Intergenerational Resilience: Exploring whether Positive Childhood Experiences Buffer the Transmission of Harsh and Neglectful Parenting

Childhood abuse and neglect are associated with lasting negative mental and physical health outcomes across the lifespan. In contrast, positive childhood experiences (PCEs) can promote long-term health and wellbeing and mitigate the harmful effects of childhood adversity. A primary risk factor for child maltreatment is parental experiences of maltreatment whereby history of childhood trauma increases the likelihood of utilizing harsh and/or neglectful parenting towards one’s children. This study employed secondary data analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health to test whether cumulative PCEs confer protective effects against the generational transmission of harsh and neglectful parenting. Consistent with prior research, parental history of childhood maltreatment was associated with having experienced fewer PCEs during adolescence and engaging in greater harsh and/or neglectful parenting towards one’s own children in adulthood. More PCEs were associated with less harsh parenting in bivariate correlations, but did not survive controls for childhood maltreatment and demographics in the regression. In a regression predicting overall maltreating parenting behavior, there was a significant main effect of childhood maltreatment on parenting behavior, and significant interaction of PCEs and childhood maltreatment. However, when graphed, the interaction did not suggest a buffering pattern as expected. Altogether, findings suggest that PCEs may reduce risk for harsh parenting in particular, though these benefits were overwhelmed in the presence of childhood maltreatment. PCEs may have benefits for outcomes other than problematic parenting behaviors, and highlights the need for further research to identify individual or structural factors that help break cycles of maltreatment

A HandUP Approach: Applying an Oppression Lens to Perceptions of Factors Interfering with Black and African American Undergraduate Persistence at a Predominantly White Institution

Black and African American students face persistent equity gaps in higher education, including lagging behind in bachelor’s degree completion rates. Students impacted by equity gaps are at risk for interpreting such gaps as a reflection of their personal effort rather than structural barriers to college persistence. The current study applied the Racial Encounter Coping Appraisal and Socialization Theory to understand how Black and African American undergraduates appraise what could interfere with their college persistence. Participants (n = 92) completed questionnaires assessing university belongingness, college self-efficacy, and centrality of Black identity, including an open-ended question asking what they perceived might interfere with graduating from college. Thematic analysis was conducted on qualitative responses, and correlations and t-tests on quantitative data. The most frequent codes for perceptions of what could interfere with college persistence were challenges with time management and motivation, financial stressors, and mental health and stress. Financial stress was associated with lower college self-efficacy and first-generation status. Saying “nothing” could interfere was associated with higher college self-efficacy and non-first-generation status. Perceiving “only myself” could interfere was associated with higher centrality of Black identity. Non-first-generation status was associated with perceiving that social pressures could interfere. Some undergraduates may appraise barriers to college persistence that exemplify internalization of self-blame and minimalization of structural inequities, which ultimately serves the status quo. These findings could inform an intervention delivered by campus supports to help Black and African American undergraduates use healthy racial stress reappraisal and coping strategies, which we refer to as the HandUP approach