Ted G Futris
Biographic Data
| ID | 107485 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ted G Futris |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ted G |
| FAMILY NAME | Futris |
| SIGNATURE | FUTRIS T G |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Georgia |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2359-3385 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 35 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 59 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 35 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Adverse Childhood Experiences, Psychosocial Problems, and Relationship Quality in Romantic Couples: Relationship Maintenance Skills as an Interpersonal Resource
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have long-term negative effects, including on relationship outcomes, well into adulthood. In line with the Couple Adaptation to Traumatic Stress Model and the theory of resilience and relational load, routine relationship maintenance skills were identified as an interpersonal resource mediating the association between psychosocial problems and couple relationship quality. Data from 212 opposite sex romantic co…
Trajectories of Change Following Relationship Education for Couples Raising Children With Disabilities
Couples raising children with disabilities face unique and ongoing stressors that challenge their capacity to parent effectively and threaten the health of their couple and coparenting relationship. This may be especially true among couples receiving child welfare services. Guided by the vulnerability–stress–adaptation model, the current study explores whether and how participation in a couple relationship education (CRE) program, ELEVATE , may p…
Dyadic Reports of Interparental Relationship Quality and Intentions to Continue Fostering Among Coupled Foster Caregivers
The United States is in a foster care crisis with nearly 400,000 children in need of care and not enough foster homes to fill this need. Therefore, recruiting and retaining high‐quality foster care homes is essential for the placement stability and well‐being of some of our society's most vulnerable children. For foster caregivers in a couple relationship, the health of the couple and coparenting relationship may play a major role in their well‐b…
Changes in Relationship Skills and Parenting Stress Among Vulnerable Couples Participating in Couple Relationship Education Before Versus During the Covid ‐19 Pandemic
The COVID‐19 pandemic marked sudden changes for many parenting couples that heightened levels of parenting stress. A strong couple relationship can serve as a protective buffer against parenting stress, especially during acute stress resulting from the COVID‐19 pandemic. Couple relationship education (CRE) teaches couple relationship skills (CRS) that can promote positive couple functioning and, in turn, lower levels of parenting stress. Guided b…
The Associations Between Trait Mindfulness, Relationship Efficacy and Interparental Relationship Quality for Couples Receiving Support Services: A Dyadic Data Analysis
Guided by the vulnerability–stress–adaptation (VSA) model, the current study examines the associations between trait mindfulness, relationship efficacy, couple relationship quality and co‐parenting support for couples receiving support services (e.g., home visitation services and financial benefits). Using data collected from 415 heterosexual couples parenting at least one child under the age of 18 and receiving government benefits, we conducted …
Sources of Influence in Marriage and Parenting for Interfaith Couples
Interfaith marriages are increasingly common, yet research on their family dynamics and sources of influence in family functioning remains limited. Relatedly, although research highlights religion’s influence on family processes, most studies only include same-faith couples. Subsequently, we qualitatively explored the experiences of 32 happily married interfaith couples, examining their sources of guidance in marriage and parenting, reasons for r…
Foster caregivers' depressive symptoms and parenting stress: Applying the theory of resilience and relational load
Parental and contextual influences on religious transmission in adolescence
Prior research into the factors which contribute to religious development in adolescence has primarily focused on either societal or familial forces. The current study seeks to illuminate the role played by more mid-ranged, faith-based structures such as religious congregations and the faith traditions in which they operate. Using hierarchical linear modeling and a multi-dimensional approach to adolescent religiosity, the current study provides e…
Navigating race talk: An examination of racial dialogue between White college students
Non-relative foster caregivers' changes in mindfulness and couple relationship skills following relationship education
Foster caregivers experience many challenges related to fostering which, for those in a committed couple relationship, may impact the health of that relationship. Recent efforts have been made to provide couple relationship education (CRE) to foster caregivers to provide them with the knowledge and skills to develop and maintain a healthy relationship with their partner amidst the challenges of fostering. Further, recent studies have begun to exa…
Validating the Couple Relationship Skills Inventory
Military couples’ childhood experiences and romantic relationship satisfaction: The role of accepting influence
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 later romantic relationships, although life course theory and the vulnerability stress adaptation mo…
The association between financial distress, conflict management, and co-parenting support for couples receiving child welfare
This study examined financial distress, conflict management, and co-parenting support among 254 couples receiving child welfare services. Using an actor-partner interdependence model, this study tested the indirect association between couples' financial distress and their perceptions of co-parenting support through the use of positive conflict management strategies. Indirect actor effects were found for both mothers and fathers such that financia…
Foster Caregivers' Parenting Stress as a Moderator of Change in Coparenting Following Relationship Education
Foster caregivers provide care to some of our most vulnerable children and often experience challenges that can interfere with family functioning, including the interparental relationship. Recent efforts have been made to provide couple relationship education (CRE) to foster caregivers to support their interparental relationship and enhance the quality of the foster home. Guided by family systems theory and adult learning theory, and using an act…
Foster father identity: A theoretical framework
Foster fathers, who care for and have a unique opportunity to positively influence the at‐risk children who are placed in their home, may struggle to establish a salient foster father identity due to a lack of societal clarity about their role and conflicting views about their importance within the child welfare system. However, we lack theoretical and empirical knowledge on foster fathering. Thus, a nuanced conceptual understanding of the factor…
Fostering confidence: Foster caregivers' relationship efficacy and associations with marital and co‐parenting relationship quality
Although healthy marital and co‐parenting relationships are important characteristics of a high‐quality, two‐parent foster home, little attention has been given to foster caregiver couples' perceptions of their marital and co‐parenting relationships and the contextual factors that influence these perceptions. Guided by the contextual model of family stress and social cognitive theory, the current study explores patterns of foster caregivers' rela…
In my heart forever: ’ Foster caregivers’ dedication, grief, and couple relationship quality
Many dedicated foster caregivers form a strong attachment to the children in their care, leaving them emotionally at-risk for when a child is removed from the home (e.g. displacement, reunification). The grief they experience when a child leaves may influence their other relationships (e.g. couple relationship). Survey data were collected from a statewide random sample of foster caregivers. The final sample included foster caregivers who had expe…
Cooperative, Compromising, Conflictual, and Uninvolved Coparenting Among Teenaged Parents
Adolescent parents often maintain a coparenting relationship that is characterized by frequent conflict and unhealthy communication. However, in relationships with less conflict and more cooperation, adolescent mothers display well-being and greater self-acceptance, while young fathers are more likely to be involved with their children. Based on human, financial, and social capital theory that reinforces the influence of parents' investments on f…
Sources of socialization for interpersonal trust: An exploration of low-income Black adolescents’ experiences
Much of the literature on interpersonal trust is quantitative in nature, using scales developed primarily with White middle-class and upper-class adults. To understand how another racial group of a different socioeconomic background and age views interpersonal trust, we considered the experiences of 22 low-income Black adolescents. The adolescents participated in a relationship education program and were interviewed about their interpersonal trus…
Foster mothers' parenting stress and coparenting quality: An examination of the moderating role of support
Association between Depressive Symptoms, Perceived Partner Emotional Expression, and Marital Quality
Previous studies have explored the direct association between mental health and marital quality; however, the processes moderating that association are not yet well understood. The present study examined associations between depressive symptoms, perceived partner emotional expression, and marital quality among 462 married individuals. Findings suggest that (a) low commitment, low satisfaction, and marital instability may be symptomatic of mental …
Fostering a culture of family‐centred care: Child welfare professionals' beliefs about fathers, family instability, and the value of relationship education
Guided by the Cultural Competence Attainment Model, the purpose of this study is to examine how socio‐demographic and work characteristics are associated with variations in child welfare professionals' (CWPs) attitudes about father involvement and family instability and how these attitudes are linked with whether they view relationship and marriage education as relevant to their efforts to support families. Drawing from a sample of 624 CWPs and u…
Linking Work Control to Depressive Symptoms Through Intrapersonal and Marital Processes
Using latent growth curve modeling and data from a sample of 308 middle-aged husbands and wives over a 3-year period, this study examines the influence of work control experiences on marital processes, specifically focusing on changes in conflict management behaviors, perceived spousal support, and depressive symptoms, and the connection between these attributes over time. Consistent with human ecological and work socialization perspectives, our …
Being Committed: Conceptualizations of Romantic Relationship Commitment Among Low-Income African American Adolescents
Few studies have examined adolescents' understanding of romantic relationship commitment, particularly among African American youth. Using three waves of semistructured interviews, the present descriptive study addresses this topic by exploring the ways in which 20 African American adolescents (age range 13-19 years) from low-income backgrounds conceptualize and describe commitment in romantic relationships. Qualitative analyses revealed three ma…
African American Stepfather–Stepchild Relationships, Marital Quality, and Mental Health
This study examined associations between stepfather-stepchild relationship quality, stepfathers' depressive symptoms, and two aspects of marriage: marital quality and positive marital interactions. Marital quality was assessed in terms of commitment, trust, passionate and friendship-based love, and happiness. Marital interactions were assessed in terms of intimacy, shared activities, and verbal communication. Using data collected from 149 recentl…
Effects of Commitment and Psychological Centrality on Fathering
Propositions from identity theory suggest that interactional and affective commitment to a role identity affects the psychological centrality of that role identity. In turn, the centrality of one's role identity translates into role performance (Stryker & Serpe, 1994). This conceptual model was tested with a sample of 186 fathers in first marriages with at least one child 18 years or younger. The results showed that fathers who perceived their wi…
Financial Wellness and Relationship Satisfaction: Does Communication Mediate
This research investigated if married couples' positive and negative communication patterns mediate the association between financial wellness and relationship satisfaction. Data were collected from married individuals in a southern state in 2007 (N = 515) and 2011 (N = 489). Guided by social exchange theory, structural equation models isolated the mediating effects of positive and negative communication patterns. In concert with a consistent and…
Foster mothers' parenting stress and coparenting quality: An examination of the moderating role of support
The Impact of the Pick a Partner Relationship Education Program on Single Army Soldiers
Educating singles on how to develop healthy, romantic relationships can be beneficial to their subsequent dating and marital satisfaction, and for army soldiers, their satisfaction with military life. A new relationship program, the Premarital Interpersonal Choices and Knowledge (PICK) program, was delivered to single army soldiers, and at the conclusion of the program participants demonstrated an increase in their understanding of the crucial ar…
In my heart forever: ’ Foster caregivers’ dedication, grief, and couple relationship quality
Many dedicated foster caregivers form a strong attachment to the children in their care, leaving them emotionally at-risk for when a child is removed from the home (e.g. displacement, reunification). The grief they experience when a child leaves may influence their other relationships (e.g. couple relationship). Survey data were collected from a statewide random sample of foster caregivers. The final sample included foster caregivers who had expe…
The association between financial distress, conflict management, and co-parenting support for couples receiving child welfare
This study examined financial distress, conflict management, and co-parenting support among 254 couples receiving child welfare services. Using an actor-partner interdependence model, this study tested the indirect association between couples' financial distress and their perceptions of co-parenting support through the use of positive conflict management strategies. Indirect actor effects were found for both mothers and fathers such that financia…
Is relationship and marriage education relevant and appropriate to child welfare
Adolescent Mothers' Perceptions of the Coparenting Relationship With Their Child's Father: A Function of Attachment Security and Trust
This study used data from 75 adolescent mothers to examine relations among adolescent mothers' attachment avoidance and anxiety, their ability to trust their child's father, and their perceptions of the quality of their coparenting relationship with their child's father. Results suggest that mothers with lower avoidance had more trust for their child's father and also had coparenting relationships characterized by less conflict and a stronger par…
Fostering confidence: Foster caregivers' relationship efficacy and associations with marital and co‐parenting relationship quality
Although healthy marital and co‐parenting relationships are important characteristics of a high‐quality, two‐parent foster home, little attention has been given to foster caregiver couples' perceptions of their marital and co‐parenting relationships and the contextual factors that influence these perceptions. Guided by the contextual model of family stress and social cognitive theory, the current study explores patterns of foster caregivers' rela…
Association between Depressive Symptoms, Perceived Partner Emotional Expression, and Marital Quality
Previous studies have explored the direct association between mental health and marital quality; however, the processes moderating that association are not yet well understood. The present study examined associations between depressive symptoms, perceived partner emotional expression, and marital quality among 462 married individuals. Findings suggest that (a) low commitment, low satisfaction, and marital instability may be symptomatic of mental …
Linking Work Control to Depressive Symptoms Through Intrapersonal and Marital Processes
Using latent growth curve modeling and data from a sample of 308 middle-aged husbands and wives over a 3-year period, this study examines the influence of work control experiences on marital processes, specifically focusing on changes in conflict management behaviors, perceived spousal support, and depressive symptoms, and the connection between these attributes over time. Consistent with human ecological and work socialization perspectives, our …
Training Child Welfare Professionals to Support Healthy Couple Relationships: Examining the Link to Training Transfer
Integrating healthy relationship and marriage education (RME) into child welfare services is a relatively recent initiative. Guided by the theoretical work in child welfare training evaluation, the current study describes the development and testing of a new RME training for child welfare professionals. Based on data collected from 272 trainees, results from structural equation modeling indicate a linear association between learner attitudes and …
The factors associated with child welfare professionals' application of relationship education
Non-relative foster caregivers' changes in mindfulness and couple relationship skills following relationship education
Foster caregivers experience many challenges related to fostering which, for those in a committed couple relationship, may impact the health of that relationship. Recent efforts have been made to provide couple relationship education (CRE) to foster caregivers to provide them with the knowledge and skills to develop and maintain a healthy relationship with their partner amidst the challenges of fostering. Further, recent studies have begun to exa…
Foster father identity: A theoretical framework
Foster fathers, who care for and have a unique opportunity to positively influence the at‐risk children who are placed in their home, may struggle to establish a salient foster father identity due to a lack of societal clarity about their role and conflicting views about their importance within the child welfare system. However, we lack theoretical and empirical knowledge on foster fathering. Thus, a nuanced conceptual understanding of the factor…
Cooperative, Compromising, Conflictual, and Uninvolved Coparenting Among Teenaged Parents
Adolescent parents often maintain a coparenting relationship that is characterized by frequent conflict and unhealthy communication. However, in relationships with less conflict and more cooperation, adolescent mothers display well-being and greater self-acceptance, while young fathers are more likely to be involved with their children. Based on human, financial, and social capital theory that reinforces the influence of parents' investments on f…
Sources of socialization for interpersonal trust: An exploration of low-income Black adolescents’ experiences
Much of the literature on interpersonal trust is quantitative in nature, using scales developed primarily with White middle-class and upper-class adults. To understand how another racial group of a different socioeconomic background and age views interpersonal trust, we considered the experiences of 22 low-income Black adolescents. The adolescents participated in a relationship education program and were interviewed about their interpersonal trus…
Fostering a culture of family‐centred care: Child welfare professionals' beliefs about fathers, family instability, and the value of relationship education
Guided by the Cultural Competence Attainment Model, the purpose of this study is to examine how socio‐demographic and work characteristics are associated with variations in child welfare professionals' (CWPs) attitudes about father involvement and family instability and how these attitudes are linked with whether they view relationship and marriage education as relevant to their efforts to support families. Drawing from a sample of 624 CWPs and u…
The impact of organizational support on the transfer of learning to practice
Effects of Commitment and Psychological Centrality on Fathering
Propositions from identity theory suggest that interactional and affective commitment to a role identity affects the psychological centrality of that role identity. In turn, the centrality of one's role identity translates into role performance (Stryker & Serpe, 1994). This conceptual model was tested with a sample of 186 fathers in first marriages with at least one child 18 years or younger. The results showed that fathers who perceived their wi…
Mothers of Children With Physical Disabilities: Influence of Family Processes on Mothers' Depressive Symptomatology
This study examines how family processes, or specific behaviors and relationships within the family, influence the risk of depression in mothers of children with disabilities. Specifically, the collective influence of children's maladaptive behavior problems, father involvement, and coparental conflict on the risk of depression among 60 married mothers of children with physical disabilities is examined. Based on data from the National Survey of F…
The Impact of the Pick a Partner Relationship Education Program on Single Army Soldiers
Educating singles on how to develop healthy, romantic relationships can be beneficial to their subsequent dating and marital satisfaction, and for army soldiers, their satisfaction with military life. A new relationship program, the Premarital Interpersonal Choices and Knowledge (PICK) program, was delivered to single army soldiers, and at the conclusion of the program participants demonstrated an increase in their understanding of the crucial ar…
Adolescent Mothers' Perceptions of the Coparenting Relationship With Their Child's Father: A Function of Attachment Security and Trust
This study used data from 75 adolescent mothers to examine relations among adolescent mothers' attachment avoidance and anxiety, their ability to trust their child's father, and their perceptions of the quality of their coparenting relationship with their child's father. Results suggest that mothers with lower avoidance had more trust for their child's father and also had coparenting relationships characterized by less conflict and a stronger par…
Is relationship and marriage education relevant and appropriate to child welfare
Training Child Welfare Professionals to Support Healthy Couple Relationships: Examining the Link to Training Transfer
Integrating healthy relationship and marriage education (RME) into child welfare services is a relatively recent initiative. Guided by the theoretical work in child welfare training evaluation, the current study describes the development and testing of a new RME training for child welfare professionals. Based on data collected from 272 trainees, results from structural equation modeling indicate a linear association between learner attitudes and …
The factors associated with child welfare professionals' application of relationship education
Financial Wellness and Relationship Satisfaction: Does Communication Mediate
This research investigated if married couples' positive and negative communication patterns mediate the association between financial wellness and relationship satisfaction. Data were collected from married individuals in a southern state in 2007 (N = 515) and 2011 (N = 489). Guided by social exchange theory, structural equation models isolated the mediating effects of positive and negative communication patterns. In concert with a consistent and…
Linking financial distress to marital quality: The intermediary roles of demand/withdraw and spousal gratitude expressions
This study investigates demand/withdraw communication and spousal expressions of gratitude as intervening variables in the association between financial distress and marital quality. With a sample of 468 married individuals, dual‐mediation models revealed demand/withdraw transmitted the effect of financial distress onto 3 different marital outcomes; in most instances, this indirect effect occurred through total couple demand/withdraw and not one …
The impact of organizational support on the transfer of learning to practice
African American Stepfather–Stepchild Relationships, Marital Quality, and Mental Health
This study examined associations between stepfather-stepchild relationship quality, stepfathers' depressive symptoms, and two aspects of marriage: marital quality and positive marital interactions. Marital quality was assessed in terms of commitment, trust, passionate and friendship-based love, and happiness. Marital interactions were assessed in terms of intimacy, shared activities, and verbal communication. Using data collected from 149 recentl…
Fostering a culture of family‐centred care: Child welfare professionals' beliefs about fathers, family instability, and the value of relationship education
Guided by the Cultural Competence Attainment Model, the purpose of this study is to examine how socio‐demographic and work characteristics are associated with variations in child welfare professionals' (CWPs) attitudes about father involvement and family instability and how these attitudes are linked with whether they view relationship and marriage education as relevant to their efforts to support families. Drawing from a sample of 624 CWPs and u…
Linking Work Control to Depressive Symptoms Through Intrapersonal and Marital Processes
Using latent growth curve modeling and data from a sample of 308 middle-aged husbands and wives over a 3-year period, this study examines the influence of work control experiences on marital processes, specifically focusing on changes in conflict management behaviors, perceived spousal support, and depressive symptoms, and the connection between these attributes over time. Consistent with human ecological and work socialization perspectives, our …
Being Committed: Conceptualizations of Romantic Relationship Commitment Among Low-Income African American Adolescents
Few studies have examined adolescents' understanding of romantic relationship commitment, particularly among African American youth. Using three waves of semistructured interviews, the present descriptive study addresses this topic by exploring the ways in which 20 African American adolescents (age range 13-19 years) from low-income backgrounds conceptualize and describe commitment in romantic relationships. Qualitative analyses revealed three ma…
Sources of socialization for interpersonal trust: An exploration of low-income Black adolescents’ experiences
Much of the literature on interpersonal trust is quantitative in nature, using scales developed primarily with White middle-class and upper-class adults. To understand how another racial group of a different socioeconomic background and age views interpersonal trust, we considered the experiences of 22 low-income Black adolescents. The adolescents participated in a relationship education program and were interviewed about their interpersonal trus…
Foster mothers' parenting stress and coparenting quality: An examination of the moderating role of support
Association between Depressive Symptoms, Perceived Partner Emotional Expression, and Marital Quality
Previous studies have explored the direct association between mental health and marital quality; however, the processes moderating that association are not yet well understood. The present study examined associations between depressive symptoms, perceived partner emotional expression, and marital quality among 462 married individuals. Findings suggest that (a) low commitment, low satisfaction, and marital instability may be symptomatic of mental …
Fostering confidence: Foster caregivers' relationship efficacy and associations with marital and co‐parenting relationship quality
Although healthy marital and co‐parenting relationships are important characteristics of a high‐quality, two‐parent foster home, little attention has been given to foster caregiver couples' perceptions of their marital and co‐parenting relationships and the contextual factors that influence these perceptions. Guided by the contextual model of family stress and social cognitive theory, the current study explores patterns of foster caregivers' rela…
In my heart forever: ’ Foster caregivers’ dedication, grief, and couple relationship quality
Many dedicated foster caregivers form a strong attachment to the children in their care, leaving them emotionally at-risk for when a child is removed from the home (e.g. displacement, reunification). The grief they experience when a child leaves may influence their other relationships (e.g. couple relationship). Survey data were collected from a statewide random sample of foster caregivers. The final sample included foster caregivers who had expe…
Cooperative, Compromising, Conflictual, and Uninvolved Coparenting Among Teenaged Parents
Adolescent parents often maintain a coparenting relationship that is characterized by frequent conflict and unhealthy communication. However, in relationships with less conflict and more cooperation, adolescent mothers display well-being and greater self-acceptance, while young fathers are more likely to be involved with their children. Based on human, financial, and social capital theory that reinforces the influence of parents' investments on f…
Foster father identity: A theoretical framework
Foster fathers, who care for and have a unique opportunity to positively influence the at‐risk children who are placed in their home, may struggle to establish a salient foster father identity due to a lack of societal clarity about their role and conflicting views about their importance within the child welfare system. However, we lack theoretical and empirical knowledge on foster fathering. Thus, a nuanced conceptual understanding of the factor…
Validating the Couple Relationship Skills Inventory
Military couples’ childhood experiences and romantic relationship satisfaction: The role of accepting influence
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 later romantic relationships, although life course theory and the vulnerability stress adaptation mo…
The association between financial distress, conflict management, and co-parenting support for couples receiving child welfare
This study examined financial distress, conflict management, and co-parenting support among 254 couples receiving child welfare services. Using an actor-partner interdependence model, this study tested the indirect association between couples' financial distress and their perceptions of co-parenting support through the use of positive conflict management strategies. Indirect actor effects were found for both mothers and fathers such that financia…
Foster Caregivers' Parenting Stress as a Moderator of Change in Coparenting Following Relationship Education
Foster caregivers provide care to some of our most vulnerable children and often experience challenges that can interfere with family functioning, including the interparental relationship. Recent efforts have been made to provide couple relationship education (CRE) to foster caregivers to support their interparental relationship and enhance the quality of the foster home. Guided by family systems theory and adult learning theory, and using an act…
Psychology (33 works) · Developmental psychology (27 works) · Social Psychology (25 works) · Attachment and Relationship Dynamics (22 works) · Family Dynamics and Relationships (19 works) · Clinical Psychology (16 works) · Social Psychology (14 works) · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving (11 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Child Welfare and Adoption (9 works)