Poster #45 - Building Resilient Relationships: Parental Gatekeeping Mediates Between Parent Positivity and Child Resilience

• In Event: Poster Session 10

Abstract

Within the transmission model of parenting, it is relatively established that parenting behaviors tend to be intergenerational (Lomanosk et al., 2017) and that more positive parents have more resilient children (e.g., Rea-Sandin et al., 2020). One of the possible mechanisms by which parental positivity may result in child resilience is through parental gatekeeping behaviors. Parental gate opening includes providing the partner with enhanced opportunities for active engagement with the child, whereas gate closing involves behaviors that impair or criticize the partner’s efforts (Schoppe-Sullivan et al., 2008). In this study we explored the extent to which parental gate opening acted to facilitate the modeling of positive interaction patterns, resulting in children with more resilience, and parental gate closing inhibited those patterns, resulting in children with less resilience. We hypothesized that both types of gatekeeping behaviors would significantly mediate the relations between parent positivity and child resilience.

Data was drawn from an ongoing longitudinal study of 145 family triads (one parent, two siblings). At Time 1 (T1) the siblings were both between the ages of 4-12. Time 2 (T2) data collection occurred 1.5 years later. Parent positivity was assessed at T1 and gatekeeping and child resilience were assessed at T2. Parents were predominantly female (95%) and the average family was middle class (Mincome=60,000-80,000) and white (85%). Parent positivity was a self-reported mean composite of the Life Orientation Test-Revised (Carver, 2013), the Hearth Hope Index (Hearth, 1992), and the Self-Compassion Scale (Raes et al., 2010). Gate-opening and gate-closing were assessed using the Parental Regulation Inventory (Van Egeren, 2000). Child resilience was measured using the Child and Youth Resilience Measure-Person Most Knowledgeable version (Liebenberg et al., 2012). Using maximum likelihood estimation, the unconditional model indicated significant family-level variance (ICC = .60). This was accounted for with multilevel modeling. Controlling for socioeconomic status, child age, and child gender, we found that more positive parents had children with higher levels of resilience (B = 0.1217; SE = 0.05, p < .01). This direct effect was significantly mediated by parental gate closing behaviors (see Figure 1). The total mediated effect size was .0457 (a medium effect size). Although parent positivity did predict an increase in gate opening behaviors, gate opening did not relate to child resilience.

The negative effects of parental gate closing have been fairly well established (Altenburger & Schoppe-Sullivan, 2021) and mothers who rate themselves high in gate closing report that their mothers were also high on gate closing behaviors (Woosley et al., 2022). This study extends that work by incorporating gate-opening and parent positivity. Positive parents engage in fewer gate closing behaviors, which relates to children with higher levels of resilience. Modeling healthy relationships with other adults is a method by which positive parents provide models from which children can learn to develop relationships and manage resources that help them sustain their well-being, which are critical skills for becoming resilient (Liebenberg, et al., 2012).

Authors

• T. Caitlin Vasquez-O'Brien, Eastern Connecticut State University
  Presenting Author

• Elizabeth Rellinger Zettler, Illinois College