Poster #137 - Household Chaos and Maternal Executive Function: Links with Negative Parenting Practices

• In Event: 3-106 - Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Higher household chaos (e.g., noise, lack of family routines) has been associated with maladaptive parenting practices such as lower parental positivity and harsh reactive discipline (Whitesell, Teti, Crosby & Kim, 2015; Hughes, Roman & Ensor, 2014; Deater-Deckard, Wang, Chen & Bell, 2012). It has been suggested that such types of environment may tax parents’ capacities for regulating their emotions in challenging situations. Home environments marked by instability and disorganization impede contingent responding by parents and increase the likelihood of using physica/inconsistent disciple (Whitesell, Teti, Crosby & Kim, 2015; Hughes, Roman & Ensor, 2014).
In a similar vein, poor executive functioning (EF) has also been associated with dysfunctional parenting- less responsive, harsh, reactive and intrusive (Crandall, Deater-Deckard & Riley, 2015). Working memory processes, inhibitory control and attention shifting abilities may help parent regulate feelings of frustration and anger in the parent‐child relationship, thus facilitating more positive parenting. When parents struggle with inhibiting a pre-potent response, avoiding distractions, shifting priorities and regulating emotions, they may be more likely to shift to strong affect and react negatively when faced with a stressor. In the context of an already stressful environment such as a chaotic household, these processes can be even more important as they can serve as a buffer against the likelihood of negative parenting (Chico, Gonzalez, Ali, Steiner & Fleming, 2014; Deater-Deckard et al., 2012).
In the current study, we examined the interplay of household chaos and maternal EF in their associations with negative parenting behaviors. A sample of 241 mothers of 2.5-year olds (51% girls) completed questionnaires on the home environment’s levels of disarray using the CHAOS scale (Matheny, Wachs, Ludwig, & Phillips, 1995) and harsh, negative parenting practices using the Parenting Scale’s dysfunctional parenting scale (e.g., overreactive, intrusive parenting; Arnold, O’Leary, Wolff & Acker, 1993). During a laboratory visit, they also completed several EF tasks that assessed attention, inhibitory control, and working memory (e.g., Stroop color word task; backward digit span); these were correlated and combined in a composite z-score representing general EF performance. Using hierarchical multiple regression, we found that there were additive statistical effects of household chaos and maternal EF in predicting dysfunctional parenting practices. The full equation was significant, F (3, 209) = 11.39, p < .001. The main effects of chaos and EF were also significant suggesting it is the combination of higher chaos and lower maternal EF that was most predictive of dysfunctional parenting. There was no significant interactive effect of chaos and EF on parenting. The findings have implications for understanding how both the home environmental maternal regulatory capacities may work together to explain individual differences in dysfunctional parenting during early childhood development.

Authors

• MAMATHA CHARY, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
  Presenting Author

• Christina Bertrand, Bay Path University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Maureen E. McQuillan, Indiana University
  Non-Presenting Author

• John Bates, Indiana University - Bloomington
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kirby Deater-Deckard, University Massachusetts
  Non-Presenting Author