Maternal Psychological Distress and Parenting Behavior in a Low-Income Sample: Moderation by Maternal Substance Use

• In Event: Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Topic - Developmental Psychopathology

Abstract

Maternal stress and depression (psychological distress) consistently predict negative parenting patterns (Cohn, et al., 1990; Ritchie & Holden, 1998), however, little is known about this relation in substance-using mothers. This association may be especially important at toddler age, when children are particularly vulnerable to the experience of their caregiving environment as they become more mobile, engage in more dyadic behavior, and begin to practice regulating themselves (Ettekal et al., 2020). We examined the relation between maternal psychological distress and parenting behavior (sensitivity and harshness) with prenatal substance use as a moderator. We hypothesized that the relationship between psychological distress and negative parenting behavior would be stronger in substance-using versus non-substance-using mothers.
Participants were mother-child dyads (N = 201) participating in an ongoing longitudinal study. Mothers were recruited in the first trimester of pregnancy into one of three groups: cigarette smokers (n = 58), cigarette and marijuana smokers (n = 82), and demographically-matched non-smokers (n = 61). At 24-months of child age, mothers reported their perceived stress and depression symptoms and maternal parenting behavior was coded during mother-toddler free-play interactions using the Parent Child Early Relational Assessment (Clark, 1999).
Maternal stress and depression were highly correlated r(201) = .55, p < .001 and averaged into a composite variable, reflecting maternal psychological distress. Hierarchical regression analyses were used, with sociodemographic risk in the first step, followed by maternal smoking group status and psychological distress added in the last step. For maternal sensitivity there were main effects of sociodemographic risk (b = -.74, t = -3.35, p = .001) and maternal psychological distress, (b = -.26, t = -2.07, p = .039), and a significant interaction between maternal smoking group status and maternal psychological distress (b = .36, t = 2.28, p = .024), model R2 = .09. Simple slopes indicated that for non-smoking mothers, higher levels of psychological distress was associated with lower levels of maternal sensitivity. However, there was no relationship between level of psychological distress and level of maternal sensitivity for substance-using groups. For maternal harshness there was a main effect of sociodemographic risk (b = -.54, t = -2.50, p = .013). There were no other main effects or interaction effects for maternal harshness.
One interpretation of the results may be that substance-using mothers were coping with psychological distress by using cigarettes and marijuana. However, smokers are more stressed on average than non-smokers and the apparently relaxing experience of smoking can be attributed to a reversal of the irritability that grows between cigarettes (Parrot, 1999). However, if mothers smoke before interacting with their child, this decrease in negative affect may mitigate the effects of psychological distress on their parenting warmth. These findings inform intervention efforts aimed at single, low-income, substance-using mothers and delineate developmental processes in their children.

Authors

• Madison Rachel Kelm, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Presenting Author

• Miglena Yordanova Ivanova, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Pamela Schuetze, State University of New York Buffalo State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Rina D. Eiden, The Pennsylvania State University
  Non-Presenting Author