Poster #91 - Children’s Emotion Regulation Moderates Parent Well-being and Child Victimization: Contributions of Family and Community Factors

• In Event: 2-163 - Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Section - Family Context & Processes

Integrative Statement

A recent Society for Research in Child Development policy report called for more programs and policies that support at-risk parents (2017). Parents of low-income families, such as those with children enrolled in Head Start, tend to have high rates of mental health problems (e.g., depression, anxiety), which are largely attributable to chronic stress (Administration for Children and Families, 2001, 2002; Knitzer, 2001; Liaw & Brooks-Gunn, 1994; Yoshikawa, Aber & Beardslee, 2012). The purpose of the proposed study is to understand the influence of family and community factors on parent and child well-being in an at-risk sample. The majority of studies investigating the influence of family and community variables on individuals’ well-being or adjustment tend to focus on neighborhood-level variables. The exclusion of family-level variables often makes it difficult to accurately determine which level of variable is driving outcomes (Leventhal & Brooks-Gunn, 2000). Moreover, families are surrounded by a nest of cultural systems that lie within and outside of the family that impact day-to-day life (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2007). Therefore, distinguishing among different levels of contextual influences is important for forming an accurate perception of how family and community environmental factors impact well-being.

Participants were recruited as a part of a larger two-generation intervention for Head Start children and families. A total of 14 Head Start centers participated in the parent project. Seventy-eight percent of participants identified as African American. Twenty-two percent of participants had families who made less than 10,000 dollars per year. A total of 426 parents and teachers completed questionnaires, including the Preschool Peer Victimization Measure (PPVM; Crick et al., 1999), the SF-8 Health Survey (Ware, Kosinski, Dewey, & Gandek, 2001), the Exosystem Social Support Questionnaire (ESS; Sarason et al., 1983), and the Emotion Regulation Checklist – Parent Form (ERC; Shields & Cicchetti, 1997). Data collection and analyses are ongoing. Thus, the proposed study presents preliminary analyses. Child victimization was assessed via the physical subscale of the PPVM – Teacher Form. Parent well-being was assessed by the mental subscale of the SF-8 Health Survey. Community data on amount of public assistance was collected from the 2014 American Community Survey.

A hierarchical linear regression analysis revealed that children’s emotion regulation moderated the relation between the percentage of public assistance in the community and children’s well-being, b = -.02, SE = .01, t = - 2.57, p = .01. Figure 1 provides more detailed child regression results. Further analyses revealed that children’s emotion regulation moderated the relation between parent’s social support (ESS) and parents’ well-being, b = -.19, SE = .07, t = -2.76, p < .01. Figure 2 provides more detailed parent regression results.

Analyses of the full data set are ongoing, yet it appears that family factors are contributing more to parent well-being whereas community variables are contributing more to child victimization. In the future, longitudinal designs may shed light on the lasting impact of family and community factors on parent and child well-being, which will be useful for informing practitioners and the development of preventative interventions.

Authors

• Alexandra Nancarrow, University of Alabama
  Presenting Author

• Ansley Gilpin, University of Alabama
  Non-Presenting Author

• John E. Lochman, University of Alabama
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jason DeCaro, University of Alabama
  Non-Presenting Author

• Caroline Boxmeyer, University of Alabama
  Non-Presenting Author