This study explored the experiences of fathers during early parenthood, with a particular focus on relationships with their partners, their children and the impact of infertility treatment. Eight fathers who had a child conceived through in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) participated in in-depth interviews and responses were analysed using Modified Analytic Induction. Findings indicated that in the first year of their child's life fathers deferred primary caretaking to their partners, as they perceived them as more able to meet the needs of the child at that developmental stage. However, as the child grew older, and fathers could interact more they came to view themselves as the friend or playmate of the child, a role they experienced as highly rewarding. Reasons that may have accounted for deferring the primary caretaker role in the first year included low self-efficacy beliefs about their ability to care for a newborn infant, perceived partner criticism of their parenting abilities, and the complementary parenting roles adopted in their family. Findings also revealed that fathers experienced relationship concerns due to increased parenting responsibilities limiting the time and energy they had to engage in companionate activities with their partners. Fathers in this research explicitly reported that the difficulties associated with conception and IVF treatment had no impact on early parenthood.

There are limited studies investigating gender differences within the father–child and mother–child relationships with regard to social support provisions within these relationships. This study aimed to explore gender unity in children's and parents' perceptions of social support within the parent–child relationship. The participants included 91 families who completed measures of social support satisfaction and social support effectiveness. Results were contrary to the gender unity assumption. Findings indicated that mothers and fathers provide different types of support to their children regardless of their child's sex. Further, this study demonstrated the importance of father–child interactions and the need to further investigate the types of support fathers provide their children. This study explored gender differences in social support perceptions within the parent–child relationship. It investigated if mothers and fathers perceive the support they provide their children with is differentiated according to whether their child is a son or a daughter (i.e., gender unity). In this study, gender unity relates to whether parents consider themselves to be more effective in their support provisions to their same-sex child than to their opposite-sex child. Moreover, gender unity also pertains to whether children are more satisfied with the support provided by their same-sex parent than their opposite-sex parent. It is therefore important to define social support in order to understand it within the context of the parent-child relationship.

To date, little is known about the function of gratitude in romantic relationships. Being grateful has been demonstrated to provide a number of positive benefits for individuals; however, few studies have explored how grateful experiences may be beneficial in enhancing romantic relationships. This study explored the extent to which adult attachment moderates the relationship between dispositional gratitude and the experience of intimacy within romantic relationships. A greater disposition toward gratitude was expected to result in more frequent experiences of gratitude. It was also anticipated that experiences of gratitude would be associated with feelings of closeness. Participants (n = 156) were required to be currently in a relationship of at least six months duration and completed a series of questionnaires assessing dispositional gratitude, attachment and emotional intimacy. Moderation analysis revealed that although a positive, weak correlation existed between dispositional gratitude and intimacy, attachment did not moderate this association. It was concluded that further investigation of the experience of gratitude is necessary to understand the function of gratitude in romantic relationships. Methods focusing on specific experiences of gratitude in romantic relationships, and the associated feelings of closeness experienced by each partner, may yield more conclusive findings and may provide support for therapeutic approaches focused on enhancing closeness between couples by increasing experiences of gratitude.

Satisfaction with time spent together is an integral part of the overall satisfaction of any relationship. This study examines young school-aged children's and mothers' satisfaction with the time they spend together. While 906 mothers and 675 children (49.0% males) from seven schools in middle to high SES areas in a regional Queensland city participated in the study, just less than half (n = 319, 47.3%) of the children could be matched with their mother. In a classroom lesson administered by the teachers, children were asked if they were happy with the time they had together with their mum and dad or whether they would like more time. In a separate survey, mothers were asked how satisfied they were with the time they spend with their child. More mothers than children were satisfied with the time they have together. Children were more satisfied with the time they spent with their mother than their father. Significant relationships between mother's satisfaction and her employment status and her child's after-school care arrangements were found. More mothers were satisfied if they did not work full-time and were able to provide some hours of care for their child after school. There was a significant relationship between the children's behaviour scores and their after school care arrangements.

Factors associated with chronic exposure to warning-sign behaviour (WSB) in girls' romantic relationships need to be understood in order to develop responsive prevention programs. Data was provided by 152 Australian adolescent girls (M = 14.7 years, range = 13 to 17), 66 of whom reported recent relationship experience and exposure to at least one WSB. Guided by the dyadic slippery-slope model of chronic partner abuse, relationships were tested between frequency of WSB exposure, perceived WSB risk, confidence in self-agency, and assertive tendency in romantic relationships. Girls who reported more assertive responses to WSBs reported less frequent exposure to WSBs in the past 3 months. Risk sensitivity, while weakly related to assertiveness in non-WSB-exposed girls, was unrelated to assertive tendency in WSB-exposed girls. Girls with greater WSB exposure had lower perceived self-agency, and lower perceived self-agency was associated with less assertiveness in response to Dominance and Possessiveness WSBs. These results are discussed in relation to dyadic slippery-slope theory, and point to the potential importance of strategically timed, empowerment-oriented programming in partner abuse prevention.

Difficulties in intimate partner relationships are known to have detrimental effects on mental health. The association between relationship difficulties and depression is particularly strong for individuals with a tendency for rumination. While the link between rumination and depression has long been established, the indirect effects of shame and emotion regulation on this relationship remain less clear. The present study reports on longitudinal data of 65 participants (36 males) who had experienced recent relationship difficulties with their partner. Respondents provided Time 1 data for rumination (brooding and reflection), shame (personal feelings of shame) and relationship difficulties. Approximately 15 weeks later, Time 2 data was collected for emotion regulation (cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression), relationship difficulties and depression. Mediation analyses with bias-corrected bootstrapping indicated that shame fully mediated the relationship between brooding and depression, and partially mediated the relationship between reflection and depression. The indirect effects remained significant with covariates (relationship difficulties at Time 1, and cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression at Time 2). Results suggest that self-evaluations related to shame contribute to the relationship between rumination and depression, independent of affect regulation. Implications for the role of shame in relationship difficulties are discussed.

The assessment of attachment in adolescence remains problematic, with the most widely used measure, the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA; Armsden & Greenberg, 1987), argued to have major short-comings. This article reports two studies examining the psychometric properties of a shortened and modified version of the Experiences in Close Relationships — Revised (ECR-R) (Fraley, Waller, & Brennan, 2000), the Experiences in Close Relationships — Revised — General Short Form (ECR-R-GSF), for the assessment of general relationship attachment anxiety and avoidance in adolescents and young adults. Confirmatory factor analyses in two independent samples of high school and university students (Total N = 1187, 11 to 22 years) demonstrate support for the two-factor model of attachment anxiety and avoidance. The measurement model was supported across data sets and was not significantly different with respect to either age or sex. While the ECR-R-GSF demonstrated appropriate convergent and discriminant validity with the Relationships Questionnaire (RQ (Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991) it did not converge with specific, parental relationship attachment as assessed by the IPPA. The ECR-R-GSF is argued to be a reliable and psychometrically sound instrument for assessing general attachment dimensions across a wide age range.

A generalisability study examined the hypotheses that avoidant attachment, reflecting the representation of others, should be more relationship-specific (vary across relationships more than across individuals), while attachment anxiety, reflecting self-representation, should be more generalisable across a person's relationships. College students responded to 6-item questionnaire measures of these variables for 5 relationships (mother, father, best same-gender friend, romantic partner or best opposite-gender friend, other close person), on 3 (N = 120) or 2 (N = 77) occasions separated by a few weeks. Results supported the hypotheses, with the person variance component being larger than the relationship-specific component for anxiety, and the opposite happening for avoidance. Anxiety therefore seems not to be as relationship-specific as previous research suggested. Possible reasons for discrepancies between the current and previous studies are discussed.