Poster #203 - Daily Poverty-Related Stress Predicts Change in Emotion Regulation for Children Attending Head Start Preschool

• In Event: 1-169 - Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Section - Social, Emotional, Personality

Integrative Statement

The present study examines contextual poverty risks in relation to child emotion dysregulation and investigates whether an index of daily poverty-related stressors predicts change across a year of Head Start preschool attendance.

Child emotion dysregulation is predicted by child variables such as bioregulatory processes and temperament as well as caregiver variables such as maternal negative emotionality, and nurturing parenting behaviors. Yet much remains to be learned about how the poverty context engenders emotion regulation difficulties.

A recent study out of our lab suggested that neighborhood and family adversity predicted child emotion regulation problems via both direct pathways and indirect pathways, mediated by maternal negative emotionality. Questions remain about the direct pathways: How might neighborhood and family risks such as single parent status relate to child emotion regulation difficulties in ways beyond those mediated by parent negative emotions?

The present study focuses on daily poverty-related stressors. Within the ecology of poverty, neighborhood adversity and single parent status may increase the likelihood of daily stressors such as overload at home, transportation difficulties, and arguments with neighbors or family members (Attar, Guerra, & Tolan, 1994). These stressors may disrupt the predictability of the proximal processes via which young children interact with their immediate environment, engendering emotion regulation difficulties.

Method

Participants were 131 economically disadvantaged children attending a Head Start preschool. Child mean age was 4 years, 1 month (SD = 6.79 months), and approximately 47% were female, 53% male, 52% African American, 16% Latino/Hispanic American, 9% Asian American, and 23% Caucasian/European American.

Ethical guidelines were followed and the study was approved by the appropriate IRBs. Mothers completed interviews in the fall to provide information about demographics such as income and family size, as well as single parent status (31.9%) and neighborhood adversity, which was a cumulative index of risk concerning neighborhood physical conditions, safety, facilities, and role models (M = 4.74, SD = 3.12). Mothers also rated their depressive symptoms (M = 28.11; SD = 8.75) on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies–Depression scale (CES-D; Radloff, 1977) and completed Bolger and Schilling’s 1991 checklist of daily poverty-related stressors via phone on ten different days, with ratings averaged (M = 2.38, SD = 1.25). Teachers rated child emotion dysregulation in the fall (M = 28.15, SD = 9.18) and spring (M = 20.31, SD = 9.63) using the Emotion Regulation Checklist (Shields & Cicchetti, 1997).

Results and Discussion

Table 1 shows zero-order correlations and Table 2 displays results of a regression analysis, F(122,8) =6.27, p<.001. Daily poverty-related stressors predicted variance in child emotion regulation change beyond that accounted for by other demographic variables and contextual poverty risks. Children who experienced a greater number of daily poverty-related stressors showed less growth in emotion regulation across a year of Head Start attendance. Implications concern the understanding the impact of daily poverty-related stress, explaining links between poverty and child emotion dysregulation and considering how contextual poverty risks may limit the effectiveness of child-focused interventions.

Authors

• Eleanor Brown, West Chester University of Pennsylvania
  Non-Presenting Author

• Caroline Guzi, West Chester University
  Presenting Author

• Kenia Valdez, West Chester University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Keriann Mosley, West Chester University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Fatima Bakayoko, West Chester University
  Non-Presenting Author