Parenting Stress and Parent Discipline Behaviors: The Role of Psychological Flexibility

• In Event: 2-121 - Parenting Stress in At-Risk Families: Mechanisms for Family Functioning

Integrative Statement

Introduction: Parents of children with developmental disabilities (DD) report higher levels of stress than parents of typically developing children. High parent stress has been associated with inconsistent, punitive parent discipline behaviors, which have been associated with increased problem behaviors and poorer child outcomes. Parent psychological flexibility may help to explain the relationship between parenting stress and these behaviors. Research has shown a relationship between increased parenting stress and decreased psychological flexibility, yet psychological flexibility has been shown to improve when practicing mindfulness. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) intervention, which has been shown to be effective in reducing stress among parents of children with DD, may also contribute to parents’ improved psychological flexibility. Decreasing stress, improving psychological flexibility, and understanding how stress impacts parenting behaviors are important given the impact of parenting practices on various child outcomes.

Hypotheses: We hypothesize that (1) there is a significant relationship between parenting stress and parenting behaviors, (2) psychological flexibility is a significant mediator in the relationship between parenting stress and parenting behaviors, and (3) parent psychological flexibility will significantly increase over the course of the MBSR intervention.

Study Population: Current analyses utilized data from the Mindful Awareness for Parenting Stress (MAPS) study, which implemented an MBSR intervention for parents of children with DD between the ages of 2.5 and 5 years old (N=99;parent mean age=36.4;Ethnic Minority=66.9%;Income, %<50K=52.9).

Methods: The Parental Distress subscale of the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF; Abidin, 1995) was used to measure parenting stress; the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire- Intellectual Disability was used to measure psychological flexibility in the context of parenting a child with DD (AAQ-ID;MacDonald et al., 2010). The Parenting Practices Interview (PPI;Webster-Stratton, 1998) was used to measure parenting behavior; subscales included harsh discipline, inconsistent discipline, appropriate discipline, positive parenting, monitoring, and clear expectations.

Results: Parental Distress was significantly correlated with Psychological Flexibility (r=-.37,p<.01). Psychological Flexibility was significantly correlated with Inconsistent Discipline (r= -.42,p<.01), Appropriate Discipline (r=.22,p<.05), and Clear Expectations (r =.34,p<.01). Three mediation analyses were run to test psychological flexibility as a mediator in the relationship between parental distress and each of the parenting behaviors significantly correlated with psychological flexibility. Results indicated that Parental Distress had a significant direct effect on Clear Expectations (b=.40, p<.05), but did not have a significant direct effect on either Appropriate Discipline or Inconsistent Discipline (ps>.05). Psychological flexibility significantly mediated the relationships between parental distress and all three parent discipline behaviors (Inconsistent Parenting, ab=.02, [.02,.04]; Appropriate Discipline, ab=.01,[-.03,-.00]; Clear Expectations, ab=-.03,[-.05,-.01]). Results of paired sample t-tests indicated that psychological flexibility significantly increased between baseline (M=40.00, SD=8.85) and post-MBSR intervention (M=44.08,SD=6.99),t(74)=-3.51,d =-.51,p<.001. Psychological flexibility increased between post-treatment (M=43.90,SD=6.89) and follow-up, (M=45.44,SD=7.41) but changes were not significant, d=-.22,p>.05. However, psychological flexibility was maintained between baseline (M=40.36,SD=7.72) and follow-up (M=45.71,SD=7.27),t(58)=-4.60,d=-.71,p<.001.

Discussion: The current study highlights the importance of psychological flexibility in how stress impacts parenting behaviors. Targeting psychological flexibility may be important for future parenting and mindfulness interventions. Future studies will assess the role of changes in psychological flexibility on stress and parenting behaviors over time.

Authors

• Megan L Krantz, Loma Linda University
  Presenting Author

• Catherine Sanner, Loma Linda University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Amanda E Preston, Loma Linda University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Cameron L Neece, Loma Linda University
  Non-Presenting Author