Psychology Commons^™

The Relationship Between Parental Stress, Cognitive Distortions, And Child Psychopathology, Daniel Kennedy

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

While there are a number of factors that may contribute to maladaptive parenting behaviors, parental stress has consistently been related to the increased risk of child maltreatment and, ultimately, the development of childhood. The question then is what drives parental stress and what are those key factors? Based on previous research, there are multiple parental, child, and environmental factors that lead to parental stress, but there is not a clear understanding of what initially drives parental stress. Based on cognitive behavioral models of stress and Abidin’s theory of parental stress, it is theorized that parental cognitions play an important role …