Psychology Commons^™

The Relationship Between Adverse Childhood Experiences, Parenting Behavior, And Parenting Self-Efficacy In African American Families With Low-Income, Maleek Holmes

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Early trauma is linked to adverse adult outcomes, including parenting deficits. While prior research has emphasized specific trauma types and severe parenting deficits, less is known about how cumulative trauma shapes normative parenting behaviors. Parenting self-efficacy (PSE) has been proposed as a potential mechanism linking early adversity to later parenting practices, though under-researched. This study examined the relationships between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), PSE, and positive parenting behaviors in a sample of 56 caregivers of preschool-aged children enrolled in Head Start. PSE was significantly associated with greater use of limit-setting, positive behavior support, and proactive parenting strategies, reinforcing its role …

The Longitudinal Effects Of Parent–Adolescent Digital Communication On Depression And Anxiety Symptoms, Bradley M. Trager Ph.D., Layla M. Rainosek, Ina M. Koning Ph.D., Suzanne M. Geurts Ph.D., Regina Jjm Van Den Eijden Ph.D., Helen Gm Vossen Ph.D.

Psychological Science Faculty Works

Purpose: Digital communication between parents and adolescents is prevalent. This study explored the overall frequency of digital communication and frequency of exchanging specific content between parents and adolescents as predictors of adolescents' depression and anxiety symptoms. Methods: Participants were 188 mother–adolescent and 137 father–adolescent dyads from the Netherlands. Parents (mothers/fathers: Mage = 46.17 of 48.55) and adolescents (Mage = 13.88) each completed 2 surveys 1 year apart. Results: Results from the study suggest that the nature of the digital communication content rather than its overall frequency plays a crucial role in adolescents' mental health outcomes. Sharing personal experiences with mothers …

Resilience As A Protective Factor For Parents Of Young Children With Adverse Childhood Experiences And Socioeconomic Challenges, Hennys Torrealba

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and socioeconomic challenges can be related to mothers’ and fathers’ ability to parent their children effectively. Subsequently, these factors are related to children’s emotional and behavioral functioning. Children from families who have experienced these challenges are more likely to display behavior problems. Another important factor to consider is parents’ resilience, which can equip parents with the ability to better navigate through challenges. Parents who are resilient can provide a nurturing environment for their children despite challenges and use protective factors (e.g., effective coping strategies) more effectively. The current study examined the relationships among …

Maternal And Child Anxiety Symptoms: A Longitudinal Examination Of Parent-Related Indirect Pathways During Covid-19, Karamveer Kaur

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The present study contributes to the current literature by examining specific parenting pathways (i.e., maternal hostility, overreactivity, laxness, warmth) that may be contributing to the transmission risk of anxiety symptoms from parent to child. Additionally, understanding these pathways during a context of high stress created by the COVID-19 pandemic may be particularly informative. Further, additional analysis explored the reverse direction, examining how child anxiety symptoms might influence parenting behaviors, providing a view of the bidirectional relationship between parent and child anxiety within the context of high stress. The survey data for this study were collected from a longitudinal study titled …

Approval Of Parent-Child Aggression As A Mediator Of Intergenerational Child Abuse Risk: An Evaluation Of Racial Differences, Casie H. Morgan, Christina M. Rodriguez, Doris F. Pu, Zoe O. Elkins

Psychology Faculty Publications

Purpose

Personal history of parent-child aggression (PCA) can predict future parenting behavior, but some effects may differ between racial groups. Black parents in the U.S. are more likely to encounter discrimination and personally experience and approve of PCA, which may account for previously reported group differences. This study examined whether personal PCA history predicted later parental child abuse risk mediated by PCA approval across the transition to parenthood, and whether effects differed by race.

Methods

Expectant parents (non-Hispanic White sample: 95 mothers with 86 fathers; Black sample: 94 mothers with 85 fathers) participated in a prospective longitudinal study, assessed prenatally …

Family Stress Processes Underlying Covid-19-Related Economic Insecurity For Mothers And Fathers And Children's Internalizing Behavior Problems, Joyce Y. Lee, Shawna J. Lee, Sehun Oh, Amy Xu, Angelise Radney, Christina M. Rodriguez

Psychology Faculty Publications

COVID‐19 and its economic fallout have resulted in unprecedented financial insecurity and material hardship for many American families, with a disproportionately negative impact on children and families from socioeconomically disadvantaged contexts. The current study applied the family stress model to examine the family processes underlying pandemic‐related economic insecurity and children's internalizing behaviours. Online survey data from an economically diverse sample of mothers and fathers, who experienced at least one type of pandemic‐related economic insecurity in the United States (N = 259), were collected across two longitudinal time points in the early weeks of COVID‐19: (1) 14 April and (2) 30 …

Parenting Practices And Attachment Levels In Relation To Externalizing Behaviors In Children Raised By Nonparental Caregivers, Kourtney Mia Barfield

Honors Theses

Current literature supports parenting practices and the quality of child-caregiver attachments are correlated with child externalizing behavior. However, these results typically come from samples of biological parents and their children. It is unknown if parenting practices (i.e. poor supervision, inconsistent discipline, and positive parenting) predict attachment and externalizing behavior among children of grandparents and foster parents. Previous studies have also found
that attachment mediates the relation between parenting practices and externalizing behavior among children raised by biological parents. This study aims to determine if similar relations will be found among grandchildren and foster children and if the level of attachment …

Longitudinal Relations Between Parenting Practices And Prosocial Behaviors In Recent Immigrant Latino/A Adolescents: Familism Values And Ethnic Identity As Mediators, Sahitya Maiya, Gustavo Carlo, Alexandra N. Davis, Seth J. Schwartz, Jennifer B. Unger, Byron L. Zamboanga, Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati, Daniel W. Soto, Elma I. Lorenzo-Blanco

Psychological Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Introduction:

The present study investigated the mediating roles of familism values and ethnic identity in longitudinal associations between recent immigrant U.S. Latino/a adolescents' reports of their parents' (i.e., mothers' and fathers') use of social and material rewards and prosocial behaviors.

Methods:

Participants included 302 recent immigrant U.S. Latino/a adolescents (M age = 14.5 years at Time 1, range = 13–17 years, 53% male) recruited from Los Angeles and Miami. Participants self-reported on their perceptions of parents' use of social and material rewards (Time 1), familism values (Time 3), ethnic identity (Time 5), and multiple types of prosocial behaviors (Time …

Relationship Among Parenting Styles And Latino Adolescent Self-Esteem And Aggression, Jocelyn Evans-Shaw

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

There is considerable evidence that parenting influences the development and growth of children. Research on the psychological effects of parenting styles on children has traditionally neglected some cultures, such as the Latino community. The proposed study explored Latino parenting (authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive) styles and how they affect children's wellbeing. This quantitative study used correlational analysis to examine the relationships among aggression, self-esteem, and parenting styles among Hispanic adolescents. The study sample consisted of 77 participants. Snowball sampling (technique used in which research participants are asked to identify other potential participants) and social media platforms were used to acquire a …

Factors That Help And Hinder Experience Of Reflective Functioning In An Attachment-Based Intervention: An Enhanced Critical Incident Technique Analysis Of Parents’ Experiences, Shelly-Ann Peart James

Dissertations, 2020-current

This study explored parents’ experiences as it relates to their capacity to think about their child’s thinking and feeling, Parental Reflective Functioning (PRF), an attachment theory construct. PRF was explored in the context of an attachment-based intervention, the Secure Child Program (SCP), that focuses on children and their families. Parents’ voices were centered in this study through the employment of narrative research methodology, specifically, the Enhanced Critical Incident Technique. Participants consisted of seven parents within the SCP. A semi-structured interview developed for the study was informed by extant measures of PRF. Findings indicate helping and hindering categories with the vast …

Brief Report: Supporting Families In Intensive Treatment For Pediatric Anxiety And Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders, Jacqueline Sperling

Perspectives on Early Childhood Psychology and Education

Pediatric anxiety rates have doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic (Racine et al., 2021), but access to care has not increased commensurately (Panchel et al., 2021). Intensive group- and family-based outpatient treatment that implements cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) with exposure and response prevention (ERP) for pediatric anxiety disorders and OCD is a treatment design that treats more children at one time and may facilitate treatment momentum with its intensive nature so that new patients can be treated sooner. This paper describes CBT-based interventions from an intensive treatment program for pediatric anxiety disorders and/or OCD that involves parents and that can be applied …

An Exploration Of Contributors To Intergenerational Trauma Transmission In American Families: Parental Life Experiences And Parenting Styles., Shantrell P. Sutton-Mckenzie

Dissertations

Preexisting research on intergenerational trauma transmission primarily addresses biological and behavioral routes of transmission, leaving little room for systemic influences. This research reviews preexisting biological and behavioral contributors and explores systemic contributors to intergenerational trauma transmission in American families as it relates to post-traumatic growth, parental centrality distress, and parenting styles. It was that post-traumatic growth and parental centrality of distress (comprised of ACES, centrality of events, and access to community resources) and PTG predict parenting styles. The research hypothesis was partially supported. It was found (1) Post-traumatic growth, ACEs, and perceived access to community resources while parenting added significantly …

Heuristic Expectations Of The Cinderella Effect As A Function Of Sexual Dimorphism In Men's Facial Structures, Lindsey Eagan

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Masculinized male faces have an ambivalent signal value, wherein perceivers recognize various coalitional benefits and costs. Within parenting domains, masculine men could afford protection toward their offspring despite potentially using more aggressive behaviors toward them. Nonetheless, the benefits of masculine fathers could be limited to their biological children while the costs toward stepchildren would be greater. Perceivers could develop implicit theories about parental behaviors as a visual corollary of the Cinderella Effect, or stepchildren’s greater vulnerability to abuse. Participants evaluated a series of masculinized and feminized male faces described as either biological parents or stepparents in domains related to positive …

How Many Parents Regret Having Children?, Payton M. Wooster

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

The present study experimentally investigates the number of parents who truly regret having their children. By using an unmatched count technique developed by Gervais and Njale (2020), participants (N = 751) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: an experimental “yes/no” agreement condition, the “target statement present” counting condition, and the “target statement not present” counting condition. Participants were also asked different questions regarding marital status, whether they had a disorder diagnosis, had a history of their parents being divorced, and other suspected moderator variables. Regret of having children was reported significantly less compared to previous studies (Piotrowski et …

Perceived Parental Abilities Of Traditional Vs. Non-Traditional Couples Seeking To Adopt, Kaitlyn Boykin

Dissertations

Prejudice towards those that do not conform to stereotypical roles for their given sex remains a pervasive societal problem, particularly among gay and lesbian couples. However, few experimental studies investigating factors that affect prejudice toward such couples have been conducted. The current study sought to better understand the psychological factors driving these prejudices, particularly considering the long-term implications for gay and lesbian couples seeking to expand their families. One basis for this prejudice seems to be a reaction to gay or lesbian couples violating traditional familial and gender norms. To further investigate this prejudice, participants viewed either an opposite- or …

Promoting Child Rearing For Teen Mothers Within The Foster Care System, Monic Chavez, Rebecca King

Spring 2024 Virtual OTD Capstone Symposium

Teenage pregnancy in foster care is twice the national average, with one-third becoming pregnant by 17. There are limited programs available to assist teen mothers in foster care in developing healthy parent-child relationships and parenting skills despite their desire to break the cycle of trauma and improve their relationships with their children. The objective of the capstone program is to establish and operate a residential maternity home-based trauma-informed parenting program that assists teenage mothers in foster care in developing parenting skills and a healthy parent-child relationship by providing them with the necessary resources and support.

Mothering In The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Feminist Relational Discourse Analysis, Erin Spencer

Counseling and Psychology Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly altered the caregiving landscape, presenting distinct challenges for parents. While existing literature highlights the considerable increase in parenting stress and burnout during this period (Griffith et al., 2022), it also foregrounds the indispensable and often invisible labor of mothering¾emphasizing the disproportionate burdens placed on mothers as they bridged gaps in societal infrastructure (O’Reilly & Green, 2021). Grounded in matricentric feminist theory, this qualitative study delves into the dominant ideologies and social constructs shaping normative motherhood as a framework for understanding maternal stress and resilience during a global health crisis. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 mothers …

Police Officer Perceptions Of Parenting Experience Changes Following An On-Duty Child Death, Jennifer Sellers

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Law enforcement officers (LEOs) work in careers that can be demanding, stressful, and traumatizing. Although researchers have explored vicarious, or secondary, trauma as it relates to a LEO bringing their experiences at work into the home environment, influencing their spouse or partner’s mental and physical well-being, they have not yet investigated how a LEO’s experience of a child death while on-duty might affect their parenting styles. The purpose of this qualitative study was to better understand the parenting styles that LEOs use or change when they have experienced a traumatic incident at work, specifically a child death. The study was …

Annual Research Review: The Power Of Predictability – Patterns Of Signals In Early Life Shape Neurodevelopment And Mental Health Trajectories, Elysia Poggi Davis, Laura M. Glynn

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

The global burden of early life adversity (ELA) is profound. The World Health Organization has estimated that ELA accounts for almost 30% of all psychiatric cases. Yet, our ability to identify which individuals exposed to ELA will develop mental illness remains poor and there is a critical need to identify underlying pathways and mechanisms. This review proposes unpredictability as an understudied aspect of ELA that is tractable and presents a conceptual model that includes biologically plausible mechanistic pathways by which unpredictability impacts the developing brain. The model is supported by a synthesis of published and new data illustrating the significant …

Examining The Impacts Of A Relational Savoring Intervention On Parental Reflective Functioning And Children’S Emotion Regulation Across Time, Megan Blackard

CGU Theses & Dissertations

The ability to regulate emotions is an important competency that enables goal attainment and maintenance of satisfying interpersonal relationships throughout life. Key to the development of healthy emotion regulation is the sensitivity of the caregiver. One internal mechanism underlying parents’ ability to be sensitive is parental reflective functioning, the ability to understand a child as having a complex inner world of thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that serve as the basis for the child’s behaviors. Strong parental reflective functioning allows parents to understand the needs behind children’s behavior and respond sensitively to meet those needs. The sensitive parenting that depends on …

Parental Socialization Goals In Five Countries: Measurement Equivalence And Cross-Country Differences, Ronja A. Runge, Renate Soellner

Papers from the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology Conferences

Parental socialization goals are informed by culture. In previous research, it was often assumed that parents in western countries value individualistic socialization goals more, while collectivistic socialization goals are more pronounced in eastern countries. In addition, in Kağitçibasi’s framework, the importance of education and rural or urbanized living surroundings is pronounced, resulting in a third type of cultural model, in which individualistic goals are highly valued, but close family ties continue to be important. Previous research has been inconclusive regarding country differences. One major shortcoming is the lack of testing for measurement invariance (MI). Missing MI might bias results. In …

Parenting Practices And Interventions During The Covid‑19 Pandemic Lockdown: An Exploratory Cross‑Sectional Study Of Caregivers In Brazil, Mexico, And The United States, Mariana M. Juras, Acileide Cristiane F. Coelho, Alejandro L. Vazquez, Michela Ribeiro, Marina Kohlsdorf, Alice Lima Custodio, Nancy G. Amador Buenabad, Lucia Vazquez Perez, Cole Hooley, Miya L. Barnett, Ana A. Baumann

Psychology Faculty Publications

Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic led countries’ governments to rapidly establish lockdowns and social distancing, which altered family routines and the quality of family relationships worldwide.

Objectives This exploratory cross-sectional study aimed to identify the impacts of the social distancing and lockdown in parenting practices of caregivers from Brazil, Mexico, and the USA, and to analyze the continuity of parenting intervention support for children and their families at the beginning of the pandemic in these countries.

Methods The sample consisted of 704 caregivers of children (286 from Brazil, 225 from Mexico, and 193 from the USA) who answered an online survey …

The Role Of Caregiver Anxiety, Sleep, Distress, And Emotion Socialization Behaviors On Child Behaviors, Amanda Hicks

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

In early childhood, caregivers are the primary agents of emotion socialization, helping their child identify, label, and healthily express their emotions. How a caregiver aids in emotion development and understanding has important implications for their child’s behavior regulation. Distressed caregivers may have difficulty helping their child cope with negative emotions leading to an increased likelihood of problem behaviors over time. While some literature has highlighted an association between caregiver anxiety and child behavior problems, little is known about the mechanisms by which anxiety negatively impacts child behaviors. Caregiver risk factors such as poor sleep, distress related to their child’s negative …

Maternal Burden: The Interplay Of Parental Burnout, Insomnia, And The Covid-19 Pandemic Among First-Time Mothers, Kaila Kutz

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The current study sought to better understand the relationship among parental burnout, insomnia, and first-time motherhood within the context of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. A thorough review of the literature was conducted in order to position this dissertation and its questions within the current research landscape. A quantitative, survey-based research methodology was used to explore the association between the aforementioned variables of interest through correlational analyses. Findings of the study suggest a positive association between parental burnout and insomnia, though nonsignificant findings between motherhood groups in relation to insomnia and parental burnout suggest that continued investigation into these variables …

The Invisible Load Of Motherhood: Exploring Parental Stress Differences Among Caucasian And African American Mothers, Angena Mombrun

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Parental stress can be defined as the perceptions and feelings that are experienced in a parental role because the demands that are related to the role are unable to be fulfilled with the resources that are available (Abidin, 1992). Research suggests that African American women may experience more parental stress than their Caucasian counterparts due to various factors (Coll & Pachter, 2002). However, there is not sufficient evidence to support this notion as the majority of research available on parenting stress is comprised of middle-class Caucasian women (Coll & Pachter, 2002; Nomaguchi & House, 2013). The purpose of this study …

Nobody's Perfect: Examining The Relationship Between Parenting Traits And Perfectionism And The Impact Of Maladaptive Versus Adaptive Perfectionism On Cortisol Regulation After Receiving Criticism, Olivia G. Baron

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The trait of perfectionism has been related to both internalizing and externalizing psychopathology. Parenting traits, and attachment tendencies affect how children develop relationships and impact them into their adult lives. Parents have a large impact on their child’s personality traits, coping styles, and modeling reactions to outward criticism. Criticism, especially criticism delivered by parents, has been linked to perfectionism. Perfectionism often involves a self-critical component, though perfectionists have not been studied to examine stress responses (e.g. cortisol change) when receiving criticism. This study examined the relationships between parenting traits (positive and negative) and perfectionism (adaptive and maladaptive). Cortisol change scores …

Parental Socialization Of General And Domain-Specific Self-Control In Adolescents, Matty Johnston

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Adolescent self-control appears to be an important competency to develop. It has pervasive links with various outcomes (e.g., educational, financial, and interpersonal) both during adolescence and into adulthood (Allemand et al., 2019, Moffitt et al., 2011). Adolescents often report lower self-control compared to adults, although individual levels of self-control vary widely between adolescents (Allemand et al., 2019, Romer et al., 2010). Despite its importance, very little is known about how self-control develops. Thus, the current study aims to examine the relationship between parents’ self-control and that of their teen children. To further understand how adolescents' self-control may be socialized by …

Parental Experiences Of Supporting The Mental Health Of Their Lgbtqa+ Child, Jessica M. Gilbert, Penelope Strauss, Deirdre Drake, Helen Stain, Yael Perry, Angus Cook, Ashleigh Lin, Helen Morgan

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Young people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer or questioning, asexual and other diverse genders and sexualities (LGBTQA+) are at greater risk of adverse mental health outcomes and suicide, with additional barriers to accessing safe and affirming physical and mental health services in comparison to the general population. Parents of LGBTQA+ young people who are supportive and accepting can take on additional responsibilities and an active role in supporting young people, and more information is needed to understand how parents support LGBTQA+ young people in times of acute mental health difficulties (including suicide risk) and what parents experience while …

The Effects Of Impulsivity On Psychological Problems In Emerging Adults: Moderation By Parental Discipline And Gender, Richard K. Nelson Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Parental discipline behaviors and trait impulsivity are related to the development of psychological problems in children. Less research has examined these relations during emerging adulthood, despite the continued importance of parenting and increases in impulsivity during this time. Thus, the current study examined the association of impulsivity with current parental discipline practices and psychological problems as reported by college-attending emerging adults. Specifically, paternal and maternal discipline practices were examined as moderators between impulsivity and psychological problems with gender as an additional moderator. Participants (N = 911, 38.2% women, 78.0% White, aged 18 to 25) completed self-report measures on current discipline …

The Impact Of Infant-Toddler Screen Time On Self-Regulation And Behavior Challenges: The Role Of Parenting Style And Socio-Economic Status, Tara O'Malley

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

As young children are growing up in a digitally enmeshed world, there is growing concern about the developmental impacts of screen time. Given the importance of early rapid brain development, understanding the developmental outcomes of screen time in early childhood is critical. Current research suggests that excessive screen time may lead to delays in physical, cognitive, and language development. However, the impact of screen time on socio-emotional development among young children (0-5 years) is not well understood. Therefore, the present study examined the effects of screen time on social-emotional outcomes of 12-to-36-month-old children, specifically, the impact on self-regulation and behavior …