Poster #99 - Maternal Alcohol Dependence and Harsh Parenting: Differential Susceptibility to Child Temperament Across Caregiving Contexts

• In Event: 1-005 - Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Section - Family Context & Processes

Integrative Statement

Maternal alcohol dependence has been broadly linked to deficits in parenting behaviors that have negative implications for child development. However, less is known about how alcohol dependence predicts parenting difficulties across different child-rearing contexts. Further, parenting process models (Belsky, 1984) highlight the influential nature of child characteristics on parenting in distinct parenting contexts. Child temperament has been identified as one potential mechanism that influences these associations, and children of alcoholics have been shown to have difficult, negative temperaments that may exacerbate the effects of the parenting they receive (Das Eiden et al., 2002; Peterson, Leonard, & Das Eiden, 2001). Hawk-dove models of temperament (Korte et al., 2005) propose two broad profiles of temperament. Specifically, the “Hawk” profile is defined by aggressive, assertive behavioral responses to stimuli and has been implicated in models of parenting (Sturge-Apple, et al., 2012). However, to our knowledge no one has examined whether parents are differentially susceptible in their parenting to children’s hawk temperament. In summary, given recent research examining parenting across different child-rearing contexts (Sturge-Apple et al., 2017), we hypothesized that maternal alcohol dependence would be more strongly linked to parenting difficulties within discipline domains compared to free-play contexts. Furthermore, we also hypothesized that child hawk temperament would moderate the association between maternal alcohol dependence and harsh caregiving in this domain.
Sample. Data was collected from 201 children (44% female) and their mothers. Fifty-six percent were African American and 11% were Latino. Median family household income was $18,300 (US) per year.
Method. Maternal alcohol dependence was assessed via the Diagnostic Interview-IV (DIS-IV; Robins et al., 1995). The hawk trait of child temperament was measured at Wave 1 via LABTAB (Goldsmith et al., 1999) using the dominant/negative affect scale coded by two independent raters. Observational ratings of maternal harsh caregiving in the free-play and compliance tasks were captured via the Harsh subscale of the Iowa Family Interaction Rating Scales (IFIRS; Melby & Conger, 2001) that assesses critical, disparaging, and antagonistic behavior directed toward the child.
Results. Latent difference scores were used to model change over time in parenting and results showed that maternal alcohol dependence predicted increases in harsh parenting over time in the compliance task, B = .255 (SE = .081), p = .002, but not in the free-play task, B = .041 (SE = .063), p = .518. Furthermore, the association between alcohol dependence and maternal harsh caregiving in the compliance task was moderated by child hawk temperament. Mothers with histories of alcohol dependence with children higher on hawk-like temperament had greater increases in harsh caregiving relative to alcohol-dependent mothers with children low in hawk temperament, B = .218 (SE = .102), p = .033.
Findings indicate mothers with higher levels of dependence may experience greater impairments in their abilities to adopt adaptive, sensitive, and consistent strategies to navigate these more demanding contexts. In addition, child temperament that is characterized by hawk-like traits may exacerbate levels of parenting stress already elevated in demanding childrearing contexts.

Authors

• Debrielle Teresa Jacques, University of Rochester
  Presenting Author

• Melissa Sturge-Apple, University of Rochester
  Non-Presenting Author

• Patrick Davies, University of Rochester
  Non-Presenting Author

• Dante Cicchetti, University of Minnesota
  Non-Presenting Author