Maternal Stress and Sensitivity: Moderating Effect of Positive Affect

SYNOPSIS

Objective. Stress felt by parents is often negatively related to their ability to engage in optimal parenting; however, research on relations of parenting stress to parenting behaviors typically examines negative associations instead of taking a strengths-based approach. The current study examines longitudinally the role of positive affect as a moderator of the relation of parenting stress to later maternal sensitivity, controlling for prior levels of sensitivity. Design. Maternal positive affect and maternal sensitivity were observed for 93 mother–child dyads during free-play sessions when children were 4- to 5-years-old (T1) and 8- to 9-years-old (T2), respectively. Mothers reported on parenting stress felt from dysfunctional parent–child interactions (T1). Results. Maternal positive affect moderated the association of parenting stress to sensitivity at T2, after controlling for prior levels of sensitivity at T1. Mothers who exhibited low positive affect were less likely to respond sensitively at T2 to their children when parenting stress was high; however, no association was found when positive affect was high. Conclusions. Maternal positive affect may buffer the effect of parenting stress on maternal sensitivity with school-aged children.

ARTICLE INFORMATION

Conflict of interest disclosures: Each author signed a form for disclosure of potential conflicts of interest. No authors reported any financial or other conflicts of interest in relation to the work described.

Ethical principles: The authors affirm having followed professional ethical guidelines in preparing this work. These guidelines include obtaining informed consent from human participants, maintaining ethical treatment and respect for the rights of human or animal participants, and ensuring the privacy of participants and their data, such as ensuring that individual participants cannot be identified in reported results or from publicly available original or archival data.

Funding: This work was supported by funds awarded to Cynthia L. Smith from a Virginia Tech ASPIRES Award, a Virginia Tech College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences Jerome Niles Faculty Research Award and Faculty Fellowship, and the Virginia Tech Institute for Society, Culture and Environment;Virginia Tech.

Role of the funders/sponsors: None of the funders or sponsors of this research had any role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; or decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

Acknowledgments: The authors would like thank the families that participated in our study and the graduate and undergraduate research assistants affiliated with our project. The ideas and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors alone, and endorsement by the authors’ institution and provided funding is not intended and should not be inferred.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by funds awarded to Cynthia L. Smith from a Virginia Tech ASPIRES Award, a Virginia Tech College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences Jerome Niles Faculty Research Award and Faculty Fellowship, and the Virginia Tech Institute for Society, Culture and Environment;Virginia Tech.