Date of Award

1-1-2023

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Content Description

1 online resource (viii, 128 pages) : illustrations (some color)

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Elizabeth Vásquez

Committee Members

Melissa Tracy, Marleen Radigan

Keywords

Single mothers, Mother and child, Father and child, Families, Parenting, Children of immigrants, Stress (Psychology), Behavior disorders in adolescence

Subject Categories

Epidemiology

Abstract

BackgroundAdolescence is a critical period for developing social and emotional wellbeing. Adolescents experience many physical and social changes, making them vulnerable to adaptive and behavioral problems. Compared to their peers in married families, adolescents in unmarried families may be at particularly elevated risk of developing internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems, identifying key risk factors in a family context could provide insights on the development of family-based interventions. Mothers are often seen as the center of the environmental context of children development, their responsiveness to children may be impacted by their economic and psychological resources, which could crucially affect the wellbeing of their children. Compared to married mothers, unmarried mothers are more likely to work in a low-paying occupation and have low average household income, which could contribute to high levels of parenting stress. Research has shown that exposure to maternal parenting stress may be associated with the development of child internalizing and externalizing behaviors in unmarried families. However, as most prior research focusses on evaluating maternal parenting stress at a single time point, the relationships between trajectory patterns of maternal parenting stress and emerging adolescent behavioral problems are unclear. In addition to marital status, family immigration status is also an important component of a family structure. However, the effect of maternal parenting stress on child behavioral problems among immigrant families remains understudied. Understanding the impact of maternal parenting stress trajectories on adolescent internalizing and externalizing behaviors, and how such impact varies according to family immigration status could provide unique insights for intervention development. In addition, maternal harsh parenting and early father involvement may play crucial roles in the associations of maternal parenting stress and adolescent behavioral symptoms, and evaluating their effects on the associations of interest could provide additional evidence on the development of supportive family programs. The objectives of the current dissertation are to identify the trajectory patterns of maternal parenting stress and evaluate their effects on adolescent internalizing and externalizing behaviors in unmarried families. In addition, the potential effect modification of family immigration status, the mediation effects of maternal harsh parenting were examined. Lastly, joint effects of maternal parenting stress and early father involvement on adolescent internalizing and externalizing behaviors were evaluated. Methods We used longitudinal data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), focusing on births to unmarried parents, which comprise about 75% of the FFCWS sample. Semi-parametric group-based trajectory modeling was used to identify trajectory groups of maternal parenting stress over nine years from ages 1-9. Negative binomial regression models were used to estimate associations between different maternal parenting stress trajectories and adolescent behavioral symptoms at age 15. The mediating effects of maternal psychological and physical aggression were evaluated using a counterfactual approach. The interactions between maternal parenting stress trajectories and father’s early involvement on adolescent internalizing and externalizing symptoms were examined on both additive and multiplicative scales. Results In Aim 1, five maternal parenting stress trajectory groups were identified, representing consistently low (Group 1: 9.2%), consistently mild (Group 2: 54.2%), moderate and decreasing (Group 3: 14.4%), moderate and increasing (Group 4: 16.0%) and consistently high (Group 5: 6.2%) levels of maternal parenting stress. For adolescent internalizing symptoms, offspring exposed to all maternal parenting stress trajectory groups exhibited higher symptoms compared to the consistently low group. Similar results were observed for adolescent externalizing symptoms. In addition, we observed stronger effects of maternal parenting stress on adolescent externalizing symptoms among native-born families than immigrant families across most of the trajectory groups. In Aim 2, maternal psychological aggression significantly mediated the effects of consistently mild (% mediated = 36%) and moderate and decreasing maternal parenting stress (% mediated = 38%) on adolescent internalizing symptoms. Maternal physical aggression was also observed to significantly mediate the effects of consistently mild maternal parenting stress (% mediated = 29%) on adolescent internalizing symptoms. For adolescent externalizing symptoms, both maternal psychological (% mediated: Group 2=38%; Group 3=41%; Group 4=34%) and physical aggression (% mediated: Group 2=33%; Group 3=29%; Group 4=31%) significantly mediated the associations across most of the trajectory groups (except for the consistently-high group). In Aim 3, greater father involvement in supportive activities was associated with lower adolescent internalizing (IRR: 0.969; 95% CI: 0.955 – 0.984) and externalizing symptoms (IRR: 0.980; 95% CI: 0.966 – 0.994). High levels of time investment (IRR: 0.846; 95% CI: 0.732 - 0.966) and greater father involvement in parenting activities (IRR: 0.996; 95% CI: 0.993, 0.998) were associated with fewer adolescent internalizing symptoms. Father involvement in parenting activities was found to significantly alleviate the adverse effects of consistently-mild maternal parenting stress (Group 2) on adolescent externalizing symptoms (RERI=-0.013; 90% CI: -0.030, -0.001) on the additive scale, compared to the consistently-low maternal parenting stress group (Group 1). Conclusion This dissertation extended prior research that focused on evaluating maternal parenting stress at a single time point, and provided novel evidence on the impact of different trajectory patterns of maternal parenting stress on behavioral problems in adolescence. Our findings also provided new insights into the potential effect modification of family immigration status, along with the roles of harsh parenting behaviors and early father involvement, which has laid the groundwork for targeted intervention development to better support the wellbeing of unmarried families.

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