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In the present study we examine family based explanation for variability in adolescents' academic, social, and personal/emotional adjustment to college. Using a sample of 56 first-year college students, we test the hypothesis that adolescents' emotional coping strategies will moderate the relationship between ther pre-college family environment and their college adjustment assessed during both their first and second college semesters. Results support this hypothesis, indicating that by the end of their first college year, participants from cohesive families who are emotion managers report particularly strong adjustment to the academic and personal/emotional challenges of the transition to college.

Emerging-adult cortisol response during family interaction predicts change in emerging-adult anxious behavior during the transition to college (Gans & Johnson, in press). In the present study, we take an additional step toward integrating family systems research and physiology by including assessment of parent physiology. We collect salivary cortisol from parents and emerging adults during triadic family interaction. Emerging adults (N = 101) between the ages of 17 and 19 years were assessed at 3 time points across their first college year: the summer before college and the Fall and Spring semesters. Two parents accompanied the emerging-adult child to the summer assessment; all family members provided 4 saliva samples each at 20-min intervals. Later assessments of emerging adults included measures of internalizing behaviors. Parents' cortisol secretion patterns during family interaction predict their emerging-adult children's cortisol secretion pattern, parent perceptions of the family environment, and emerging-adult children's internalizing behavior during the college transition. Different patterns of results emerged for mothers' and fathers' cortisol response to family interaction and for families with sons or with daughters. The approach taken by this study provides a first step toward understanding how interrelationships among elements of physiology and family functioning contribute to adjustment during major life transitions. (PsycINFO Database Record

Emerging adult (EA) cortisol response during family interaction predicts change in EA anxious behavior during the transition to college (Johnson & Gans, in press). In the present study, we take an initial step toward integrating family systems research and physiology by including assessment of EA salivary cortisol collected during a triadic (mother-father-EA offspring) family interaction task. Emerging adults (N = 101) between the ages of 17 and 19 were assessed at 3 time points across their first college year: the summer before college, Fall and Spring semesters. Two parents accompanied the emerging adult child to the summer assessment; all family members provided 4 saliva samples each at 20-min intervals. Later assessments of emerging adults included measures of internalizing behaviors. EA's cortisol secretion patterns during family interaction predict observed and self-reported family relatedness, as well as patterns of internalizing behavior during the college transition. Observed family functioning appeared to moderate the relationship between EA cortisol response during family interaction and anxious behavior when adapting to college. Different patterns of results emerged, however, for EA men and women. The approach taken by this study provides a first step toward understanding how interrelationships among elements of physiology and family functioning contribute to later adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record

The present study uses observational assessment of 66 two-parent families working and playing together when their eldest child is in kindergarten and again in ninth grade to identify distinct patterns of family functioning derived from structural family systems theory. Whereas concurrent assessment of the relationship between family type and adolescents' school behavior was not significant, significant prospective longitudinal relationships between family type assessed in early childhood and ninth-grade school behavior was indicated. Kindergarteners whose families were primarily characterized by a strong mother-child alliance were less academically competent, more aggressive/inattentive, and more anxious/depressed/withdrawn at school 9 years later when they were in ninth grade than their peers in more cohesive or father-child allied families. Key Words: adolescence, adolescents and families, developmental psychopathology, early childhood, family interaction. The present study investigated how triadic-level observations of family functioning change from early childhood to adolescence and how family functioning at each of these time points is linked to ninth graders' school adjustment. Previous research investigating linkages between whole-family functioning (interaction among mothers, fathers, and children) and children's behavior finds adolescents' perceptions of family cohesion to be correlated with depression (Unger, Brown, Tressell, & Ellis McLeod, 2000) and academic achievement (Unger, McLeod, Brown, & Tressell, 2000). The vast majority of studies linking family functioning and adolescent functioning, however, are limited in three important ways. First, family research seldom includes triadic-level observation of family functioning (Wagner & Reiss, 1995), relying instead on self-report or observation of family dyads as a means of assessing family functioning (McHaIe & Cowan, 1996). Second, a significant gap exists between clinical family psychology and family research in the way family functioning is labeled and assessed. Clinical family psychologists often use family typologies to identify theoretically meaningful differences among families (Olson et al., 1983). Few studies in the family research literature, however, use typologies to differentiate families, instead assessing family functioning across a series of individual dimensions such as expressiveness or adaptation. Third, family research rarely examines observed family functioning over time. The result is that we have little systematic data to document the way family functioning shifts across development. The present study adds to the existing family research literature by investigating how triadic-level observations of family typologies change from early childhood to adolescence and by investigating how family functioning at each of these time points is linked to ninth graders' behavior at school. TRIADIC-LEVEL FAMILY FUNCTIONING Although many differences exist among family systems theories, one common thread is that observation or assessment of various family subsystems (i.e., parts of the family system such as the dyadic mother-child relationship) is not the same as observing or assessing the family system when the whole family is together (McHaIe & Fivaz-Depeursinge, 1999; Minuchin, 1974). Despite empirical support for clinical family systems theories advocating that assessment of the entire family system (e.g., mother, father, child) is different from, and as important as, assessment of the various parts of a family (e.g., dyadic family subsystems; see Johnson, Cowan, & Cowan, 1999), the majority of family research continues to rely almost exclusively on either the assessment of marital and parent-child dyadic relationships (i.e., mother-father, mother-child, and father-child dyads) or self-report as a method of evaluating family functioning. In an effort to move beyond the dyad and toward a better understanding of the complexities involved in whole-family interaction, the present study assesses family triads (mother-father-child). …

Using a self-reported assessment of 320 first-time college students, we tested the hypothesis that one's ability to manage emotion moderates the relationship between family environment and college adjustment. Results add to growing evidence that the way one views one's whole family environment during the emerging adulthood years is linked to one's adjustment during normative transition points, such as the college transition. Emotion coping variables also predicted college adjustment over and above the variance accounted for by family factors. The relationship between family expressiveness and social adjustment to college varies depending on emerging adults' emotion coping style. Participants from less expressive families who tend to avoid their emotions reported significantly more difficulty adjusting to college than their peers from more expressive family environments.

The purpose of this study was to identify aspects of family relationships that may protect young children from the pathogenic effects of family violence. Using a sample of 30 preschool-age children whose mothers were physically abused by a partner, we investigated the associations between children’s externalizing and internalizing behavior problems and: (1) the quality of the mother–child relationship, and (2) mothers’ attunement to their child’s sad and angry emotions. Results indicated that clinician ratings of the mother–child relationship, and mothers’ attunement to their child’s experience of emotion each made a unique contribution to the prediction of children’s externalizing behavior. These relationships remained robust, even after taking the severity of domestic violence reported by mothers into consideration. Maternal attunement, however, did not mediate the relationship between marital conflict and children’s behavior problems. No significant link was found between children’s internalizing behavior and maternal attunement to their children’s sadness and anger. Additional findings suggested that mothers with a PTSD diagnosis tended to be less attuned to their child’s experience of sadness.

Fifty-six incoming college students were assessed in a study of the contribution of alexithymia, stress, and psychological symptoms to college adjustment. Alexithymia predicted fall semester adjustment, suggesting that interventions aimed at encouraging awareness and discussion of emotions may improve academic and emotional well-being for students making the transition to college.

Sixty-three 2-parent families participated in a study examining whether family organization-cohesion, parental leadership, and strong family subsystems-is related to teachers' perceptions of children's classroom behavior in 1st grade. Independent observers assessed whole-family organization and the quality of the interaction process in marital and parent-child dyads from videotapes of mothers, fathers, and children working together on a structured (difficult puzzle) and unstructured (building a model) task. Results indicate that adaptive family organization during the difficult puzzle task makes a significant, unique contribution to the prediction of children's externalizing behavior, over and above the quality of marital interaction and parenting style. No significant relationship was found between adaptive family organization in either task and teachers' perceptions of children's internalizing behavior.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate our institutional experience with planned cesarean hysterectomy. Study Design: In this retrospective case-control investigation of a 16-year experience, 100 pregnant women who underwent planned cesarean hysterectomy were compared with 37 patients who underwent cesarean delivery followed by a hysterectomy performed within 6 months. Results: Women undergoing planned cesarean hysterectomy did not have any demonstrable increase in intraoperative or postoperative complications when compared with the cesarean delivery plus later hysterectomy group. Primarily as a result of significantly reduced hospital stay and shorter total operative time, there was a significant financial advantage associated with a single planned cesarean hysterectomy with respect to separate operations. Conclusions: A policy to undertake planned cesarean hysterectomy for carefully selected patients appeared to produce advantages without increasing risks for these patients. Secondarily, it provided resident physicians the opportunity to learn the operation with supervision and under controlled circumstances. (Am J Obstet Gynecol 1999;180:1385-93.)

In most family studies, certainly including this one, descriptions of family functioning have been guided by clinically-based theories that argue for the importance of considering the family as a system when we try to understand adaptation and dysfunction in children’s development (Minuchin, 1974). In this chapter, we present one approach to a family-level analysis (see Wagner & Reiss, 1995) of links among family process, family structure, and children’s school outcomes, using measures that attempt to characterize the family as a whole rather than assessing one or more of the relationship pairs in the family (mother-father, mother-child, father-child, sibling-sibling).

Contents: Series Foreword: Monograhs in Parenting. Part I: Introduction and Method. P.A. Cowan, C.P. Cowan, J.C. Ablow, V.K. Johnson, J.R. Measelle, Family Factors in Children's Adaptation to Elementary School: Introducing a Five-Domain Contextual Model. P.A. Cowan, C.P. Cowan, J.C. Ablow, V.K. Johnson, J.R. Measelle, Recruitment, Design, and Measures. Part II: Things Change Yet Stay the Same. P.A. Cowan, G. Heming, How Children and Parents Fare During the Transition to School. Part III: The Family Context of Parenting. J.F. Mattanah, Authoritative Parenting and the Encouragement of Children's Autonomy. J. Hsu, Marital Quality, Sex-Typed Parenting, and Girls' and Boys' Expression of Problem Behaviors. J.R. Measelle, Children's Self-Perceptions as a Link Between Family Relationship Quality and Social Adaptation to School. J.C. Ablow, When Parents Conflict or Disengage: Children's Perceptions of Parents' Marital Distress Predict School Adaptation. P.A. Cowan, I. Bradburn, C.P. Cowan, Parents' Working Models of Attachment: The Intergenerational Context of Parenting and Children's Adaptation to School. M.S. Schulz, Parents' Work Experiences and Children's Adaptation to School. V.K. Johnson, Family Process and Family Structure in Children's Adaptation to School. Part IV: Interventions as Tests of Casual Models of Family Influence on Children's Adaptation to School. C.P. Cowan, P.A. Cowan, G. Heming, Two Variations of a Preventive Intervention for Couples: Effects on Parents and Children During the Transition to School. Part V: Integrations. P.A. Cowan, C.P. Cowan, Five-Domain Models: Putting It All Together. P.A. Cowan, C.P. Cowan, J.C. Ablow, V.K. Johnson, J.R. Measelle, Family Factors in Children's Adaptation to Elementary School: A Discussion and Integration.

This study used observational assessments of 57 2-parent families working and playing together when their eldest child was in kindergarten and again in Grade 4 to identify distinct patterns of family functioning derived from structural family systems theory for (a) cohesive, (b) separate, and (c) triangulated families. Little consistency in family type from early to middle childhood was indicated. No significant mean differences were found in teacher reports of children's externalizing behavior in their Grade 1 classrooms for children in cohesive or triangulated families. Fourth graders in triangulated families were seen as more aggressive at school than were their peers in cohesive or separate families. Changes in observed family functioning across a 4-year period (kindergarten to Grade 4) were also systematically linked to changes in teachers' ratings of children's externalizing behavior from Grades 1 to 4.