Poster #23 - Teacher Conflict Moderates the Prospective Associations Between Parental Hostility and Children’s Internalizing Problems

• In Event: Poster Session 12

Abstract

Introduction. Parents’ behaviors can either promote optimal outcomes for youth or place them at risk for experiencing maladaptive outcomes. In particular, previous research suggests that parental hostility, or behaviors that express anger, animosity, or resentment, is positively associated with children’s internalizing problems, including symptoms of anxiety and depression (Yap & Jorm, 2015). Teachers also have an important role to play in determining outcomes for youth. In fact, findings from one study revealed that having a conflictual relationship with a teacher also places children at risk for experiencing internalizing problems (Jellesma et al., 2015). However, relatively little is currently known regarding how parents’ behaviors and teacher relationships interact to predict child outcomes. Therefore, the goal of the current short-term longitudinal study was to examine whether teacher conflict moderated the prospective links from parental hostility to anxiety and depressive symptoms in middle childhood.

Method. Participants included 214 children (48.8% girls; 52.2% Hispanic/Latinx) in the 3rd-5th grades and their homeroom teachers from two local elementary schools in the West South-Central region of the United States. Ages ranged from 8-12 years (M = 9.27 years; SD = 0.94 years). Children completed measures of parental hostility, anxiety symptoms, and depressive symptoms during the Fall and Spring semesters of an academic school year (approximately 6 months apart). Teachers provided ratings of teacher-student conflict at each time point.

Results. A series of multilevel models were estimated to investigate the prospective links from parental hostility to children’s internalizing problems. Results indicated that teacher conflict moderated the associations between parental hostility and both anxiety and depressive symptoms (see Figures 1 and 2). That is, at low (–1 SD) levels of teacher conflict, parental hostility was not associated with changes in symptoms over time. However, when children experienced moderate (mean) to high (+1 SD) levels of conflict with their teacher, parental hostility predicted increases in both anxiety and depressive symptoms across the academic year.

Conclusions. The current findings provide support for the idea that teacher-child relationships can have important implications for child outcomes in the context of maladaptive parenting behaviors. That is, children who experienced parental hostility at home did not show increases in internalizing problems across the school year when they had a relationship with their teacher that was characterized by low levels of conflict. However, children who had moderate to high levels of conflict with their teacher and experienced hostile parenting behaviors showed increases in both anxiety and depressive symptoms over time. These findings suggest that youth who experience conflictual relationships at home and at school are at an elevated risk for experiencing internalizing problems, which could lead to further mental health problems as children develop. When children have low levels of conflict with their teacher, however, they may be protected from the harmful effects associated with hostile parenting behaviors. Thus, teachers have an important impact on children’s emotional functioning, especially when they experience challenging situations at home.

Authors

• Brianna Turney Ricker, Texas Tech University
  Presenting Author

• Carlos Roryver Sanchez, Texas Tech University

• John L Cooley, Texas Tech University