The Relationship between Household Chaos and Child, Parent, and Family Outcomes: A Systematic Scoping Review

Abstract

Background: Household chaos, represented by the level of disorganisation or environmental confusion in the home, has been associated with a range of adverse child and family outcomes. This review aims to (1) identify how household chaos is measured, (2) chart study details of household chaos literature, and (3) map the existing literature with respect to the relationship between household chaos and child, parent, and family outcomes. We expect that this review will highlight the need to consider the importance of household chaos in child well-being research, particularly in those families where children may be more vulnerable to the adverse effects of household chaos.Methods: We searched five electronic databases (last updated September 1st 2018) in addition to Google Scholar, and identified publications via a 3-stage screening process, which was conducted by two researchers. Published studies were included if they investigated the association between household chaos and child, parent, or family outcomes. Research that investigated household chaos as a mediator or moderator, or that investigated how the relationship between household chaos and the outcome of interest was mediated or moderated, were also included. Results: 112 studies in 111 publications were included. The majority were conducted in the United States (n=71), and used either cross-sectional (n=60) or longitudinal (n=49) study designs. Outcomes of interest were categorised into seven categories: (1) cognitive and academic (n=16), (2) socio-emotional and behavioural (n=60), (3) communication (n=6), (4) parenting, family, and household functioning (n=21), (5) parent outcomes (n=6), (6) hormone (n=8), and (7) physical health and health behaviours (n=19). There was consistent evidence for significant correlations between household chaos and adverse outcomes across all seven categories in diverse populations with respect to age, disease status, and socio-economic status (SES).Conclusion: There is consistent evidence for associations between household chaos and a number of adverse child, parent, and family-level outcomes. Household chaos may also help describe variations in outcomes between low SES and child development.

Prospective Associations Between Preschool Exposure to Violent Televiewing and Psychosocial and Academic Risks in Early Adolescent Boys and Girls

“…Indeed, household chaos and several adverse child, parent, and family-level outcomes are related to screen exposure. 35 Only a minority of children 5 years and younger are meeting screen time guidelines for duration and content. 36 Families in distress are particularly vulnerable to not meeting guidelines.…”

Procrastination, perceived maternal psychological control, and structure in math class: The intervening role of academic self‐concept

“…Moreover, internal consistency values of some subscales (i.e., dependency‐oriented psychological control and three subscales of perceived structure) were below the generally accepted cut‐off point 0.70 (see Field, 2009). Furthermore, we assessed certain aspects of the family environment (i.e., mothers’ psychological control practices) and not others such as chaotic home environment (for a review, see Marsh et al, 2020) or lack of parental behavioral control (Pinquart, 2016) which seem highly relevant to adverse academic outcomes. Therefore, future research should attend to other family‐related correlates of academic procrastination.…”

Family Burden in Adolescents With Refractory Postconcussion Symptoms

“…Moreover, the strong associations between burden and other problems, which were both perceived by parents based on parent-completed questionnaires, may be subject to higher shared source variance and could limit these findings if different methodology or statistical approaches were used. Third, there were no measures identifying the parents' own functioning as all reports were pertaining to their children; measuring parents' own psychosocial functioning, behavior, coping, and parenting styles could bring insight into additional factors that may influence the severity of burden experienced by a family 67–69. Fourth, participants from this sample included youth who were referred to a specialized clinic for persistent postconcussion symptoms a month following their injury.…”