Poster #34 - With Infinite Affection: Caregiving as Protective of Children’s Social-Emotional Skills Against Household Chaos or Low SES

• In Event: Poster Session 04

Abstract

Introduction: Childhood socioeconomic status (SES) is, on average, associated with children’s social-emotional (SE) development (e.g., Gershoff et al., 2007; Kao et al., 2020). Household chaos (i.e., instability, disorganization) is a proposed mechanism by which SES influences children’s SE development (Andrews, Atkinson, et al., 2021; Iwinski et al., 2021; Marsh et al., 2020). Chaos is believed to interact with proximal parenting behaviors such that it disrupts caregiving relationships in a manner thought to be reciprocal (Andrews, Dunn, et al., 2021). An implication, then, is that sensitive, high-quality caregiving relationships (i.e., attachment and involvement) may have the potential to protect against the negative effects of household chaos and low SES on SE development (Masten, 2018). This pre-registered study addresses three hypotheses:
1) Household chaos will negatively predict children’s SE skills.
2) Family SES will positively predict children’s SE skills.
3) Parenting will moderate these relationships, such that high-quality parenting will partially protect SE development from environmental risk.

Methods: Participants were from a study of 83 families recruited to maximize SES diversity. Children (ages 4-7 years) were identified as 36% Hispanic, 33% non-Hispanic White, 28% Black, and 4% Asian. Parents answered questions about total family income, number of adults and children dependent on family income, education level for up to two primary caregivers, household chaos (Matheny et al., 1995), their parenting relationship (PRQ; Kamphaus & Frick, 2005), and children’s social skills (BRIEF-2; Gioia et al., 2015) and emotional control (BASC-2; Reynolds et al., 2011). SES was indexed by averaging z-scores of family income-to-needs ratio and parent education. An SE skills composite will be indexed by averaging z-scores on the BASC social skills subscale and the BRIEF emotional control subscale.


Analytical Plan: We will first calculate summary statistics (e.g., mean, standard deviation) and correlations between the variables for household chaos, SES, parenting quality, children’s SE skills, and possible covariates of child age, sex, and typical developmental status. Covariates will be included if marginally related to the outcome (α = .1). Multiple regression will be used for hypothesis testing. Hypothesis 1 will be supported if the parameter for chaos is significantly associated with children’s SE skills (α = .05). In another model, Hypothesis 2 will be supported if the parameter for SES is significantly associated with children’s SE skills. If our first and second hypotheses are supported, Hypothesis 3 will be tested using an interaction term with parenting ratings, added separately to the chaos model and to the SES model. Further, exploratory analyses will examine the components of family SES - income-to-needs ratio and average parent education - as separate predictors of child SE skills, using the Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons.

Conclusions: This study will importantly examine whether high-quality caregiving may act as a moderator, which has implications for protecting children’s SE development in the context of environmental risks such as household chaos or low SES. It also helps address the lack of intersectional resilience research by analyzing SES among racially and ethnically diverse children (Crenshaw, 1991).

Authors

• S. Alexa McDorman, University of Maryland - College Park
  Presenting Author

• Morgan Alayna Gilmer, Pennsylvania State University, University Park

• Ellie Kathleen Taylor, University of Maryland - College Park

• Victoria Alexander, University of Maryland - College Park

• Julia Anne Leonard, Yale University

• John D.E. Gabrieli, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Rachel R. Romeo, University of Maryland - College Park