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Culture, Society & Family Health & Medicine Learning & Education Researcher news SMU In The News

Huffington Post: Here’s Why Dads Should Think Twice Before Arguing With Their Wives

Moms compensate with their child for marital tension on the second day of an argument; not so with dads, who don’t recover as quickly

Kouros, SMU, marital conflict, psychology

The popular online news site The Huffington Post covered the research of psychology expert Chrystyna Kouros, assistant professor in the SMU Department of Psychology.

Kouros focuses on understanding depressive symptoms and depression in the context of family stress.

One line of her research focuses on the etiology, maintenance and progression of child and adolescent depression, and how symptoms change over time. She has a particular interest in the effects of children’s exposure to everyday marital conflict and parental psychopathology.

The Huffington Post reporter Taryn Hillin highlighted Kouros’ most recent research which found that the repercussion of a marital dispute can be a damaged relationship between parents and their children. Her article “Here’s Why Dads Should Think Twice Before Arguing With Their Wives” published Aug. 13.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Taryn Hillin
The Huffington Post

It’s known that when parents argue, it has a negative effect on their kids. Now, new research suggests that it’s the father’s relationship with his children that suffers the most following marital conflict.

The study, published in the Journal of Family Psychology, analyzed 203 families over the course of 15 days. Couples involved in the study had been married an average of 15 years and had at least one child aged eight to 16.

Families were first interviewed by researchers; the parents were asked about marital satisfaction, marital conflict and depression, and the children reported on their parents’ parenting skills.

The husbands and wives were then asked to keep separate daily diaries for two weeks in which they rated the emotional quality of their relationship with their spouse and their child at the end of each day.

At the end of the study, researchers found that when parents argued, their relationship with their child was negatively affected. However, mothers were able to recover from this fairly quickly and the next day, even showed improvement in their parent-child relationship.

“Moms appeared to compensate for their marital tension,” said Chrystyna D. Kouros, lead author of the study, in a press release. “Poor marital quality actually predicted an improvement in the relationship between the mom and the child. So, the first day’s adverse spillover is short lived for moms.”

Fathers, on the other hand, did not recover so quickly, and their relationship with their child remained strained even into the following day.

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SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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Culture, Society & Family Health & Medicine Learning & Education Researcher news SMU In The News

Time: When Couples Fight, It Affects Fathers More

Husbands and fathers, take note: Marital conflict puts strain on bond with your children

Kouros, SMU, marital conflict, Time, psychology

News magazine Time covered the research of psychology expert Chrystyna Kouros, assistant professor in the SMU Department of Psychology.

Kouros focuses on understanding depressive symptoms and depression in the context of family stress.

One line of her research focuses on the etiology, maintenance and progression of child and adolescent depression, and how symptoms change over time. She has a particular interest in the effects of children’s exposure to everyday marital conflict and parental psychopathology.

Time reporter Belinda Luscombe highlighted Kouros’ most recent research which found that the repercussion of a marital dispute can be a damaged relationship between parents and their children. Her article “When Couples Fight, It Affects Fathers More” published Aug. 6.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

By Belinda Luscombe
Time

Men, it is frequently said, are very good at compartmentalizing—usually when they’ve done something wrong. But new research suggests women can compartmentalize too, especially around family.

A study published in the Journal of Family Psychology looked at the effect marital squabbling had on parents’ relationships with kids. The researchers found, not surprisingly, that when a couple fights, that spills over to the relationship each parent has with his or her offspring. But, interestingly, this effect does not last very long for moms.

By the next day, most mother-child relationships were back on an even keel, while the fathers still reported things were tense. “In fact, in that situation, moms appeared to compensate for their marital tension,” said the study’s lead author, assistant psychology professor at Southern Methodist University Chrystyna D. Kouros. “Poor marital quality actually predicted an improvement in the relationship between the mom and the child.”

Are the moms compensating for their lousy relationship with dad by looking for human bonds elsewhere? Are they making a pre-emptive strike, even subconsciously, in case there’s a custody battle? Do they not care so much about fights with their spouses? Or do they just need someone to talk to? Kouros says it’s not clear why the women are more able to isolate the relationship with their kids from the tension they feel toward their spouse, but there are several theories.

Read the full story.

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For more information, www.smuresearch.com.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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Culture, Society & Family Health & Medicine Mind & Brain

Marital tension between mom and dad can harm each parent’s bond with child, study finds

Dads, in particular, let conflict adversely impact relationships with children, while moms compartmentalize marital conflict after first day.

Chrystyna Kouros, SMU, marital relationships

Children suffer consequences, too, when mom and dad argue or have tension in their relationship, experts warn.

Dads, in particular, let the negative emotions and tension from their marriage spill over and harm the bond they have with their child, says a new study’s lead author, psychologist Chrystyna D. Kouros, Southern Methodist University, Dallas.

The findings drive home the conclusion that the quality of a marriage is closely tied to each parent’s bond with their child, Kouros said.

The findings are based on data provided by 203 families, where family members completed daily diary entries for 15 days. Moms and dads rated the quality of their marriage and their relationship with their child at the end of each day.

The authors found that when parents reported tension and conflict in their marriage, simultaneously that day’s interactions with their child were peppered with tension and conflict.

Even so, distinct differences also were identified in moms and dads.

In situations where the quality of the marriage was low, moms appeared to compartmentalize the problems they were having in their marriage by the next day.

“In fact, in that situation, moms appeared to compensate for their marital tension,” Kouros said. “Poor marital quality actually predicted an improvement in the relationship between the mom and the child. So, the first day’s adverse spillover is short lived for moms.”

That was not the case for dads, the researchers found.

“In families where the mom was showing signs of depression, dads on the other hand let the marital tension spill over, with the result being poorer interactions with their child, even on the next day,” she said.

Couple’s marriage is a hub or anchor for the entire family
Marriage quality, the authors concluded, affects the whole family, said Kouros, an assistant professor in SMU’s SMU Department of Psychology.

“We see from the findings that the marriage is a hub relationship for the family,” she said. “The quality of that relationship spills over into each parent’s interactions with the child. So if mom and dad are fighting, it will show up initially — and in some cases on the second day — in a poorer quality relationship with their kids.”

The authors reported their findings in the scientific article “Spillover between marital quality and parent-child relationship quality: Parental depressive symptoms as moderators,” published recently in the Journal of Family Psychology.

Co-authors of the research were Lauren M. Papp, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Marcie C. Goeke-Morey, The Catholic University of America, and E. Mark Cummings, University of Notre Dame.

The research was funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, one of the National Institutes of Health. — Margaret Allen

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Culture, Society & Family Health & Medicine Learning & Education Mind & Brain

Study finds that some depressed adolescents are at higher risk for developing anxiety

Findings suggest mental health providers could target adolescents who are most at risk, providing treatment aimed at early intervention

Kouros, SMU, depression, anxiety

Some adolescents who suffer with symptoms of depression also may be at risk for developing anxiety, according to a new study of children’s mental health.

The study found that among youth who have symptoms of depression, the risk is most severe for those who have one or more of three risk factors, said psychologist Chrystyna D. Kouros, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, who led the study.

Specifically, those who are most vulnerable are those who have a pessimistic outlook toward events and circumstances in their lives; those who have mothers with a history of an anxiety disorder; or those who report that the quality of their family relationships is poor, Kouros said.

A depressed adolescent with any one of those circumstances is more at risk for developing anxiety, the researchers found.

Adolescents with one or more risk factors can be targeted for intervention
The findings suggest that mental health professionals could target adolescents with those risk factors. Early intervention might prevent anxiety from developing, Kouros said.

“Depression or anxiety can be debilitating in itself,” said Kouros, an assistant professor in the SMU Department of Psychology. “Combined, however, they are an even bigger threat to a child’s well-being. That’s particularly the case during adolescence, when pre-teens and teens are concerned about fitting in with their peers. Anxiety can manifest as social phobia, in which kids are afraid to interact with friends and teachers, or in school refusal, in which children try to avoid going to school.”

The findings are reported in Development and Psychopathology. The study, “Dynamic temporal relations between anxious and depressive symptoms across adolescence,” appears on the journal’s web site at http://bit.ly/16bvDIr.

Kouros co-authored the research with psychiatrist Susanna Quasem and psychologist Judy Garber, both of Vanderbilt University. Data for the study were collected by Garber, a Vanderbilt professor of psychology and human development.

Study confirms previous link of anxiety elevating to depression, finds new link of depression elevating to anxiety
The finding was based on data from 240 children from metropolitan public schools and their mothers, all of whom were assessed annually for six years. The children were followed during the important developmental period from sixth grade through 12th grade. The study was evenly divided between boys and girls.

Consistent with previous research, the authors found also that “symptoms of anxiety were a robust predictor of subsequent elevations in depressive symptoms over time in adolescents.” That link has been known for some time, Kouros said, and the current study confirmed it.

Less well understood by researchers, however, has been the link between depressive symptoms developing further into elevated anxiety, she said.

“The current study showed that depressive symptoms were followed by elevations in anxious symptoms for a subset of youth who had mothers with a history of anxiety, reported low family relationship quality, or had a more negative attributional style,” the authors reported.

Moreover, at-risk youth are likely to have more than one of these vulnerability factors. More research is needed to examine how the various risk factors work together in either a cumulative or interactive way, the authors said.

The authors suggested that early prevention efforts could be effective for depressed children when the risk factors are present.

“Age 10 to age 16 is a key developmental period, because around puberty is when we tend to see depression rates in children rise, especially among girls,” Kouros said. “The findings from this study can help adults who work with depressed youth to target those who are most at risk for developing anxiety too.” — Margaret Allen

Follow SMUResearch.com on Twitter.

For more information, www.smuresearch.com.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

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Culture, Society & Family Health & Medicine Mind & Brain Researcher news

SMU’s Kouros receives Hogg Foundation grant to study children’s mental health

Study will examine ethnic differences in the identification of and attributions about children’s depression symptoms.

Chrystyna D. Kouros, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Southern Methodist University, received a $19,250 grant from the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health to examine ethnic differences in the identification of and attributions about children’s depression symptoms.

The research project by Kouros was one of 10 selected from a pool of 38 applicants from 17 universities across Texas. The foundation awarded the two-year grants, totaling $192,130, to tenure-track assistant professors exploring different aspects of mental health in Texas.

The study by Kouros, who will be collaborating with Naomi Ekas, Texas Christian University Department of Psychology, will examine ethnic differences in the way that parents and children identify depressive symptoms, and their attributions about depression, as predictors of whether children receive treatment. The overarching goal of the research is to understand barriers to seeking treatment for depression in Hispanic youth.

“Depression in childhood is prevalent and poses a significant public health problem,” said Kouros. “Hispanic youth, in particular, report higher levels of depression and are at greater risk for suicide than non-Hispanic whites and other ethnic groups, yet they are less likely to seek treatment from a mental health practitioner and often receive poorer quality of care.”

Study fills important void to address staggering rates of untreated childhood depression
“Rates of untreated childhood depression are staggering,” Ekas adds. “I believe our study will fill an important void in understanding why Hispanic and non-Hispanic children with mental health challenges do not seek treatment even when community resources are available.”

The goals of the Hogg grants are to increase the pool of junior faculty doing quality mental health research and to encourage the disbursement of research findings through presentations at state and national conferences and meetings.

“Fifty to 80 percent of children in need of services never receive treatment or utilize community mental health resources,” said Octavio N. Martinez, Jr., executive director of the Hogg Foundation. “This research fills an important gap in the literature. Previous research on attributions of child symptoms has typically focused on children’s behavioral challenges or physical health, but has not looked at ethnicity as a moderating factor.”

The Hogg Foundation advances recovery and wellness in Texas by funding mental health services, policy analysis, research and public education. The foundation was created in 1940 by the children of former Texas Gov. James S. Hogg and is part of the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement at The University of Texas at Austin. — The University of Texas at Austin