Parenting Stress, Parent Self-efficacy, and Maternal and Child Well-being: Reciprocity and transaction Across the Toddler Period

• In Event: 2-080 - Trajectories of Parenting Stress and Self-Efficacy Across Early Childhood: Links to Parent and Child Behavior

Integrative Statement

There is a wealth of evidence to suggest that parenting stress is a ubiquitous experience (Deater-Deckard & Panneton, 2017) and has multiple implications for parenting and children’s developmental well-being (Mackler et al., 2015; Thomason et al., 2014). Despite the volume of research devoted to understanding the determinants and consequences of parenting stress, the developmental mechanisms by which parenting stress exerts its influence remain relatively unexplored. Crnic and Ross (2017) recently suggested the need to focus on developmental processes associated with parenting stress and offered a model through which parenting stress (PS) and parental self-efficacy (PSE) might operate over time to influence parent and child well-being. Relations between PS and PSE are likely reciprocal and transactional; however, the direction of effect between these constructs and how they may affect parent and child functioning remains unclear.

This study addresses the transactional relations between early parenting stress and emerging parent self-efficacy across the child’s second year of life, with predictions to maternal and child well-being at child age three. Data were drawn from the Las Madres Nuevas (LMN) Project, a longitudinal study of 322 low-income, Mexican-American mother-child dyads assessed from the mothers’ third trimester through child age 6 years. The LMN project uses multimodal data collection involving structured interviews, parent reports, and observations of parent-child interactions. For this study, data included maternal report on Parenting Daily Hassles (Crnic & Greenberg, 1990) and Parenting Sense of Competence (Gibaud-Wallston & Wandersman, 1978) at child ages 12, 18, and 24 months, as well as reports on maternal depressive symptoms (CES-D) and children’s behavior problems (CBCL) at 36 months. All measures were delivered in mothers preferred language (80% Spanish).

To address the primary questions, a cross-lagged SEM model was tested (see Figure 1). Model fit indices suggest adequate fit overall, and results indicate that there are important connections between PS and PSE across the second year of life. Both PS and PSE show strong relative stability overall (with one exception) and are mildly to moderately related within measurement period. Greater PS at 12 months predicts lower PSE at 18 months, which in turn predicts higher levels of PS at 24 months. Higher levels of PS at 24 months significantly predicts both greater maternal depressive symptoms and higher child behavior problems one year later, whereas level of PSE does not.

Findings suggest the presence of reciprocal and transactional processes between parenting stress and parent self-efficacy across the second year of life. Parenting stress plays an important role in determining mothers’ early sense of competence. In turn, a diminished sense of competence during the throes of toddlerhood seems to exacerbate mothers’ experience of parenting stress over time. Furthermore, it seems that stressful experience of parenting may be more critical to maternal and child well-being than is maternal sense of self-efficacy, highlighting the salience of parenting stress as a core determinant of parenting. Subsequent analyses will explore observed maternal, child, and dyadic behavior as potential mediators of the relations found between parenting stress and parent-child well-being.

Authors

• Keith Crnic, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author

• Laura Winstone, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lauren van Huisstede, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Emily Ross, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author