Poster #142 - Longitudinal Relations among Parenting Stress, Coparenting, and Young Children’s Cooperative and Aggressive Behaviors

• In Event: 2-055 - Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

While the relations between parenting stress and children's adjustment have been well-established (Deater-Deckard, 1998), previous research has focused on children’s negative outcomes. Little is known about whether parenting stress is longitudinally associated with young children's positive outcomes, such as cooperative behavior. It is also important to identify the intervening mechanisms that account for the relations between parenting stress and children’s outcomes. While considerable research has examined parenting as a mediator of these relations (Huth-Bocks & Hughes, 2007), less attention has been given to mothers’ and fathers’ coparenting behaviors. Coparenting has been examined as a precursor of children’s prosocial and aggressive behavior (Scrmgeour et al., 2013; Teubert & Pinquart, 2010); thus, coparenting may mediate the links between parenting stress and children’s cooperative and aggressive behavior. Moreover, prior research has less considered fathers' parenting stress and coparenting behavior in understanding children's positive and negative outcomes. The present study was to examine the longitudinal relations between mothers’ and fathers’ parenting stress and cooperative and aggressive behavior of young children. In particular, the study explored the mediating roles of mothers’ and fathers’ coparenting behaviors (i.e., positive coparenting, conparenting conflict). Participants were 1,780 South Korean young children (51% boys; 49% girls) and their parents from the Panel Study on Korean Children. In this study, wave 6 (children were age 5; T1) and wave 7 (children were age 6; T2) were used. Both fathers and mothers reported on their parenting stress (Kim & Kang, 1997) and coparenting behaviors (Mchale, 1997). Mothers reported on their children’s aggressive behavior (Oh & Kim, 2009). Moreover, teachers and mothers measured children’s cooperative behavior (Gresham & Elliott, 1990). Structural equation modeling was conducted to examine the hypothesized model. Parental education levels used as a covariate in the analysis. The results are presented in Figure 1. The present findings suggest mothers’ coparenting behaviors as important mechanisms that explain how mothers’ and fathers’ parenting stress is longitudinally associated with young children’s cooperative and aggressive behaviors. Mothers’ parenting stress at T1 was directly negatively related to mothers’ perceptions of their children’s cooperative behavior at T2. Moreover, mothers’ parenting stress at T1 was negatively associated with both mothers’ and fathers’ positive coparenting and positively related to mothers’ and fathers’ coparenting conflict at T2. Fathers’ parenting stress at T1 was negatively associated with both mothers’ and fathers’ positive coparenting and positively related to mothers’ and fathers’ coparenting conflict at T2. In turn, mothers’ positive coparenting at T2 was positively associated with mothers’ perceptions of their children’s cooperative behavior and negatively related to children’s aggressive behavior at T2. Mothers’ coparenting conflict at T2 was also positively linked to their children’s aggressive behavior at T2. Furthermore, mothers’ positive coparenting was a mediator of the relations between mothers’ and fathers’ parenting stress and young children’s cooperative behavior. The present results provide underlying mechanisms in the longitudinal relations between parenting stress and young children’s cooperative and aggressive behaviors. Discussion will focus on the differential roles of fathers’ and mothers’ coparenting and parenting stress in understanding young children’s social outcomes.

Author

• Youngsook Han, University of Missouri
  Presenting Author