Background: Rumination predicts depression in adults and adolescents. The development of rumination has been linked to parenting practices, but only limited research has investigated this and research has tended to rely on self-report parenting measures. Aims: To investigate the relationship between female adolescent rumination and maternal modelling, criticism and positivity using an observational measure of parental behaviour. Method: A cross-sectional design was used. Daughters aged 16–18 years and their mothers (n = 154 dyads) completed questionnaire measures of rumination and affect. Mothers of girls with rumination scores in the upper and lower quartile (both n = 26) also completed the Five Minute Speech Sample, which was used to measure maternal criticism and positivity. Results: Mothers of low rumination girls made significantly more positive comments about their daughters than the mothers of high ruminators. Mothers made very few critical comments. Self-reported rumination was not correlated in mothers and daughters, suggesting a lack of support for the potential role of modelling. Conclusion: Overall, low maternal positivity was associated with rumination in female adolescents. There was no evidence that maternal rumination or criticism were associated with adolescent rumination. The results suggest a number of implications for future research, including the need for prospective longitudinal studies using observational parenting measures.

Obesity in pets is a frustrating, major health problem. Obesity in human children is similar. Prevailing theories accounting for the rising obesity rates – for example, poor nutrition and sedentary activity – are being challenged. Obesity interventions in both pets and children have produced modest short-term but poor long-term results. New strategies are needed. A novel theory posits that obesity in pets and children is due to ‘treats’ and excessive meal amounts given by the ‘pet–parent’ and child–parent to obtain affection from the pet/child, which enables ‘eating addiction’ in the pet/child and results in parental ‘co-dependence’. Pet–parents and child–parents may even become hostage to the treats/food to avoid the ire of the pet/child. Eating addiction in the pet/child also may be brought about by emotional factors such as stress, independent of parental co-dependence. An applicable treatment for child obesity has been trialled using classic addiction withdrawal/abstinence techniques, as well as behavioural addiction methods, with significant results. Both the child and the parent progress through withdrawal from specific ‘problem foods’, next from snacking (non-specific foods) and finally from excessive portions at meals (gradual reductions). This approach should adapt well for pets and pet–parents. Pet obesity is more ‘pure’ than child obesity, in that contributing factors and treatment points are essentially under the control of the pet–parent. Pet obesity might thus serve as an ideal test bed for the treatment and prevention of child obesity, with focus primarily on parental behaviours. Sharing information between the fields of pet and child obesity would be mutually beneficial.

Background: Children of parents with bipolar disorder are at increased risk of disturbance. Aims: This study examined relationships between parental mood, parenting, household organization and child emotional and behavioural adjustment in families with a parent with bipolar disorder to determine areas of specific need for parenting support. Method: 48 parents were recruited through advertisements via self-help organizations. The study was conducted online. Parental mood and activity was assessed by self-report questionnaires (CES-D, ISS, MDQ and SRM); parenting was assessed using the Parenting Scale (PS). The SDQ was used to assess the parent's view of their child's emotional and behavioural difficulties. The Confusion, Hubbub and Order Scale (CHAOS) assessed household organization. Results: Parents reported high levels of difficulties across all measures and scores were above clinical cut-offs on most scales. Children were reported as showing high levels of disturbance on the SDQ, including all sub-scales. Parenting and depression scores were significantly positively correlated, as were depression, parenting and CHAOS score. Regression analyses indicated that CHAOS was the strongest predictor of Total Difficulties and Emotional Symptoms on the SDQ. Conclusions: Families are likely to benefit from interventions tailored to meet their parenting needs.

Parenting styles and the parent-child bond are associated with anxiety in children. Despite this association, little is known about the mechanism through which parenting has its effect. One possibility is that parenting interacts with other known pathways to fear. Two experiments are reported that look at the interaction between parenting styles and parent-child relationships and the verbal information pathway to fear. In Experiment 1, a punitive maternal parenting style was found to interact with the effect of threat information about a novel animal in 6–9-year-old children. Maternal warmth, neglect, overprotection and accurate monitoring were not found to have a significant effect. Experiment 2 showed that children reporting a greater number of negative interactions with their fathers had greater increases in fear beliefs about novel animals after both threat and no information. The quality of mother-child relationships did not significantly interact with the verbal information pathway. These experiments offer preliminary evidence that parenting practices influence how children react to negative information, which offers some insight into the potential causes of the association between parenting and anxiety in children.

This short case series aimed to explore whether and how an intervention with a cognitive component changed parental attributions about child behaviour and parents' reports of their own behaviour. The results suggest change in parental attributions, coded using the Leeds Attributional Coding System (LACS), was associated with Problem score changes on the Eyberg Child Behaviour Inventory (ECBI). Changes in parents' reports of their own behaviour were associated with Intensity score changes on the ECBI. However, the changes were in both positive and negative directions. The results call for more understanding of the mechanisms involved in change in parental attributions.

The personality profiles for youths with Prader-Willi, fragile-X, or Williams syndrome were compared to three matched groups attending regular schools. Using the California Child Q-Set (CCQ), both of the parents of the 39 children with Prader-Willi syndrome, 32 boys with fragile-X syndrome, 28 children with Williams syndrome, and children in the comparison groups provided independent personality descriptions in terms of the Big Five personality factors of Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Openness, along with Motor Activity and Irritability. Specific personality phenotypes for each of the three syndrome groups were found to be differentially related to parental behaviours (i.e. control and anger) and family contexts (i.e. experienced family stress, marital conflict, and parental consistency).