Contextual Risk Factors and Emotionally Reactive Parenting in Low-Income Urban Families

• In Event: Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Topic - Family Context & Processes

Abstract

The family stress model (Conger et al., 2002) and determinants of parenting model (Belsky, 1984) suggest that living in a high-risk and stressful environment disrupts parenting by depleting the resources needed for responsive parenting, eliciting more harsh parenting, and ultimately undermining children’s behavioral development (e.g., Whittaker, 2011). Less examined is the role of negative emotional arousal and regulation in the parenting of low-income, at risk families. Chronic stress may dysregulate parents’ emotional and stress response systems (Martorell & Bugental, 2006), resulting in more emotionally reactive displays to children when in difficult parenting situations. Using a sample of urban, low-income, at-risk Black parents, we examined contextual risk factors associated with children’s behavioral development and whether these relations were mediated by indicators of emotionally reactive and harsh parenting behavior.

Participants were 171 high-risk mothers and their 4- to 7-year old children. All participants identified as Black or African American and lived in an urban Mid-Atlantic city. The median annual income was $24,600. Mothers reported on their own and their children’s behavior by responding to a survey. Contextual stressors included mothers’ depressive symptoms (CES-D; Radloff, 1977), household chaos (Confusion, Hubbub, and Order Scale; Matheny et al., 1995), and stress from children’s difficulty (subscale of the Parenting Stress Index; Abidin, 1995). Parenting behaviors included emotionally reactive parenting (Boivin et al., 2005), yelling and physical punishment (Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scale; Straus, et al., 1998) and observed responsivity (HOME scale; Caldwell & Bradley, 1984). Children’s externalizing was measured using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach, 1991). Descriptive statistics and correlations are shown in Table 1.

A path analysis model was conducted in Mplus v7.4 (Muthén & Muthén, 2015). Tests of indirect effects were used to examine whether children’s externalizing behavior problems would be associated with contextual stressors (depression, household chaos, and stress from child difficulty) indirectly through various parenting behaviors (emotionally reactive parenting, yelling, physical punishment, and responsivity). To help account for the cross-sectional nature of the data, stress from child difficulty was controlled for in children’s externalizing behavior. Results and model fit are displayed in Figure 1.

Two significant indirect paths and one marginally significant indirect path were found. Greater household chaos and stress from child difficulty were significantly indirectly associated with greater children’s externalizing behavior problems through emotionally reactive parenting. Greater household chaos was marginally indirectly associated with greater children’s externalizing through yelling at the child. Although physical punishment was directly associated with stress from child difficulty, it did not predict children’s externalizing. There were no significant relations with responsivity.

This study supports the proposal that negative emotion is an important component of harsh parenting. Due to the chronic stressors experienced by high-risk parents living in poverty, they may have a more difficult time regulating their emotion and behavior during parenting situations, particularly with difficult children and in chaotic household settings. To reduce the use of emotionally reactive and verbally harsh parenting, interventions should consider helping parents to both manage their environmental stress and regulate their emotions during parenting situations.

Authors

• Justin Kyle Scott, University of Maryland, Baltimore
  Presenting Author

• Brenda Jones Harden, Columbia University
  Non-Presenting Author