Maternal positive verbalizations moderate the effect of acculturative stress on preschoolers internalizing problems

• In Event: 1-195 - The impact of maternal trauma exposure and caregiving among low-income, ethnic minority infants and preschoolers

Integrative Statement

Acculturative stress (strain associated with navigating diverse cultural demands as a member of a minority group) has been proposed as a key influence that compromises family and child functioning (Conger et al., 2010; Lorenzo-Blanco et al., 2017). Parental acculturative stress has been linked to children’s internalizing and externalizing problems, youth alcohol and cigarette use, and lower self-esteem (Gassman-Pines, 2015; Lorenzo-Blanco et al., 2017; Tran, 2014). Identifying protective factors to enhance the developmental trajectories of Latino young children is key to ameliorate well-documented psychosocial health disparities (Snyder & Sickmund, 1999). We evaluated whether maternal interactional verbalizations, a known predictor of young children’s adaptation, moderates the effect of maternal acculturative stress.

Methods: Participants were recruited from three Head Start centers in Chicago. All children enrolled in preschool were invited to participate and 71 families completed in person interviews during the baseline assessment (T1) and about eight months later (T2). Children (3 to 5 years old, M = 3.86, SD = .70, 50% female) and their mothers (21 to 47 years old, M = 31.57, SD = 6.29) were primarily Latino, and 62% of the women were immigrants. At T1, dyads completed a 10-minute free-play interaction and two trained coders used the Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System (DPICS) to assess total positive verbalizations, including behavior descriptions, reflections, and praise, with good reliability. Mothers also completed the Riverside Acculturation Stress Inventory. At T2, women completed the Child Behavior Checklist. Moderation analyses using Hayes’ SPSS PROCESS macro accounted for significant covariates (maternal education, child age, and child exposure to traumatic events).

Results: During the free-play interaction, mothers used a range of 0 - 32 positive verbalizations (M = 5.62, SD = 5.10). Moderation analyses revealed a significant interaction for T1 acculturation stress and mother’s positive verbalizations on T2 child internalizing symptoms (b = -0.08, p < .05, [CI = -0.16 - -0.08]). In other words, the association between acculturation stress and child internalizing problems was lessened as frequency of mother’s positive verbalizations increased. Figure 1 illustrates the interaction effect. Moderation results were nonsignificant for child externalizing problems ((b = -0.25, p = .58, [CI = -0.12 - 0.06]).

Conclusions: Our analyses support the negative effects of parental acculturative stress, a ubiquitous experience for Latinos living in the US, on young children’s internalizing problems. However, children of women who demonstrated a high proportion of positive statements during mother-child interactions were less impacted by maternal acculturation stress. Findings suggest positive verbalizations, a concrete skill that can be successfully acquired through relatively short-term interventions (e.g., Eyberg, 1988), can be a fruitful target for intervention. Future research should evaluate whether these processes are developmentally specific and whether interaction behaviors of other important adults in children’s lives, such as teachers, may exacerbate or buffer the noxious impact of acculturative stress.

Authors

• Cecilia Martinez-Torteya, Universidad de Monterrey
  Presenting Author

• Caleb Figge, DePaul University
  Non-Presenting Author

• David Kosson, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science
  Non-Presenting Author