No abstract

The role of intrapersonal emotion regulation in couple satisfaction is well known, while the interpersonal emotion regulation's role has only scarcely been tackled. The few existing studies supported the role of interpersonal emotion regulation in couple, but no study has specifically assessed its effect on couple satisfaction. Likewise, it was found that cognitive empathy acts as a buffer between intrapersonal emotion regulation difficulties and hostility and positively correlates with couple satisfaction. However, no study investigated cognitive empathy as a mediator between intrapersonal emotion regulation and couple satisfaction. Moreover, no study assessed the mediator role of interpersonal emotion regulation between intrapersonal emotion regulation and couple satisfaction.Based on what was known, we took a step further, and, in line with our hypotheses, it was found that (1) interpersonal emotion regulation partially mediates the effect of intrapersonal emotion regulation difficulties on couple satisfaction. (2) Cognitive empathy partially mediates the effect of intrapersonal emotion regulation on couple satisfaction. Moreover, (3) interpersonal emotion regulation and cognitive empathy sequentially mediate the effect of intrapersonal emotion regulation difficulties on couple satisfaction. Furthermore, the implications and limits of the present study are discussed and some directions for future studies are suggested.

This study aims to identify possible primary targets for the parenting programs designed to reduce (or prevent) the mental health problems of adolescents. We used network analysis to estimate networks for parenting practices and for the interplay between parenting practices and adolescents' mental health problems. A community sample of early adolescents (10-13 years old, N = 1,125) reported both parenting (Alabama Parenting Questionnaire, Child Global Report) and mental health outcomes (Youth Self-Report). The behavior "You stay out later than you are supposed to and your parents don't know it" was the most central in the parenting practices network. Poor monitoring and conduct problems were the main paths through which parenting practices and youths' mental health influenced each other. Regarding the interplay between parenting practices and adolescent mental health, the network for males had a significantly higher connectivity ( p = .035) than that for females. Although in the early stages, the network approach promises to provide a better understanding of parenting practices and their interaction with the mental health problems of adolescents.

This study aimed to investigate the measurement invariance of the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (for both long [APQ-lg] and short [APQ-9] forms) across age, gender, clinical status, and informant (i.e., parent vs. child reports). The sample was composed of adolescents (community sample: N = 1,746; clinical sample: N = 166) and parents ( N = 149). The analyses were conducted in R. Measurement invariance was assessed via multi-group confirmatory factor analysis, equivalence test, and subsampling approach. The original model of APQ-lg (five factors) showed a significantly better fit than other concurrent models (five concurrent models were specified, based on prior literature). For APQ-lg, we found measurement invariance across gender and partial measurement invariance across age, clinical status, and informant. For APQ-9, we confirmed the measurement invariance across gender and clinical status, while across age and informant partial measurement invariance was attested. Overall, our study indicated that APQ-lg and APQ-9 are two valid tools for measuring parenting practices with some caveats.

Parental stress is related to child mental health problems, with numerous evidence indicating that it is an important predictor of parenting and parent-child relationship. New approaches to psychopathology could be particularly informative for clinical research, however, there is limited research that employs network analysis with parents. Network analysis could contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between child mental health problems and parental stress by highlighting the most central nodes and how the two constructs influence each other. The scope of the study was to identify potential new intervention targets to reduce the mental health problems of children and prevent contagion between parent stress and child psychopathology. Furthermore, we also sought to test whether the dynamic between parental stress and child psychopathology differs across the level of parent stress and child total difficulties. In this endeavor, we had three main directions. First, we estimated a network at the level of child mental health problems and identified the most central nodes. Second, we mapped the main paths through which parent stress and child mental health problems communicate with each other. Third, we investigated the network invariance across the level of parent stress (high vs moderate) and child mental health problems (low vs. high total difficulties). Participants ( N = 1014) were parents of children with ages between four and 17 years old. The analyses were conducted in RStudio. Results indicated that perceived coping was a central node, bridging the two constructs. The global strength of the network was higher for parents who reported high levels of stress compared to those who reported only moderate levels of stress. In contrast, we found that the global strength of the network was lower for children with high levels of total difficulties compared to those with low levels of total difficulties. In conclusion, we argue the importance of focusing on the targeting nodes with high bridge centrality, such as perceived coping, for designing prevention and intervention programs. Future research should use temporal dynamics between parental stress and child mental health problems and explore mechanisms between the two constructs. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-022-03520-1.