Poster #76 - Negative Parenting as a Mediator between Maternal Working Memory and Child Externalizing Difficulties

• In Event: Poster Session 18

Abstract

Aspects of executive functioning, including working memory (WM), are important for the regulation of affect and behavior, and have been implicated as key cognitive processes that influence the quality of parental caregiving behavior. As parents’ WM capacity decreases, their ability to effectively regulate their emotions, plan, and manage their own and their child’s behavior becomes less effective. When this happens, parents may engage in caregiving behaviors that increase the likelihood of children exhibiting externalizing emotional and behavior difficulties. For example, existing work has shown that difficulties in WM can lead to increases in parent negative reactivity during interactions with children. This is notable because these types of parenting behaviors are well-established risk factors for an array of child adjustment outcomes, including externalizing difficulties. However, studies have not yet, to our knowledge, considered if parenting behavior mediates associations between maternal WM and child behavioral problems. Therefore, the goal of this study was to determine whether negative parenting mediated the relationship between maternal WM and child externalizing difficulties.
A total of 179 mother-child dyads participated. Mothers completed the Letter Number Sequencing subtest of the WAIS-IV and the Verbal Fluency subtest from the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System when children were 4 months of age, from which a WM composite was derived. At 10 and 12 months of age, dyads participated in a free play task without toys from which negative parenting behaviors (i.e., harshness, controlling behavior, displays of negative affect) were coded using the PCERA scoring system. To consider potential specificity of associations, four specific subscales from the CBCL, which mothers completed when children were 18 months of age, were examined as externalizing outcomes: emotional reactivity, aggression, attention problems, and oppositional/defiant problems.
After accounting for infant sex and family cumulative risk, maternal WM was not directly related to any aspect of toddler externalizing difficulties, but was associated with maternal negative caregiving behavior (b* = , p < .05). As expected, maternal negative caregiving behaviors were significantly associated with toddler emotional reactivity (b* = .27, p < .05) and attention problems (b* = .30, p < .05), and showed a trend-level association with toddler aggression (b* = .17, p < .10). The association between maternal negative caregiving behaviors and toddler ODD difficulties was in the expected direction (b* = .12), but not significant. Maternal WM was indirectly related to toddler attention problems (b* = .054, p < .05) and at a trend-level, to toddler emotional reactivity (b* = .048, p < .10). All other indirect effects were not significant. Findings are consistent with prior literature showing that maternal WM difficulties are associated with negative parenting and that negative parenting behaviors are related to later child externalizing behaviors. These findings expand the literature by addressing how maternal WM may work through negative parenting behaviors to influence child externalizing behaviors, specifically attention, an important aspect of healthy social emotional development. The implications of these findings and key future directions will be discussed.

Authors

• Emilie McLeod, Northern Illinois University
  Presenting Author

• Holly Kobezak

• Jordan R Kaye, Northern Illinois University

• Sabrina Ung, Northern Illinois University

• David J Bridgett, Northern Illinois University