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Suicide rates have increased over the past decade, and screen media (and social media in particular) are often blamed for this marked increase. However, there is little longitudinal research on this topic. The current study examined the link between various types of screen media use over a 10-year period (from adolescence to emerging adulthood) to suicide risk in emerging adulthood. Participants included 500 adolescents (51% female) who were first surveyed in 2009, when they were an average of 13.82 years old (range 12-15 years). For girls, a high level of social media or television use in early adolescence followed by a marked increase over time was most predictive of suicide risk in emerging adulthood. Additionally, video game use that increased over time was also associated with a higher risk for developing suicide risk for girls. A passive sensing measurement was also included at the final wave of data collection to obtain a more accurate and complete picture of phone use in particular. The use of entertainment apps was risky for girls while reading apps were risky for boys. Additionally, video game use (for boys) was associated with suicide risk when cyberbullying was also high. Identifying nonnormative patterns of media during adolescence may be instructive in terms of suicide prevention efforts.

Purpose To date, little is known about underlying psychophysiological contributions to the impact of media content and overall screen time on adolescent psychological functioning. In the present study we examine respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) as a moderator of the link between specific types of media content use, overall media exposure, and the development of internalizing and aggressive symptoms in youth. Methods A sample of 374 adolescents (mean age = 15) reported on their media use, internalizing behavior, and aggressive behavior at time 1 (2011) and 1-year follow-up (2012). RSA reactivity was gathered during a challenging laboratory task. Path analyses were conducted to test the hypothesized three-way interaction model between media use, media content, and RSA reactivity, separately for internalizing and aggressive problems. Results Significant interactions were found for aggressive, but not prosocial, media content. For aggressive content, youth exhibiting RSA withdrawal reported significantly greater internalizing and aggressive symptoms when exposed to higher amounts of screen time and aggressive content. Conclusions These findings suggest that profiles of heightened RSA withdrawal may place adolescents at greater risk to the negative impact of violent media, whereas prosocial media content may not significantly impact youth development of psychopathology. Implications for the role of psychophysiology in our understanding of media effects are discussed.

A child's relationship with his or her nonresident father has been found to be related to that child's development in important ways. However, validated measures of the relationship between nonresident fathers and their children are rare, particularly for low-income nonresident fathers. To provide guidance for researchers and practitioners evaluating nonresident fatherhood programs, this study uses a sample of 420 primarily low-income nonresident fathers to examine the reliability, convergent validity, and predictive validity of measures of father-child closeness and conflict contained in the Child-Parent Relationship Scale-Short Form (CPRS-SF). Validity was examined across 3 child age groups: preschool, middle childhood, and adolescence. The CPRS-SF closeness scale demonstrated measurement equivalence across time (conflict did not) and had excellent reliability and validity. Compared to the closeness scale, the CPRS-SF conflict scale was related to fewer validity items but still showed both convergent and predictive validity, including predicting child behavior problems (which the closeness scale did not). Both the closeness and conflict scales are recommended for use with low-income nonresident fathers. Age differences in validity findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Prior research has linked marital conflict to children's internalizing/externalizing disorders, insecure attachment, and poor emotional regulation (e.g., Cummings & Davies, 2010; Cummings, Iannotti, & Zahn-Waxler, 1985). Although investigators have examined the impact of marital discord on older children (e.g., Crockenberg & Langrock, 2001), few have explored direct links in infancy (e.g., Cowan & Cowan, 1999). This study extends earlier work by examining linkages between marital functioning (conflict and harmony) and infants' cardiac vagal tone and developmental status across 2 time points using a cross-lag approach. Differential findings were found for boys and girls, with concurrent linkages between marital love and vagal tone at 6 months for boys and girls but only for boys at 12 months. In addition, marital conflict at 6 months predicted lower cardiac vagal tone in girls at 12 months but not boys. Finally, infants' developmental status at 6 months was found to predict marital conflict at 12 months. Higher scores on the Psychomotor Development Index (PDI) predicted greater marital conflict whereas higher scores on the Mental Development Index (MDI) predicted lower conflict. These findings are discussed in the context of the emotional security hypothesis and the spillover framework as well as differential susceptibilities to early developmental contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record

Spouses perceiving that they have shared power in marriage has been linked to higher marital quality and attachment security. Existing research, however, is limited in assessing how these perceptions influence both spouses and whether these influences endure over time. To address these limitations, we analyzed the longitudinal relationship reports from 319 couples from the Flourishing Families Project (FFP) to estimate biyearly (Waves 1, 3, and 5) and yearly (Waves 3-5) longitudinal actor-partner interdependence models. Reporting shared power in marriage was linked to the actors' higher marital quality and lower attachment insecurity over time (although less consistently for attachment insecurity). Longitudinal partner effects and indirect effects were also found from reports of shared marital power on both marital quality and attachment insecurity over time. The combined evidence suggests that power dynamics in a marriage are an important predictor of changes in couples' overall relational well-being. Accordingly, marriages appear to benefit from husbands and wives mutually seeking to help each other feel empowered in a relationship as equal and full partners. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

A burgeoning literature supports the role of autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning as an index of physiologic sensitivity to the environment, but extant research is limited in its focus on single branches of the ANS, childhood samples, and solely negative environmental factors. This study seeks to address these limitations by exploring whether reactivity in the parasympathetic (PNS) and sympathetic (SNS) nervous systems jointly moderate the prospective contributions of both positive (maternal involvement) and negative (maternal psychological control) aspects of the family environment to developmentally relevant outcomes in adolescence (depressive symptoms and emotion regulation). At Wave 1, adolescents (n = 352, 52% female, M age = 15.27, SD = 1.04; 65% White) and their parents completed a problem-solving discussion task, during which adolescent ANS activation was continuously monitored, and reports of maternal involvement, maternal psychological control, adolescent depressive symptoms, and adolescent emotion regulation were obtained. Adolescent depressive symptoms and emotion regulation were assessed again 1 year later (Wave 2). Results indicated that PNS and SNS reactivity jointly moderated the prospective contributions of maternal involvement and maternal psychological control to depressive symptoms and emotion regulation. Specifically, adolescents who exhibited reciprocal SNS activation appeared to be most sensitive to both positive and negative parenting environments. Adolescents exhibiting coinhibition or coactivation profiles of autonomic reactivity were comparatively unreactive to parenting. This study corroborates the notion that consideration of multiple physiological systems is critical to our understanding of biological processes in the development of emotional functioning in adolescence. (PsycINFO Database Record

Pathologic video game use (PVGU) has been associated with a host of negative psychological, physical, and social outcomes during adolescence; however, little research has examined physiological predictors of such use. The purpose of the study was to examine physiological predictors of the development of PVGU across adolescence.The article involves a 1-year longitudinal study across midadolescence. Participants were 374 adolescents and their parents from a large metropolitan area in the Northwest United States. PVGU was assessed via questionnaire, as were a number of control variables. A number of physiological indicators including respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and galvanic skin conductance (indices of parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system activity, respectively) were measured during baseline, a cognitively stimulating task (Rubik's cube), and a family problem-solving task.Less RSA withdrawal to a cognitively simulating task was related to greater pathologic video game symptoms, but less RSA withdrawal to a family problem-solving task was associated with the presence of pathologic video game symptoms (p.05). For girls only, galvanic skin conductance activation during the family problem solving was related to greater pathologic video game symptoms (p.01).These findings suggest that adolescents who do not find cognitive tasks stimulating physiologically have a greater severity of PVGU. Additionally, adolescents who show physiological signs of stress in a family task were more likely to have PVGU symptoms and only girls have more severe PVGU levels. This study is the first to show that physiological indicators predict PVGU over time in adolescence and has important implications regarding the prevention and treatment of PVGU in adolescence.

This study reports on the development and validation of the Fatherhood Research and Practice Network coparenting perceptions scale for nonresident fathers. Although other measures of coparenting have been developed, this is the first measure developed specifically for low-income, nonresident fathers. Focus groups were conducted to determine various aspects of coparenting. Based on this, a scale was created and administered to 542 nonresident fathers. Participants also responded to items used to examine convergent and predictive validity (i.e., parental responsibility, contact with the mother, father self-efficacy and satisfaction, child behavior problems, and contact and engagement with the child). Factor analyses and reliability tests revealed three distinct and reliable perceived coparenting factors: undermining, alliance, and gatekeeping. Validity tests suggest substantial overlap between the undermining and alliance factors, though undermining was uniquely related to child behavior problems. The alliance and gatekeeping factors showed strong convergent validity and evidence for predictive validity. Taken together, results suggest this relatively short measure (11 items) taps into three coparenting dimensions significantly predictive of aspects of individual and family life.

Father involvement research has typically not recognized that reports of involvement contain at least two components: 1 reflecting a view of father involvement that is broadly recognized in the family, and another reflecting each reporter's unique perceptions. Using a longitudinal sample of 302 families, this study provides a first examination of shared and unique views of father involvement (engagement and warmth) from the perspectives of fathers, children, and mothers. This study also identifies influences on these shared and unique perspectives. Father involvement reports were obtained when the child was 12 and 14 years old. Mother reports overlapped more with the shared view than father or child reports. This suggests the mother's view may be more in line with broadly recognized father involvement. Regarding antecedents, for fathers' unique view, a compensatory model partially explains results; that is, negative aspects of family life were positively associated with fathers' unique view. Children's unique view of engagement may partially reflect a sentiment override with father antisocial behaviors being predictive. Mothers' unique view of engagement was predicted by father and mother work hours and her unique view of warmth was predicted by depression and maternal gatekeeping. Taken, together finding suggests a far more nuanced view of father involvement should be considered.

This article examined associations between preschoolers' daytime and nighttime sleep parameters. A total of 63 preschoolers (65% boys; age: M = 4.15, SD = 0.62) participated. Sleep was assessed via actigraphy for 4 days and nights. Results are among the first to demonstrate significant associations between sleep parameters (especially sleep quality indexes) examined actigraphically at home and in child care contexts. Findings indicate that poor sleep quality indexed by greater sleep activity and awakenings, as well as less efficient sleep, were associated across nighttime sleep at home and daytime sleep in child care. Understanding connections between sleep across contexts has important implications for child care providers and parents as they attempt to facilitate child sleep during a developmental period of rapidly changing sleep patterns.

We assessed trajectories of children's internalizing symptoms, indexed through anxiety and depression, with a focus on the role of interactions between interparental marital conflict, children's sympathetic nervous system activity indexed by skin conductance level (SCL), and parasympathetic nervous system activity indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) as predictors of growth. Children participated in 3 waves of data collection with a 1-year lag between each wave. At T1, 128 girls and 123 boys participated (M age = 8.23 years; SD = 0.73). The most important findings reveal that girls with either low RSA in conjunction with low SCL (i.e., coinhibition) at baseline or with increasing RSA and decreasing SCL in response to a challenging task (i.e., reciprocal parasympathetic activation) are susceptible to high or escalating anxiety and depression symptoms, particularly in the context of marital conflict. Findings support the importance of concurrent examinations of environmental risk factors and physiological activity for better prediction of the development of anxiety and depression symptoms.

The ability to control one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors is known as self-regulation. Family stress and low adolescent self-regulation have been linked with increased engagement in risky sexual behaviors, which peak in late adolescence and early adulthood. The purpose of this study was to assess whether adolescent self-regulation, measured by parent and adolescent self-report and respiratory sinus arrhythmia, mediates or moderates the relationship between family financial stress and risky sexual behaviors. We assessed these relationships in a 4-year longitudinal sample of 450 adolescents (52 % female; 70 % white) and their parents using structural equation modeling. Results indicated that high family financial stress predicts engagement in risky sexual behaviors as mediated, but not moderated, by adolescent self-regulation. The results suggest that adolescent self-regulatory capacities are a mechanism through which proximal external forces influence adolescent risk-taking. Promoting adolescent self-regulation, especially in the face of external stressors, may be an important method to reduce risk-taking behaviors as adolescents transition to adulthood.

The current study examined how parents' use of restrictive and active monitoring and deference changed over three years, and examined both adolescent and parent characteristics as predictors of initial levels of media monitoring, as well as change in media monitoring. Participants included 276 mother-child dyads (M age of child = 12.08, SD = .63, 50% female) taken from Time 2 of the Flourishing Families Project, 96% of whom had complete data for Time 4 (N = 266). Active monitoring was the most common approach at the first and second time points, while active monitoring and deference were equally common by the final time point. Latent growth curve analysis revealed that restrictive and active monitoring decreased over time, while deference increased. In addition, both adolescent and parent characteristics were predictive of initial levels of all three types of monitoring, and of change in restrictive monitoring. Discussion focuses on developmental implications of these findings.

This study examined the longitudinal association between fathers’ early involvement in routine care-giving, literacy, play, and responsive caregiving activities at 9 months and maternal depressive symptoms at 4 years. Data for 3,550 children and their biological parents were drawn from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort data set. Analyses in a structural equation modeling framework examined whether the association between father involvement and maternal depressive symptoms differed for families of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and for families of children with other disabilities or delays from families of children who were typically developing. Results indicated that father literacy and responsive caregiving involvement were associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms for mothers of children with ASD. These findings indicate that greater father involvement may benefit families of children with ASD and highlight the need to support and encourage service providers to work with fathers.

We used structural equation modeling to explore associations between inhibitory maternal gatekeeping attitudes, reports of inhibitory maternal gatekeeping behaviors, maternal psychological control, observed mother-adolescent warmth, and adolescent reports of maternal involvement. Our random stratified sample consisted of 315 mothers and their adolescents. Results revealed that inhibitory maternal gatekeeping attitudes were positively associated with reports of inhibitory gatekeeping behaviors. Psychological control fully mediated the relationship between inhibitory gatekeeping attitudes, reports of inhibitory gatekeeping behaviors, and adolescent reports of maternal involvement. Though gatekeeping attitudes and behaviors were not associated with observed mother-adolescent warmth, psychological control was negatively associated with observed mother-adolescent warmth. Thus, although prior research emphasized the negative effects of inhibitory gatekeeping on father-child relationships, the present research elucidates that in conjunction with psychological control, inhibitory gatekeeping negatively influences the mother-adolescent relationship. All findings are discussed in the context of family systems theory.

This study identified mechanisms through which child–mother attachment security at 36 months was associated with mother- and teacher-reported friendship quality at 3rd grade. Data from a subsample of 1,071 children (536 boys) participating in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development were used. Separate structural equation models were tested for mother and teacher reports of peer functioning. For both models, the total indirect effect between attachment security and friendship quality was significant. Tests of specific indirect effects indicated that attachment security was associated with friendship quality via greater mother–child affective mutuality and better language ability at 54 months and fewer hostile attributions (teacher model only) and greater peer competence at first grade. The findings highlight interpersonal and intrapersonal mechanisms of attachment–friend linkages.