Longitudinal relations between parenting stress and child internalizing and externalizing behaviors: Testing within-person changes, bidirectionality and mediating mechanisms

IntroductionParenthood can be experienced as a pleasant but challenging period for parents, possibly accompanied by parenting stress. Early parenthood in particular is a vulnerable period as many parents experience biological and psychosocial changes related to new parenthood. Previous studies have shown that parenting stress is related to child behavior problems, but few studies have investigated the transactional relations across time between parenting stress and child internalizing and externalizing outcomes separately, examining within-person changes. The first aim of this study was to examine the transactional within-person associations of parenting stress and child internalizing and externalizing behavior problems across childhood from age 9 months to 9 years. As a second aim, we examined parenting as a possible underlying mechanism of the transactional associations by testing whether parental warmth and hostility mediate within-person associations of parenting stress and child behavior across time.MethodData were analyzed from the Growing Up in Ireland longitudinal child cohort study including 7,208 caregiver-child dyads at wave 1 (child’s age 9 months), who were followed at child’s age three (wave 2), five (wave 3), and 9 years (wave 5). Primary caregiver’s and child’s age and gender, household income, occupational status, educational status, partner status, and cultural background were covariates assessed at all waves. Data were analyzed using a random intercept cross-lagged panel model (CLPM) in R-lavaan.ResultsBidirectional relations between parenting stress and child behavior were found for both internalizing and externalizing behavior from age 5 to 9, but not for earlier time points.DiscussionOur results did not indicate mediating effects of parental warmth or parental hostility in the associations between parenting stress and child behavior problems. Therefore, we conclude that parenting stress and child internalizing as well as parenting stress and child externalizing behaviors have transactional associations from child’s age 5 to 9 years. Future research examining transactional associations of parenting stress and child behaviors should investigate possible other mediations taking a within-person approach by utilizing the RI-CLPM

The Collaboration on Attachment Transmission Synthesis (CATS): A Move to the Level of Individual-Participant-Data Meta-Analysis

Generations of researchers have tested and used attachment theory to understand children’s development. To bring coherence to the expansive set of findings from small-sample studies, the field early on adopted meta-analysis. Nevertheless, gaps in understanding intergenerational transmission of individual differences in attachment continue to exist. We discuss how attachment research has been addressing these challenges by collaborating in formulating questions and pooling data and resources for individual-participant-data meta-analyses. The collaborative model means that sharing hard-won and valuable data goes hand in hand with directly and intensively interacting with a large community of researchers in the initiation phase of research, deliberating on and critically reviewing new hypotheses, and providing access to a large, carefully curated pool of data for testing these hypotheses. Challenges in pooling data are also discussed

Configurations of mother–child and father–child attachment relationships as predictors of child language competence: An individual participant data meta‐analysis

An individual participant data meta-analysis was conducted to test pre-registered hypotheses about how the configuration of attachment relationships to mothers and fathers predicts children's language competence. Data from seven studies (published between 1985 and 2014) including 719 children (Mage: 19.84months; 51% female; 87% White) were included in the linear mixed effects analyses. Mean language competence scores exceeded the population average across children with different attachment configurations. Children with two secure attachment relationships had higher language competence scores compared to those with one or no secure attachment relationships (d=.26). Children with two organized attachment relationships had higher language competence scores compared to those with one organized attachment relationship (d=.23), and this difference was observed in older versus younger children in exploratory analyses. Mother– child and father–child attachment quality did not differentially predict language competence, supporting the comparable importance of attachment to both parents in predicting developmental outcomes.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Multidimensional treatment foster care for preschoolers: early findings of an implementation in the Netherlands

Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care (MTFC) has been shown to be an evidence based alternative to residential rearing and an effective method to improve behavior and attachment of preschool foster children in the US. This preliminary study investigated an application of MTFC for preschoolers (MTFC-P) in the Netherlands focusing on behavioral outcomes in course of the intervention. To examine the following hypothesis: “the time in the MTFC-P intervention predicts a decline in problem behavior, as this is the desired outcome for children assigned to MTFC-P”, we assessed the daily occurrence of 38 problem behaviors via telephone interviews. Repeated measures revealed significant reduced problem behavior in course of the program. MTFC-P promises to be a treatment model suitable for high-risk foster children, that is transferable across centres and countries

Infant Exploratory Behaviors During the Strange Situation Procedure: Links With Attachment Quality and Temperament

The secure base phenomenon was ascribed to changes in exploration observed during Ainsworth’s Strange Situation Procedure (SSP), related to the quality of the attachment relationship. However, infant temperament was not taken into consideration. The current study aims to replicate Ainsworth’s findings regarding infant exploration and attachment quality during the SSP and extend the findings by examining the role of infant temperament. One hundred thirty-two mother-infant dyads participated in the SSP when infants were 12 months old. Video recordings were coded for attachment quality and for duration of locomotion, duration of engagement with toys, and quality of engagement with toys. Temperamental activity level and fear were assessed with the Infant Behavior Questionnaire. Results showed that—irrespective of infant temperament—infants with insecure-resistant attachment relationships engaged less with toys compared to infants with secure or insecure avoidant relationships, and these differences were amplified during separation from the mother. Duration of engagement with toys was thus a robust indicator of attachment-related infant exploratory behavior. Duration of locomotion increased in response to separation from the mother and decreased after reunion. This likely reflects a mix of exploratory and proximity seeking behavior, and was more affected by controlling for temperamental fear. For quality of engagement with toys, no associations with attachment and temperament were found. During the SSP, the manifestation of the secure base phenomenon depended on the combination of the type of exploratory behaviors and the quality of the attachment relationship, but also on infant temperament

Weakened Resilience in Parenting Self-Efficacy in Pregnant Women Who Were Abused in Childhood: An Experimental Test.

This study tested experimentally whether the combination of a history of childhood abuse and confrontation with difficult infant temperament is associated with negative changes in parenting self-efficacy. First-time pregnant women (N = 243) participated in the Adult Attachment Interview, which was used to assess the occurrence of abuse by parents in childhood and unresolved representations, and completed a task asking them to respond to infant cries. Sixty of the 243 participants (25%) experienced childhood abuse, mostly physical or sexual. The task simulated infant temperamental difficulty by manipulating soothing success in order to reflect an easy-to-soothe (80% soothing success) and a difficult-to-soothe infant (20% soothing success). Both after baseline and after each of the two stimulus series women assessed their parenting self-efficacy. Women who reported childhood abuse did not differ from women who reported no childhood abuse in parenting self-efficacy at baseline or in response to the easy-to-soothe infant (relative to baseline), but decreased more in parenting self-efficacy following the difficult-to-soothe infant. Effects did not vary according to resolution of trauma. These findings suggest that in response to infant temperamental difficulty, women who experienced childhood abuse may more easily lose confidence in their parenting abilities, which underlines the importance of preparing at-risk women for the possible challenges that come along with parenthood

Actigraphic sleep and cortisol in middle childhood: A multivariate behavioral genetics model

To date, behavioral genetic studies investigated either sleep or cortisol levels in middle childhood, but not both simultaneously. Therefore, a pertinent question is the degree to which genetic factors and environmental factor contribute to the correlation between sleep and cortisol levels. To address this question, we employed the classical twin design. We measured sleep in 6-9-year-old twins (N = 436 twin pairs, "Together Unique" study) over four consecutive nights using actigraphy, and we measured morning cortisol on two consecutive days. Sleep duration, sleep efficiency, and wake episodes were used as indicators of sleep. Morning cortisol level was used as cortisol indicator. A structural equation model was fitted to estimate the contribution of additive genetic effects (A), shared (common) environmental effects, (C) and unique environmental effects (E) to phenotypic variances and covariances. Age, cohort, and sex were included as covariates. The heritability of sleep duration, sleep efficiency, and wake episodes were 52%, 45%, and 55%, respectively. Common environmental factors played no significant role. High genetic correlations between sleep duration and sleep efficiency and high genetic correlations between sleep efficiency and wake episodes were found. Shared environmental (29%) and unique environmental factors (53%) explained the variance in morning cortisol levels. Because the sleep and cortisol measures were found to be uncorrelated, we did not consider genetic and environmental contributions to the association between the sleep and cortisol measures. Our findings indicate that sleep duration, sleep efficiency, and wake episodes in children are mostly impacted by genetic factors and by unique environmental factors (including measurement error)

Fitted latent growth curve models for PSE during the Cry Response Task.

<p>(A) Model 1: Changes in PSE from baseline to baby 1. (B) Model 2: Changes in PSE from baby1 to baby2. PSE = Parenting Self-Efficacy; Var = variance; i = intercept; s = slope; e1 and e2 = residuals.</p