Individual Submission Summary
Share...

Direct link:

Developmental linkages among teenage parents' interpersonal relationships, parenting behaviors, and children's mental health

Sat, October 6, 1:15 to 2:45pm, Doubletree Hilton, Room: Tempe

Abstract

Background:
Prior to the birth of their first child, the majority teenage mothers and their children’s biological fathers have a strong desire to raise a family together and be involved parents (Mollborn & Jacobs, 2015). The development of responsive relationships between these young caregivers has the potential to mitigate the development of their children’s mental health challenges, which is especially critical for teenage parents given risk factors common to young mothers (e.g., poverty, poor educational opportunities, and child maltreatment) and their children’s heightened risk for emotional and behavioral challenges (Pittman & Coley, 2011).

Methods:
Five waves of Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study data were extracted for a subsample of children born to teenage mothers (N=817) at birth, year-one (Y1), Y3, Y5, and Y9 follow-ups. Parallel process latent growth curve (GC) modeling was used to examine associations among GC characteristics (i.e., intercepts and slopes) of supportive couple relationships and GC characteristics of children’s internalizing and externalizing behavioral symptoms, exploring whether GC characteristics of harsh parenting behaviors mediated these associations. Analyses were run using Mplus V.8 and used FMIL to handle missing data; bootstrapped confidence intervals were used for indirect effects (Muthén & Muthén, 2017).

Results:
Unconditional GC models were fit to developmental processes associated with supportive couple relationships, harsh parenting behaviors, and children’s behavioral challenges, all of which had good to excellent fit statistics and suggested that children differed in their initial levels (i.e., intercepts) and rates of change (i.e., slopes) in externalizing and internalizing behavioral symptoms and that mothers differed in their initial levels and rates of change in harsh parenting behaviors. Next, initial direct effects models were run; GC characteristics of supportive couple relationships predicted GC characteristics of maternal harsh parenting behaviors and children’s externalizing and internalizing behavioral trajectories, suggesting that mediation may exist. Mediation analyses suggested that initial levels of harsh parenting partially mediated links between initial levels of supportive couple relationships and initial levels of children’s externalizing challenges; whereas rates of change in parents’ responsive couple relationships directly predicted rates of change in the development of children’s externalizing behavioral symptoms. Initial levels and rates of change of responsive couple relationships also directly predicted initial levels of children’s internalizing behavioral symptoms (Table 1).

Conclusions
Trajectories of teenage parents’ supportive couple relationships directly mitigated the development of their children’s mental health challenges and had indirect pathways through the reduction of harsh parenting behaviors.

Author