A mixed methods study of reflection among parents in a homeless shelter

• In Event: Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Topic - Family Context & Processes

Abstract

Homelessness is a growing problem across the United States that is expected to worsen amid the current economic and health crises (Beard, 2020; Moses, 2020). Homelessness is associated with stressful, impoverished caregiving environments that contribute to problematic parent-child relationships and adverse child outcomes (e.g. Bassuk et al., 2015; Bradley et al., 2018). Responsive caregiving protects children from these adversities and fosters resilience during periods of homelessness (e.g. Herbers et al., 2014). A parent’s capacity to keep the child in mind and to understand behavior as a function of mental states supports responsive caregiving (e.g. Luyten et al., 2017). Yet, there is little information about how parents who are homeless reflect on their parenting or on their child when they live in a shelter. Thus, we used a mixed methods design to investigate parental thinking and behavior, and self-reported strengths in protective factors including attachment and knowledge of child development among families in a homeless shelter.

Sixteen parents living a homeless shelter with at least one young child (< 6) completed the Protective Factors Survey (PFS; FRIENDS National Resource Center, 2008), and a semi-structured interview about community resources and experiences of sheltered homelessness. Quantitative data included scores on the PFS, and the frequency and duration of parents’ reflective talk. Qualitative data included interview transcripts. We used descriptive statistics and thematic analysis (Clarke & Braun, 2015) to analyze the data. We will integrate the quantitative and qualitative data with a joint display (Guetterman et al., 2015) to better understand how the frequency, duration, and quality of parents’ reflections align with self-reported strengths.

We coded a total of 839 unique stretches of talk across participants and found that 44% of parents’ overall talk related to parenting in the shelter (e.g. strategies, instrumental care). Of the talk about parenting, 36% evidenced reflections on parenting and on the child such as when a parent explained their thinking about parenting or about the child’s experience in the shelter. Within the reflective talk, we identified three themes: disparities between parenting values and capacity to realize those values, understanding the child’s thoughts, feelings, and experiences, and connecting understandings of parenting and of the child with parenting strategies and behavior. Further, we found variation in the frequency, duration, and quality of reflective talk, and identified a set of parents who used mixed reflections. Mixed reflections were evidenced when a parent’s talk included possible misattributions about the child’s behavior as well as appropriate reflective statements about the child.

Regarding alignment between qualitative and quantitative data, initial findings suggest that variations in reflective talk related inconsistently to parents’ self-reported strengths. For instance, one mother with mixed reflections scored high in attachment and knowledge of child development on the PFS. These findings suggest the importance of interviewing parents in addition to administering self-report measures to accurately identify which families need targeted support.

Authors

• Ann Matthews, Nebraska Wesleyan University
  Presenting Author

• Erin E Hamel, University of Georgia
  Non-Presenting Author