Parental strain, mental health problems, and parenting practices: A longitudinal study

• Published in: Personality and individual differences Vol. 68; pp. 93 - 97
• Main Authors: Borre, Alicia, Kliewer, Wendy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01.10.2014; Elsevier
• Subjects: African American female caregivers; Biological and medical sciences; Family environment. Family history; Medical sciences; Mental health; Parental strain; Parenting; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Social psychiatry. Ethnopsychiatry; Parenting; African American female caregivers; Mental health; Parental strain; Human; Parental behavior; Socioeconomic status; Poverty; Structural equation modeling; Violence; Parent pathology; Exposure; Ethnic group; Stress; Sociodemographic factor; Follow up study; Family environment; Mental disorder; Female; Woman; African American; parental strain; mental health; parenting
• ISSN: 0191-8869; 1873-3549
• DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2014.04.014

•Parental strain influenced parenting through changes in parental mental health.•Parental strain was associated with concurrent and future mental health symptoms.•Changes in parent mental health influenced parental knowledge and child disclosure. Although poor parenting practices place youth living in under resourced communities at heightened risk for adjustment difficulties, less is known about what influences parenting practices in those communities. The present study examines prospective linkages between three latent constructs: parental strain, mental health problems and parenting practices. Parental victimization by community violence and life stressors were indicative of parental strain; depressive, anxious, and hostile symptoms were indicators of parental mental health; and parental knowledge of their child’s activities and child disclosure were indicators of parenting practices. Interviews were conducted annually for 3 waves with 316 female caregivers (92% African American) parenting youth in low-income inner-city communities. Structural equation modeling revealed that parental strain, assessed at Wave 1, predicted changes in mental health problems 1year later, which in turn predicted parenting practices at Wave 3. These results suggest that parental strain can compromise a caregiver’s ability to parent effectively by impacting their mental health. Opportunities for intervention include helping caregivers process trauma and mental health problems associated with parental strain.