Helicopter parenting is a relatively new phenomenon that describes a specific kind of overparenting that is focused on the well-being and success of children that can impact young adults' general sense of life satisfaction, overall mood, and the development of necessary life skills. Using Bowen theory, the author will illustrate through a case…

The maternal employment becomes an irreversible trend across the globe. The effect of maternal employment on children's socioemotional functioning is so pervasive that it warrants special attention to investigate into the issue. A trajectory of analytical framework of how maternal employment affects children's socioemotional functioning originates…

Kyle D. Pruett, MD, clinical professor of child psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine, responds to questions about the importance of engaging men in the lives of children. Dr. Pruett discusses how men parent differently than women; how mothers and fathers can effectively co-parent; the impact of parenting on the marital relationship; and the…

Mixed-dyadic data, collected from distinguishable (nonexchangeable) or indistinguishable (exchangeable) dyads, require statistical analysis techniques that model the variation within dyads and between dyads appropriately. The purpose of this article is to provide a tutorial for performing structural equation modeling analyses of cross-sectional…

The current study investigates associations among marital satisfaction, family emotional expressiveness, the home learning environment, and preschool-aged children's emergent literacy skills among 385 Midwestern mothers and their children. Path analyses examined how marital satisfaction related to emotional expressiveness in the home and whether…

During the last decade more and more time-use data were gathered on a household level in stead of on an individual level. The time-use information of all members of the household provides much more insight in research fields that until now largely used data gathered at the individual level. One of these research fields is the study of quality of…

Although the challenges around participation in online gaming grow, gamers and their partners who experience online relationship issues related to gaming, present a new set of treatment challenges for therapists. In this article, we report on the findings of a hermeneutic research study aimed at evaluating the scholarly literature related to…

Although marital satisfaction starts high and declines for the average newlywed, some spouses may follow qualitatively distinct trajectories. Using 8 self-reports of satisfaction collected over 4 years from 464 newlywed spouses, we identified 5 trajectory groups, including patterns defined by high intercepts and no declines in satisfaction,…

Although disadvantaged women are the targets of marriage programs, little attention has been paid to women's marriage constraints and their views of marriage. Drawing on an exchange framework and using qualitative data collected from single women participating in a marriage initiative, we introduce the concept of marriageable women--the notion…

Students in human development and family studies can benefit from field assignments that provide first-hand, experiential learning. This article describes benefits of an assignment in which students in a family life education course interviewed couples who had been married at least 7 years. Students received suggestions for achieving a satisfying,…

Married couples with children, on average, have a higher standard of living and greater economic security than one-parent families (Thomas & Sawhill, 2005). Parents raising children together tend to have more money, more flexibility and more time to supervise their children, offer emotional support, take an active part in their education, and…

As nonmarital childbearing escalated in the United States over the past half century, fragile families--defined as unmarried couples with children--drew increased interest from researchers and policy makers. Sara McLanahan and Audrey Beck discuss four aspects of parental relationships in these families: the quality of parents' intimate…

In this article we present a framework for understanding the indirect effects of fathering on child development in the context of the marriage. We discuss three central pathways of influence: through relations between marital quality and fathering, through children's exposure to father expressions of marital discord, and through relations between…

This article provides a synopsis of the theoretical and empirical literature describing the effects of graduate study on marital satisfaction. These findings offer implications for psychoeducational and responsive interventions for family counselors working with this population.

In this article I will discuss the impact of my 2-year-old son's diagnosis and treatment of leukaemia. I will outline the background to being told he had leukaemia before describing the family dynamics that emerged during this time for me, my husband and our other child. My story will focus on managing the practicalities of a long stay in hospital…