Single Mothers,Nonresident Fathers,and Preschoolers’ Socioemotional Development: Social Support,Psychological Well-Being,and Parenting Quality

ABSTRACT

Using data from two waves of a short-term longitudinal study, the influences of mothers’ social support with respect to parenting from nonresident fathers and significant others on behavioral outcomes among poor and near-poor preschool-aged Black children were examined. The sample consisted of 99 single Black mothers—each with a preschool-aged child (ages 3 and 5 years old, respectively, at Time 1 and Time 2)—who were current and former welfare recipients. Results revealed protective effects of nonresident fathers’ presence in the context of mothers’ parenting stress and depressive symptoms at Time 1 that appeared to operate through decreases in the negative influences of these variables on the children's development of behavior problems 1.5 to 2 years later. Greater availability of instrumental support from significant others, including nonresident fathers, was associated with more adequate parenting at Time 1, and through the latter, with fewer child behavior problems at Time 2. Implications of these findings for program and policy interventions are discussed. Nonresident fathers are described in the Appendix.     

Intergenerational Continuity of Hostile Parenting and its Consequences: The Moderating Influence of Children's Negative Emotional Reactivity

The present study examined both the intergenerational transmission of hostile parenting as well as the moderating effects of child negative emotional reactivity on continuity across generations. The study also considered the link between hostile parenting in the second generation and problem behaviors in the third. Observational ratings of mothers’ hostile parenting in the first generation (G1) when the target participant was an adolescent (G2) predicted observational ratings of G2 hostile parenting toward their young child several years later (G3). G2 hostile parenting was positively related to behavior problems in the G3 sample. Moreover, intergenerational continuity in hostile parenting was evident only when G3 children were rated as highly reactive and emotionally negative during an observational arm restraint task, suggesting that child negative reactivity may condition intergenerational stability in parent hostility. Although the moderating effect was not significant statistically, a similar trend was evident for the link between G2 parenting and G3 problem behavior.     

Employment and Parenting Among Current and Former Welfare Recipients

Abstract

This two-wave longitudinal study investigated whether low-wage employment predicts improvements in depressive symptoms and parenting style in a sample of 178 current and former single-mother welfare recipients with a preschooler at Time 1 and an early-elementary school-age child at Time 2. Findings suggest that participation in employment is associated with improvements in single mothers' psychological well-being and parenting style over time. However, in this study, employment at Time 1 (baseline) was more beneficial with respect to psychological and parenting outcomes than was employment (and earning more) at Time 2, except for mothers who were not employed at Time 1 and who became employed by Time 2. For these mothers, employment at Time 2 predicted a decrease in depressive symptoms and, through the latter, less negative parenting style. Mothers with higher educational attainment were more likely to be employed at Time 1 (which predicted higher levels of employment and pay at Time 2) and, among those not employed at Time 1, more likely to become employed (and earn more) by Time 2. Implications of these findings for welfare reform are discussed.     

Tuning in to Teens: Improving Parent Emotion Socialization to Reduce Youth Internalizing Difficulties

Research in child development suggests that parents' emotional competence and emotion socialization practices are related to children's emotional functioning, including child internalizing difficulties. This research has not yet been translated into intervention or prevention programs targeting parents of older children and adolescents. The current study examined the efficacy of the Tuning in to Teens parenting program in improving emotion socialization practices in parents of preadolescents and reducing youth internalizing difficulties. Schools were randomized into intervention and control conditions. Data were collected from 225 parents and 224 youth during the young person's final year of elementary school (sixth grade) and again 10 months later in their first year of secondary school (seventh grade). Multilevel analyses showed significant improvements in parental emotion socialization and reductions in youth internalizing difficulties for the intervention condition. This study provides support for the efficacy of the TINT parenting program with a community sample.     

Fighting Fair: Adaptive Marital Conflict Strategies as Predictors of Future Adolescent Peer and Romantic Relationship Quality

This study examined the associations between reasoning during inter‐parental conflict and autonomous adolescent conflict negotiation with peers over time. Participants included 133 adolescents and their parents, peers, and romantic partners in a multi‐method, multiple reporter, longitudinal study. Inter‐parental reasoning at adolescent age of 13 predicted greater autonomy and relatedness in observed adolescent–peer conflict one year later and lower levels of autonomy undermining during observed romantic partner conflict five years later. Inter‐parental reasoning also predicted greater satisfaction and affection in adolescent romantic relationships seven years later. Findings suggest that autonomy‐promoting behaviors exhibited in the inter‐parental context may influence adolescents' own more autonomous approaches to subsequent peer and romantic conflict. Possible explanatory models are discussed, including social learning theory and attachment theory.     

Does parenting correspond with children's defending behavior? Examining linkages in the context of peer social preference

Bullying intervention research points to the important role of children standing up for victims (defending behavior). This study provides an initial look at how certain parenting practices may be generally related to the socialization of defending behavior among children. Defenders typically enjoy significant social status, allowing them the social capital to intervene. With this in mind, we also assess how parenting and children's social preference scores might uniquely or interactively predict defending behavior. This cross‐sectional study employs a sample of 219 (101 boys) fourth‐grade children living in the Western United States. Both mothers and fathers self‐reported their authoritative, authoritarian, and psychologically controlling parenting practices. A peer sociometric assessment provided each child's social preference score. Peer nominations provided each child's reputation for defending behaviors. Multiple regression results showed that a few of the parenting dimensions significantly predicted girls’ defending behavior above and beyond peer social preference. In contrast, the defending behavior scores of boys were unrelated to parenting. Finally, we used interaction analyses to probe whether the association between defending and parenting meaningfully varies according to children's levels of social preference. We did not find evidence to support this. We discuss the ramifications of these findings for future research.     

Parental sensitivity and friendship development: The mediating role of cooperation

Interactions with mothers and fathers form a critical foundation for youths’ later peer relationships. This study focused on the associations of maternal and paternal sensitivity in third grade with friendship outcomes in sixth grade. Because interactions with parents provide the earliest opportunities for children to learn prosocial behaviors such as cooperation, and cooperation is theoretically conceptualized as a foundation of friendship, cooperation may play a role in the link between parenting and children’s later social relationships. Using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development sample (N = 955; 51% female; 83% White), and a multimethod, multireporter longitudinal design, children’s cooperation was tested as a mediating mechanism that linked parental sensitivity to early adolescent friendship. Results indicated that most indirect paths from both mothers and fathers’ sensitivity to observed friendship interactions and perceived friendship quality, via cooperation, were significant. Findings provide a more concrete understanding of how parental sensitivity translates to better friendships.     

Factors Related to Social Competence in Elementary School Among Children of Adolescent Mothers

This study examined factors related to social competence in first grade among children of low‐income, adolescent mothers. The sample included 83 mother–child dyads who had participated in a family support program for adolescent mothers. Characteristics of the child, mother, and the child's living context were examined for their relationship to children's social skills and problem behaviors. Several factors had significant bivariate relationships with social competence. Children with higher social skills and lower levels of problem behaviors were more likely to have received higher quality parenting, to have higher academic skills, and to live in neighborhoods with lower poverty rates. Children with higher social skills were less likely to have changed schools. In a path analysis, only academic skills were significantly related to either measure of social competence when other factors were controlled. Quality of parenting was indirectly related to social competence, and the effect was mediated by academic skills. School transience was also related to academic skills in the path analysis.     

Risk factors for dating violence among teenage girls under child protective services

The aim of the present study was to explore potential risk factors for severe physical victimisation in dating relationships of adolescent girls in the child protective system (CPS). A total of 196 adolescent Canadian girls within the care of the CPS completed questionnaires containing measures relating to dating and family violence, sexual history and socio-demographic variables. Results showed that the majority of participants had experienced some types of victimisation in their dating relationships, with 53.1 per cent reporting at least one severe physical victimisation experience. Results from bivariate analyses revealed that a history of child sexual abuse and school failure or dropout were not associated with dating victimisation. History of parental physical abuse, living outside the family environment before placement, age of first sexual relationship, number of sexual partners and having been pregnant were related to sustained severe physical dating victimisation. Logistic regression analysis indicates that all factors, save for number of partners and living outside family environment, contributed to the prediction of dating victimisation in multivariate analysis. Having been pregnant increased the odds of sustaining severe physical abuse more than threefold (by 3.60). Implications for intervention and further research are discussed.     

Political Violence and Adolescent Out‐group Attitudes and Prosocial Behaviors: Implications for Positive Inter‐group Relations

The negative impact of political violence on adolescent adjustment is well established. Less is known about factors that affect adolescents' positive outcomes in ethnically divided societies, especially influences on prosocial behaviors toward the out‐group, which may promote constructive relations. For example, understanding how inter‐group experiences and attitudes motivate out‐group helping may foster inter‐group co‐operation and help to consolidate peace. The current study investigated adolescents' overall and out‐group prosocial behaviors across two time points in Belfast, Northern Ireland (N = 714 dyads; 49% male; Time 1: M = 14.7, SD = 2.0, years old). Controlling for Time 1 prosocial behaviors, age, and gender, multi‐variate structural equation modeling showed that experience with inter‐group sectarian threat predicted fewer out‐group prosocial behaviors at Time 2 at the trend level. On the other hand, greater experience of intra‐group non‐sectarian threat at Time 1 predicted more overall and out‐group prosocial behaviors at Time 2. Moreover, positive out‐group attitudes strengthened the link between intra‐group threat and out‐group prosocial behaviors one year later. Finally, experience with intra‐group non‐sectarian threat and out‐group prosocial behaviors at Time 1 was related to more positive out‐group attitudes at Time 2. The implications for youth development and inter‐group relations in post‐accord societies are discussed.     

Maternal influences on effortful control in adolescence: Developmental pathways to externalizing behaviors

Adolescents' effortful control is subject to numerous maternal influences. Specifically, a mother's own effortful control is associated with her child's effortful control. However, maternal substance use, psychopathology, and stress within the parenting role may also lead to poor effortful control for their child. Poor effortful control during adolescence can subsequently contribute to a variety of negative outcomes, including externalizing behaviors. A sample of 460 adolescents (47% female, 59.3% Non‐Hispanic Caucasian) was selected from a longitudinal, multigenerational study. The goal was to examine maternal effortful control, substance use, psychopathology, and stress in their offspring's childhood (M_age = 6.27) and their influence on their children's effortful control in early adolescence (M_age = 12.21) and the subsequent effect of effortful control on adolescents’ externalizing behavior (M_age = 13.53). Maternal effortful control (measured via conscientiousness) and psychopathology were associated with adolescent effortful control, which was associated with externalizing behavior a year later. Additionally, there was a significant indirect association between maternal effortful control and adolescent externalizing behaviors via adolescent effortful control. Thus, adolescent effortful control is associated with maternal effortful control but also subject to specific maternal risk factors in childhood. These results inform potential maternal strategies for promoting positive developmental outcomes in adolescents.     

Defining the boundaries: social worker assessment of sexual abuse in a cultural context – multivariate analysis of personal and professional factors influencing social workers' labelling of intimacy behaviour

To explore personal and professional factors influencing social worker assessment of family intimacy behaviour in diverse cultural groups, a 27‐item questionnaire was mailed to a random, stratified sample of MSW‐level social workers. The instrument measured rank‐order responses to 10 questions about attitudes towards public exposure to sexual stimuli and rank‐order responses to questions about three vignettes depicting culturally informed family intimacy behaviour. The instrument also measured sample characteristics such as area of social work practice and per cent of caseload involving sexually abused as well as diverse clients. Completed questionnaires (n = 387) were analysed for association between respondents' definition of intimacy behaviour (dependent variable), attitude towards sexual stimuli, and intervening variables thought to explain variance in the dependent measure. Labelling theory provided a basis for hypotheses testing. When mean attitude scores were correlated with mean definition scores, Pearson's r returned a significant low, positive association between conservative attitudes towards exposure to sexual stimuli and definitions of cross‐cultural scenarios as sexual abuse. Holding attitude scores constant, regression modelling of the sample's definition of scenarios indicated that practice area, minority status, and per cent of caseload with sexual abuse clients were significant predictors of R² change in the dependent variable. Further analysis of data through regression tree modelling showed that a small group of conservative practitioners with ethnically diverse caseloads were more likely to label culturally influenced behaviours as deviant. Among conservative practitioners with less diverse caseloads, number of hours in sexuality training had a moderating influence on deviancy labelling. Tree modelling of the data also indicated that an ethnic minority subgroup within the sample accounted for the lowest ranking of scenarios as sexual abuse. Results support earlier work on social worker assessment of child maltreatment as a function of agency setting. Another implication for social work is the need for practitioners to understand their attitudes towards human sexuality in relation to assessment of diverse patterns of childhood sexual socialization.     

Adolescent sexuality and premature parenthood: role of the Black church in prevention

The issues of sexuality and premature parenthood with the background of the Black experience in the United States are discussed. According to a 1986 study, 40% of US girls get pregnant at least once before the age of 20. In 1981, 45% of teenage pregnancies were terminated, and in 1982, 46% of girls 14-19 years old had had sexual intercourse. The gap between Black and White adolescent women regarding sexual intercourse has essentially disappeared, indicating that the underlying causes of teenage pregnancy are social not racial. The costs of adolescent childbearing are huge: in 1985 the public cost was at least 16.65 million dollars. In response to this crisis, many states have been searching for effective solutions enlisting clinics, schools, and social service agencies. The Black church has been a central institution within the Black community, in the forefront of many social changes with the ability to mobilize congregations and the community. Therefore, the cooperation of social service agencies, community groups, and the religious community could be fruitful in preventing adolescent pregnancies and childbearing. Such a venture would first require understanding the processes of adolescent development, self-esteem, socialization, relationship building, gender differences in physical and psychological changes, and moral development. A 1986 Gallup poll showed that 74% of 13-15 year old youth said that religion was one of the most important influences in their lives, indicating that they would be perceptive to moral reasoning. However, the fear of genocide was significant among the Black population (39%) when birth control and family planning programs were mentioned. This had to do with their brutal treatment in the past and coercive sterilization proposals to reduce welfare rolls. To overcome such fears and still prevent adolescent pregnancy, the Black church should organize workshops for parents and adolescents about sexual development, birth control, and the consequences of sexual activity with a view to postponing sexual activity and parenthood.     

Relational Aggression in Peer and Dating Relationships: Links to Psychological and Behavioral Adjustment

We examined the contribution of relational aggression in adolescents' peer and dating relationships to their psychological and behavioral adjustment. In the Fall and again four months later, 1279 (646 female) grade 9 students reported on relational aggression perpetration and victimization in their romantic and peer relationships, depression/anxiety symptoms (psychological adjustment) and delinquency (behavioral adjustment). Using hierarchical regression analyses, controlling for Time 1 adjustment/behavior, peer relational aggression perpetration predicted depression/anxiety. Dating relational victimization also predicted depression/anxiety, but only for girls. Furthermore, girls who were perpetrators of relational aggression in both peer and dating contexts were most likely to show increases in delinquent behavior. We conclude that dating and peer relationships are not redundant, but make independent and additive contributions to adolescent adjustment. Girls, in particular, may be at greatest risk for poor outcomes when they have relationally aggressive relationships. Results also highlight the need for greater awareness of the complexity and significance of adolescent dating relationships.     

Perceived Maternal Autonomy Support and Early Adolescent Emotion Regulation: A Longitudinal Study

This study investigated longitudinal associations between perceived maternal autonomy‐supportive parenting and early adolescents' use of three emotion regulation (ER) styles: emotional integration, suppressive regulation, and dysregulation. We tested whether perceived maternal autonomy support predicted changes in ER and whether these ER styles, in turn, related to changes in adjustment (i.e., depressive symptoms, self‐esteem). Participants (N = 311, mean age at Time 1 = 12.04) reported on perceived maternal autonomy support, their ER styles, and adjustment at two moments in time, spanning a one‐year interval. Cross‐lagged analyses showed that perceived maternal autonomy support predicted increases in emotional integration and decreases in suppressive regulation. By contrast, emotional dysregulation predicted decreases in perceived autonomy‐supportive parenting. Further, increases in emotional integration were predictive of increases in self‐esteem, and decreases in suppressive regulation were predictive of decreases in depressive symptoms. Together, the results show that early adolescents' perception of their mothers as autonomy‐supportive is associated with increases in adaptive ER strategies and subsequent adjustment.     

Sex‐differentiated associations among negative parenting,emotion‐related brain function,and adolescent substance use and psychopathology symptoms

Parenting is a critical factor in adolescent social–emotional development, with maladaptive parenting leading to risk for the development of psychopathology. However, the emotion‐related brain mechanisms underlying the influence of parenting on psychopathology symptoms are unknown. The present study utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging and laboratory measures to examine sex‐differentiated associations among parenting, adolescent emotion‐related brain function, and substance use and psychopathology symptoms in 66 12–14‐year olds. Maternal parenting behaviors (warmth, negative parenting) were observed in a laboratory task. Adolescent brain responses to negative emotional stimuli were assessed in emotion processing regions of interest (left [L] and right [R] amygdala, anterior insula, and anterior cingulate cortex [ACC]). Adolescents reported on substance use and depressive, anxiety, and externalizing symptoms. Maternal negative parenting predicted adolescent brain activation differently by sex. For girls, negative parenting predicted heightened R ACC activation to negative emotional stimuli. For boys, negative parenting predicted blunted L and R anterior insula and L ACC activation. Furthermore, for girls, but not boys, heightened L anterior insula and heightened L and R ACC activation were associated with substance use and depressive symptoms, respectively. Findings suggest neural response to negative emotion as a possible sex‐specific pathway from negative parenting to psychopathology.     

What changes in ‘parenting’ approaches occur over the course of adolescent foster care placements?

An overview of the parenting skills and strategies utilized by foster carers looking after adolescents was given in an earlier paper. This paper focuses specifically on the relationship between the behaviour of fostered adolescents and the quality of parenting provided by the carer. In particular, the paper considers the consequences of situations in which fostered young people have a detrimental impact on other children within the foster family, as this was an especially difficult situation for foster carers to manage. Similarly, foster carers appeared to find it difficult to maintain good parenting skills with young people who were at risk due to their own sexual behaviour although, conversely, caring for a young person whose sexual behaviour put others at risk was connected with improved parenting. The quality of parenting provided by the foster carers was also influenced by the level of stress they were experiencing, with increased levels of stress leading to poorer parenting of the fostered adolescent.     

Effect of Sociocultural Context and Parenting Style on Scholastic Achievement among Iranian Adolescents

School grades, family demographics and responses to the parental authority questionnaire were assessed in 240 eighth‐grade students in the southern, central and northern parts of Tehran, Iran's capital. The result showed that poorer families with traditional values had more authoritarian attitudes toward parenting than richer families with more modern values. In contrast to the studies conducted in East Asian societies, the current study found that authoritative parenting was the style associated with the highest academic outcome. Tests of mediation and moderation effects showed that the relation between parenting style and academic outcome was independent of sociocultural context.     

The Roles of Parenting Styles and Social Capital in the School Performance of Immigrant Asian and Hispanic Adolescents*

Objective. This study investigates the role of parenting styles and social capital (parental involvement, intergenerational closure, expectation, and trust) in accounting for school performance among ethnic groups and across immigrant generations. Methods. Using data from the Adolescent Health Survey, we estimate fixed‐effects models to analyze students' grade‐point averages. We compare three generations of Asian students and three generations of Hispanic students to the third‐generation (native born with native parents) white students. Results. We find significant differences by both race/ethnicity and generational status in parenting styles and forms of social capital. However, while family socioeconomic status (SES) accounts for the achievement gap between foreign‐born Hispanic and the third‐generation white students, parenting styles and forms of social capital do not moderate any ethnic‐generational differences. Conclusions. Family influences, apart from SES, cannot explain ethnicity‐generation differences in school grades among Hispanic and Asian adolescents. This study provides conceptual clarification and empirical evidence for the significant but independent association between students' school grades and parenting styles on the one hand, and social capital on the other.     

Role of Temperament,Parenting Behaviors,and Stress on Turkish Preschoolers’ Internalizing Symptoms

Child‐ and family‐related factors that predict internalizing symptoms are understudied in preschool years and have a negative influence on children's functioning. We examined observational assessments of preschoolers' temperamental fearfulness and exuberance, mother reports of negative control, warmth, and parenting stress in a sample of 109 Turkish preschoolers. High temperamental fearfulness and low joyful/exuberant positive affectivity in addition to low warmth and high parenting stress had significant effects on internalizing symptoms. Parenting stress had both direct and indirect relations to internalizing symptoms via lower maternal warmth. When comorbid elevations in externalizing symptoms were controlled, the results were consistent with the interpretation that poor parenting practices and stress associated with the parenting role predict maladaptation in general but that the specific form of maladaptation may be best predicted by individual differences in children's temperamental characteristics. This study contributes to our understanding of risk and protective factors that predict preschoolers' internalizing symptoms with a sample from a non‐Western population. These findings can guide early prevention and intervention programs to address internalizing problems in a culturally‐sensitive way.