Cooperative coparenting and the associations with adolescent behavioral problems and delinquency in unmarried families.

INTRODUCTION: Coparenting in unmarried families is a protective factor for positive adolescent adjustment. Although the relations between coparenting and adolescent outcomes have been investigated, it remains unclear whether the specific patterns of maternal and paternal coparenting are associated with adolescent behavioral outcomes. METHODS: The present study includs a longitudinal cohort of 1143 triads of unmarried parents and their adolescents to examine the associations between different patterns of coparenting and adolescent behavioral problems and delinquency. The data were drawn from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study in the United States. Our study used six waves of publicly available data at children's birth, ages 1, 3, 5, 9, and 15. RESULTS: The latent profile analyses identified four coparenting profiles of maternal and paternal coparenting perceived by the other unmarried parent. Comparing average levels of coparenting between mothers and fathers, the profiles were entitled Low Mom-Low Dad, High Mom-Medium Dad, Low Mom-Medium Dad, and High Mom-High Dad. Parents characteristics, such as cohabitation and marital status, predicted the likelihood of being in cooperative coparenting profiles. Furthermore, all the identified coparenting profiles predicted adolescent externalizing behavioral problems; only the high mom cooperative coparenting profiles predicted adolescent internalizing behavioral problems; none of the coparenting profiles predicted adolescent delinquency. CONCLUSIONS: Our study adds empirical evidence for coparenting research by revealing that coparenting patterns vary in unmarried families and that cooperative coparenting benefits child behavioral outcomes. The findings encourage introducing different coparenting training programs targeting unmarried parents' diverse needs, thus promoting positive adolescent adjustment.

Bidirectional relationships between parenting stress and child behavior problems in multi-stressed, single-mother families: A cross-lagged panel model.

Investigations on the bidirectional relationships between parenting stress and child behavior problems are important to inform intervention strategies; however, prior research has provided inconsistent findings. Using a national sample of multi-stressed single-mother families from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study, the present study examined the bidirectional relationships between maternal parenting stress and children's behavioral problems spanning from early childhood through adolescence at the child's ages 3, 5, 9, and 15. Reciprocal transactions were found between parenting stress and behavior problems in early childhood between the ages 3 and 5. From age 5 to age 15, our findings also suggest that children's behavior problems at an earlier time point predict mothers' parenting stress at a later time point. Unexpectedly, the lagged effects of parenting stress on child behavior problems in school ages were not significant in our sampled data. Early childhood interventions should address mitigating both parenting stress and their toddlers' behavior problems. During middle childhood and adolescence, interventions to directly address children's behavior problems are critical both to the well-being of mothers and to assist in the reduction in levels of behavior problems.

"Many people have no idea": a qualitative analysis of healthcare barriers among Yazidi refugees in the Midwestern United States.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has shed new light on inequities in healthcare access faced by immigrant and refugee communities. To address ongoing disparities, there is an urgent need for ecological approaches to better understand the barriers that hinder and resources that facilitate access to healthcare. This study investigates barriers to healthcare system access faced by Yazidi refugees in the Midwestern United States. METHODS: Informed by the Interpretative Phenomenological Approach, three focus group meetings with a community advisory board were conducted between September 2019 and January 2020. The nine-member focus group included social workers, healthcare providers, and members of the Yazidi community. Meeting recordings were transcribed into English, coded for themes, and validated. RESULTS: We describe themes related to specific barriers to healthcare access; analyze the influence of relational dynamics in the focus group; explore experiential themes related to healthcare access in the Yazidi community, and finally interpret our findings through a social-ecological lens. CONCLUSION: Community agencies, healthcare organizations, policymakers, and other stakeholders must work together to develop strategies to reduce systemic barriers to equitable care. Community representation in priority-setting and decision-making is essential to ensure relevance, acceptability, and utilization of developed strategies.

Adverse childhood experiences and behavior problems among poor Black children: Nonresident father involvement and single mothers' parenting stress.

BACKGROUND: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in early childhood and developmental outcomes during the middle childhood and adolescent years have been understudied among low-income Black families. OBJECTIVE: To test a model linking economic hardship, single mothers' parenting stress, ACEs, and nonresident fathers' involvement in early childhood to behavior problems in middle childhood and adolescence. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: We used six waves of longitudinal data from a subsample of 800 unmarried Black mothers, nonresident fathers, and their children (at child birth and ages 1, 3, 5, 9, and 15) from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a nationally representative data set. METHOD: Structural equation models with latent variables that incorporate path analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were tested. RESULTS: Mothers' economic hardship was associated directly with parenting stress (beta = 0.27, p < .001) and related both directly (beta = 0.22, p < .001) and indirectly (through parenting stress) to the children's increased likelihood of exposure to ACEs (indirect effect = 0.05, p < .001). Nonresident fathers' involvement early on (child's age 1 to 5) was associated directly with reductions in the mothers' economic hardship (beta = -0.18, p < .001), children's reduced exposure to ACEs (beta = -0.15, p < .001), and fewer behavior problems in middle childhood and adolescence (beta = -0.10, p < .001). CONCLUSION: Nonresident Black fathers' involvement in single-mother families may buffer the adverse consequences over time for economically and socially disadvantaged Black children of exposure to ACEs in early childhood. Interventions that encourage sustained involvement by nonresident Black fathers with young children and their single mothers are recommended.

The longitudinal influences of adverse childhood experiences and positive childhood experiences at family, school, and neighborhood on adolescent depression and anxiety.

BACKGROUND: Adolescent depression and anxiety are major mental health concerns. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are risk factors for depression and anxiety in adolescence and positive childhood experiences at home, school, and neighborhood are protective factors. Few studies, however, have compared the longitudinal effects of these two sets of contextual risk and protective factors on depression and anxiety among adolescents by framing them together. METHODS: This study used data on a subsample of 3426 socioeconomically disadvantaged adolescents collected at their birth, ages one, three, five, nine, and fifteen. Logistic regression was used to examine the longitudinal effects of ACEs, focusing on childhood maltreatment and family dysfunctions, and positive childhood experiences with family, school, and neighborhood on the risks of depression and anxiety. Adolescents' characteristics and their families' socioeconomic status were adjusted. RESULTS: In the two ACEs subcategories, childhood maltreatment exposures increased the risks only for later anxiety; family dysfunction increased the risks for both later depression and anxiety. In the three contexts, positive childhood experiences at family and school protected at-risk adolescents against both mental health concerns, whereas neighborhood collective efficacy protected adolescents only against depression. LIMITATIONS: Resilience was examined as an outcome only; it can also be examined as a process. Neither teachers' nor grandparents' supports were included. CONCLUSIONS: ACEs maltreatment and family dysfunction are two different risk dimensions for adolescent depression and anxiety. Positive childhood experiences at family are the strongest protective factors for children exposed to ACEs, followed by these in school and neighborhood. Early interventions building positive relationships may benefit adolescent mental health.

Neighborhood Environment and Child Health in Immigrant Families: Using Nationally Representative Individual, Family, and Community Datasets.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to examine neighborhood effects on the physical and socioemotional health of children from immigrant families, after controlling for parents' demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, acculturation, and health care issues. DESIGN: Pooled cross-sectional data were merged with community profiles. SETTING: The United States in 2013, 2014, and 2015. PARTICIPANTS: 10,399 children from immigrant families in the 2013-2015 National Health Interview Surveys and the U.S. Census Data. MEASURES: Both objective and subjective measures of neighborhood environments were assessed, including neighborhood physical disorder, socioeconomic status, demographic composition, community resources, and social trust. ANALYSIS: Descriptive statistics, logistic regression models. RESULTS: About half of the sampled children were male (51%); 68% were white; 56% were of Hispanic; and 34% were school-aged. Three neighborhood factors-neighborhood trust, area-level poverty rate, and the presence of primary care physician-were identified as significant predictors for child health outcomes. Foreign-born population, green space, and food desert were not significant. At the individual level, parents' racial and ethnic minority status, non-marital status, and healthcare issues were found to be risk factors. Families' financial resources and parental education were identified as protective factors of socioemotional health. CONCLUSION: Intervention approaches to build on neighborhood trust may have broad potential to improve child outcomes. Programs focusing on immigrant families with children in high poverty neighborhoods should be a high priority.

Neighborhood disadvantage, childhood adversity, bullying victimization, and adolescent depression: A multiple mediational analysis.

BACKGROUND: Each of the home, school, and neighborhood environmental factors for adolescent depression has received substantial attention in the literature; however, there remains a paucity of research which systematically examines the mechanisms whereby neighborhood structural and social characteristics in early childhood affects later depressive symptoms in adolescence as transmitted through family and school adversities. METHODS: The present study used nationally representative sampled data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a longitudinal survey following a cohort of 4,898 children along with their parents and teachers at the child's birth and at 1, 3, 5, 9, and 15 years of age. Public and restricted-use data were used to merge individual surveys and neighborhood profiles. RESULTS: Our findings suggest that both neighborhood structural disadvantage and collective efficacy have direct impacts on adverse childhood experiences, bullying victimization, and social emotional development as well as indirect impacts on adolescents' depressive symptoms. Neighborhood collective efficacy, but not structural disadvantage, was found to directly contribute to later depressive symptoms of adolescents. LIMITATIONS: Resilience factors such as familial support and stable relationships were not considered in the current study. Due to the unavailability of data, potential reciprocal relationships among peer bullying, social emotional problems, and depressive symptoms were not examined. CONCLUSIONS: Our finding that neighborhood characteristics contribute to the development of adolescents' depression emphasizes the importance of a healthy neighborhood environment, which also provides implications for multi-faceted interventions to promote neighborhood resources and support systems, as well as community-wide bullying prevention programs and childhood adversity screenings.

Long-term Neighborhood Effects on Adolescent Outcomes: Mediated through Adverse Childhood Experiences and Parenting Stress.

Past research suggests that neighborhood structural and social environments are important contextual factors associated with children's development; however, investigations of the long-term effects of neighborhood environments in early childhood on subsequent adolescents' social and behavioral outcomes remain limited. Further, it is unclear whether and how the home environment as a mediating mechanism links neighborhood conditions and adolescents' outcomes. Using national surveys from multi-stressed families and census datasets, the present study aims to examine the longitudinal associations between neighborhood concentrated poverty and collective efficacy, mothers' parenting stress, exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and later adolescent outcomes. Participants included 4898 children (52% boys) and their mothers (48% black, 25 years of age, on average, 64% living in poverty); children born in unmarried families (75% unmarried) were oversampled. The results suggest that neighborhood collective efficacy is associated directly and indirectly (via parenting stress and ACEs) with adolescents' behavior problems and social skills, and indirectly with their delinquency. Neighborhood concentrated poverty was indirectly related to adolescents' behavior problems, delinquency, and social skills transmitted through collective efficacy and family processes. Both mothers' parenting stress and exposure to ACEs were identified as significant mediators. This study highlights the importance of early intervention for high-risk children, programs to build community resilience and reinforce social support for vulnerable families, and policy efforts to create safe and nurturing relationships and environments.

Adverse experiences in early childhood and their longitudinal impact on later behavioral problems of children living in poverty.

BACKGROUND: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are an identified risk factor for the social and emotional development of children. What is less known is the long-term effects of ACEs when poverty and ACEs coincide. OBJECTIVE: Using longitudinal cohort-panel data, we examined whether exposure to ACEs by the age of three among poor children would longitudinally result in behavioral problems at ages three, five, nine, and 15, after controlling for mothers' socioeconomic status and their children's characteristics. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: We used a subsample of 2750 children and their parents living in urban poverty from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study. METHODS: Logistic regression modeling was used to obtain adjusted odds ratios of ACE categories predicting behavioral problems after accounting for family socioeconomic position. RESULTS: Our findings indicate that experiencing ACEs in early childhood was significantly associated with later behavioral outcomes from childhood to adolescence. Exposure to multiple ACEs before the age of three was significantly associated with the top-risk behavior group at age five; the odd ratios were 2.0 (CI = 1.3-3.1) and 2.9 (CI = 1.8-4.6) for two ACEs and three or more ACEs, respectively. At both ages nine and 15, children experiencing two or more ACEs had 1.9 to 3.2 times higher odds to demonstrate more the top 10th percentile of behavioral problems. Among covariates, mothers' race and education, and children's gender and temperament were identified as significant factors to determine behavior problems. CONCLUSIONS: The findings support policies and programs for families with children who have experienced economic disadvantages and early childhood adversity.

The longitudinal and bidirectional relationships between cooperative coparenting and child behavioral problems in low-income, unmarried families.

The coparenting subsystem is important for the psychosocial development of young children. In this article, we used cross-lagged structural equation modeling to assess the bidirectional relations between unmarried parents' cooperative coparenting and their children's behavioral problems. Using a subsample of 788 dyads of poor, unmarried parents and their children from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing data, we examined trends in coparenting and behavioral problems over time (in children ages 1, 3, 5, and 9 years) and the reciprocal effects between these 2 variables. All pathways from coparenting at 1 time point to the children's behavioral problems at the following time point were significant, indicating that cooperative coparenting at earlier time points is likely to result in fewer behavioral problems in children at later time points. A cross-lagged path from behavioral problems to coparenting in the preschool years was also statistically significant. Implications for interventions and next steps for further research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Supportive Coparenting, Parenting Stress, Harsh Parenting, and Child Behavior Problems in Nonmarital Families.

Supportive coparenting is an identified protective factor for child development and behavioral outcomes. What is less known is how supportive coparenting dynamically links with other aspects of parenting and parent well-being, particularly in multi-stressed nonmarital families. This study used data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study, analyzed within a structural equation model, to explore how mothers' experience of maternal depression, maternal age, father education, and SES interacted with their parenting stress and supportive coparenting to impact child behavioral problems and harsh parenting practices. Among the findings, more supportive coparenting was found to be significantly associated with fewer child behavioral problems and less harsh parenting. Transmitted through supportive coparenting and parenting stress acting as mediator, maternal depressive symptoms were indirectly and positively related to harsh parenting practices and child behavior problems. These findings are discussed within the context of the broader literature and next steps for research are discussed.

Neighborhood Characteristics, Maternal Parenting, and Health and Development of Children from Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Families.

The present study examined the direct and indirect effects of neighborhood conditions on the health and development of children from socioeconomically disadvantaged families. Two waves of data were analyzed from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study and its subsample of 3,656 mothers and their young children at ages 3 and 5. The results show that social cohesion was directly and indirectly associated with children's behavioral problems and health status. Social control was found to have an indirect effect on children's behavioral problems and cognitive development transmitted through maternal parenting quality and parenting stress. There were significant direct effects of neighborhood physical disorder on children's behavioral problems and cognitive development. In terms of effect size, mothers' parenting stress and parenting quality, economic hardship, education level, and health care coverage were also prominent factors in determining the health and development of children. Implications for interventions and future research are discussed.

Nonresident fathers' parenting, family processes, and children's development in urban, poor, single-mother families.

With dramatic growth in nonrmarital births, an increasing number of children are growing up in single-mother families. This study examines the relationships among nonresident fathers' parenting and children's behavioral and cognitive development in low-income, single-mother families. It also considers the personal characteristics of the children's single mothers as well as family processes and economic circumstances. Analyses use the first three waves of longitudinal data from a subsample of single and noncohabiting mothers in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Results suggest that nonresident fathers' parenting is indirectly associated with children's behavior problems and cognitive development. The findings further suggest that those estimated associations are transmitted through mothers' parenting. The study also discusses the policy and practice implications of its findings.

Parenting Efficacy and the Early School Adjustment of Poor and Near-Poor Black Children.

This short-term longitudinal study investigated whether maternal educational attainment, maternal employment status, and family income affect African-American children's behavioral and cognitive functioning over time through their impacts on mothers' psychological functioning and parenting efficacy in a sample of 100 poor and near-poor single black mothers and their 3- and 4-year-old focal children. Results indicate that education, working status, and earnings display statistically significant, negative, indirect relations with behavior problems and, with the exception of earnings, statistically significant, positive, indirect relationships with teacher-rated adaptive language skills over time. Findings suggest further that parenting efficacy may mediate the link between poor and near-poor single black mothers' depressive symptoms and their preschoolers' subsequent school adjustment. Implications of these findings for policy and program interventions are discussed.