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Background: This study evaluated two risk pathways that may account for increases in child internalizing and externalizing problems during the COVID‐19 pandemic: one pathway operating through pre‐existing family vulnerability and a second pathway operating through disruption in family functioning occurring in response to the pandemic. We assessed family disruption and family functioning with measures of key family‐level and parenting dimensions, including family cohesion, conflict and routines, and parents' harsh discipline, lax discipline and warmth. In all models, pre‐pandemic parent emotional distress, financial strain and child maladjustment were included as covariates. Methods: The sample included 204 families, comprised of parents who had children (MAge = 4.17; 45.1% girls). Parents (MAge = 27.43) completed the first survey prior to COVID‐19 onset in the United States, a second survey after COVID‐19 onset in May 2020 and a third survey two weeks later. Results: Analyses were conducted in a model‐building fashion, first computing structural equation models for each family and parenting dimension separately, then advancing significant dimensions into one integrated model for the family‐level factors and a second model for parenting quality factors. Results provided more support for the family disruption hypothesis across all tests. In the family‐level domain, decreases in family cohesion and increases in family conflict each uniquely predicted subsequent child maladjustment. In the parenting domain, increases in harsh discipline and lax discipline each uniquely predicted subsequent child maladjustment. Family routines and parental warmth were not associated with child adjustment. However, parents' emotional distress prior to the pandemic exhibited a robust association with children's internalizing problems. Conclusions: These findings indicate that efforts to support families in adapting to unique conditions of the pandemic will yield the greatest effect for child adjustment. Specifically, interventions should include efforts to help families maintain cohesion and manage conflict, and help parents minimize increases in harsh and lax discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aimed to illuminate developmental changes and gender differences in the link between weight concerns and cigarette use across adolescence. Specifically, we examined whether and how the strength of the association between weight concerns and cigarette use changed across adolescence, and whether patterns of association differed between boys and girls. Method: Participants were 397 predominately White adolescents ages 11–18 years (50.5% female) from a longitudinal observational study conducted in the United States. Results: Time‐varying effect modeling revealed that even after adjusting for BMI, the association between weight concerns and cigarette use was positive and significant for girls from age 11.3 to 15.9, with the strongest association at 12.7 years. For boys, this association was non‐significant throughout adolescence. Discussion: Results suggest a sensitive period in early‐ to mid‐adolescence during which girls with weight concerns may be at heightened risk for cigarette use. Findings have implications for the developmental timing of interventions to prevent cigarette use and weight concerns and suggest that tailored interventions for girls may be warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on family predictors of conflict behavior in adolescent dating relationships, drawing on family systems and socialization perspectives. Mother-adolescent, father-adolescent, and triadic relationships each was examined as predictors of adolescent dating outcomes that hold importance for developmental and prevention science (positive conflict resolution, verbal abuse, and physical abuse). We conducted a longitudinal analysis using a 6-month longitudinal design with 236 ethnically diverse high school students. Findings indicate that triangulation into parental conflicts was related to increases in positive conflict resolution and with increases in verbally abusive behavior with dating partners over time. Parent-adolescent closeness and conflict each was related to positive conflict resolution and verbal abuse, but these associations were only found for boys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Recent work has sought to understand how family-specific risk, such as exposure to interparental conflict, may generalize to developmentally-salient processes in adolescence. A cascade model has been identified in which conflict-specific threat appraisals may erode adolescents' self-efficacy over time, and in turn, undermine their psychological well-being. The goal of this study was to integrate success in the school and peer contexts as potential contextual protective factors that may mitigate the effects of interparental conflict on self-efficacy.Methods: We tested the additive and interactive effects of success in school and peer contexts on adolescent self-efficacy to better understand these ecological contextual factors for a family risk model. Analyses were conducted using structural equation modeling with a sample of 768 two-parent U.S. families across three measurement occasions. Interparental conflict, threat appraisals, self-efficacy, and school success and peer support were measured using multiple, established scales.Results: Results supported the additive effects model, in that school success and peer support significantly contributed to general self-efficacy above and beyond the effects of threat appraisals of interparental conflict, but did not moderate the association between threat appraisals and self-efficacy.Conclusions: Findings indicate that strengths in school and peer contexts have potential to compensate for, but do not appear to buffer, the negative effects of threat appraisals of interparental conflict and underscore the importance of these contexts for understanding multifinality in outcomes of adolescents exposed to interparental conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 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.M 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. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).