Poster #25 - Interaction between Parent Behaviors and Child Temperament to Predict Preadolescent Appraisal and Coping

• In Event: Poster Session 18

Abstract

Introduction: How children develop a style of appraisal of stressors, as challenges or threats, and how they learn to cope with stressors are critical skills for adaptive development and have been shown to impact children’s adjustment. However, we do not understand fully the individual factors that may put children at greater risk for developing less effective appraisal and coping skills. Parents make up a key environmental context in which a child learns to manage stressors (Power, 2004). It has been hypothesized that greater behavioral warmth may increase a child’s feeling of security and encourage them to cope actively with stress, whereas greater negativity and rejection may lead the child to withdraw and avoid environmental stressors (Herman & McHale, 1993). However, certain youth may be more sensitive to the context created by parents than others based on their temperament characteristics. Prior work has shown that the association between parenting and child adjustment appears to be moderated by child characteristics such as fearfulness and irritability (Lengua, 2006). Further, negative emotionality, a temperament characterized by greater fear arousal, frustration, and sensitivity to negative stimuli, has been shown to moderate the impact of cumulative risk on preadolescents’ appraisal and coping style (Parrish, 2021). While warm and supportive parenting has been shown to bolster adaptive development in youth, it may be important to consider how youth with temperament characteristics such as fearfulness or propensity to frustration may respond differently to parenting behaviors to increase our understanding of this risk pathway and better inform protective intervention.
Methods: This longitudinal sample (N=214) includes observational ratings of parenting behaviors (warmth, negativity) derived from a parent-child interaction task assessed at the first timepoint (T1). We will examine how behavioral aspects of parenting, moderated by a parent-report measure of child temperament characteristics (fear, frustration), may predict child self-report measures of appraisal (positive, threat) and coping (active, avoidant) collected at all three timepoints (T1, T2, T3). We will test fear and frustration at T1 as moderators of the association of parenting with appraisal and coping initial levels (intercept) and linear growth (slope) across 3 time points using latent growth curve modeling.
Preliminary Results: In a preliminary examination of this data, we found that greater maternal warmth predicted lower initial levels of avoidant coping and greater negative involvement predicted greater growth in avoidant coping across time points. These findings suggest parenting provides a context that could shape children’s utilization of maladaptive coping strategies such as avoidance. Next, analyses will test whether the associations of parenting with appraisal and coping are moderated by temperament characteristics of fear and frustration. These analyses will be completed before the conference.
Implications: These analyses have important implications for deepening our understanding of the risk pathway to maladaptive coping use, as well as prevention interventions supporting pre-adolescent mental health. Greater understanding of the individual factors that contribute to children’s appraisal and coping is critically important for helping youth to manage stressors and promoting healthy outcomes.

Authors

• Caitlin M. Stavish, University of Washington
  Presenting Author

• Liliana J Lengua, University of Washington