Profiles of Risk and Parenting: Links with children’s socioemotional development

• In Event: Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Topic - Family Context & Processes

Abstract

Substantive work shows that economic hardship has deleterious effects on parenting and child development (Raver et al., 2013). These relations are found even within samples of families living in poverty because there are meaningful variations in levels of socioeconomic disadvantage. Family stress theorists assert and find support for the idea that the effects of poverty on children are mediated through parents’ mental health, family conflict, and parenting practices (Conger et al., 1992). Most of the work incorporating risk and parenting variables has taken a variable centered approach, which though helpful, does not allow us to examine whether it is the patterning of risk and parenting dimensions that influences children’s outcomes. \Thus, the goal of this study was to examine how risk factors (economic stress, parenting distress, family conflict), in combination with parenting (supportiveness, intrusiveness), in early childhood are associated with later socioemotional outcomes using a person-centered approach in European American (EA), African American (AA), and U.S. Mexican (USM) families.

The study utilizes archival data from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project, a randomized control experimental evaluation that followed 3001 high-risk mothers and children (36.1% EA, 33.9% AA, 18.4% USM) from 14-months to Grade 5. In early childhood (14-24 months), mothers reported on their economic stress (welfare receipt), parenting distress (Abedin, 1995) and family conflict (FES, Moors & Moors, 1986). Mothers and children took part in a 3-bag task that was coded for maternal supportiveness and intrusiveness/directedness. At pre-kindergarten, measures of children’s emotion regulation (Leiter, 1980), aggression (Achenbach, 1991), and problem behavior (Zill et al., 2005) were given. At grade five, a measure of prosocial behavior was included (Gresham & Elliott, 2008).

Parenting and risk measures were submitted to an LPA analysis and fit indices (LMRT, BIC, entropy) revealed a 4-profile solution fit the data best (Figure 1). These profiles were then used to predict the outcomes along with child ethnicity. There were significant main effects of the risk/parenting profiles on outcomes (Figure 2). For prosocial behavior at grade 3, the low risk/supportive parenting was associated with highest levels of prosocial behavior at Grade 5. For externalizing and problem behavior, the two profiles that were high in directiveness/intrusiveness were associated with significantly lower levels of aggressive and problem behavior (profiles 1 & 4). This is interesting, because these two profiles also had some level of risk associated with them (profile 4 that had the highest levels of maternal distress). Directedness may prove to be a protective factor for children’s problem behavior in high risk contexts.

There was a significant interaction between ethnicity and profiles in predicting emotion regulation. The profiles only predicted emotion regulation for USM children and not for AA or EA children. Higher levels of emotion regulation for USM children were associated with profiles that were high in supportiveness and low to moderate in risk (Profiles 1 & 2). This supports that the joint influence of parenting and risk vary by ethnicity. Implications for cultural developmental and risk and resilience theories will be discussed.

Authors

• Deborah J. Laible, Lehigh University
  Presenting Author

• Gustavo Carlo, University of California, Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Alexandra Main, University of California, Merced
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jean M Ispa, University of Missouri - Columbia
  Non-Presenting Author

• Alysia Cruz, Lehigh University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sahitya Maiya, University of New Hampshire
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jihee Im, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Non-Presenting Author