Biomedical subjects

S Vuchinich

Publications and source records attributed to S Vuchinich.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2000

Domestic violence, parents' view of their infant, and risk for child abuse.

This investigation used longitudinal data from 181 couples with firstborn infants to test the hypothesis that parents' negative cognitions about the child mediate the effect of domestic violence on risk of child abuse. Analysis of covariance showed that mothers and fathers who experienced domestic violence during the 1st year of their child's life developed a significantly more negative view of their child. Hierarchical regressions showed that the effect of domestic violence on the family's risk of child abuse was mediated by the mother's and father's negative views of the child. Intervention and prevention applications are discussed.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMed1996

Context and development in family problem solving with preadolescent children.

This study analyzed correlates of social problem solving in 63 2-parent families with a preadolescent child during structured discussions in the home. The longitudinal design assessed families when the preadolescent was about 9.5 years old and again 2 years later. Links between problem solving and features of the immediate ecological context were examined. There was a substantial decline in the quality of family problem solving during preadolescence associated with changes in the participation and affective behavior of fathers and preadolescents. Although problem solving was not less effective on autonomy topics, it was markedly worse when parents, rather than the preadolescent, selected the topic for discussion. Preadolescent topic selection triggered a pattern of productive participation and affective behavior in both parents and preadolescents. The results clarify the nature of ambivalent parent-child relations just prior to puberty by specifying changes in family problem solving which correspond with preadolescent autonomy striving.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1994

Coalitions and family problem solving with preadolescents in referred, at-risk, and comparison families.

This study tested the hypothesis that the mother-father coalition, parent-child coalitions, and parental warmth expressed toward the child are associated with family problem solving in families with a preadolescent child referred for treatment of behavior problems (n = 30), families with a child at-risk for conduct disorder (n = 68), and a sample of comparison families (n = 90). Referred and at-risk families displayed less effective problem solving. A regression analysis, which controlled for gender of the child, family structure, family income, marital satisfaction, and severity of child problems, showed that strong parental coalitions were linked to low levels of family problem solving in at-risk and referred families. Parent-child coalitions had little apparent impact while parental warmth was highly correlated with better family problem solving. The results may be interpreted as evidence for a tendency for parents in at-risk and referred families to "scapegoat" a preadolescent during family problem-solving sessions. This may undermine progress on family problem solutions and may complicate family-based prevention and treatment programs that use family problem-solving sessions.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1993

The interparental relationship and family problem solving with preadolescent males.

This study examines associations between the quality of the interparental relationship and how well 68 family triads (mother, father, preadolescent son) solved salient problems which arose at home. Four aspects of the interparental relationship (marital satisfaction, parental agreement, conflict during family problem solving, and parental coalitions) were included in a regression analysis which controlled for family structure and child externalizing. A longitudinal design assessed families when mean child age was 9.7 years and 2 years later. Parental agreement consistently facilitated family problem solving. However, strong parental coalitions inhibited family problem solving, which may be attributed to frustrated autonomy needs of preadolescent males in response to the parental coalition. Stepfamilies had less effective problem solving at Time 1. The results confirm the benefits of parental agreement to child outcomes via enhanced family problem solving but show a reverse effect when agreement occurs in the context of coalitions against a preadolescent son.

Child↗

PubMed1988

Family members as third parties in dyadic family conflict: strategies, alliances, and outcomes.

Systems theorists have argued that triads rather than dyads need to be considered as a basic interaction unit, particularly in regard to episodes of conflict. While theoretically appealing, the description of the strategies used and alliances formed when third parties intervene in dyadic conflict presents a number of conceptual and empirical challenges. In the present report, a reliable system for coding such third-party participation in verbal conflicts is described and is used to analyze routine family conflicts that were observed during dinner. A number of specific findings of interest are reported, including that girls were more likely than boys to intervene in all family disputes except marital conflicts, that mothers and fathers rarely sided against each other when intervening as third parties, and that the third-party strategies most commonly used corresponded with family roles: fathers used authority strategies, mothers used mediational tactics, and children used distraction. Of greater importance, however, are the general findings that document the influence of third parties on dyadic conflict. Additional family members frequently joined dyadic family conflicts, they were about equally likely to attempt to end or to continue the conflict, they formed alliances about half of the time, and their intervention strategies were related to the outcome of the conflict as well as its patterning.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1980

Logical relations and comprehension in conversation.

This study examines how logical relations (e.g., causality and identity) in spoken discourse affect comprehension. Research on cohesion, which shows that specific unit template structures link discourse and text together, is used to build a model of language comprehension that places template structures at the base of a context comparison operation. Subjects were engaged in ordinary conversation with a confederate trained to produce specific types of logical utterances unobtrusively. The comprehension model predicted that systematically different latencies, topical response, and remedial response of subjects would follow the test items produced by the confederate. The data support the predictions. It is shown that comprehension occurs via one processing path if there is a direct tie between the target item and the immediately prior item in discourse, and a separate processing path if the tie is between the target item and the earlier context. Subject response in conversation is shown to display useful evidence on the nature of comprehension achieved. The findings specify and extend the recent research on the integration of new information into a textual structure.

Adult↗