Poster #101 - The Effects of Stress on Externalizing Behaviors in Young Children: The Family Stress Model

• In Event: 1-169 - Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Section - Family Context & Processes

Integrative Statement

Introduction: There are many factors that can affect a child’s development during the first crucial years and substantial research has shown an association between family income and young children’s outcomes. The Family Stress Model (FSM; Conger, Conger, & Martin, 2010) explains the association between economic stress and negative outcomes in families. When parents are burdened by the inability to make ends meet, the stress of their daily lives can have a spillover effect on their ability to effectively engage with their children (Neppl, Senia, & Donnellan, 2016). Much of the research on the FSM has focused on adolescents as well as older children; fewer studies have directly analyzed outcomes for young children. The purpose of this empirical study is to better understand the immediate effects of economic stress on externalizing behaviors of two-year-old children. This test of the FSM will include the pathways that address the following: economic pressure to parental emotional distress, parental emotional distress to harsh parenting, and harsh parenting to child externalizing behavior (see Figure 1).
Methods: The present cross-sectional study uses data from a cohort of 296 two-year-old children from the Family Transitions Project (FTP). Latent variables were created for each of the four constructs in the model. Economic pressure was measured using three indicators: unmet material needs, ability to make ends meet, and financial cutbacks. Parent Emotional Distress measured depression, anxiety and hostility using 35 items from the SCL-90-R (Derogatis, 1994). Harsh parenting was measured using five questions from the Behavioral Affect Rating Scale (BARS) (Conger, 1989). Externalizing behavior was measured using 24 items from the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000). All scales and constructs had acceptable reliabilities and factor loadings.
Results: Mplus 8 (Muthén & Muthén, 1998-2017) was used to analyze the structural equation model. The model fit the data well: χ2(48) = 82.61, p = .0001, CFI = .975, TLI = .965, RMSEA = .049, SRMR = .046. All of the hypothesized pathways in the model were significant (see Table 1). Economic pressure significantly predicted parental distress, (β = .34, p = .000), parental distress significantly predicted harsh parenting (β = .18, p = .011), and harsh parenting significantly predicted child externalizing behavior (β = .40, p = .000). Indirect effects were tested using 10,000 parametric bias corrected bootstrap iterations. The unstandardized indirect effects of the bootstrap analysis indicated that the indirect effect between economic pressure and child externalizing behavior through parent emotional distress and harsh parenting was significant, .025 (95% CI [.004, .065]).
Conclusions: In this sample of two-year-old children, significant associations were found between economic pressure, parent emotional distress, harsh parenting, and child externalizing behavior. These results were consistent with the FSM, in that economic pressure had an indirect effect on child externalizing behavior through the disturbance of family processes (Neppl, Senia, & Donnellan, 2016). Future studies should focus on explicating moderating processes that could buffer these negative effects as well as describe pathways that could make a substantial positive impact in the lives of young families.

Authors

• Jennifer Rose, Texas Tech University
  Presenting Author

• Monica J. Martin, Texas Tech University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ann Mastergeorge, Texas Tech University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Tricia K Neppl, Iowa State University
  Non-Presenting Author