Parenting stress, academic socialization, & involvement in African American dyads: The mediating role of parent-child relationship

• In Event: Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Topic - Education, Schooling

Abstract

Parent well-being serves as a context for understanding the relations between parent-child relationships (Newland, 2015), parenting/parent socialization, youth perceptions of that parenting/socialization, and youths’ developmental outcomes (Belsky, 1984). However, parenting stress has a negative impact on the parent-child relationship (e.g., communication, emotional involvement, disaffection; Weissman et al., 1972), and related aspects of child development (Eccles & Harold, 1993; Walker et al, 2005). In the present research, we examine the ways in which parenting stress and closeness in the parent-adolescent relationship are associated with parents’ academic socialization (PAS), and adolescent perceptions of parent’s involvement (PI) and positive parent-adolescent relationship (PAR) within African American parent-adolescent dyads. A key goal of this study is to begin to build the case for the mediating role of positive parent-child relationships in the relationship between parenting stress and parenting behaviors and its subsequent developmental outcomes.

We examined a path model of relations between parenting stress (e.g., difficulty managing parenting tasks and distress stemming from and a perceived inability to meet parenting demands; Deater-Deckard, 1998; Putnik et al., 2010), parent reports of close positive relationship (e.g., parent perceptions of a close positive relationship with their child), and parent-reported PAS and adolescent reports of PI and PAR among Black caregiver-adolescent dyads (N=604). Parents were 25-83 years in age (M=43,SD=8), 85% female, 72% employed, 59% in a committed relationship, 80% had at least some college, and a median family income of $45,000-$55,000. All parents and adolescents self-identified as Black or African American. Adolescents were 13-18 years-old (M=15,SD=1), 48% female, and were in grades six to twelve. Data are cross sectional and were collected via online survey. PAS was operationalized as parent reports of 1) messages of balance between academic efforts and leisure, 2) messages linking education to future opportunities, and 3) academic monitoring (see Table 1). PI was operationalized as adolescent reports of 1) speaking with their parents about school, 2) parent academic monitoring, and 3) working with their parents on a school project. PAR was operationalized as adolescent reports of 1) a positive relationship with their parent characterized by warmth, love, and good communication, 2) how close they feel to their parent, and 3) parental encouragement of independence (i.e., autonomy granting). Separate PI and PAR models were ran controlling for parent’s education, gender, and marital status, and adolescent’s gender and grade using structural equation modeling estimating direct and indirect effects with bootstrapping using R.

Results showed that parenting stress was negatively related to closeness, and aspects of PAS, PI, and PAR (see Figure 1). Parent’s closeness and PAS were positively related to indicators of PI and PAR. Parent’s closeness mediated relations between parenting stress and PAS. Parent reports of close parent-child relationship and PAS mediate relations between parenting stress and PI but not PAR. Findings suggest that closeness in the parent-child relationship may attenuate the negative effect of parentings stress and are supported by existing research (de Cook et al., 2017). Though guided by theory, alternative models are possible with cross-sectional data; such models will be tested.

Authors

• Latisha Ross, University of Virginia - Charlottesville
  Presenting Author

• Naila Antonia Smith, University of Virginia - Charlottesville
  Non-Presenting Author

• Elan Hope, Policy Research Associates
  Non-Presenting Author