PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Conflict between divorced parents can lead to mental health problems in children

2021-01-12
(Press-News.org) Conflict between divorced or separated parents increases the risk of children developing physical and mental health problems.

A new study from the Arizona State University Research and Education Advancing Children's Health (REACH) Institute has found that children experience fear of being abandoned when their divorced or separated parents engage in conflict. Worrying about being abandoned predicted future mental health problems in children. The work will be published in Child Development on January 12.

"Conflict is a salient stressor for kids, and the link between exposure to interparental conflict and mental health problems in children is well established across all family types - married, cohabitating, separated and divorced," said Karey O'Hara, a research assistant professor of psychology at ASU and first author on the paper. "Conflict between divorced or separated parents predicted children experiencing fear that they would be abandoned by one or both parents. This feeling was associated with future mental health problems, especially for those who had strong relationships with their fathers."

Based on studies including children from families with married or cohabitating parents, the researchers knew that children view interparental conflict as a threat, often wondering if their parents will get divorced.

To understand how children with divorced or separated parents interpreted interparental conflict, the researchers surveyed families participating in the New Beginnings Program, asking 559 children (aged 9-18 years) about their exposure to conflict. The questions included topics like whether their parents fought in front of them, spoke poorly of the other parent or asked children to carry messages. Children exposed to interparental conflict were more likely to report worrying about being abandoned by one or both of their parents.

"When parents who are married or cohabitating engage in conflict, the child might worry about their parents separating," O'Hara said. "But children whose parents are divorced or separated have already seen the dissolution of their family. The idea that they might be abandoned might be unlikely, but it is not illogical from their perspective."

The fear of abandonment was persistent: Exposure to parental conflict predicted fear of abandonment three months later. And, worrying about abandonment predicted mental health problems, as reported by the children themselves and their teachers, 10 months later.

Because quality parent-child relationships are known to buffer children against stress, the researchers expected children who had strong relationships with a parent to experience less fear of abandonment and mental health problems. But the team did not find a general buffering effect of parenting.

"A strong father-child relationship came at a cost when interparental conflict was high," O'Hara said. "Having a high quality parenting relationship is protective, but it is possible that quality parenting alone is not enough in the context of high levels of interparental conflict between divorced parents."

INFORMATION:

The goal of ASU's REACH institute is to bring research promoting children's well-being from the lab into practice, and the research team is currently working on designing an intervention to help children cope with parental conflict after divorce.

C. Aubrey Rhodes, Sharlene Wolchik, Irwin Sandler and Jenn Yun-Tien, all of ASU's REACH Institute, also contributed to the work. This study was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institute of Mental Health and National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Endocrine Society recommends government negotiation and other policies to lower out-of-pocket costs

2021-01-12
WASHINGTON--The Endocrine Society is calling on policymakers to include government negotiation as part of an overall strategy to reduce insulin prices in its updated position statement published today in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. More than 34 million Americans have diabetes, and another 88 million are at risk for developing the disease. The cost of insulin has nearly tripled in the past 15 years, and a lack of transparency in the drug supply chain has made it challenging to identify and address the causes of soaring costs. Federal law currently prohibits Medicare, which accounts for a third of all drug spending, from negotiating directly with pharmaceutical companies over drug prices. Legislation empowering the ...

FAU develops simplified COVID-19 diagnostic method to ramp up widespread testing

FAU develops simplified COVID-19 diagnostic method to ramp up widespread testing
2021-01-12
To properly monitor and help curb the spread of COVID-19, several millions of diagnostic tests are required daily in just the United States alone. There is still a widespread lack of COVID-19 testing in the U.S. and many of the clinical diagnostics protocols require extensive human labor and materials that could face supply shortages and present biosafety concerns. The current gold standard for COVID-19 diagnostic testing in the U.S., developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is quantitative PCR-based (qPCR) molecular tests that detect the presence of the viral ...

High levels of clinician burnout identified at leading cardiac centre

High levels of clinician burnout identified at leading cardiac centre
2021-01-12
Toronto (Jan. 12, 2021) - More than half the clinicians surveyed at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre reported burnout and high levels of distress according to a series of studies published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal Open (CMAJ-OPEN). In these studies carried out before the COVID-19 pandemic, 78% of nurses, 73% of allied health staff and 65% of physicians described experiencing burnout. "In my 35 years as a physician I have never seen a more serious issue for clinicians than burnout," says lead author Dr. Barry Rubin, Chair and Medical Director, the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, ...

iCeMS makes highly conductive antiperovskites with soft anion lattices

iCeMS makes highly conductive antiperovskites with soft anion lattices
2021-01-12
A new structural arrangement of atoms shows promise for developing safer batteries made with solid materials. Scientists at Kyoto University's Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) designed a new type of 'antiperovskite' that could help efforts to replace the flammable organic electrolytes currently used in lithium ion batteries. Their findings were described in the journal Nature Communications. Perovskite compounds are being tested and used in a wide range of technologies due to their excellent ability to conduct electricity, among other properties. They can be made from a large combination of atoms with the formula ABX3, where A and B are positively charged atoms and X is a negatively ...

Master designers: Architects of the brain revealed

Master designers: Architects of the brain revealed
2021-01-12
Brain cells often cluster and grow together creating three-dimensional columns. While this pillar-like pattern of neurons is established, the exact mechanism behind its formation is still elusive. Makoto Sato's team at Kanazawa University has been closely studying this phenomenon. Their recent findings explain how molecules in the brain work in conjunction to create the architectural marvels that are the columns. The researchers base much of their work on the Drosophila (fruit fly) due to the organism's genetic similarities to humans. In this study they focused on the visual center of the fly's brain in a region known ...

Nanosheet-based electronics could be one drop away

Nanosheet-based electronics could be one drop away
2021-01-12
Scientists at Japan's Nagoya University and the National Institute for Materials Science have found that a simple one-drop approach is cheaper and faster for tiling functional nanosheets together in a single layer. If the process, described in the journal ACS Nano, can be scaled up, it could advance development of next-generation oxide electronics. "Drop casting is one of the most versatile and cost-effective methods for depositing nanomaterials on a solid surface," says Nagoya University materials scientist Minoru Osada, the study's corresponding author. "But it has serious drawbacks, one being the so-called coffee-ring effect: a pattern left by particles once the liquid they are in evaporates. We found, to our great surprise, that ...

No disassembly required: Non-destructive method to measure carrier lifetime in SiC

No disassembly required: Non-destructive method to measure carrier lifetime in SiC
2021-01-12
Silicon carbide (SiC), a versatile and resistant material that exists in multiple crystalline forms, has attracted much attention thanks to its unique electronic properties. From its use in the first LED devices, to its applications in high-voltage devices with low power losses, SiC displays exceptional semiconductor behavior. So far, the operating voltages for unipolar SiC devices are below 3.3 kV. Though useful for the electronic systems of cars, trains, and home appliances, unipolar SiC-based devices cannot be used in power generation and distribution systems, which operate at voltages above 10 kV. Some researchers believe that the solution to this conundrum lies in bipolar SiC devices, which offer low on-resistance (and hence lower losses) ...

MicroLED neural probe for neuroscience

MicroLED neural probe for neuroscience
2021-01-12
Overview: Associate Professor Hiroto Sekiguchi and Ph.D. candidate Hiroki Yasunaga in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Information Engineering at Toyohashi University of Technology have developed a MicroLED neural probe for neuroscience. This MicroLED tool can optogenetically control and observe neural activity in the brain. Neural activity was successfully recorded using the neural probe, and sufficient light output was obtained from the MicroLED to activate neural activity. The developed MicroLED tool will contribute to the development of neuroscience research-purposed ...

Protection against corona: 82 percent ventilate more frequently

2021-01-12
For other measures, however, the behaviour of the generations differs: "Of those under 40 years of age, 18 percent say they have food delivered more frequently", says BfR-President Professor Dr. Dr. Andreas Hensel. "In the age group 60 years and older, on the other hand, only seven percent make use of such offers." https://www.bfr.bund.de/cm/349/210105-bfr-corona-monitor-en.pdf In addition to more frequent ventilation, the respondents try to protect themselves from an infection mainly by wearing masks, keeping distance to other people and washing their hands more frequently. The mandatory use of masks was approved by 93 percent of the respondents, the distance regulation by 96 percent. ...

How anorexia nervosa alters body awareness

2021-01-12
In patients with anorexia, it could remain at the same level as before the start of the illness. The researchers led by Professor Martin Diers recommend a combination of cognitive behavioural therapy and the use of virtual reality to correct the distorted body schema. The study is published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders on 20 December 2020. Understanding the unconscious The distorted perception of one's own body is a characteristic symptom of anorexia nervosa. It has long been known that patients overestimate the dimensions of their body. "This ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Microwaves for energy-efficient chemical reactions

MXene current collectors could reduce size, improve recyclability of Li-ion batteries

Living near toxic sites linked to aggressive breast cancer

New discovery could open door to male birth control

Wirth elected Fellow of American Physical Society

The Journal of Nuclear Medicine Ahead-of-Print Tip Sheet: October 10, 2025

Destined to melt

Attitudes, not income, drive energy savings at home

The playbook for perfect polaritons

‘Disease in a dish’ study of progressive MS finds critical role for unusual type of brain cell

Solar-powered method lights the way to a ‘de-fossilized’ chemical industry

Screen time linked to lower academic achievement among Ontario elementary students

One-year outcomes after traumatic brain injury and early extracranial surgery in the TRACK-TBI Study

Enduring outcomes of COVID-19 work absences on the US labor market

Affirmative action repeal and racial and ethnic diversity in us medical school admissions

Cancer progression illuminated by new multi-omics tool

Screen time and standardized academic achievement tests in elementary school

GLP-1RA order fills and out-of-pocket costs by race, ethnicity, and indication

Study finds HEPA purifiers alone may not be enough to reduce viral exposure in schools

UVA Health developing way to ID people at risk of dangerous lung scarring even before symptoms appear

How can we know when curing cancer causes myocarditis?

Male infertility in Indian men linked to lifestyle choices and hormonal imbalances

An acoustofluidic device for sample preparation and detection of small extracellular vesicles

The advent of nanotechnology has ushered in a transformative era for oncology, offering unprecedented capabilities for targeted drug delivery and controlled release. This paradigm shift enhances thera

A prototype LED as thin as wallpaper — that glows like the sun

Transnational electoral participation of undocumented Mexican immigrants in the US

A new method to build more energy-efficient memory devices for a sustainable data future

Freely levitating rotor spins out ultraprecise sensors for classical and quantum physics

‘Chinese lantern’ structure shifts into more than a dozen shapes for various applications

Towards light-controlled electronic components

[Press-News.org] Conflict between divorced parents can lead to mental health problems in children