Exploring Trajectories of Young Mothers’ Parenting Stress in Early Childhood: Associations with Protective Factors and Psychological Vulnerabilities

Menon, Meera; Fauth, Rebecca C.; Easterbrooks, M. Ann

doi:10.1080/15295192.2020.1715683

Cited by 22 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 91 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…This may have been due to parents’ limited parenting competence and experience when children were young. Indeed, previous studies have shown that, as children age and become increasingly self-reliant, parents gain parenting knowledge and experience less parenting stress [ 51 , 52 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Personality Relates to Distress in Parents during the Covid-19 Lockdown: The Mediating Role of Child’s Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties and the Moderating Effect of Living with Other People

Mazza

Ricci

Marchetti

et al. 2020

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Since the initiation of the COVID-19 lockdown, Italian parents have been forced to manage their children at home. The present study aimed at investigating the psychological distress of parents during the lockdown, identifying contributing factors. An online survey was administered to 833 participants from 3 to 15 April 2020. Mediation and moderated mediation models were run to explore the association between parent neuroticism and parent distress, mediated by child hyperactivity–inattention and child emotional symptoms, and the moderating effect of living only with child(ren) on the direct and indirect effects of parent neuroticism on parent distress. For parents living only with child(ren), high levels of psychological distress depended exclusively on their levels of neuroticism. For parents living with at least one other person in addition to child(ren), distress levels were also mediated by child behavioral and emotional difficulties. Motherhood emerged as a significant factor contributing to greater distress. Furthermore, parent psychological distress decreased in line with increased child age. The results confirm that neuroticism is an important risk factor for mental health. Preventive measures should be primarily target multicomponent families with younger children and directed towards parents who are already known to present emotional instability and to parents of children who have received local mental health assistance for behavioral and/or emotional difficulties.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Personality Relates to Distress in Parents during the Covid-19 Lockdown: The Mediating Role of Child’s Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties and the Moderating Effect of Living with Other People

Mazza

Ricci

Marchetti

et al. 2020

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This shows that vulnerable parents tend to use fewer positive strategies, encompassing initiative to solve the stressful situation, and more avoidance and escapist strategies, which can be somewhat analysed in light of approach-avoidance theories [ 53 ]. Not only do parents from at-risk contexts feel overwhelmed by parenting role demands [ 10 , 13 ], but they also reveal adopting fewer and not as effective coping strategies. As Liga and colleagues [ 54 ] pointed out, when some people with vulnerability features experience strong pressure, they can perceive their skills for dealing with the situation as limited and end up choosing avoidant strategies [ 55 , 56 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Taking into consideration one of the instruments most frequently used in the international literature to assess this dimension, the Parenting Stress Index—Short Form [ 8 ], at-risk families’ scores generally fall between 80 to 100 points in the total parental stress scale [ 7 , 9 , 10 , 11 ], whereas families from community samples score around 70 points [ 9 , 12 ]. This indicates that parents living in contexts of psychosocial risk tend to frequently feel overwhelmed by the demands derived from their parenting role [ 10 , 11 , 13 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Brief COPE: Measurement Invariance and Psychometric Properties among Community and At-Risk Portuguese Parents

Nunes

Pérez-Padilla

Martins

et al. 2021

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Parenting generally brings about high internal and external demands, which can be perceived as stressful when they exceed families’ resources. When faced with such stressors, parents need to deploy several adaptive strategies to successfully overcome these challenges. One of such strategies is coping, an important cognitive and behavioural skill. In this study, we intended to examine the psychometric properties of Carver’s (1997) Brief COPE (Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced), extending its cross-cultural validity among a Portuguese sample of community and at-risk parents. The sample comprised community (n = 153) and at-risk (n = 116) parents who completed the brief COPE, the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scales and the Parenting Stress Index—Short Form. Confirmatory factor analysis, internal consistency, cross sample invariance, convergent and discriminant validity were analysed. Data from the confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the 14-factor model obtained the best fit. The results provided evidence that the Brief COPE is a psychometrically sound instrument that shows measurement invariance across samples and good reliability. Our findings demonstrated that the Portuguese version of brief COPE is a useful, time-efficient tool for both practitioners and researchers who need to assess coping strategies, a relevant construct in family context.

show abstract

“…Research has also shown parenting stress as a normative process that can affect every parent. However, it may be more severe for parents of children with clinically significant emotional, behavioural, or health issues (Crnic et al, 2005;Deater-Deckard & Panneton, 2017;Holly et al, 2019), and particularly challenging for families where parenting demands converge with negative situational circumstances (e.g., low-income) or personal difficulties (e.g., parents mental health problems, children with subclinical behaviour problems; Barroso et al, 2018;Menon et al, 2020). Higher levels of parenting stress have been found to be associated to depression and psychological difficulties in parents (Schleider et al, 2015;Theule et al, 2010;Thomason et al, 2014), behaviour problems and self-regulation difficulties in children (Anthony et al, 2005;Mackler et al, 2015;Mäntymaa et al, 2012;Stone et al, 2016), and negative interactions between parents and children (Dubois-Comtois et al, 2013;Gerdes et al, 2007;Van Steijn et al, 2014).…”

Section: Palabras Clavementioning

confidence: 99%

Parenting Stress Index-Short Form: psychometric properties of the Spanish version in mothers of children aged 0 to 8 years

Rivas

Arruabarrena

Paúl

2020

Psychosocial Intervention

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Parenting stress is a complex process that can be subsumed within the general stress model of Lazarus and Folkman (1984) and understood as the aversive psychological reaction that occurs when caregivers feel overwhelmed and perceive that they lack the skills required to cope with their parental role (Abidin, 1995; Deater-Deckard, 1998). Parenting stress is conceptually distinct from other life stressors that a parent might experience (e.g., negative life events, financial problems), although they are frequently related (Holly et al., 2019). Parenting stress has been found to be associated with parenting processes across all developmental periods. Research suggests that parenting stress tends to show stability and to decrease over time as

show abstract

Exploring Trajectories of Young Mothers’ Parenting Stress in Early Childhood: Associations with Protective Factors and Psychological Vulnerabilities

Cited by 22 publications

References 91 publications

How Personality Relates to Distress in Parents during the Covid-19 Lockdown: The Mediating Role of Child’s Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties and the Moderating Effect of Living with Other People

How Personality Relates to Distress in Parents during the Covid-19 Lockdown: The Mediating Role of Child’s Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties and the Moderating Effect of Living with Other People

The Brief COPE: Measurement Invariance and Psychometric Properties among Community and At-Risk Portuguese Parents

Parenting Stress Index-Short Form: psychometric properties of the Spanish version in mothers of children aged 0 to 8 years

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About