C. W. O'Neal

• Ph.D.
• Researcher at University of Georgia

Research has shown that positive family and individual contexts can prevent adolescents from developing internalizing and externalizing symptoms. However, less is known about the various ways resilience occurs longitudinally, considering compensatory (i.e., additive) effects and protective (i.e., moderation) effects of contextual (external) resourc...

Guided by the stress process perspective, this study examined if combat exposure was indirectly associated with marital satisfaction through work performance stress. Additionally, we tested whether unit cohesion served as a moderator of this indirect effect. Data were drawn from 1,122 married Soldiers who participated in the All-Army Study componen...

The family financial socialization (FFS) theory details associations among demographic characteristics, financial socialization, and financial capabilities. Given that the transitions and challenges unique to military life have implications for financial capabilities, this study utilizes the FFS theory to examine cross-sectional data from a sample...

Grounded in the theory of planned behavior and family systems theory, this study examined the notion that financial attitudes are a driving force in financial management behaviors and healthy financial behaviors, in turn, have implications for couple relationship processes and outcomes. This study was based on the experiences of a sample of service...

Family members' perceptions of challenges associated with military life can spillover to their relationships with one another and, in turn, inform service members' beliefs of how their work impacts family life. The current study examined connections between active-duty fathers', civilian mothers', and adolescents' perceptions of military-related st...

Although some research has examined the mental health of individual family members in military families, additional research is needed that considers mental health among multiple members of the family system simultaneously and that characterizes subsets of families with distinct patterns. Mental health patterns of depressive symptoms and well-being...

Experiencing child sexual abuse is associated with increased risk for a range of short‐ and long‐term negative effects. This short report defines and explores the annual incidence rates of child sexual abuse in the United States over 25 years between 1996 and 2021 (the most recent data released) and, comparatively, annual incidence rates of child m...

Objective Grounded in the Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick model of evaluation, we examine multiple dimensions of military service members' reactions to six online, asynchronous financial family life education efforts. Background Using a “just‐in‐time” training model, financial literacy trainings that correspond to key family and career transitions wer...

Objective: The present study examined military families' use of food distribution resources and military (e.g., rank) and non-military (e.g., race/ethnicity) characteristics associated with using food distribution resources. Design: Secondary data analyses from a cross-sectional survey in the first six months of 2021. Setting: A national sampl...

Approximately 60% of deployed service members leave behind immediate family members, and although military families tend to be adaptive and resilient, evidence suggests that deployments are challenging and difficulties can arise during transitions and family separation, especially for adolescents. Grounded in the family attachment network model and...

Grounded in the family systems theory within the life course systems perspective, this study sought to investigate (a) long-term transmission processes of hostility from interparental relationships to parent–young adult relationships and (b) the mediational roles of parents’ and adolescents’ psychopathology in these long-term processes. Research ha...

Accessing two independent samples of adolescents in military families in the United States who recently experienced parental separation (N = 573; N = 186), this study sought to identify adolescent mental health profiles indexed on multiple indicators. In other words, we asked how military adolescents fare after parental separation in terms of menta...

This integrative review of research utilizing the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health draws on previous research detailing pathways linking early socioeconomic adversity in childhood and adolescence (Wave 1 in 1995 and prior) to physical health outcomes in young adulthood (Wave 5 in 2015). Health outcomes considered included s...

Because sequential patterns of multiple transition events (i.e., college graduation, full-time employment, marriage, and parenthood) are associated with turning points in depressive symptom trajectories during young adulthood, the present study used a sample of 446 White adolescents (52.3% females; 15.58 years old, on average) over 18 years (1992 t...

Popular research methods addressing change over time often fail to consider the heterogeneity that may exist in trajectories over time. Building on a latent growth curve model in a structural equation framework, with longitudinal data over multiple time points, possible heterogeneity trajectories can be investigated with growth mixture modeling. We...

Past research suggests that social, psychological and biological processes underlying common health problems are highly interrelated and may be comonents of a larger biopsychosocial process. This process may be influenced by marital status. The current study investigated a biopsychosocial process involving social, psychological and physcial health...

Longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health were used to evaluate the impact of post-high school military enlistment during emerging adulthood. Comparisons were made between matched samples of emerging adults who enlisted in the military ( n = 576) and their civilian counterparts ( n = 576) on well-being ove...

Objective Drawing from the contextual model of family stress, social support and depressive symptoms were examined as two psychosocial factors that may link experiences of change and discontinuity common to military families to military adolescents' school success (i.e., academic achievement, school engagement, and homework commitment). Background...

Objective This brief presents a novel element of program evaluation, termed a domain matrix design , and demonstrates the application of the design element with an example from a collaborative evaluation project focused on the Department of the Air Force's Personal Financial Readiness program. Background Utilizing sound scientific principles and e...

Objective The current study examined inconsistent discipline as a linking mechanism connecting parental guilt about work to adolescent psychological distress in military families. Background Military families may face tensions connected to competing demands of family and the military career, which can produce a sense of parental guilt. This guilt...

Tailored, responsive behavioral health services received in community mental health centers are associated with healthy outcomes for children and youth and their families. The coordination of care and services, often provided by case managers, is imperative to maximize these benefits for children and families. Thus, staffing considerations of case...

This study investigates (a) heterogeneous trajectories of couple intimacy over the mid-later years (average ages of 40-65) and (b) how these intimacy classes are differentially associated with spouses' midlife financial strain as well as their later-life health and wellbeing outcomes. The sample was comprised of white couples in long-term marriages...

Elements of military life can create challenges for all family members, including military-connected adolescents, and can have detrimental consequences for their adjustment. Although research with samples of military-connected adolescents has examined the influences of military stressors for adolescent adjustment (e.g., depressive symptoms, anxiety...

Objectives: Consistent with biopsychosocial models, shared pathophysiological conditions underlying both physical pain and depressive symptoms can result in the clustering of pain and depressive symptoms. However, previous studies have not investigated a higher-order construct capturing both pain and depressive symptoms over time. Furthermore, rese...

Objectives: Locating the family systems theory within the life course stress process perspective, this study investigates how husbands’ and wives’ marital and financial stress were implicated in their subsequent physical health, psychological distress, and loneliness. Methods: Using prospective data from 254 husbands and wives over 27 years, a path...

The present study used a sample of 9,100 youth from The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health to identify how early socioeconomic adversity and BMI-related genetics combine to influence youth BMI and academic achievement/failure across successive life stages (i.e., adolescence, emerging adulthood, young adulthood), resulting in...

Consistent with the emotional cycle of deployment, postdeployment reintegration is often a time of highs and lows as service members (SMs) and their families adjust to their new normal. However, few studies have considered the nuances of reintegration, specifically the various patterns of personal and family reintegration experiences that may exist...

Research has primarily focused on additive (unique) associations between early stressful life experiences (specifically, socioeconomic adversity and maltreatment) and young adults’ cardiometabolic disease risk without considering multiplicative (synergistic) influences. Furthermore, research has not fully considered the varying patterns of health r...

Objective To examine associations between objective (i.e., rank, time away for deployment, combat deployments) and subjective (i.e., difficulty coping with military life) military-related stressors and multiple domains of family well-being, including marital interactions, marital quality, parenting quality, and family functioning. Background Milit...

Although accepting influence (i.e., being open to the influence of others) is considered important for couple relationships, there is a lack of empirical research on the association between accepting influence and relationship satisfaction. Moreover, research has not examined what family experiences may precede one's ability to accept influence in...

In this article, several dyadic analyses are applied to illustrate how they can be used to answer distinct research questions regarding associations between dyad members over time (longitudinal interdependence). This article focuses on how to conceptualize and empirically assess distinct dyadic processes, including time-sequential processes involvi...

Research focussing on individual biopsychosocial processes leading to physical pain as a health condition is rare. The present study investigated sense of control as a mechanism linking early midlife stress to later‐life physical pain for husbands and wives in long‐term marriages. Using data from 508 rural husbands and wives over 27 years (1991–201...

Background and Objectives The present study investigated pain trajectories of husbands and wives over their mid-later years, the grouping of these trajectories, and differences in baseline biopsychosocial profiles and health and well-being outcomes in later years across the pain trajectory groups. Research Design and Methods Growth mixture modelin...

Caregivers play a crucial role in the socialization of youth emotional understanding and regulation, which are implicated in socio-emotional outcomes. Although a rich literature details the sequelae of parent emotion socialization (ES) strategies, there is less understanding of variables that may explain associations between ES strategies and youth...

Objectives: To investigate how midlife chronic stress (40–50 years) and subsequent acute stressful events (50–65 years) influence husbands’ and wives’ later life mental and physical health (65+ years). Methods: Dyadic structural equation modeling was used with prospective data over 25 years from 256 husbands and wives in enduring marriages. Results...

Objective The military lifestyle of extended training programs and deployments creates a need to clearly define each partner's roles and responsibilities after each departure and reunion. Background Previous researchers have discovered that the less ambiguity that occurs when an individual enters or departs the family system, the less likely the f...

Research has documented that loneliness is a major public health concern, particularly for older adults in the United States. However, previous studies have not elucidated the mechanisms that connect family economic adversity to husbands' and wives' loneliness in later adulthood. Thus, using prospective dyadic data over 27 years from 254 enduring c...

Objective To examine psychological health as a mechanism linking economic pressure and marital instability in the early middle years to poor physical health in later life. Background Although previous research suggests that sustained stressful marital experience may lead to mental and physical health problems, little is known about how contextual...

Objectives: This study investigates how person–work mismatch (PWM) and subsequent pre-retirement work circumstances lead to poor mental health in later years for husbands and wives in enduring marriages. Methods: Data from 224 dual-earner couples in enduring marriages who participated over 27 years (1991–2015) in their middle to their later years w...

The present study aimed to test the direct and moderating roles of gratitude on Latino adolescent mental health (i.e., depressive symptoms and life satisfaction). Further, informed by the stress process framework, the present study tested the direct associations between several social stressors and resources (i.e., perceived discrimination, positiv...

Father involvement can promote the psychosocial health of family members (i.e., fathers, mothers, and children). However, the association between father involvement and individual members' psychosocial health may depend on the quality of the marital relationship and the perceptions of the reporting family member. Research with multiple reporters fr...

Objective Grounded in the Contextual Model of Family Stress, this study sought to identify (a) how military families' postdeployment reintegration experiences relate to the psychosocial health of adolescents and (b) indicators of family climate as a linking mechanism. Background Reintegration requires individuals, families, and systems to readjust...

Although past research has noted longitudinal, and sometimes bi-directional, associations between marital interactions, loneliness, and physical health, previous work has not identified long-term associations and differential associations over life-course stages (i.e., mid-life and later adulthood). Utilizing a life-course stress process perspectiv...

The current study examined economic adversity and physical health outcomes in line with the family stress model (FSM) for husbands and wives in enduring marriages. Data came from 243 husbands and wives who participated from early middle to later adulthood. Assessments included observational and self-report measures. Economic hardship and economic p...

The current study, using prospective data over 25 years (1991–2015; N = 245 couples), investigates life course dyadic patterns of positive and negative marital trajectories (i.e., marital strength and strain, respectively) in middle-aged husbands and wives and an array of physical and mental health outcomes associated with these patterns. Spousal w...

This article introduces and demonstrates the use of an integrated life course systems perspective to advance the study of the aging processes of couples in enduring relationships. This objective is accomplished by bridging the life course and systems perspectives to conceptualize the couple as a functioning system and to locate couple dynamics with...

Previous research has not adequately investigated the persistent influence of stressful work experiences, particularly person‐work mismatch (PWM), on the later‐life physical health outcomes of working husbands and wives. Using prospective data collected from 235 working husbands and wives over a period of 27 years (1991–2017), this study examined P...

Objectives: To examine a) processes through which family economic hardship (FEH) contributes to spouses’ mental health and subsequent subjective memory impairment (SMI) in later years and b) the moderating effect of overall relationship quality on these associations. Methods: With prospective data over 27 years from a sample of 224 husbands and wiv...

Reports an error in "Sibling relationships in older adulthood: Links with loneliness and well-being" by Clare M. Stocker, Megan Gilligan, Eric T. Klopack, Katherine J. Conger, Richard P. Lanthier, Tricia K. Neppl, Catherine Walker O'Neal and K. A. S. Wickrama (Journal of Family Psychology, 2020[Mar], Vol 34[2], 175-185). In the original article, th...

Drawing from the social organization theory of action and change, the role of community‐capacity elements (shared responsibility and collective competence) for military members' and their civilian spouses' well‐being is examined. With data from 266 active‐duty military families, military members and their spouses are classified by theory‐based comm...

Although research suggests that stressful marital experiences may lead to feelings of loneliness in later life, little is known about the influence of marital strain over an extended period of time on loneliness in later years. Thus, in the present study, drawing from family systems and cognitive theories along with common fate and actor–partner in...

Although previous studies have documented spousal resemblance in health attributes, questions remain regarding the longitudinal resemblance of spouses' body mass index (BMI) and the possible formation of couple-level BMI trajectory patterns. Consequentially, we know little about how the longitudinal resemblance of spouses' BMI may link couples' var...

Health problems in midlife have been shown to continue into later adulthood. This continuity may be attributed to social selection and social causation, with longitudinal sequential associations between health problems and economic pressure (EP) over the life course creating mediational effects (health → EP → health). Moreover, in enduring marriage...

Grounded in multiple ways of thinking about families, we propose a beginning framework for developing and implementing military family life education. We first situate this work within the context of established family life education frameworks. Then, we discuss features of military culture, including its contexts and demands on families, to highli...

Objective The present study investigated the factorial structure of the dyadic stress proliferation process in couples in enduring marriages leading to their psychological distress in later years. Background Stress proliferation during short and long periods of time has been shown to drive complex stress–distress processes during the life course....

Family economic hardship (FEH) can negatively impact the quality of marital relationships, and research has shown that increased distress of husbands and wives at least partially mediates this association. Research has shown that FEH not only increases feelings of distress but also depletes individuals’ positive feelings. The mediating role of posi...

This study investigated the longitudinal associations between mastery, conflict management behaviors, and depressive symptoms using an actor-partner interdependence model with 371 middle-aged couples over a span of 24 years. Results indicated that for both husbands and wives, individuals who possessed higher levels of mastery generally displayed mo...

Researchers have documented associations between family relationships and a variety of well-being outcomes. Yet, sibling relationships, the longest lasting relationships in most people's lives, have received very little research attention beyond young adulthood. The goals of the current study were to: provide descriptive information about sibling r...

Background Teen pregnancy is associated with increased risk of school dropout, employment challenges and long-term poverty; these risks are exacerbated for foster youth who are at elevated risk for teen pregnancy. Sex education and relationship education can facilitate the development of attitudes and skills associated with behaviors that reduce ri...

Research shows that daily experiences of awe, curiosity, gratitude, joy, and love can put the average person on a trajectory of growth, success, and positive social connection, and can also prevent those who are suffering from following a downward spiral. Nonetheless, data show that most people are not functioning at optimal capacity. In fact, just...

Objective: General psychopathology (GPP), as reflected by dimensional symptoms of depression, anxiety, and hostility, has been shown to have a persistent influence on physical health problems. Yet, little is known about longitudinal changes in GPP and the long-term GPP- physical health process within married couples over their midlater years. This...

Drawing from the social organizational theory of community action and change (SOAC) within a systemic biopsychosocial perspective, associations between community context (military community connections and satisfaction with military life), psychological well-being (depressive symptoms, anxiety, and self-efficacy), and physical health were examined...

Objectives: The present study investigated the decade-long actor and partner infleunces between husbands’ and wives’ trajectories of stressful work conditions (SWCs) and their depressive symptoms while also considering the moderation of these influences by spousal warmth. Methods: Participants were 330 middle-aged dual-earner couples from the Iowa...

The study examined the mediating roles of risky health lifestyle and depressive symptoms in relation to childhood/adolescence adversity and young adult cardiometabolic risk with data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (n = 9421). Four classes of youth emerged from a latent class analysis with varying early adversity...

Loneliness is relatively common among older adults in the United States, and there can be significant physical, psychological, and cognitive impairments associated with feelings of loneliness. Consequently, this study seeks to uncover determinants of loneliness, particularly the impact of couples’ negative and positive marital experiences (i.e., ma...

Military members and their spouses (n = 223 families) were selected from an Active Duty Army installation and assessed with regard to their connections with the military community, their levels of coping with military culture demands, and their reports of individual (depression and life satisfaction) and family well-being. Guided by the contextual...

This study examined how family factors that diminish feelings of loss (frequent communication) and reflect system-level adaptation (effective household management) during deployment were associated with enhanced resilience and fewer vulnerabilities during reintegration and, ultimately, the promotion of family functioning following deployment. Multi...

The present study examines the indirect effect of stressful life events (SLEs) on internalizing symptoms via two cognitive assets, mindfulness and gratitude, in a sample of emerging adults (N = 256). The study of stressful life events and internalizing symptoms is particularly salient for the emerging adult population given the high rates of both S...

Both enduring neurotic vulnerabilities and economic hardship have been shown to negatively influence marital behaviors, which have physical and mental health consequences. However, because most previous research is fragmented and has focused on the early years of marriage or relatively short periods of time, their long-term effects are unclear. Usi...

Background and objectives: The current study assesses the unique influences of family economic hardship (FEH) in early and late midlife on husbands' and wives' body mass index (BMI) and the influence of BMI on the onset of cardiometabolic (CM) disease in later adulthood. The protective role of marital integration is also considered in relation to...