Poster #64 - The Moderating Role of Parent Support on the Relations Between Preschoolers’ Negative Affectivity and Adjustment Problems

• In Event: 3-053 - Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: PS 10 Section - Developmental Psychopathology

Integrative Statement

Given that negative affectivity has been consistently linked to maladjustment, it is particularly important to investigate how parents may be able to buffer the poor outcomes associated with negative affectivity, particularly during the critical preschool period (Brumariu & Kerns, 2013; Garstein, Putnam, & Rothbart, 2012). Prior studies have generally relied on one method of assessment; this study used both parent report and standardized laboratory observations as measures of supportive parenting behaviors. Supportive parenting has been defined and measured in a variety of ways; this study investigated the specific role that encouragement of child self-regulation and supportive responses to children’s expressions of negative emotions play in the association between child negative affectivity and internalizing, externalizing, and sleep problems.
Participants included 102 mothers (M age = 30.68; SD age = 6.06) and their preschool-age children (i.e., ages 3-5 years; M age = 3.50 years; SD age = .51; 61.3% boys). The sample of mother-child dyads was economically and racially diverse. Parents completed the Children’s Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ; Rothbart, Ahadi, Hershey, & Fisher, 2001), the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL/1.5-5; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000), and the Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale (CCNES; Fabes, Eisenberg, & Bernzweig, 1990) to measure child adjustment, child negative affectivity, and parental reactions to negative emotions, respectively. Parent support was also assessed using an observational measure (i.e., the Etch-a-Sketch interaction task), which was coded for indicators of maternal encouragement of self-regulation.
The moderating effect of observed maternal encouragement of self-regulation on the relations between child negative affectivity and child problems was investigated in the first model. The interaction between child negative affectivity and observed maternal encouragement was not significant for internalizing problems (β = -.16, p = .075, 95% CI [-.33, .02]). However, the interaction was significant for externalizing problems (β = -.17, p = .056, 95% CI [-.35, -.02]) and for sleep problems (β = -.20, p = .031, 95% CI [-.38, -.02]). In the context of low observed maternal encouragement, children with lower levels of negative affectivity exhibited the lowest levels of externalizing and sleep problems and children with higher levels of negative affectivity exhibited the highest levels of externalizing and sleep problems. The interaction between child negative affectivity and mothers’ self-reported supportive reactions to their children’s expressions of negative emotions was not significant for any outcome variables.
Children had the fewest externalizing and sleep problems when both negative affectivity and observed maternal encouragement were low and the most externalizing and sleep problems when child negative affectivity was high and observed maternal encouragement was low. Further, youth with lower levels of negative affectivity had more problems when maternal encouragement was high than when it was low.
These results suggest that sensitive parenting is a protective factor for children with higher levels of negative affectivity. However, the goodness-of-fit model (Thomas & Chett, 1977) suggests that all children do not benefit equally from a specific type of parenting behavior and, in the context of the present results, supportive parenting is not necessarily universally beneficial for all children.

Authors

• Joanie Wilbanks, University of Georgia
  Non-Presenting Author

• Molly Davis, University of Georgia
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kara West, University of Georgia
  Presenting Author

• Cynthia Suveg, University of Georgia
  Non-Presenting Author