / M.S. / Most of the research on parenting stress, which is the stress that parents may feel related to their roles as parents, examines how it is related to parenting behavior or directly to their children’s behavior. There is little research on how parenting stress and maternal emotion regulation, which how mothers control their emotions, relate to dyadic interactions between mothers and children. Theories of family stress suggest that stress builds over time; therefore, it is important to understand all aspects of parenting stress. When any family member experiences stress, theories suggest that their stress can affect other family members. Maternal parenting behaviors, however, cannot be viewed separately from patterns of dyadic interaction between mothers and children; it is important to understand how maternal characteristics, including parenting stress and emotion regulation, relate to patterns of dyadic mother-child interaction. The current study examined how maternal parenting stress related to three types of dyadic interaction, including conflict, cooperation, and reciprocity. It was expected that how parenting stress would relate to dyadic interaction would be different depending on how mothers reported regulating their emotions. Mothers and their 4-5.5-year-old children (n=116) participated in a building task where mothers taught children how to make figures out of interlocking blocks based on pictures provided to mothers. Findings showed that maternal emotion regulation did not increase or decrease how maternal parenting stress related to dyadic interaction between mothers and children. Dyads with boys, however, experienced higher scores of dyadic conflict, and boys in the sample were also younger than girls. Future exploration is needed to examine how parent characteristics like maternal emotion regulation and parenting stress may relate to dyadic interactions between mothers and children.

Text in English / Two consecutive referrals of early onset (symptom onset at 11 years) anorexia nervosa (restricting sub-type) to an inpatient eating disorders unit in a psychiatric hospital, will be described. Within both cases, there was a history of sequential mother-daughter dieting prior to the daughter's onset of anorexic symptoms. This pattern will be viewed from the perspective of systemic theory, with reference to the cybernetic processes implicated in the onset and maintenance of symptoms. Structural systemic interpretations, in terms of exchangeable senses of self within the mother-daughter pairs, will also be considered. A brief comment will be made about the symmetry which underlies the choreography of anorexia nervosa when viewed from the perspective of communication theory. The implications for intervention will be addressed. In conclusion, the nature of the intergenerational transmission of disordered eating behaviours, will be considered with reference to the nature-nurture debate. / Clinical Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

This study explored the experiences of stepmothers of non-residential stepchildren, using a phenomenological approach and qualitative exploratory design. Participants were recruited in the Gauteng area through purposive sampling. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the information. The findings of this study indicate the following: the participants, in their role as stepmothers of non-residential stepchildren, experienced various challenges that were very stressful, especially during the early stages of stepfamily formation. The lack of acknowledgement of the stepmothers’ dedication to their stepchildren, as well as conflicting rules concerning how to care for the children, caused distress for the participants. Support from their partners, as well as improved stepfamily relationships over time, were acknowledged as contributing factors to the participants’ continued commitment to their stepfamilies. Further research on stepmothers of non-residential stepchildren is recommended / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)