Trust and Communication With a Caregiver Reduces Behavior Problems and Protects Against Stress Among Urban Adolescents

Abstract

Youth, particularly urban minority youth, are exposed to high levels of stressful and potentially traumatic life events that have been linked to a wide array of negative outcomes including internalizing and externalizing problems. Youth perceptions of their interpersonal relationship quality with caregivers and friends were examined as potential promotive and protective factors counteracting the link between exposure to stressful and traumatic events and behavior problems. Participants were 85 urban, predominantly African American of age 13–17 years (60% girls). Results supported the hypothesis that youth report of parent trust and communication would serve as a promotive and protective factor, moderating the association between stressful life events and behavior problems. In contrast, peer trust and communication did not appear to counteract the association between stress and behavior problems. Instead, reports of trust and communication with friends appeared to increase the association between stress exposure and internalizing problems.

The Inventory of Teacher‐Student Relationships: Factor structure and associations with school engagement among high‐risk youth

“…These factors are based in attachment theory and reflect qualities such as emotional warmth (trust), accessibility (communication), and relational‐conflict (alienation). The IPPA has been widely used and validated with countless samples of adolescents (e.g., Blain et al, 1993; Elmore & Huebner, 2010; Marcus & Betzer, 1996; Muris et al, 2001; Murphy et al, 2020; Oldfield et al, 2016). On the original measure, items on the parent and peer constructs mirror one another and have parallel factor loadings on three relationship constructs: Trust, Communication, and Alienation.…”

Enhancing Resilience Regarding Depression, Anxiety and COVID-19 with a Narrative Method of Ordering Memory Effective in Researchers Experiencing Burnout

“…To the extent that a child trusts their caregivers and their place in the world around them, resilience in children can arise primarily from stable, caring family relationships and support from others-creating and nurtured gratitude in the face of adversity [117]. In this regard, the narratives constructed by trusting children are those taught and exemplified by their supportive families and communities, particularly for those young people growing up in stressful environments [118]. This is a result of children internalizing their parents' socialization goals and ways of remembering into their own memory operations [119].…”