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- Father involvement and maternal stress: The mediating role of coparentingPublication . D'Orsi, Dora; Veríssimo, Manuela; Diniz, Eva: In recent years mothers have been finding themselves overwhelmed by the need to balance work and maternal duties. Father involvement in childcare has been related to a decrease in mother’s burden in childcare. This association is influenced by multiple aspects, such as the way parents share parenting perspectives and views about child rearing, i.e., coparenting. Nevertheless, the mediating role of coparenting on the association between father involvement and maternal stress has been overlooked. This will be addressed by the current study. A total of 254 Portuguese married/cohabiting mothers of preschool children reported on maternal stress, father involvement in caregiving, and coparenting. Data was collected in public and private schools through questionnaires and online through advertisements in social media. Results show that greater father involvement in direct care was associated with greater maternal stress, but this direction changes when mediated by cooperative coparenting. Moreover, results suggest that when mothers perceived less conflict in coparenting, greater father (in)direct care contributed to decreased maternal stress. The current study supports the notion that fathers involvement and parent’s cooperation account to mothers’ wellbeing, which will improve family dynamics.
- (De)humanizing metaphors of people in pain and their association with the perceived quality of nurse-patient relationshipPublication . Diniz, Eva; Castro, Paula; Bernardes, Sónia F.Metaphors are central in communication and sense-making processes in health-related contexts. Yet how the metaphors used by health-care-professionals to make sense of their patients and their relations to them are associated to the perceived valence of their clinical encounters is underexplored. Drawing-upon the ABC Model of Dehumanization, this study investigated how the humanizing or dehumanizing metaphors nurses’ use for making sense of their pain patients are associated with how they perceived their relationships with them. Fifty female nurses undertook individual narrative-episodic interviews about easy/difficult cases in pain care. A content analysis classified the metaphors, identifying eight classes reflecting different types of patients (de)humanization. A multiple correspondence analysis extracted patterns of metaphors and their association with the perceived characteristics of the patient-nurse relationship. It showed how these patterns were not associated with patient sex or socioeconomic status (SES) but were related to the perceived valence of the clinical relationship. By uncovering how patient metaphors guide nurses’ sense-making and potentially modulate interactions in clinical encounters, these findings may contribute to improve quality of pain care.
- Father involvement during early childhood: a systematic review of the literaturePublication . Diniz, Eva; Brandão, Tânia; Monteiro, Lígia Maria Santos; Verissimo, ManuelaInexistente
- Parenting and child well-being during the COVID-19 outbreak : the importance of marital adjustment and parental self-efficacyPublication . Diniz, Eva; Brandão, Tânia; Monteiro, Lígia Maria Santos; Verissimo, ManuelaAbstract: The pandemic situation of COVID-19 has introduced new challenges on family routines, affecting interpersonal relationships, which may have detrimental consequences to child well-being. The current study aimed to examine the direct effects of marital adjustment on child socioemotional adjustment and to test if parental self-efficacy mediated this association during home confinement due to COVID-19. A final sample of 163 caregivers was recruited online during home confinement period. On average children were 6 years-old (SD=2.92; 44.8% girls). Caregivers and their child were in home confinement for an average of 31 days (SD=12.08). Most of the couples had been married or living together for an average of 14 years (SD=5.77) and had a university degree, mostly living in metropolitan areas. Caregivers answer to a set of measures assessing marital adjustment, parental selfefficacy, and child socioemotional competence and behavior. Findings depicted a direct effect on the positive association between marital satisfaction and parental self-efficacy, and negatively associated with anger-aggression. Parental self-efficacy was positively associated with child's: social competence, negatively associated with anger-aggression, and anxiety-withdrawal. Indirect effects depicted that marital satisfaction was associated with child's social competence, anger-aggression and anxietywithdrawal through parental self-efficacy. Thus, higher marital satisfaction was associated with more parental self-efficacy which in turn was associated with more child's social competence. Findings are relevant to the current state of the art, given the lack of information regarding imposed isolation due to COVID-19 and the consequences it may have to child's well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR
- A systematic review on attachment and sleep at preschool agePublication . Perpétuo, Catarina; Diniz, Eva; Verissimo, ManuelaSleep is a biological process that impacts nearly every domain of a child’s life. Sleep-wake regulation influences and it is highly influenced by developmental variables related to parent-child relationships, such as attachment. The main goal of the present systematic review is to analyze and integrate the findings of empirical studies investigating the relations between attachment and sleep in preschool age, a period marked by important developmental changes that challenge both attachment system and sleep-wake regulation. A database search was performed using a combination of relevant keywords, leading to the identification of 524 articles, with 19 manuscripts assessed for eligibility; finally, seven studies (2344 children) were included. Overall, the findings were not consistent, with some studies reporting significant associations between attachment security and sleep quality, as well as between attachment insecurity and sleep problems, whereas others did not find significant associations. The results are discussed in light of the available theoretical models and integrated in the context of measurement approaches to attachment and sleep heterogeneity, aiming to guide future research on the topic.
- Father’s engagement in direct care is associated with children’s social competence for preschool boys but not girls in PeruPublication . Nóblega, Magaly; Monteiro, Lígia; Santos, Carolina; Diniz, Eva; Guimet, Marisut; Ugarte, Andrea; Marinelli, FrancescoABSTRACT: Evidence shows that fathers have an important role in child development, but few studies explore this influence in the Latin American context. This study aimed to contribute to bridge this gap by analyzing in a Peruvian urban, mainly middle socioeconomic sample, the associations between different dimensions of father engagement (i.e., interaction in direct care, teaching/discipline, and play activities) and children’s social adjustment (i.e., social competence, anxiety-withdrawal and anger-aggression) during the preschool years, while controlling for child’s age and parents’ education, and testing the interaction effects between father’s engagement and child’s gender. Two hundred three 2-parent families with preschool children (M = 52.82, SD = 10.06; 57.63% were girls) participated in the study. Multiple ordinary least squares regression models were conducted. Only for social competence, an interaction between father’s engagement in direct care and child’s gender (boys) was found. These results contribute to highlight the importance of fathers in domains traditionally associated with mothers in a Latin American context.
- Attachment to mother and father, sleep, and well-being in late middle childhoodPublication . Perpétuo, Catarina; El Sheikh, Mona; Diniz, Eva; Verissimo, ManuelaThe security of attachment has been related to several advantageous developmental outcomes, such as good sleep quality and higher well-being indicators. However, few studies concern the associations between attachment dimensions to both parents, sleep, and well-being in late middle childhood. Our study aims to expand knowledge in this area, clarifying the above-mentioned associations by considering the secure base and safe haven dimensions of attachment. We also investigate the role of sleep as a mediator of the relationship between attachment and well-being. The 258 participants (49.2% girls, mean age = 11.19, SD = 0.85) completed self-report questionnaires regarding attachment (KSS), sleep (SSR), and well-being (CHIP-CE). The results show significant associations between attachment to both parents (0.40 ** ≤ r ≤ 0.61 **) and between attachment security, sleep (−0.21 ** ≤ r ≤ −0.35 **) and child well-being (0.42 ** ≤ r ≤ 0.47 **). Besides, sleep quality partially mediated the relations between all attachment dimensions to both parents and wellbeing. The results are discussed in light of attachment theory, focusing on the comparison between attachment to mother and father as a valid framework to unravel differences in child well-being, with sleep as a process that can help to explain the mechanisms through which attachment security enables subjective perceptions of well-being.
- Mothers’ responses to children’s emotions and children’s behavior: The mediating role of children’s emotion regulationPublication . Rolo, Catarina; Diniz, Eva; Babore, Alessandra; Brandão, TâniaABSTRACT: While prior research has clearly established links between maternal responses and children’s emotion regulation (ER), the implications of these links for children’s behaviors, especially at school (as reported by their teachers), remain much less explored. This study examined the mediating role of children’s ER in the relationship between maternal reactions to both negative and positive emotions of children and the subsequent behaviors of these children at school. Participants included 56 Portuguese school-aged children (31 boys and 25 girls, aged 6–10 years, mean age = 8.27, SD = 1.27), their mothers (aged 26–55 years, mean age = 38.33, SD = 6.68), and their teachers (n = 7 female teachers) in a multi-informant study. Mothers provided reports on their responses to their children’s emotions and their perceptions of the children’s ER and lability/negativity, while teachers assessed the children’s behavior in the classroom. The results indicated that punitive maternal reactions were associated with greater child lability/negativity, which in turn correlated with increased conduct problems and hyperactivity at school. Conversely, maternal encouragement of expression was linked to reduced lability/negativity, which was associated with fewer emotional symptoms at school. Additionally, maternal problem-focused reactions and guided/empowering responses were associated with reduced child lability/negativity, which in turn correlated with fewer conduct problems and less hyperactivity at school. These findings suggest that maternal responses to children’s emotions can significantly influence children’s behaviors in the classroom via mechanisms involving children’s ER.
- Work Gains and strains on father involvement: The mediating role of parenting stylesPublication . Diniz, Eva; Monteiro, Lígia; Veríssimo, ManuelaThe balance between work and family demands is one of the main challenges of contemporary parenting. However, most of the research has focused on mothers’ perspectives, with fathers’ perspectives about the links between work–family activities and father involvement, as well as the role of indirect effects, such as parenting styles, being less explored. This study aims to bridge these gaps by exploring whether work strains or gains are related to father involvement in childcare and the mediating role of parental styles, focusing on fathers’ reports. Working, married fathers of preschoolers (n = 411) self-reported about work strains and gains, parental styles, and father involvement. Structural equation modeling, using maximum-likelihood estimation, provided good fit indices. Results of the bootstrap analysis revealed how fathers’ gains indirectly increased involvement both in direct and indirect care through positive parental styles. Otherwise, fathers’ strains at work had a negative indirect effect on direct care through negative parental styles. Findings contribute to work–family interface by showing how parental styles account for mediating environmental challenges on father involvement.
- Depicting #fatherhood involvement on Instagram: Caregiving, affection, and stimulationPublication . Diniz, Eva; Sepúlveda, RitaThis article aims to analyze how fatherhood is performed on Instagram by examining the domains of involvement. Parental roles and behaviors have changed in the last years and are currently a relevant social and scientific topic. The way that fatherhood is performed is also a frequent subject on social media, spreading the ideal of a new fatherhood and portraying the father as committed to childcare duties. The hashtag “fatherhood” was used to identify posts on Instagram representing father involvement. A final sample of 121 posts was identified. Results depicted three main domains in fatherhood’s online representations of involvement: (1) child caregiving; (2) fathers as a source of the child’s affection; and (3) fathers involved in play, committed to the child’s interests and offering new opportunities of stimulation. The display of fatherhood as a role requiring dedication and effort also emerged, but to a lesser extent. Nevertheless, only positive emotions were shared, depicting pleasure in the performed role, and communicating an ideal and self-enhancing profile. Moreover, posts seemed to disseminate an ideal of fatherhood rather than raise questions or discuss the challenges related to it. Findings uncover how media social representations of fatherhood are still an unfinished process, failing to capture diversity and challenges in contemporary families.