Pathways to Maternal and Child Well-Being: Stability and Transaction across Toddlerhood

SYNOPSIS

Objective. This study examines the development of minor parenting stress, parenting satisfaction, and dyadic dysregulation across early childhood and evaluates their roles in predicting maternal and child well-being one year later. Design. Data was collected from 322 low-income, Mexican American mother-child dyads at child ages 12, 18, 24, and 36 months. Mothers responded to questionnaires during structured interviews, and mother-child dyadic interactions were observed during structured teaching tasks and later coded for global displays of emotional, attentional, and behavioral dysregulation. Results. Cross-lag path analyses revealed negative concurrent relations between minor parenting stress and parenting satisfaction at every time point and stability in constructs across time. Parenting stress predicted greater subsequent dyadic dysregulation. Greater dyadic dysregulation and stress related to parenting predicted more maternal depressive symptoms and child behavior problems, whereas greater parenting satisfaction predicted less maternal depressive symptoms and child behavior problems. Conclusion. In this minority at-risk population, there was substantial stability in and a lack of transactional relations between minor parenting stresses, parenting satisfaction, and dyadic dysregulation across toddlerhood. These factors are important determinants of maternal and child well-being, with minor parenting stress emerging as particularly powerful.

ADDRESSES AND AFFILIATIONS

Laura K. Winstone, Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 871104, Tempe, AZ 85287. E-mail: [email protected]. Sarah G. Curci and Keith A. Crnic are at Arizona State University.

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.

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 hank the mothers and infants for their participation; Anne Mauricio, Kirsten Letham, and Monica Gutierrez for their assistance with data collection and management; Dr. Dean Coonrod and the Maricopa Integrated Health Systems for their assistance with recruitment; and the interviewers for their commitment and dedication to this project. The ideas and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors alone, and endorsement by the authors’ institution is not intended and should not be inferred.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by [Grant R01 MH104245] from the National Institute of Mental Health.