Abstract The aim of the study was to investigate predictors of maternal well-being in mothers of twins. As well as being important in its own right, maternal well-being is a crucial predictor of parenting (Belsky in Child Dev. 55(1):83, 1984). Based on previous research (Pike et al. in Int J Beh Dev. 30(1):55–66, 2006) we expected that household chaos (Confusion, Hubbub, and Order) and child behavior problems would predict maternal depression, stress and anxiety. The data for the study was taken from the Twins, Family and Behavior Study (TFaB) -- a longitudinal UK study of twins born in 2009 and 2010. One hundred and fifty-eight mothers of twins (Mchild age= 6.01 years, SDage = 0.50) reported on household chaos, child disruptive behaviors and their own well-being. Higher levels of household chaos were linked to maternal depressive, anxiety and stress related symptoms. More child behavior problems were related to more depressive and stress symptoms but not anxiety. The findings show promise for future research investigating different types of maternal well-being and suggested practical implications, such as intervening on concrete aspects of household chaos to improve maternal well-being.
Improving the psychological well-being of parents who received the 2021 expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC) was not an explicit focus of that benefit program, but psychological effects may have been felt, given the positive income shocks generated by the credit. This article reviews academic research that is available on the CTC’s effect on parents’ psychological well-being. Some studies have found that the CTC led to reductions in reported levels of clinical depression and anxiety among parents and in their subclinical depressive and anxiety symptoms. Other studies that have used similar methods find no effects on those outcomes. Importantly, the evidence does not point to the CTC worsening psychological well-being. Overall, evidence on this topic is thin and mixed, even when comparable studies on the impact of income support are also included in the review. We argue that building a more conclusive evidence base would require tighter alignment of policy objectives to measurement approaches.
Objective To assess parental denigration, parents demeaning each other to or in front of their children, and whether denigration is one‐sided or reciprocal, related to distance or closeness between parents and children, and associated with measures of children's well‐being. Background The parental alienation hypothesis argues that denigration is one‐sided and distances children from the denigrated parent. Parental conflict research suggests that denigration is reciprocal and distances children from both parents, particularly the more frequently denigrating parent. Method Convenience samples totaling 994 young adults and including 157 sibling pairs completed a structured measure of denigration as well as several measures of parent–child relationship quality and individual well‐being. Results Parental denigration was measured reliably over time and between siblings. Denigration was highly reciprocal, linked to children feeling less close to both parents—particularly the one denigrating more often—and associated with a variety of measures of ill‐being. Results held both within and between siblings and in the 1% of cases of unilateral denigration. Conclusion Normatively, denigration appears to boomerang not alienate. Children consistently report feeling less close to parents who denigrate more than to parents who are the target of denigration. Implications Parents, and the professionals who work with them, must recognize the damage denigration does to denigrating parents' own relationship with their children. Findings also raise questions about alienation claims, which appear to be rare exceptions to the boomerang rule.
The family's emotional psychological and social well-being is influenced by how parent-child relations quality is perceived by each other, both of the child and father, as well as the child and the mother. This study focused on the dyadic analysis of parent-child quality relationships prediction on the emotional, psychological, and social well-being of the family members in Indonesia. The study involved 230 dyads comprised of fathers, mothers, and children who completed the Revised Parent-Child Interaction Questionnaire measuring the parent-child relationship quality and the Mental Health Continuum Short Form (MHC-SF) to measure family well-being. Adopting the actor–partner interdependence model (APIM) and structural equation modeling (SEM) as the statistics technique, the results showed that in general, no partner’s effect was found. To be specific, dyadic relations between father and child showed an actor’s effect influencing their well-being. On the other hand, the dyadic relations between child and mother showed neither the actor’s effect nor the partner’s effect on their well-being. The study highlights the vital role of fathers and adolescents in their own well-being.
Children and adolescents living in residential child care often experience heightened developmental vulnerability arising not only from pre-placement adversity, but also from the relational and institutional conditions that shape everyday care (Barone et al., 2016; Beinum, 2008; Engel de Abreu et al., 2023). Although a substantial body of literature has examined risk and protective factors associated with psychological well-being in residential settings, this evidence remains fragmented across individual, relational, and contextual domains, with limited attention to how these dimensions interact (Giraldi et al., 2022). This paper offers a critical synthesis of the literature on well-being in residential child care, with the aim of rethinking prevailing variable-based approaches and advancing a more relational and ecologically grounded understanding of children’s developmental trajectories. Adopting a systematised narrative review design, the paper draws on studies published between 2000 and 2025 that address the psychological well-being of children and adolescents in residential care. The review examines key intrapersonal factors, including resilience, self-esteem, self-efficacy, emotional intelligence, coping, and cognitive functioning (Luthar et al., 2000; Cha & Nock, 2009; Bandura, 1997; Goleman, 1995), alongside contextual and relational dimensions such as caregiver-child attachment, peer relationships, sibling co-placement, family contact, placement duration, and the organisational quality of care settings (Costa et al., 2020; Perry & Price, 2018; McWey et al., 2010). Rather than treating these as discrete predictors, the paper analyses how they operate dynamically within systems of care, support, and institutional constraint. The review argues that well-being in residential child care cannot be adequately understood through isolated risk/protection frameworks alone. Instead, developmental outcomes are shaped by the interaction between children’s internal resources and the quality of the relational and ecological environments in which they live (Bronfenbrenner, 1994). In particular, stable and emotionally attuned relationships with caregivers, positive peer climates, and care environments informed by trauma-sensitive and developmentally responsive practices emerge as central protective conditions (Bath & Seita, 2018; Brunzell et al., 2019). At the same time, the review highlights major limitations in the field, including conceptual inconsistency, methodological heterogeneity, weak longitudinal evidence, and insufficient cross-cultural analysis (Ainsworth & Thoburn, 2014). The paper contributes to the literature by advancing a relational-ecological framework for understanding well-being in residential child care and by identifying priorities for future research, policy, and practice. It argues for a shift from deficit-oriented and static models towards a more integrated understanding of care as a developmental, relational, and ethically significant environment.
This dissertation examines the relationship between women’s ownership of economic resources, beliefs, values and childhood experiences of violence and intimate partner violence, the relationship between household chores and children’s self-assessed well-being and the intergenerational transmission of child labour. The individuals studied are Ecuadorian women and children. Chapter 2 explores whether having economic assets available to women helps protect them from intimate partner violence (psychological, physical, sexual and economic violence), taking into account the importance of beliefs, gender norms and childhood experiences of violence. While asset ownership is somewhat protective of intimate partner violence, access to money for personal expenses is strongly associated with lower likelihoods of all types of violence. ‘Traditional’ beliefs are, perhaps counterintuitively, protective of violence. Results provide compelling evidence supporting an intergenerational aspect to violence where violent family backgrounds are strongly associated with higher incidences of all types of intimate partner violence. Chapter 3 examines the effects of housework on children’s self-assessed well-being. The domestic activities that Ecuadorian children (ages 8-17) perform are negatively associated with their self-assessed well-being, both at the extensive and intensive margin of household work. Although the decreases in happiness associated with household chores may appear small in magnitude given the mean level of happiness, the effect is similar to the decrease in happiness associated with the work children perform in the labour market. Chapter 4 studies the intergenerational transmission of child labour in Ecuador. Findings show that children of parents who were child labourers themselves are more likely to combine school and work and less likely to only attend school when defining ‘child work’ according to Ecuadorian legislation (i.e., children who are illegally working violating minimum age requirements, exceeding working hour limits, whose work interferes with their schooling or who work in dangerous conditions). The intergenerational effect of child labour for Ecuadorian children remains beyond the effects of parental child labour on current family income, it depends on the type of work the children perform and it is not gender neutral.
The purpose of this paper is to explore the importance of focusing on comprehensive pediatric care delivered by pediatricians and contributing to children’s health holistically encompassing physical, psychological, and social aspects of the child. The study conducted through questionnaires, interviews, and case studies demonstrate that today’s pediatricians integrate components of holistic health into their practice, as they are beneficial to overall child development. However, due to some limited factors including time, resources and especially lack of training, the practice of comprehensive and patient-centered care has not fully achieved. The positive findings of the aforementioned practices on child health have also been demonstrated in the paper by integrating qualitative information and data. Some of the proposals for the development of comprehensive approaches to health management include the strengthening of educational interventions and talents, increased cooperation between different fields, and higher funding. Therefore, through the identified challenges and the proposed strategies in this paper, pediatricians would be in a better place to improve on their practice in order to promote the wellbeing of future generations. As highlighted in this research, comprehensive health is an essential component of medicine that needs to be integrated into the management of children’s health; and this work provides strategic directions to enhance its application in practice.
Adarsh Somashekar, Sachin Padman, Dr Venugopal Reddy.I
This study examined effortful control and its relations to personality, parenting and well-being in a community sample of Russian preschool children (N = 365, 46% girls) using parent-reported effortful control scale from the very short form of the children's behaviour questionnaire, the inventory of child individual differences-short version, the Alabama parenting questionnaire-preschool revision, the self-reporting questionnaire, and parent and teacher reports on the strengths and difficulties questionnaire. The findings confirmed the four-factor structure of effortful control, including inhibitory control, attentional control, low-intensity pleasure and perceptual sensitivity. Girls demonstrated higher scores than boys on effortful control, perceptual sensitivity, inhibitory control and low-intensity pleasure. Older children scored higher than younger on inhibitory control and perceptual sensitivity and lower on low-intensity pleasure. Gender and age accounted for less than 3% of the variance in effortful control. Effortful control was associated with personality traits of conscientiousness, agreeableness and openness, and with positive emotions and low-negative affect. Higher effortful control was associated with higher levels of prosocial behaviour and lower levels of externalising and internalising problems. Structural modelling showed that the effect of parenting on child prosocial and problem behaviours may be mediated by effortful control.
Helena R. Slobodskaya, Evgeniya N. Petrenko, Svetlana V. Loginova et al.
In March 2020, efforts to slow transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, resulted in widespread closures of school buildings, shifts to virtual educational models, modifications to school-based services, and disruptions in the educational experiences of school-aged children. Changes in modes of instruction have presented psychosocial stressors to children and parents that can increase risks to mental health and well-being and might exacerbate educational and health disparities (1,2). CDC examined differences in child and parent experiences and indicators of well-being according to children's mode of school instruction (i.e., in-person only [in-person], virtual-only [virtual], or combined virtual and in-person [combined]) using data from the COVID Experiences nationwide survey. During October 8-November 13, 2020, parents or legal guardians (parents) of children aged 5-12 years were surveyed using the NORC at the University of Chicago AmeriSpeak panel,* a probability-based panel designed to be representative of the U.S. household population. Among 1,290 respondents with a child enrolled in public or private school, 45.7% reported that their child received virtual instruction, 30.9% in-person instruction, and 23.4% combined instruction. For 11 of 17 stress and well-being indicators concerning child mental health and physical activity and parental emotional distress, findings were worse for parents of children receiving virtual or combined instruction than were those for parents of children receiving in-person instruction. Children not receiving in-person instruction and their parents might experience increased risk for negative mental, emotional, or physical health outcomes and might need additional support to mitigate pandemic effects. Community-wide actions to reduce COVID-19 incidence and support mitigation strategies in schools are critically important to support students' return to in-person learning.
Jorge Verlenden, Sanjana Pampati, Catherine N. Rasberry et al.
Abstract Increasingly, research investigates how the imprisonment of those with child care responsibilities may affect children and their outcomes. However, this research is often conducted in high-income, developed countries, with little known about its impact in low-income, least developed countries. This study starts to address this gap by examining if the imprisonment of those with child care responsibilities in Uganda, a low-income least developed country, may affect child poverty, wellbeing, health, diet, and education. Drawing on 76 interviews conducted with 61 adults and 15 children, participants were asked to recount what affect, if any, imprisonment of the child’s caregiver was believed to have on child poverty, health, wellbeing, diet, and education. The findings reveal that imprisonment was believed to have a largely negative effect on these aspects of children’s lives for most children, hindering government efforts to improve child outcomes and tackle key development challenges. Based on these findings, it is argued that our theoretical understanding of imprisonment and its effects may need to be broadened to include how differing socio-economic policy contexts may moderate the impact of imprisonment on child outcomes.
