Drawing on a social determinants of health framework, we evaluated associations between perceived family-centered care (FCC) and positive developmental outcomes for youth with special health care needs across six different family structures (married biological families, cohabiting biological families, married stepfamilies, cohabiting stepfamilies, divorced/separated single-mother families, and never-married single-mother families). Using data from the 2011-2012 National Survey of Children's Health, we found that married biological families perceive greater FCC than do other family structures. Perceived FCC was positively associated with all three positive youth outcomes evaluated (children's health, participation in extracurricular activities, and flourishing) in married biological families, and two of the three outcomes (children's health and flourishing) in married stepfamilies and divorced/separated single-mother families. Implications for health care provision and future research with structurally diverse families are discussed.

ObjectiveTo determine how engagement in family management practices (i.e., parent–youth closeness, knowledge of youth's friends, shared family meals, and media monitoring) is associated with positive developmental outcomes for youth living in diverse family structures.BackgroundAs patterns of unmarried childbearing, cohabitation, divorce, and remarriage have changed in the United States, youth increasingly live in diverse family structures. Limited research, however, addresses positive youth development in these families. Specific family tasks and caregiver constellations in the home may mean that youth in different family structures benefit differently from family management practices.MethodUsing data from 9,131 households with a 12‐ to 17‐year‐old child in the 2011–2012 National Survey of Children's Health, structural equation modeling was used to test whether four family management practices were associated with two positive youth developmental outcomes (flourishing and extracurricular activity participation). Multigroup analyses tested for differences in the associations across family structures.ResultsFamily management practices were generally positively associated with positive youth development. The strength of associations between specific family management practices and positive youth developmental outcomes, however, varied across family structures, suggesting that practices may have differing effectiveness depending on family context.ConclusionUnderstanding mechanisms that promote positive youth developmental outcomes in diverse family structures and how mechanisms may function differently across family contexts can broaden the sophistication of family theories and interventions.

Using data from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project, a cross-lag mediation model was tested to examine longitudinal relations among low-income mothers' sensitivity; toddlers' engagement of their mothers; and toddler's self-regulation at ages 1, 2, and 3 years (N = 2,958). Age 1 maternal sensitivity predicted self-regulation at ages 2 and 3 years, and age 2 engagement of mother mediated the relation between age 1 maternal sensitivity and age 3 self-regulation. Lagged relations from toddler self-regulation at ages 1 and 2 years to later maternal sensitivity were not significant, suggesting stronger influence from mother to toddler than vice versa. Model fit was similar regardless of child gender and depth of family poverty. (PsycINFO Database Record

No abstract

The goals of this study were to examine (1) stability of maternal directiveness during interactions with their children from toddlerhood to late middle childhood, (2) direct and mediated relations between mothers' directiveness when children were two years old, mothers' respect for autonomy and children's positivity and negativity toward their mothers when children were in late middle childhood, and (3) differences in these paths by ethnoracial group. Participants included 876 European-American, 789 African-American, and 411 Mexican-American mothers and their children from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project. Maternal respect for autonomy at Time 2 partially mediated an association between Time 1 directiveness and observed child positivity toward mothers at Time 2. There was also a direct inverse link between Time 1 maternal directiveness and children's observed positivity toward mothers at Time 2. Relations were similar across ethnoracial groups and for boys and girls. The discussion focuses on heterotypic stability in directive parenting and its implications for children's feelings toward their mothers.Most study variables were well distributed, with skewness values ranging from −1.58 to 1.41. (Values from +3 to −3 suggest a normal distribution; see Kline, 1998). However, observed child negativity toward mothers was relatively skewed (skewness = 2.74); for our analyses, we therefore transformed it by computing the inverse. Directiveness and Respect for Autonomy 7Notes: The degrees of freedom varied due to cases with missing data. Matching superscripts denote significant (p < .05) mean level differences between ethnic groups. Maternal education = years of schooling completed by the age 2 observation. 8 Jean M. Ispa, Gustavo Carlo, Francisco Palermo et al.