Poster #96 - Testing and Expanding the Family Stress Model from Toddlerhood to School Age for Families Living in Diverse Communities Facing Economic Strain

• In Event: Poster Session 13

Abstract

Childhood poverty in the US remains a critical issue, particularly for young children (Duncan et al., 2017). Economic disadvantage in childhood has been consistently linked to poorer academic achievement and increased risk of behavior problems (Duncan et al., 2017). Early childhood is a developmental period in which exposure to poverty may have more enduring effects than later developmental periods on academic achievement (Duncan et al., 2017) and in which proximal family processes (e.g., parenting) have particularly strong influence on later cognitive and socioemotional functioning relative to later ages (Hoeve et al., 2009). Research using the Family Stress Model (FSM; Elder, 1974) has posited and demonstrated how the negative effects of economic strain have cascading impacts on parental-well-being, the quality of parent-child interactions, and children’s behavioral and academic development. However, relatively little research has considered social support as a proximal family process factor despite evidence that parental social support is associated parent-child interactions and children’s social, behavioral, and cognitive development (Lee et al., 2011).

The current study begins to fill important gaps in developmental research by examining the validity of a path model from economic strain (income-to-needs ratio) at child age 2 to low levels of parental social support (General Life Satisfaction Scale; Crnic & Greenberg, 1983) and high levels of depressive symptoms (Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression; Radloff 1977) at age 3, then higher levels of observed coercive parent-child interactions at age 4, and lower academic achievement (Woodcock-Johnson III; McGrew & Woodcock, 2001), lower teacher rated peer preference (peer acceptance and rejection), and greater behavior problems (TRF; Achenbach, 1991) functioning at school at ages 7.5 and 8.5.

Participants were 731 ethnically diverse, low-income families (96% mothers, 50% White, 28% Black/African American; 49% female children) recruited from WIC clinics in Pittsburgh, PA, Eugene, OR, and Charlottesville, VA. Families were recruited at child age 2 based on child, family, and/or socioeconomic risk factors for child disruptive behavior. Families were assessed when children were ages 2, 3, 4, 5, 7.5 and 8.5. A path model was fit using full-information maximum likelihood estimation with robust standard errors. All effects were estimated simultaneously using a bootstrapping approach and the adjusted bootstrap percentiles method to estimate unbiased 95% confidence intervals to determine significance. The model demonstrated good fit.

We found partial support for the FSM, with statistically significant direct paths from higher economic strain to lower parental social support, higher depressive symptoms, and lower academic achievement, and a significant total indirect effect of economic strain predicting lower academic achievement via greater parental depression and dyadic coercion. In addition to coercive parent-child interactions at age 4 predicting school-age child outcomes, parental social support at age 3 was positively associated with peer preference. Our findings highlight the importance of parent-child interactions for children’s development, the need to consider multiple direct and indirect paths between poverty-related factors and achievement, and the protective effect of parental social support on children’s social functioning.

Authors

• Luciano Dolcini-Catania, University of Pittsburgh
  Presenting Author

• Julia Sarah Feldman, University of Pittsburgh

• Kathryn Lemery-Chalfant, Arizona State University

• Melvin N Wilson, University of Virginia -Charlottesville

• Daniel S. Shaw, University of Pittsburgh