3-138 - Between and Within-Family Links Among Adversity, Parenting, and Child Outcomes: The Role of Child Threat and Security Appraisals

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Children exposed to adversity are at risk for poorer outcomes, but questions remain regarding precise mechanisms of effect. This symposium is inspired by models emphasizing that deeper understanding of child socio-emotional development requires attention to converging biological, relational, and representational processes (Zimmerman & Thompson, 2014; Thompson, 2015). Four distinct studies examine parenting and, especially, child representational/appraisal processes by which risk undermines child functional outcomes. Theoretically, we draw from emotional theories – e.g., attachment (Bowlby, 1982) and emotional security (Davies et al., 2006) – and cognitive-contextual theories (e.g., Grych & Fincham, 1990) of threat to explain how children make meaning of threatening events and circumstances. Studies include children across developmental stages that are exposed to various salient risk factors or processes: family discord and inter-parental violence, family instability, and parent negative appraisals and behavior. Methodologically, our approaches are developmental and process-oriented, such that young children’s representations are measured via narrative techniques (i.e., story stems and drawing tasks designed to elicit perceived security) and models attend to change across time and to observed maternal and paternal parenting and family processes. Together, results converge to: (1) support the role of appraisals of threat and emotional security as important mechanisms of effect (2) that can account for multifinality in emotional, behavioral, academic, and physical functioning outcomes, (3) both between and within families, and (4) across risk factors and over time and stages of development. Results attest to the important roles of parenting and child perceived threat and security, while suggesting future research and intervention.

Sub Unit

• Social, Emotional, Personality

Chair

• Marcia A Winter, Virginia Commonwealth University

Individual Presentations

• Intimate Partner Violence, Parenting, and Children’s Representations of Relationship Quality with Caregivers - Presenting Author: Bharathi Jayanthi Zvara, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; William Roger Mills-Koonce, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro

• The Association between Parental Schemas and Child Outcomes: Testing Conditional Indirect Effects - Presenting Author: Jessica L Greenlee, Virginia Commonwealth University; Marcia A Winter, Virginia Commonwealth University; Robin S Everhart, Virginia Commonwealth University; Barbara H. Fiese, University of Illinois, Family Resiliency Center

• Family Instability and Young Children’s School Adjustment: Callousness and Negative Internal Representations as Mediators - Presenting Author: Jesse L Coe, University of Rochester; Patrick T Davies, University of Rochester; Melissa Sturge-Apple, University of Rochester; Michael T Ripple, Mt. Hope Family Center, University of Rochester

• Aligning Methodology and Theory to Characterize Associations Among Daily Interparental Conflict, Youth Appraisals, and Adjustment - Presenting Author: Gregory Fosco, Penn State; David M. Lydon-Staley, Pennsylvania State University