Long-term Home Environment Influences on Adolescent Anxiety/Depression: Mediated Through Parenting Stress and Adverse Childhood Experiences

• In Event: The Effect of Adverse Childhood Experiences on Adolescent and Young Adult Psychopathology

Abstract

Study Aims and Hypotheses
The home environment is perceived as the most immediate context for child development and is associated with various aspects of child functioning, such as language development, social competence, and academic achievement (Bradley, 2015; Jones et al., 2017). However, investigations of positive and longitudinal influences of early home environment on later adolescent mental health are still a need, particularly in socioeconomically disadvantaged families. Guided by the ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 2005), the current study was to examine longitudinal associations between early home environment, maternal parenting stress, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and adolescent anxiety and depression. We hypothesized that early home environment would have direct effects on later adolescent anxiety and depression. We also hypothesized that maternal parenting stress and ACEs would be two mediators through which early home environment influences adolescent anxiety and depression.
Methods
The present study included a sample of 4898 mothers and their children from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. We used five waves of survey interviews and home observations at the child’s birth and ages 3, 5, 9, and 15. Approximately half of the mothers were non-Hispanic Black (47.6%), followed by Hispanic (27.3%), non-Hispanic White (21.1%), and other races (4.0%). The average age of the mothers was 25.3 years old (SD = 6.0); teen mothers accounted for 17.3%. More than half of the mothers (65%) had high school education or less. Over three quarters (75.8%) of the mothers were unmarried to a child’s biological father. Over a third of the mothers (36.2%) experienced poverty in the year of childbirth; 35.8% of mothers received public assistance or welfare benefits. There were slightly more boys (52.2%) than girls in the sample. Path analysis was used to test the direct and indirect effects of early home environment on adolescent anxiety and depression using Mplus 8.6.
Results
Descriptive statistics and correlations between variables are summarized in Table 1. The findings are consistent with our hypotheses. Specifically, as shown in Figure 1, our results revealed that a positive early home environment was significantly and directly associated with lower risks of adolescent anxiety (β = − .08, p < 0.001) and depression (β = − .06, p < 0.001). Early home environment was negatively related to maternal parenting stress (β = − .11, p < 0.001), which was positively associated with adolescent anxiety (β = −.09, p < 0.001) and depression (β = − .10, p < 0.001). Similarly, early home environment was negatively related to ACEs (β = − .04, p < 0.01), which were positively associated with adolescent anxiety (β = .10, p < 0.001) and depression (β = .12, p < 0.001). A positive pathway from parenting stress to ACEs was found (β = .26, p < 0.001), suggesting that higher levels of maternal parenting stress are likely to predict more ACEs. Our study has important implications for early programs to promote child resilience and well-being, for practices to help create safe and responsive caregiving environments, and for policy efforts to support vulnerable families.

Authors

• Qingyu Jiang, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
  Presenting Author

• Dan Wang, University of Oklahoma

• Jeong-Kyun Choi