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There is an abundance of literature examining parent-child relationships, and subsequently, parenting interventions that address these. The purpose of this study was to examine if positive and negative parental behaviors predicted externalizing behaviors in children. The following questions were addressed: (a) What are the types of positive interactions that Latinos parents engage in with their children? (b) Does a ratio of intervals of positive to intervals of negative parent behaviors predict externalizing behaviors in children among Latinos? (c) Do proportions of intervals of positive and/or negative behaviors predict a greater percentage of variance in child outcomes than does a ratio of intervals of behaviors in Latino families? Participants included 49 two-parent families with at least one child between the ages of 6 and 11. All participants were living in Puerto Rico at the time of the study and primarily spoke Spanish. Video recordings of parents interacting with their children in a variety of structured and unstructured tasks were reviewed, and 10 s intervals were coded as either negative (-), negative (+), positive or neutral. Results revealed (a) Latino parents engage in a variety of behaviors with their children, (b) a ratio of intervals of behaviors did not statistically significantly predict externalizing behaviors in Latino children, and (c) proportion of intervals of behaviors also did not statistically significantly predict externalizing behaviors in Latino children. In order to continue to inform culturally appropriate parenting interventions, it is imperative that more observational research be conducted with various cultures. It is important to look at the types of behaviors that parents from various cultures engage in with their children to inform adaptations of parenting interventions. The current study examined exclusively parents, however, future studied might also address extended family member, and teacher behaviors and interactions as well.

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Parenting behaviors have long been recognized as crucial to children’s healthy development. However, examinations of the etiology of these behaviors are less prevalent. The current study investigated the driving forces behind parental warmth and discipline, particularly whether they’re related more to traits within the parent or reactions to characteristics of the child. To explore this question, three robust factors of child temperament – effortful control, negative affectivity, and surgency/extraversion – and parent personality traits were examined in association with parent behaviors through differential parenting within twin pairs. Correlations between differences in temperament within twin pairs and differences in parenting within twin pairs showed that children with higher effortful control received more discipline from parents than their co-twin. Associations between parent behaviors and parent personality found that extraversion and agreeableness in parents were significantly related to parent warmth. Finally, by examining the heritability of temperament and comparing parenting toward monozygotic vs. dizygotic twins, this study clarified the direction of effects and genetic contributions to differential parenting behaviors, supporting previous literature that discipline acts in reaction to the child, whereas warmth is more driven by parent personality. This research begins to elucidate the causes behind parenting behaviors, allowing clinicians and parents to more effectively address the parent-child relationship to correct maladaptive parenting behaviors and encourage healthy and adaptive parenting behaviors, thus promoting positive outcomes for children.

This is a longitudinal couples therapy process study using coded data from eleven couples to identify which therapist behaviors (warmth, listener responsiveness, communication, dominance) influenced positive couples exchanges (warmth and listener responsiveness) over time in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT). A mixed effects model was used to examine within- and between-individual variability. Men and women were modeled separately. A series of two-level multilevel models of change were examined, where Time is Level 1 and Individual is Level 2. Results indicated no significant relationship between variables of therapist warmth, listener responsiveness, communication, and dominance with couple listener responsiveness. Where client warmth was an outcome variable, the only significant relationship was between therapist warmth toward husband and husband warmth toward wife. Findings demonstrated that 62.9% of the variance in husband warmth toward wife was accounted for by therapist warmth to husband across time in therapy. Specifically, therapist warmth toward husband was significantly and positively related to husband warmth toward wife over time in therapy. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.

The relationship between maternal sensitivity (MS) and child outcomes has been examined by earlier research. There is some evidence that MS plays a role in shaping temperament development in early childhood. Child temperament outcomes are a significant predictor for functioning in later life. The study is based on 952 mother-infant pairs from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). MS was observed at 12-months and temperament at 24-months. Linear regression was used to investigate the association between MS and temperament, adjusting for a range of confounders (temperament at 6 months, gender, SES, maternal mental health, maternal preconceptions of her child, parental conflict, gestation and maternal age). Multiple imputation was used to account for attrition. Mother-child interactions rated as “cool/moderate” were associated with more difficult temperament on the dimensions of “approach” (Coef 0.35, CI 0.09, 0.60),“rhythmicity”(Coef 0.43, CI 0.19, 0.68) and “adaptability” (Coef 0.24, CI 0.00, 0.49). The associations remained after adjusting for confounders in the imputed data set. There is evidence that maternal warmth may be influential in the development of child temperament, particularly positive affect, sociability and affect regulation. Further research is needed to replicate these findings.

Background: Chronic pain conditions particularly fibromyalgia (FM) are an important issue considering the demand that they place on health services and the negative impact on an individual’s well-being. Research regarding what impact FM may have on the various domains of health related quality of life is sparse. In addition, research identifying predictors relating to a person’s self-concept on pain outcomes such as quality of life and disability is scarce in a chronic pain population. Self-esteem has been linked to psychological adjustment in various chronic diseases (Chong et al, 2009) and is suspected to be a vulnerability factor in FM (Johnson et al., 1997; Michielsen et al., 2006). Research on self-compassion found that it is a significant predictor of increased psychological adjustment in people with chronic medical conditions (Wren, Somers, & Wright, 2011). The majority of research on self-compassion has been conducted in non-clinical samples. Identifying the predictive values of self-esteem and the self-compassion subscales (self-warmth and self-coldness) in relation to pain outcomes are useful provided they can be enhanced and utilised to inform intervention. Aims: This research portfolio had two aims, to systematically review and carry out a meta-analysis with the literature investigating the impact of FM on health related quality of life using the Short Form-36 version one and to investigate whether self-warmth, self-coldness and self-esteem act as predictors of quality of life and disability for individuals with chronic pain. Method: A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies which assessed the impact of FM on health related quality of life was undertaken. Sensitivity and subgroup analyses were conducted to address the level of heterogeneity in the studies. The empirical study comprised of a cross-sectional design in which 60 individuals with chronic pain were recruited from three NHS sites based in Fife and Lothian and a pain self-management group in Fife to complete six validated psychometric questionnaires: Self Compassion Scale (Neff, 2003), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965), Brief Pain Inventory- Short Form (Cleeland, 1991), Pain Disability Questionnaire (Anagnostis, Gatchel, & Mayer, 2004), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (Zigmond and Snaith, 1983) and Quality of Life Scale (Burckhardt, Woods, Schultz, & Ziebarth, 2003). Systematic Review Results: In total, 18 studies met the inclusion criteria of the systematic review and demonstrated that the health related quality of life of individuals with FM was lower compared to healthy controls on all eight subdomains of the SF-36 particularly Physical Role. It was found that Social Functioning was the subdomain least affected when comparing participants with FM to healthy controls. Empirical Project Results: Quality of life was lower than previous research with females reporting a higher level of quality of life than males. It was found that after controlling for demographic and clinical variables, self-warmth was the only significant predictor for quality of life but not on levels of disability. Neither self-coldness nor self-esteem were significant predictors on scores of quality of life or disability. Conclusion: The above studies expand literature on the nature of chronic pain and its outcomes such as health related quality of life. The meta-analysis evidenced that HRQoL was lower in individuals with FM than in healthy controls. The association between symptom severity and quality of life requires further investigation in FM. Psychological interventions targeting the development of self-warmth attributes and skills may have a beneficial effect in improving quality of life for people with chronic pain. While the systematic review highlighted that FM has a more significant impact physically rather than mentally in relation to quality of life, both studies highlighted the need for interventions to target the psychological adjustment of people with chronic pain conditions.

This study examined the relationship between parenting, adolescent personality, and adolescent optimism. Four hundred and eighty families with at least one adolescent child in the Seattle, Washington area completed a series of questionnaires assessing parenting style, personality, and optimism. Results from hierarchical regression analyses indicated that there is a small, yet significant, portion of the variance in optimism explained by parenting and personality individually, but that the relationship between optimism, parenting, and personality dynamics is far more complex than originally anticipated. Further research is needed to examine the nature of these relationships and to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the predictors of optimism.

Our research focuses on the negative relationship between the two fundamental dimensions of social perception, warmth and competence. Specifically, we examine antecedents and consequences of what has been called the compensation effect, i.e., perceivers’ tendency to differentiate two social targets in a comparative context on the two fundamental dimensions by contrasting them in a compensatory direction. In order to present our theoretical background and highlight the relevance of our empirical research, the first chapter of this theoretical part reviews the research that has identified competence and warmth as the two fundamental dimensions of social perception, and the second chapter reviews how these two dimensions have been used in social psychology. In the third chapter, we review the work that has concentrated on the properties of these two dimensions. And in the fourth and final theoretical chapter, we present recent research that has tested the compensation effect empirically and that constitutes the starting point of the present endeavor. In the experimental part, our ambition has been to get a better understanding of the compensation effect. In Chapter 5, we identify a necessary condition of the emergence of a compensation effect, namely that it is observed on the two fundamental dimensions of social perception, not on any given pair of dimensions. In three experiments we first replicate the compensation effect on the two fundamental dimensions, then we show that if the unmanipulated dimension is not one of the two fundamental dimensions, then a halo effect is observed when a compensation effect would have been observed with the fundamental dimensions. In Chapter 6, we show how the compensation effect affects social perception beyond impression formation. We do so by showing a compensation effect on indirect measures. In the Chapter 7 we test two original predictions based on the compensation effect. First we predict and find that context can affect the ratings of a specific group in a compensatory way. And we show that the compensation effect can be found on mean ratings, and at the correlational level. Second we predict and show that the compensation effect will lead to more differenciated judgments of groups that have a compensatory profile than those that have a halo profile. This is a doctoral thesis based on a series of articles. Therefore we ask the reader to understand that there will be redundancies in the five theoretical introductions of the articles and a number of cross references.

The present review sought to clarify and synthesise the existing research of the role parental harshness and parental warmth have on children and adolescents with callous unemotional traits by comparing research across different study designs and study samples in a systematic review. The systematic review search rendered in 16 publications which revealed that callous unemotional traits moderate the relationship between parental harshness as well as parental warmth and behaviour problems in children and adolescents. The moderation effect was directed by the level of callous unemotional trait in the child or adolescent where those with low levels exhibited the most negative effects when exposed to parental harshness. Conversely, children or adolescents with elevated levels exhibited the most positive effects when being exposed to parental warmth. Furthermore, the review revealed that both forms of parenting predict changes in callous unemotional traits over time, where parental harshness increased traits and parental warmth decreased traits. These results are further discussed in relation to the contextual theories of Lykken’s parental competence and socialisation model as well as Kochanska’s conceptual model of conscience development.