Maternal parenting behaviors and child coping in African American families.

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to examine the impact of three parental influences (i.e., socialization of coping, modeling of coping, and the parent-child relationship) on coping strategies of African American children, as well as child gender as a moderator of these associations. Participants were 83 African American children (mean age = 11.2, SD = 1.44) and their maternal caregivers (mean age = 40.45, SD = 9.55). Both children and parents completed measures of coping behaviors, parental socialization of coping, and maternal support. Regression analyses demonstrated that child reports of their mothers' behavior were better predictors of child coping than mothers' self-reports, with child reports of maternal support and socialization of coping predicting child coping. Results also revealed that child gender moderated the association between maternal parenting behavior and child coping. Specifically, maternal parenting behaviors were more important for girls' coping strategies than for boys' coping strategies. Our results add to the literature on the effects of parent-child relationships on children's responses to stress.

Parent Socialization of Coping and Child Emotion Regulation Abilities: A Longitudinal Examination

“…Specifically, findings suggest that one specific form of parental resources-the way in which a parent socializes their child to react to stress-is linked to one specific domain of child development: child emotion regulation. Likewise, results reported here integrate well with prior empirical investigations, which have documented an association between aspects of parenting and child emotion regulation (Cunningham et al, 2009;Eisenberg et al, 2001;Lunkenheimer et al, 2011) as well as an association between parent SOC and various child outcomes (e.g., Abaied & Rudolph, 2010, 2011Gaylord-Harden et al, 2013;Kliewer, Fearnow, & Miller, 1996). Our results add to the growing knowledge base by longitudinally linking parent SOC with child emotion regulation abilities.…”

“…For example, two longitudinal investigations have documented that parental engagement coping suggestions were predictive of youth's adaptive stress responses (Abaied & Rudolph, 2011) and social adjustment (Abaied & Stanger, 2017). Similarly, Gaylord‐Harden, Elmore, and Montes de Oca (2013) reported that, in a sample of African American children, maternal socialization of engagement coping was significantly associated with children's use of engagement coping strategies. Maternal SOC has also been linked to undesirable child outcomes.…”

“…Consideration of these variables as potential moderators was based on relevant research in the field. For example, child gender has been found to moderate the association between SOC and child coping (e.g., Gaylord‐Harden et al., 2013) and has also been found to affect socialization processes (Fivush, Brotman, Buckner, & Goodman, 2000) and child emotion regulation abilities (e.g., Zimmermann & Iwanski, 2014). Further, parent gender was included as a moderator as prior research has suggested gender differences in parenting (e.g., Gryczkowski, Jordan, & Mercer, 2010).…”

Parent–child relationships and Chinese children's social adaptations: Gender difference in parent–child dyads

“…Isley et al () investigated parents' affective expressions toward 116 American kindergarten‐age children and found that parents' positive impacts were significantly related to social adaptation for their same‐sex children. Gaylord‐Harden, Elmore, and Montes de Oca () examined the impact of parent–child relationships on African American children's coping strategies and found that mother–child relationships were more salient for girls' coping behaviors than boys'. Barber and Delfabbro () examined data on 377 Australian parents and their children and found that the negative prediction of father–son conflict on boys' social adjustments was greater than the prediction of father–daughter conflict on girls' social adjustments.…”

What Can Parents Do? Examining the Role of Parental Support on the Negative Relationship Among Racial Discrimination, Depression, and Drug Use Among African American Youth

“…Given evidence of gender differences in risk for racial discrimination, depression symptomatology, and drug use among African American youth, it is important to also note evidence of gender differences in the protective effect of parenting practices based on the adolescent’s gender. Specifically, studies have documented greater levels of support (Richardson et al, 2015; Tamis-LeMonda, Briggs, McClowry, & Snow, 2009) and a stronger buffering effect of parental support on health outcomes (Gaylord-Harden, Elmore, & Montes de Oca, 2013) for African American females than males. However, some researchers have also acknowledged that this effect varies based on whether support is provided by mothers compared with fathers (Cooper, Brown, Metzger, Clinton, & Guthrie, 2013; Pernice-Duca, 2010).…”