Ming Cui

Florida State University | FSU · Department of Human Development and Family Science

How does prioritizing children’s happiness over their own impact parents’ well-being? This study contributes to addressing this question by investigating the relationship between indulgent parenting (parenting style prioritizing children’s moment-to-moment happiness) and parents’ well-being through an interdependent, dyadic approach. We focus on th...

Objective: Guided by the theory of emerging adulthood and social cognitive theory, we investigated whether overparenting was associated with romantic relationship quality among emerging adults through relationship efficacy and dependent on parent–child relationship quality. Background: Establishing healthy and lasting intimate relationships is one...

Background/Objectives. Adolescence is a critical developmental stage marked by the exploration of independence and self-identity. In this study, we aimed to examine the association between indulgent parenting (characterized by high responsiveness and low demandingness) and adolescents’ maladjustments across emotional, behavioral, and social domains...

Introduction Despite previous research delving into the trajectories of delinquency during adolescence and their links to parental warmth, there remains a notable gap in understanding cultural differences in these trajectories and associated factors. This study sought to address this gap by examining and comparing the levels and trajectories of del...

The rising prevalence of CSHCN has led to significant challenges for caregivers, particularly mothers, who face difficulties from caregiving demands and managing complex healthcare interactions. The objective of this study was to examine the association between the medical complexity of CSHCN and the healthcare experiences of their mothers while ex...

Abstract: Indulgent parenting has been associated with adolescents’ psychological well-being prob- lems; however, prior research has primarily relied on adolescents’ report of such parenting behavior and its association with their own well-being, often overlooking parents’ perceptions of indulgence and their own well-being. In this study, we addres...

Informed by the goodness-of-fit model, goal theories, and literature on support gaps, this study examines the associations between congruence/discrepancies in parent-adolescent expectations of the adolescent's educational and career goals and adolescents' perceived overparenting. Data were collected through a survey of 122 parent-adolescent dyads f...

College life involves navigating different educational and career development options, as well as social relationships. The pressure to “fit in” can be stressful and involve the fear of missing out (FOMO) on fun, social events. The college environment is especially challenging for those who experience social anxiety – the fear of being rejected and...

In this chapter, we explore the topic of adolescent mental health in the United States and China, characterized by increasing rates of anxiety and depression. Drawing on family systems and socio-ecological theories, we investigate the relationship between parenting and adolescents' mental health across cultural contexts. Research suggested that par...

Emerging adults frequently report feelings of loneliness and social anxiety owing to changes in their social environment, instabilities, and transitions. One of the risk factors that could contribute to emerging adults’ social well-being is overparenting. We examined the association between overparenting, loneliness, and social anxiety among emergi...

Sibling relationships are among the most influential relationships of one’s life. For youth in foster care, sibling relationships may be particularly important. Using National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) II data, this study tested if higher sibling relationship quality was associated with lower depressive symptoms among youth...

Objective: This study aimed to investigate (1) the association between overparenting and emerging adult children’s psychological maladjustment through basic psychological needs satisfaction (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) and (2) whether the associations, particularly the associations between overparenting and needs satisfaction, vary by cu...

Objective: This study aimed to extend the current literature by examining the patterns of indulgent parenting of both mothers and fathers and their associations with adolescents’ basic psychological needs satisfaction, self-control, and self-efficacy. Background: Indulgent parenting could be harmful for the development of psychological needs satis...

Fear of missing out (FoMO), an emerging experience among adolescents in the current society, has received growing research attention in the past 10 years. Despite the common experience of FoMO among adolescents and its negative developmental implications, little research has examined it as a general phenomenon beyond the use of social media as well...

In light of the dynamic systems perspective, the current study expanded existing literature by examining the moderating effect of maternal sensitivity on the quadratic association between infant negative reactivity and future executive function development. Using a longitudinal, multimethod design, we addressed executive function development among...

Adolescence is a time for identity development and exploration. Indulgent parenting during adolescence could be developmentally inappropriate and could be associated with adolescent psychological well-being problems. Little research on indulgent parenting, however, has included and investigated both adolescent and parental well-being problems. To e...

Background: The current study focused on the role of temperament and parenting in contributing to high-intensity fear during toddlerhood and its impact on behavioral problems in the preschool age. Methods: A sample of 1292 low-income rural families were recruited, where infant fear temperament at 6 months old and toddler's fear expressions at 15...

Positive family relationships are important for child well-being. However, family relationships are unique for youth in out-of-home child welfare placements because they involve both biological and foster parents. The aim of this study was to test the interactive association between current caregiver involvement and contact with biological parents...

Objective We provide details on how relationship researchers can use Monte Carlo simulation for power estimation and sample size determination for the simple and the mediation Actor–Partner Interdependence Model (APIM). In addition to power estimates for specific sample sizes, we show how the sample size for each effect can be determined. Backgrou...

Researchers have investigated the phenomenon of overparenting of emerging adult children and its association with emerging adult development. With the increasing body of research in recent years on this topic, a timely systematic review is needed to gain a better understanding of the literature. This systematic review targets quantitative studies o...

Depression is among the most common mental health disorders reported, especially among female emerging adults. Due to the prevalence of depression, we investigated the perception of parenting behavior (indulgent parenting) in the context of female emerging adult’s symptoms of depression. Specifically, research has suggested that parent-child discre...

Adolescents in foster care can be quite resilient, yet they also are at risk for developing internalizing and externalizing mental health concerns. Positive family relationships are central to adolescent mental health, and these relationships can be complex for youth in foster care placements. Accordingly, there can be significant heterogeneity in...

Although associated with adverse mental health and occupational outcomes, the etiology of internet addiction and displays of risqué social media content are two understudied issues. Research has suggested that overparenting could be associated with these internet-related behavioral issues either directly or indirectly through the development of emo...

Parent-child communication and parent-child relationship quality could influence young adult children’s well-being. Further, the associations between parent-child communication and relationship quality and young adult children’s well-being could differ in various cultural environments. In this study, we examined the associations among these constru...

Objective The current study aimed to examine the economic impact of COVID-19 virus on family dynamics and college-age children's mental health in China and to identity personal and social or relational resilience factors that could buffer the negative consequences of COVID-19. Background Since an outbreak of COVID-19 was first reported in China in...

This study replicated and extended the Feldman (2009) study by applying the developmental hierarchical‐integrative model to understand the emergence of self‐regulation. Participants included 360 children (48.6% boys; 62.8% identified as Caucasian and 36.9% African American) and their families, predominantly from a low‐income, rural background. Fami...

Rationale One of the biggest challenges for mothers returning to work after childbirth is breastfeeding. Studies documented the physical health benefits of breastfeeding for mothers and children. However, research findings concerning the longitudinal effects of breastfeeding on maternal and children's mental health are mixed. Objective The current...

The present study investigated (1) the mediating role of attention in the associations between children’s sleep problems and classroom learning behaviors in elementary school, and (2) the moderating role of gender in these associations. Results from structural equation modeling showed that children’s sleep problems had a significant and negative as...

Foster care is intended to be a temporary placement option. Viewing permanency as central to child well-being, current U.S. policies aim to limit the length of time a child spends in out-of-home foster placements. There is little recent research, however, on predictors of length of time in out-of-home care. The purposes of this study were to test i...

Guided by a Transactional Model of anxious solitude development, we tested friend and maternal influences on continuity and change in youth anxious solitude from 3rd through 7th grade, as well as the influence of youth anxious solitude on decreased friendship participation and in-creased maternal overcontrol over time. Participants were 230 America...

This study examined the associations between parent-child relationship satisfaction and psychological distress among emerging adult children and their parents. It also investigated whether these associations varied across ethnic groups. Based on related theories and research, we hypothesized negative “actor” and “partner” associations between paren...

Making the transition to college is a developmental milestone that has important implications for emerging adults' development. China has the largest higher education system around the world, with over 6 million new enrollments in over 2,600 universities and colleges each year. In China, intergenerational connectedness is highly valued, and parents...

This study evaluated a transactional model of youth anxious solitude and peer and maternal relations from 3rd through 7th grade. Participants were 230 American youth (57% girls) selected for longitudinal study from a screening sample recruited from public schools (N = 688). Peers reported on anxious solitude and peer exclusion and youth reported on...

This study examined two potential mechanisms, competence and self-efficacy, that might account for the relationship between helicopter parenting and anxiety symptoms among female university students, and whether any mediating effects differed by parent gender. Structural equation modelling of data collected from 473 undergraduate students showed th...

Poverty is linked with a host of negative outcomes. Approximately one-third of unmarried mothers and their children live in poverty in the United States. Public and private supports have the potential to mitigate the adverse effects of poverty; however, these supports may be unstable over time. The purpose of this study was to determine public and...

Overparenting, which consists of parental overinvolvement and overcontrol, has appeared as a global trend over the past two decades. Researchers, educators, and practitioners have investigated the current state of overparenting as a growing concern and how it impacts child development. Of particular interest and relevance to this growing concern is...

Objectives This study examined the external influences and internal processes in parental beliefs, perceptions, and emotions regarding the parenting of adolescent children and the role of parental indulgence. Methods Interviews of 29 parents of adolescents, who were approximately 15 years old, were conducted regarding the perceptions of parental i...

To help with the fragile nature of cohabiting parents' relationship, more understanding about their interpersonal experiences is needed to identify factors that matters for their relationship stability. We examined how cohabiting parents' perceived coparenting support from their partner was associated with their later relationship status (married/c...

Objectives Previous studies suggested that helicopter parenting was associated with college students’ psychological maladjustment. The mechanisms and circumstances explaining such an association, however, were less studied. In the present study, we aimed to extend the current research to investigate how and under what condition helicopter parenting...

Objectives We examined the mediating role of self-control in the relation between helicopter parenting and college student school burnout and whether the relation between helicopter parenting and college student school burnout varied by parental gender. Specifically, we hypothesized that (1) there would be a positive association between helicopter...

Objectives This study examined associations between child disability and parent-reported overparenting, autonomy granting, and affect management among a purposeful sample of parents whose children attended a camp serving early adolescents with disabilities or a camp serving early adolescents without disabilities. Methods 868 parents completed a po...

Despite the prevalence of delinquency during adolescence and the influence of culture on parenting behaviors and adolescent outcomes, few studies have examined the association between parental warmth and adolescent delinquency cross-culturally. Thus, this study sought to identify cultural differences in the levels of delinquency and their associati...

Helicopter parenting, defined as a form of overinvolved parenting of young adult children, is shown to be associated with young adult children’s well-being. Furthermore, the phenomenon of helicopter parenting is increasingly evident across various cultures. In this study, the association between helicopter parenting and young adult children’s well-...

Because emotional and behavioral problems during young adulthood are an evolving public health concern, it is important to identify parenting behavior in the family of origin that prevents or exacerbates such problems. Therefore, we tested the impact of a unique parenting behavior – indulgent parenting – on emotional and behavioral problems through...

Alcohol use, which is often associated with other problems in well-being, is a persistent problem among college students. Helicopter parenting, defined as parental overinvolvement, is an emerging parenting behavior that could be associated with alcohol use among college students. This study of 473 female undergraduate students investigated the asso...

There is an increasing trend of overparenting across different cultures and there is a growing interest in its influence on the prevalence of university students’ mental health problems. Overparenting can undermine the development of autonomy and independence among young adult children. In this chapter, focusing on parental influence on university...

Objectives The overall goal of this study was to develop a stronger understanding of the role of culture in shaping the experience of parental control and its mental health implications for emerging adults. Specifically, the study focused parental psychological and behavioral control, and their potential implications for emerging adults’ hopelessne...

Objectives Research on indulgent parenting in childhood and adolescence and its association with helicopter parenting in emerging adulthood and the well-being of parents and emerging adult children is limited. In this study, we examined (1) the association between indulgent parenting in childhood and adolescence and helicopter parenting in emerging...

Journal of Organizational Psychology

Although most studies have established the importance of individual-level influences on adolescent outcomes, studies are often limited in that they do not address the effects of broader community-level factors. To address this limitation, we examined the association between community-level poverty and adolescents’ academic achievement, and the role...

Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

It is not uncommon for caregivers and adolescents to provide different perspectives of adolescents’ mental health symptoms; however, few studies have examined these discrepancies, especially between foster parents and adolescents in the child welfare system. The goal of this study was to investigate the levels of disagreement on adolescent mental h...

Research on indulgent parenting and its relation to college students is both limited and inconsistent. Further, all the studies have used a variable-centered approach. To fill the gap in the current literature, the aims of this study were to explore profiles of parental indulgence and their associations with college students’ emotional and behavior...

The purpose of this study is to examine how cohabiting partners’ plans to marry after the birth of their child were associated with marriage realization or continued cohabitation when their child was 1, 3, and 5 years old. Possible parents’ gender differences, couple agreement, and the longitudinal associations were examined. Using four waves of da...

Objective The purpose of this study was to document how often youth in foster care have contact with their legal parents, test factors associated with the amount of contact, and determine if contact was associated with relationships with caregivers and youth mental health symptoms. Background Because parental reunification is the case plan goal fo...

This study used interviews to question 29 parents of adolescents regarding their perceptions of parental indulgence they had experienced and practice now as parents. The study was based on socialization and symbolic interactionism theories with qualitative analysis techniques being used to identify thematic findings. Four parents had not been indul...

Because emotional and behavioural problems among young adults are an evolving public health concern, it is critical to identify parenting behaviour in family of origin that prevents or exacerbates such problems. Further, it is particularly important to focus on university students in China, a country with rapid growth in university student populati...

Objective: This prospective, longitudinal investigation examined psychological violence across generations. We examined how parent psychological violence experienced during adolescence influenced the stability of one's own intimate partner psychological violence perpetration across time and how psychological violence is related to harsh parenting...

Foster parent training is a well-recognized component of providing quality care in child welfare. Well-trained foster parents can improve placement stability, reduce behavioural problems and encourage successful reunification or adoption. A review of the foster parent training programmes can provide a better understanding of the current state of fo...

The purpose of this study was to examine the association between parental warmth and adolescent delinquency, the potential mediating roles of adolescent disclosure and parental knowledge, and gender differences in such association among Korean adolescents. We hypothesized that (1) parental warmth would be significantly and negatively associated wit...

Objectives To examine differences in hydroxycholecalciferol (25(OH)D) and parathyroid hormone (PTH) concentrations between Caucasian and African American (AA) postmenopausal women, as well as the effects of dietary calcium, protein and vitamin D intakes on 25(OH)D, PTH, and body adiposity using structural equation modeling (SEM). Design Population-...

With most current studies focusing on the snapshot of family structure and offspring relationship outcomes, this study examined how children’s exposure to mothers’ cumulative relationship history affected the likelihood of their own romantic involvement in adolescence and relationship frequency from adolescence to young adulthood. Using a large, na...

This qualitative study was set in the context of two evolving concomitant social issues: concerns with adolescent eating and health behaviors and parental indulgence. The research purpose was to gain a deeper and more insightful understanding of the family food ecosystem, parental modeling, and parental indulgence and their potential relationship t...

Parents and adolescents often provide different ratings of youths' behavior problems, yet few studies have examined such disagreement and its effect on later adjustment, especially among at-risk adolescents. The purpose of this study was to investigate, among a sample of adolescents in foster care, whether the degree of caregiver–adolescent disagre...

Research findings suggested that positive parenting behaviors during adolescence continue to have lasting effects on children, even when they enter young adulthood; though few studies have investigated how positive parenting behaviors affect career success in young adulthood. Career success is central to young adults’ identity formation, life satis...

This study examined the role of extradyadic involvement (EDI) in heterosexual dating relationships among young adult females (N = 539). A considerable percentage of participants (36 %) reported that they had engaged in an extradyadic emotional or sexual relationship within the last 2 months. Results from logistic regression analyses supported the g...

Although most current studies have established the importance of school-related parental involvement to adolescents' academic achievement, they are limited in that they do not address macrolevel community influences on such an association. This may be due in part to the lack of community-level data or the use of inappropriate statistical strategies...

Adolescence and young adulthood are periods of increased autonomy. Higher levels of autonomy could increase the opportunities for risky behavior such as delinquency. During these periods of transition, the role of parental control becomes less clear. Previous studies have demonstrated the association between parental control and adolescent delinque...

Little attention has been paid to whether violence in adolescent romantic relationships is associated with relationship violence later in young adulthood. This study examined the continuation of intimate partner violence (IPV) from adolescence to young adulthood. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, results from neg...

This study investigated intimate partner violence in interracial and monoracial relationships. Using a nationally representative sample, regression analyses indicated that interracial couples demonstrated a higher level of mutual IPV than monoracial white couples but a level similar to monoracial black couples. There were significant gender differe...

There is inconsistency in the current literature regarding the association between dimensions of parenting processes and academic achievement for adolescents. Further, few studies have extended such an association into young adulthood. In this study, we examined the effect of three dimensions of parenting processes, including school-specific involv...

A survey of adolescents aged 15 to 16 years was used to examine the relationship between their perceptions of indulgent parenting and adolescent weight status to overall satisfaction with life, as associated with adolescent perceptions of body image, health and stress. In addition, perceptions of parental indulgence were examined in terms of their...

This study examined the association between romantic relationships and delinquency in adolescence and young adulthood. Using a large, longitudinal, and nationally representative sample, results from negative binomial regressions showed a positive association between romantic involvement and delinquency in adolescence. Further, the cumulative number...

The main purpose of our study was to examine the impact of positive inter-parental interactions on the conflict management of young adults. Based on social cognitive theory (SCT), it was hypothesized that exposure to interparental positive interactions would mediate the intergenerational transmission of conflict. The findings only partially support...

Marital processes in early marriage are important for understanding couples' future marital quality. Spouses' attributions about a partner's behavior have been linked to marital quality, yet the mechanisms underlying this association remain largely unknown. When we used couple data from the Family Transitions Project (N = 280 couples) across the fi...

It was proposed that parental divorce does not have a uniform effect on young adults' romantic relationships and that differential outcomes depend on how young adults perceive their parents' divorce. Using a sample of 571 young adults, structural equation modeling suggested that, compared with those from intact families, young adults whose parents...

Although previous research shows that relationship closeness plays a central role in an individual’s willingness to forgive an offender, it is based exclusively on data from Western, individualistic cultures. In the current study, the authors examined the association between relationship closeness and forgiveness across six countries, including bot...

This study evaluates the bi-directional association between depressive symptoms and bodily pain, and examines the role of physical disability and perceived social stress in the depression-pain relationship. Data are employed from a two-wave panel study of Miami-Dade county residents (n = 1,459) that includes a substantial over-sampling of individua...

The present study examined the influence of parental divorce and marital discord on young adult children’s timing of marriage and cohabitation. Using a prospective, longitudinal design and controlling for family socioeconomic status (SES) and target youth’s gender, survival analysis of nearly 500 young adults demonstrated that parental divorce pred...

This chapter offers a very brief orientation to the construct of emerging adulthood and introduces the reader to the remainder of the book. WHAT IS EMERGING ADULTHOOD? In contemporary western society, adolescence begins earlier and adulthood (e.g., marrying, becoming parents) comes much later than in prior generations (Arnett, 2000, 2004). Today's...

This chapter draws on three important themes in contemporary research on families and close relationships to provide new insights regarding important precursors of the quality of romantic unions during emerging adulthood. As Arnett (2004) noted, emerging adulthood, a period from 18 to 25 years old or perhaps even older, is a time of exploring possi...

Emerging adulthood - the period between the late teens and mid-twenties - is a unique and important developmental period during which people gain relationship experience before settling on someone to partner with. Romantic Relationships in Emerging Adulthood presents a synthesis of cutting-edge research and theory on this topic. Leading scholars fr...

The present study examined whether physical and verbal aggression in the family of origin were associated with similar patterns of aggression in young adult couples. Hypotheses were tested using a sample of 213 focal individuals who were followed from adolescence to adulthood. Results suggested that aggression in the family when focal participants...

Using a developmental psychopathology framework, this study aimed to examine changes in externalizing and internalizing problems of adolescents in foster care and to determine whether type of maltreatment, gender, and age influenced trajectories. Authors used 3 waves of data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being. Growth-curve...

The differential effects of parental divorce and marital conflict on young adult children's romantic relationships were examined in this short-term longitudinal study. Using a sample of 285 young adults, structural equation modeling supported the hypothesis that parental divorce and marital conflict were independently associated with young adult ch...

The present study examined trajectories of marital satisfaction among couples with adolescent children and evaluated how changes in parents' conflict over raising adolescent children were associated with changes in marital satisfaction over four years. Using a prospective, longitudinal research design and controlling for family socioeconomic status...

Prevention of intimate partner violence on college campuses includes programs designed to change attitudes, and hence, a scale that assesses such attitudes is needed. Study 1 (N = 859) cross validates the factor structure of the Intimate Partner Violence Attitude Scale-Revised using exploratory factor analysis and presents initial validity data on...

Although evidence suggests that physical disability and depression may be reciprocally related, questions of causality versus spuriousness and the direction of causality remain to be confidently answered. This study considered the hypothesis of reciprocal influence; the possibility of spuriousness in relation to pain, stress, and lifetime major dep...