Stability, Continuity, and Similarity of Parenting Stress in European American Mothers and Fathers across their Child's Transition to Adolescence.

OBJECTIVE: Experiencing some degree of parenting stress is virtually unavoidable, particularly as children enter early adolescence and assert their independence. In this study, we examined how parenting stress attributed to the parent, the child, or the dyad changed in mean level and relative standing across their child's transition to adolescence. We also compared mothers and fathers from the same families in terms of parenting stress and explored how one parent's stress affected the other parent's stress. DESIGN: Participants included 222 European American parents (111 mothers and 111 fathers), assessed when their children were 10 and 14 years old. RESULTS: Parenting stress was highly stable from 10 to 14 years. Total parenting stress increased across time, and was attributable to stress due to increased parent-child dysfunctional interaction, not parental distress or stress due to child behavior. Mothers and fathers agreed moderately in their relative standing and in the average levels of parenting stress in the three different domains of parenting stress at each time point. Mothers' and fathers' stress across domains were sometimes related. CONCLUSIONS: Mothers' and fathers' increased parenting stress across their child's transition to adolescence seems to derive from parent-child interaction rather than qualities of the parent or the child per se. Finding ways to maintain parent-child communication and closeness may protect parents and families from increased stress during this vulnerable time.

Parenting stress, perceived parenting behaviors, and adolescent self-concept in European American families.

This study assesses whether the stresses associated with parenting a child are indirectly related to adolescent self-concept through parenting behaviors. We examined longitudinal associations among mothers' and fathers' parenting stress at age 10, children's perceptions of parenting at age 10, and adolescents' self-concept at age 14 in 120 European American families. Mothers' and fathers' parenting stress was related to children's perceptions of acceptance and psychologically controlling behavior, and psychologically controlling behavior (and lax control for fathers) was related to adolescent self-concept. We further examined which domains of parenting stress and perceived parenting behaviors were associated with adolescents' scholastic competence, social acceptance, physical appearance, and behavioral conduct. Parenting stress was related to specific parenting behaviors, which were, in turn, related to specific domains of self-concept in adolescence. Parenting stress appears to exert its effects on early adolescent self-concept indirectly through perceived parenting behavior.

Maternal Sensitivity and Child Responsiveness: Associations with Social Context, Maternal Characteristics, and Child Characteristics in a Multivariate Analysis.

This study examined unique associations of multiple distal context variables (family socioeconomic status [SES], maternal employment, and paternal parenting) and proximal maternal (personality, intelligence, and knowledge; behavior, self-perceptions, and attributions) and child (age, gender, representation, language, and sociability) characteristics with maternal sensitivity and child responsiveness in 254 European American mothers and their firstborn 20-month-olds. Specific unique relations emerged in hierarchical regression analyses. Mothers who worked fewer hours per week and reported less dissonance in their husbands' didactic parenting, whose children spoke using more vocabulary, and who reported less limit setting in their parenting and attributed their parenting failures to internal causes were observed to be more sensitive in their interactions with their children. Children in higher SES families, whose mothers worked fewer hours and attributed their parenting failures to internal causes, and who themselves used more vocabulary were observed to be more responsive in their interactions with their mothers. Although potential associations are many, when considered together, unique associations with maternal sensitivity and child responsiveness are few, and some are shared whereas others are unique.

Short-Term Reliability and Continuity of Emotional Availability in Mother-Child Dyads Across Contexts of Observation.

Emotional availability (EA) is a prominent index of socioemotional adaptation in the parent-child dyad. Is EA affected by context? In this methodological study, 34 mothers and their 2-year-olds were observed in 2 different settings (home vs. laboratory) 1 week apart. Significant cross-context reliability and continuity in EA as measured with the Emotional Availability Scales emerged. Because EA is not affected by context, cross-context generalizations about EA status in the dyad may be warranted. This work further documents the adequate psychometric properties of emotional availability.

Naturalistic language sampling in typically developing children.

This study compared naturalistic samples of three features of language in 30 two-year-olds--total utterances, word roots, and MLU--in the home in three contrasting situations: the child observed playing by her/himself with mother near by, the child and mother observed in direct play interaction, and the child and mother unobserved at a time the mother judged would provide a sample of the child's 'optimal' language. Children produced more utterances and word roots and expressed themselves in longer MLU when in interaction than when playing 'alone', but children's utterances, word roots, and MLU were greatest in the 'optimal' language production situation. Girls used more word roots and spoke in longer MLU (especially in the 'optimal' language situation) than boys. Despite mean level differences, children maintained their rank orders across the three situations in use of word roots and in MLU. These findings have implications for understanding children's language and the representativeness of sampling child language.