Relatively little is known about what impacts perinatal outcomes in expectant mothers and fathers. In the current study, we examined the association between expected parenting efficacy and feelings of pregnancy responsibility on mental health and relationship satisfaction in 104 primiparous couples during their third trimester. Parenting efficacy was related to better perinatal mental health and relationship satisfaction for both mothers and fathers, while communal pregnancy responsibility was more important for mothers. At the couple level, being concordant on feelings of pregnancy responsibility was related to better mental health and relationship satisfaction for expectant mothers only. These results suggest the importance of examining predictors of perinatal outcomes, as well as the dynamic interplay between mothers’ and fathers’ feelings of pregnancy responsibility.

Poor women have elevated stress but also face deficits in their social networks to provide help. Consequently, they may substitute their minor children as a support source in place of more traditional ties. Support substitution and compensation theory suggest this form of substitution may not lead to compensatory benefits. We hypothesized that low-income mothers experiencing high levels of acute and network stress would be more likely to rely on their minor children, and this reliance on minor children would be related to worse health outcomes through its impact on minor children's well-being. In an interview-based community study of 116 low-income mothers from Northeast Ohio, USA we found that acute stress (but not network stress) was related to greater reliance on minor children for support and the impact on minor children's well-being mediated the link with low-income mothers' worse health outcomes. These results suggest that the reason for and type of social network substitution may determine whether compensatory benefits are realized.

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Individuals perceiving stigma may be unwilling to seek support directly. Instead, they may use indirect strategies due to fear of rejection. Ironically, indirect seeking leads to unsupportive network responses (i.e., rejection). In Study 1, data collected from structured interviews of a sample of U.S. women in poverty (N= 116) showed that perceived poverty-related stigma was related to increased fear of rejection, which in turn partially mediated perceived stigma and indirect seeking. In Study 2, data gathered from structured interviews of a sample of U.S. abused women (N= 177) revealed that perceived abuse-related stigma was linked to increased indirect seeking, which in turn related to increased unsupportive network responses. By contrast, direct support seeking was related to increased supportive and decreased unsupportive responses.

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This study examines the perceived stigma of poverty by assessing individuals' negative feelings about being poor (internalized stigma), and their beliefs about whether others treat them as stigmatized (experienced stigma). In a combined sample of low-income women (N = 210), we tested a dual-pathway model to explain how these perceived stigma dimensions are related to depression among the impoverished. We proposed that interpersonal (i.e., impaired support availability and heightened fear of support request rejection) and intrapersonal factors (i.e., impaired self-esteem) differentially mediate the relationship of internalized and experienced poverty stigma with depression. Structural equation modeling partially supported the model: internalized stigma and depression were partially mediated by self-esteem and fear of rejection, while experienced stigma was related to depression through fear of rejection only. In other words, internalized and experienced perceived stigma activate separate and similar mechanisms to influence depression among the poor.

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This study examines the role of income in a psychosocial resource impairment model that explains partner violence and distress. Using data from a nationally representative sample, we test whether psychosocial resources of social support and self-esteem operate differently in four income groups (poor, “working”-poor, middle and upper-income). Structural equation modeling shows that among women considered working-poor, low self-esteem is relevant for the process through which violence becomes linked to distress. Women of upper-income appear distinct with negative interactions serving as sole mediator of violence and distress. Other findings indicate impaired support may mediate the violence and distress relation for women, regardless of income. Overall, income partially moderates the impact of partner violence on distress, suggesting social contexts should be considered when examining the effects of violence.

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The authors investigated emotional (empathy) and problematic (minimizing) support exchanges between 243 women experiencing a lupus flare-up and their husbands. Husbands and wives reported the amount of support they provided to each other and the extent to which they felt the support they received from partners was emotionally responsive (validating). The authors expected individuals' perceptions of spouses' emotional responsiveness to mediate the relationship between support and psychosocial well-being. As predicted, more spousal emotional support was interpreted as being more emotionally responsive, which in turn was associated with better well-being. In contrast, more problematic support was interpreted as being less emotionally responsive, which in turn was associated with poorer well-being. Couples who are able to meet each others' emotional needs may experience better adjustment when coping with chronic illness.

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Researchers who examine the relation of gender role attitudes to division of household labor and marital quality often overlook its relation to emotional spousal support. Moreover, research on gender and marriage often ignores how gender role attitudes may explain the link between spousal support and marital quality. Secondary data analyses on a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults examined the interaction of gender and gender role attitudes on spousal support and marital quality. Emotional spousal support predicted better marital satisfaction and less conflict for traditional women and egalitarian men, whereas both instrumental and emotional spousal support predicted better marital satisfaction for egalitarian women and traditional men. These results suggest that within, as well as between, gender differences are important for understanding the contribution of spousal support to perceived marital quality.

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This study extends past research by examining the mediating role of cognitive and social resilience in the domestic violence–anxiety relation. Mediation is tested on a sample of 100 impoverished women from the Women’s Health Outcomes in Urban and Rural Environments (Women’s HOUR) Study. Regression analysis and structural equation modeling provide consistent support for the proposed model: poor women’s violence experience impairs support and self-esteem, which in turn influences their anxiety levels. Results demonstrate the dynamic role impaired resilience may play in the violence process, highlighting implications for research, practice, and policy at the nexus of violence and poverty.

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Although the relation of socioeconomic status (SES) to social support has been discussed for some time, researchers have rarely systematically examined the social patterning of this resource. In addition, potential explanatory mechanisms have not been investigated. This study examined both the social distribution of social support and the role of life events in the association between SES and social support in a nationally representative probability sample of adults from the National Cormorbidity Survey. Higher education and income were related to more emotional support and fewer negative interactions. Individuals with higher incomes were also less likely to report acute and chronic life events. Finally, acute (but not chronic) life events mediated the relation between SES and social support (both emotional support and negative interactions). These results suggest the inability of lower SES individuals to mobilize social support in times of need may be explained by their more frequent experience of acute life events.

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Data from the Worcester Family Research Project were analyzed to determine whether social support processes are altered by poverty and whether kin and nonkin support are differentially related to mental health in low-income mothers. The authors found that conflict with family and friends predicted adverse mental health and more strongly predicted these outcomes than emotional and instrumental support. Moreover, sibling conflict was a stronger predictor of mental health than parent conflict. Finally, only instrumental support from professionals predicted mental health.

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This short-term longitudinal study examined the effect of perceived stigma on perceived support availability, negative interactions, and depression. Two interviews were conducted over a 4-month period with 109 parents of special needs children. Cross-sectional analyses revealed that perceived stigma was consistently related to less perceived support availability from respondents’ parents (i.e., the child’s grandparents), more negative interactions with spouse and grandparents, and increased depressive symptomatology. Longitudinal analyses indicated that perceived stigma increased negative interactions with grandparents as well as the respondent’s depression over time. Structural equation modeling also suggested that perceived support availability of grandparents partially mediated the longitudinal relation between perceived stigma and depression. Findings highlight the need for future studies to examine the complex relation between stressor dimensions, social support processes, and mental health.

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Although research exists on how attributions for traumatic life events are related to adjustment, little has focused on parents' attributions for their children's special needs. Parents were interviewed twice over 1 year about their attributions for their children's special needs. We used parents' open-ended responses during the initial interview to construct a ratings survey for the second interview. Parents of children with Down's syndrome made attributions to genetic fluke, age, and fate/God's will; parents of autistic children made attributions to heredity and environment; parents of developmentally delayed children made attributions to medical problems and stress during pregnancy. Self-blame attributions and attributions to the environment were related to worse adjustment, whereas attributions to fate/God's will were related to better adjustment. Implications for family interventions and physicians are discussed.

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The survey data presented here are on the national prevalences of major life-time perceived discrimination and day-to-day perceived discrimination; the associations between perceived discrimination and mental health; and the extent to which differential exposure and differential emotional reactivity to perceived discrimination account for the well-known associations between disadvantaged social status and mental health. Although more prevalent among people with disadvantaged social status, results show that perceived discrimination is common in the total population, with 33.5 percent of respondents in the total sample reporting exposure to major lifetime discrimination and 60.9 percent reporting exposure to day-to-day discrimination. The associations of perceived discrimination with mental health are comparable in magnitude to those of other more commonly studied stressors, and these associations do not vary consistently across subsamples defined on the basis of social status. Even though perceived discrimination explains only a small part of the observed associations between disadvantaged social status and mental health, given its high prevalence, wide distribution, and strong associations with mental health, perceived discrimination needs to be treated much more seriously than in the past in future studies of stress and mental health.

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The explosion of adult attachment research in the last decade has been limited by its reliance on college student and distressed samples. Using a large nationally representative sample of American adults, the authors examined the relation of sociodemographics, childhood adversity, parental representations, adult psychopathology, and personality traits to adult attachment in an effort to replicate previous findings and extend the theory. Distribution of adult attachment styles was similar to that in prior studies: 59% secure, 25% avoidant, and 11% anxious. Adult attachment was associated with several sociodemographic variables (e.g., income, age, race) not previously studied. Childhood adversities of an interpersonal nature were strongly related to insecure adult attachment. Various types of adult psychopathologies and personality traits were also strongly related to adult attachment. Implications for adult attachment theory and future research are discussed.

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This study was conducted to examine the influence of gender on social support provision and receipt using both self-report and observational methodologies. In response to another person sharing a problem, we predicted that men would be more likely than women to provide advice, and women would be more likely than men to provide emotional support. We also predicted women would be more likely than men to receive emotional support, and men would be more likely than women to receive negative support. Sixty-one pairs of college students, same-sex and mixed-sex dyads, shared a problem with each other. Problem-sharing transactions were audiotaped and transcribed for content analysis. Opposite-sex providers offered more emotional support than did same-sex providers, whereas same-sex providers listened more than did opposite-sex providers. No gender differences were found for advice-giving. Men were more likely than women to receive negative support. These results suggest that gender composition of the dyad has a greater influence on support provision and receipt than provider or recipient gender alone.

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