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Guided by the life course perspective, this study investigated the developmental antecedents of contact, closeness/warmth, and negativity in young adults' relationships with their parents. Taking the developmental systems approach, we considered interindividual differences in not only initial levels of parenting quality in early adolescence (Grade 6) but also developmental changes in parenting quality across adolescence (Grades 6-12) as predictors of young adult-parent relationship quality. Data were from a large sample of young adults (N = 1,631; M[subscript age] = 22.84; 57% female; 90% White; 25% received free/reduced-price school lunch in Grade 6) followed from the fall of Grades 6 to 12 at eight time points, plus a young adult assessment. Using multivariate latent growth curve modeling, we identified a nuanced pattern of predictors of the three relationship dimensions. Higher initial levels of and lower rates of decline in parental involvement across adolescence predicted more young adult contact with mothers and fathers. Higher initial levels of parental warmth and parental involvement, as well as lower rates of decline in parental warmth, predicted greater closeness/warmth with mothers and fathers in young adulthood. Higher initial levels of and lower rates of decline in effective discipline predicted less young adult negativity toward mothers and fathers. These results held even when accounting for important adolescent and young adult covariates (adolescent sex and race, adolescent family income and structure, adolescent aggressive behavior tendencies, young adult living arrangement). The study offers new insights into how parenting practices in adolescence contribute to parent-child relationship in young adulthood.

We examined whether participation in adolescent substance use prevention programming can enhance long-term resilience into adulthood such that individuals were better able to cope with adversities during the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic, yielding benefits for the individuals, their partners/spouses, and children; 197 adults (28-30 years old) who entered the PROSPER randomized trial of substance use prevention programming as 6th graders and subsequently had become parents--and 128 of their partners--participated in two waves of long-term follow-up data collection. Respondents completed questionnaires on substance use, adjustment, parenting quality, and children's mood and behavior problems 15 years after baseline, and again via an online survey in the first three months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results were mixed, with some indications of better adjustment of PROSPER intervention compared to control participants during the early phase of the pandemic (less increase in alcohol use and less decrease in parenting warmth) and their children (lower levels of externalizing and internalizing problems) but several null results as well (no differences in other substance use behaviors, other parenting measures, or parent depression). Adolescent substance use prevention programs can foster long-term individual and interpersonal resilience factors that allow participants--as well as their children--to adapt and cope with unforeseen periods of acute stress and adversity with less deterioration in health and well-being.

This study evaluated emerging adult effects of the PROmoting School-Community-University Partnerships to Enhance Resilience (PROSPER) universal prevention delivery system implemented in middle schools. Twenty-eight rural school districts were randomized to intervention and control conditions, with 1985 nineteen-year-old participants (90.6% White, 54.1% female) evaluated through age 25. Intent-to-treat, multi-level, point-in-time analyses of covariance and growth analyses were conducted. Outcomes were assessed with self-report measures of substance misuse (lifetime, current, frequency) and conduct problem behaviors. Analyses showed very limited point-in-time effects; there were growth pattern effects on measures of illicit drugs, non-prescribed drugs, cigarettes, and drug problems. When risk moderation was observed, it favored higher-risk participants. These emerging adult effects concerning slower growth of lifetime misuse combine with more robust adolescent stage findings to support PROSPER's public health value.

Introduction: This study examined the role of family functioning in predicting family adherence to health-protective behaviors (HPBs) aimed at reducing COVID-19 spread. Pre-COVID-19 family functioning, disruptions to family functioning (cohesion, conflict, routines), and family chaos during the COVID-19 pandemic were tested as pathways to HPB adherence. Method: We utilized a sample of N = 204 families, comprising parents who had children ([M.sub.age] = 4.17). Parents ([M.sub.age] = 27.43) completed one survey prior to COVID-19 onset in the United States, and twice during COVID-19, at a 2-week interval. Structural equation modeling was used to test three potential pathways between prepandemic family-level functioning and HPB adherence during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: Findings indicated that families with higher levels of chaos during COVID-19 demonstrated consistently lower HPB adherence across all three models. Additionally, disruptions in family cohesion from pre-COVID was associated with lower levels of parent and child HPB adherence. Family conflict was indirectly associated with HPB adherence via family chaos during COVID-19; whereas family routines were not associated with HPB adherence at all. Discussion: These findings suggest that family functioning is a meaningful predictor of HPB adherence. Family-based support may be effective in improving HPB adherence by focusing on promoting cohesion and reducing conflict and chaos for families coping with reduced community support and resources. Strategies for family-based supports are discussed. Public Significance Statement Adherence to health-protective behaviors was a critical public health strategy for reducing spread of the COVID-19 virus. Stay-at-home mandates disrupted family functioning, which in turn undermined health-protective behavior adherence. Findings suggest that support efforts to minimize disruptions to family relationships can improve health-protective behavior adherence, potentially reducing virus transmission during early stages of the pandemic. Keywords: COVID-19, health-protective behaviors, family relationships, family processes, social distancing Supplemental materials: https://doi.org/10.1037/fsh0000649.supp, Community strategies, including school, child-care, and public recreation area closures, combined with health-protective beliavior (HPB) strategies including increased personal hygiene, wearing protective face masks, and social distancing (e.g., working from [...]

Antisocial peer behavior and low parental knowledge of adolescents' activities are key interpersonal risk factors for adolescent substance use. However, how the magnitude of associations between these risk factors and substance use may vary across adolescence remains less well understood. The present study examined the age-varying associations of parental knowledge and antisocial peer behavior with adolescents' substance use (i.e., cigarette use, drunkenness, and marijuana use) using time-varying effect modeling. Using data from the Promoting School-Community-University Partnerships to Enhance Resilience (PROSPER) study, the final sample consists of 8,222 adolescents, followed from Grade 6 to Grade 12 (age 11 to age 18.9), including those who newly joined the schools at the targeted grade levels. Results showed that low parental knowledge and antisocial peer behavior were significantly associated with the use of each of the three substances across the majority of adolescence. The magnitude of the associations between substance use and both risk factors decreased across age, except between peer risk and marijuana use. Further, there was a significant interaction between parent and peer risk factors such that low parental knowledge was less strongly associated with substance use at higher levels of antisocial peer behavior. Findings highlighted early adolescence as an important period to target parent and peer prevention and interventions for reducing early substance use.

In line with family systems theory, we examined patterns of hostile interactions within families and their associations with externalizing problems among early-adolescent children. Using hostility scores based on observational data of six dyadic interactions during a triadic interaction (n = 462; i.e., child-to-mother, mother-to-child, child-to-father, father-to-child, mother-to-father, father-to-mother)--latent profile analysis supported three distinct profiles of hostility. The "low/moderate hostile" profile included families with the lowest levels of hostility across dyads; families in the "mutual parent-child hostile" profile scored higher on parent-child hostility, but lower on interparental hostility; the "hostile parent" profile showed higher levels of parent-to-child and interparental hostility, but lower child-to-parent hostility. Concerning links to youth outcomes, youth in the "mutual parent-child hostile" profile reported the highest level of externalizing problems, both concurrently and longitudinally. These results point to the importance of examining larger family patterns of hostility to fully understand the association between family hostility and youth adjustment.

The goal of this study was to broaden the developmental understanding of the implications of interparental conflict (IPC) and threat appraisals of conflict for adolescents' relationships with peers. Guided by the cognitive contextual framework and evolutionary perspectives, we evaluated a developmental model in which adolescents who are exposed to IPC perceive these conflicts as threatening to their well-being or that of their family. In turn, threat appraisals of IPC increase risk that adolescents experience worries and fears about the peer context (i.e., social anxiety), leading to decreased support from friends and increased feelings of loneliness and engagement with antisocial peers. Autoregressive analyses were conducted with a sample of 768 two-parent families across four measurement occasions. Exposure to IPC was related to increases in youths' perceived threat, which increased their risk for social anxiety symptoms. Consistent with our hypothesis, heightened social anxiety symptoms undermined youths' subsequent functioning in the peer context. Specifically, youth with greater adolescent social anxiety symptoms experienced increased feelings of loneliness and decreased perceptions of friendship support. Significant indirect effects were substantiated for adolescent loneliness and friendship support. Findings did not vary as a function of adolescent gender. The findings highlight the enduring implications of IPC and threat appraisals of IPC for youths' functioning, which can be expanded beyond broad measures of youth psychopathology, and the critical role of social anxiety symptoms as an explanatory mechanism in this process.

This study examines crossover effects of adolescent substance misuse preventive interventions on academic success in college. It evaluates pathways of influence on college grades, via effects on school engagement, problem-solving skills, and substance misuse in high school. Data were collected as part of an Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) evaluating a multicomponent intervention conducted in 28 school districts with middle school students. At age 19, study participants (N = 1,488) enrolled in college reported on college grades. The model fit the data, supporting hypothesized pathways of intervention impacts. Inclusion of a significant direct effect on college grades further improved model fit. Results support the potential for universal substance misuse preventive interventions delivered by community partnerships during middle school to yield effects on long-term academic success.

Studies that distinguish parental monitoring (parent-driven behaviors) from parental knowledge often fail to find protective effects of monitoring on adolescent behavior problems. To answer whether parental monitoring is more strongly associated with adolescent behavior problems among adolescents who may need it most, this study applied group-based trajectory modeling to change in early- to mid-adolescent aggressive behavior problems and examined associations between parental monitoring with different subgroups. Three latent groups of adolescents were found: Low Aggression, Medium-Increasing Aggression, and High-Increasing Aggression. Results show that more maternal and paternal monitoring were associated with fewer adolescent aggressive behavior problems only for adolescents in the High-Increasing Group. This result suggests that parental monitoring is a protective factor against adolescent aggressive behavior problems for subgroups of adolescents who may need it most and less impactful for other adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community coalitions have been promoted as a strategy to help overcome challenges to the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based prevention programs. This paper explores the characteristics of coalitions that enable the provision of implementation support for prevention programs in general and for the implementation of evidence-based prevention programs with fidelity. Longitudinal cross-lagged panel models were used to study 74 Communities That Care (CTC) coalitions in Pennsylvania. These analyses provide evidence of a unidirectional influence of coalition functioning on the provision of implementation support. Coalition member knowledge of the CTC model best predicted the coalition's provision of support for evidence-based program implementation with fidelity. Implications for developing and testing innovative methods for delivering training and technical assistance to enhance coalition member knowledge are discussed.

This study aimed to understand the strategies families used to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, and their effects on family, parent, child, and couple functioning and well-being. In April and May 2020, and again one month later, 277 parents from 174 families who previously participated in a trial of a family preventive intervention were invited to participate in an online survey regarding the pandemic. Parents completed measures regarding family cohesion, couple coparenting and relationship quality, parenting quality, and parent and child mental health and well-being. Parents were asked to share the coping strategies they found most effective, and responses were coded into four groups: Family Unity, Healthy Habits, Adaptability, and Child-Focused. Adaptability was associated with increases in couple relationship quality but also in child internalizing and externalizing behaviors from Month 1 to Month 2. The results suggest that the strategies parents use may have differing effects on parents and children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Recipe 4 Success preventive intervention targeted multiple factors critical to the health and well‐being of toddlers living in poverty. This randomized controlled trial, which was embedded within Early Head Start home visits for 12 weeks, included 242 racially and ethnically diverse families (51% girls; toddler mean age = 2.58 years; data collected 2016–2019). Compared to parents in usual practice home visits, parents in Recipe 4 Success displayed greater sensitive scaffolding of toddlers' learning and more responsive food parenting practices (Cohen's d =.21–.30). Toddlers in Recipe 4 Success exhibited greater self‐regulation and had healthier eating habits (Cohen's d = |.16–.35|). Results highlight the value of Recipe 4 Success in promoting parent and toddler behavior change that could have life‐long benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) pandemic has necessitated the use of health‐protective behaviors (HPB), such as social distancing, staying at home, frequent handwashing, and wearing facemasks to mitigate the transmission of disease. An investigation of interpersonal costs associated with the use of HPB can help inform strategies to promote their sustained implementation. This study examined the daily associations between the implementation of HPB and family functioning and assessed moderation by coparenting quality, economic strain, and the number of days that state‐level stay‐at‐home policies had been in effect, during the early days of the pandemic. Mothers and fathers from 155 families with children who were 9 years old, on average, completed daily reports of HPB, parental stress, and family relationship quality over eight consecutive days in April or May of 2020. Hierarchal linear models showed that HPB was associated with increased levels of parental stress and interparental conflict. Negative coparenting relations exacerbated the next‐day association between HPB and interparental conflict. HPB was also associated with increased levels of parent–child and interparental closeness, but these linkages dissipated for families who had spent more days under state‐level stay‐at‐home policies. Although crucial for public health, the implementation of HPB may have detrimental short‐term effects on daily family life. Family support and interventions are necessary to minimize the psychosocial burden of these important public health measures and increase their sustained adherence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The formation and maintenance of young adult romantic relationships that are free from violence and are characterized by love, connection, and effective problem-solving have important implications for later well-being and family functioning. In this study, we examined adolescent hostile-aggressive behavior (HAB) and family relationship quality as key individual and family level factors that may forecast later romantic relationship functioning. Guided by a family systems framework, we evaluated the reciprocal influences of adolescent hostility and family climate, to provide a more comprehensive picture of the etiology of romantic relationship functioning. We drew on a large sample (N = 974) of young adults (mean age = 19.5) that were followed starting in the fall of 6th grade, and subsequently in spring of 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th grades prior to the young adult assessment. Using a latent difference score cross-lag model (McArdle, 2009), our results indicated that a more positive family climate was associated with decreases in HAB, but HAB was not associated with changes in family climate. Further, the influence of the family climate on HAB was consistent across all time points. HAB and family climate had different predictions for young adult romantic relationships: Increasing HAB over adolescence predicted relationship violence, while maintenance in family climate was a key predictor of relationship problem-solving skills. The only predictor of love and connection in relationships was early family functioning. Implications for developmental theory and prevention science are discussed.

Effective planning for community health partnerships requires understanding how initial readiness--that is, contextual factors and capacity--influences implementation of activities and programs. This study compares the context and capacity of drug and violence prevention coalitions in Mexico to those in the United States. Measures of coalition context include community problems, community leadership style, and sense of community. Measures of coalition capacity include the existence of collaborative partnerships and coalition champions. The assessment was completed by 195 members of 9 coalitions in Mexico and 139 members of 7 coalitions in the United States. Psychometric analyses indicate the measures have moderate to strong internal consistency, along with good convergent and discriminant validity in both settings. Results indicate that members of Mexican coalitions perceive substantially more serious community problems, especially with respect to education, law enforcement, and access to alcohol and drugs. Compared to respondents in the United States, Mexican respondents perceive sense of community to be weaker and that prevention efforts are not as valued by the population where the coalitions are located. The Mexican coalitions appear to be operating in a substantially more challenging environment for the prevention of violence and substance use. Their ability to manage these challenges will likely play a large role in determining whether they are successful in their prevention efforts. The context and capacity assessment is a valuable tool that coalitions can use in order to identify and address initial barriers to success.

A burgeoning research literature investigates the sibling relationships of youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their implications for individual adjustment. Focusing on four relationship domains--behaviors, emotions, cognitions and involvement--and toward advancing this generally atheoretical literature, we review and apply tenets from a range of theoretical perspectives in an effort to illuminate the mechanisms underlying sibling relationship experiences and their adjustment implications. Our review suggests new directions for research to test theoretically-grounded hypotheses about how sibling relationships develop and are linked to individual adjustment. In addition, we consider how identifying underlying bio-psycho-social processes can aid in the development of interventions to promote warm and involved sibling relationships and positive youth development.

Prospective longitudinal data from over 14,000 youth residing in 28 communities in the rural United States were analyzed to examine the emergence of mixed-sex friendship groups in early adolescence. Youth were surveyed on 5 occasions between fall of 6th grade and spring of 9th grade. At each assessment, youth reported the names of up to 7 same-grade friends and described patterns of alcohol use, cigarette use, and delinquency. Approximately 800-900 friendship groups (M = 10.5 members) were identified at each assessment and categorized in terms of gender composition (all-girl, mostly-girl, mixed-sex, mostly-boy, all-boy). The proportion of groups categorized as mixed-sex increased with grade level (10% in 6th grade, 22% in 9th grade), but gender-homogenous groups predominated at all grade levels (76% in 6th grade, 51% in 9th grade). Mixed-sex groups were slightly larger than all-girl groups but the same size as all-boy groups. All-girl groups had the highest levels of tight-knittedness (i.e., density, reciprocity, and transitivity), with mixed-sex groups having the lowest levels and all-boy groups having intermediate levels. After controlling for demographic factors, future mixed-sex group membership was predicted by lower popularity, higher levels of delinquency, and lower levels of alcohol use; mixed-sex friendship group membership was associated with increased likelihood of cigarette use. Results are partially consistent with Dunphy's (1969) classic account of the emergence of mixed-sex groups in adolescence, but suggest that in early adolescence, mixed-sex group affiliation is significantly associated with deviant behavior and peripheral social status, not with popularity.