Lorraine McKelvey

Parenting Stress of Low-Income Parents of Toddlers and Preschoolers: Psychometric Properties of a Short Form of the Parenting Stress Index

SYNOPSIS Objective. This study examines psychometric properties of 2 scales of the Parenting Stress Index—Short Form (PSI—SF) in a sample of preschool children from low-income families. Design. The factor structure, reliability, and validity of the Parental Distress and Parent—Child Dysfunctional Interaction subscales were assessed for 1122 Early Head Start parents of 15 (n = 959), 25 (n = 899), and 37-month-old (n = 845) children in a multisite study. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) compared the fit of 2-factor scales that are recommended by the developer with theoretically derived 5-factor scales. Results. CFA indicated that the 5-factor scales fit the data better than the 2-factor scales. Both 2 and 5-factor scales had high internal consistency, and the pattern of relations between the new scales and validity constructs support their usefulness. Conclusions. The PSI—SF scales can be helpful in clinical applications because the proposed scales clarify relations between parent and child outcomes and specific aspects of stress due to parenting.

It Takes Time: Impacts of Early Head Start that Lead to Reductions in Maternal Depression Two Years Later

The Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project, a random-assignment evaluation, found a broad pattern of positive impacts for children and families. However, there were no program impacts on depression or use of mental health services by the time children reached age 3, at the end of the Early Head Start (EHS) program. This paper presents recent findings from the follow-up study in the spring prior to the children entering kindergarten, when a positive program impact emerged for reducing maternal depression. Results show that earlier program impacts on children and parents (when children were 2 and 3 years of age) mediated, or led to, the delayed impact on maternal depression. The combination of the most promising child factors accounted for over 57% of the later impact on depression, while the most promising parent factors accounted for over 35% of the later impact on depression. Implications for EHS programs are discussed.

Mother-infant interaction in low-income families

Purpose To describe interaction patterns of low-income mothers and infants and to compare the study sample to a larger, diverse sample from a national database. Study Design and Method Data from 156 mothers with infants under 12 months of age were identified from the first wave of a longitudinal evaluation of an early childhood intervention program. Trained data collectors using the NCAST Teaching Scale conducted observations in the home. Differences among the study sample on selected demographic characteristics were calculated. Comparisons between the study sample and a sample of similar mothers from the NCAST database were performed. Results The study sample as a whole was most like a low-education adolescent comparison group, and least like a high-education adult comparison group. They scored significantly lower on most scales of the NCAST Teaching Scale than a NCAST database sample of educated adults. About 40% of the dyads had scores below the NCAST 10th percentile cutoff, with a higher percent of mothers having lower scores than infants. Clinical Implications Nurses should routinely assess parent-child interaction in all high-risk, disadvantaged families with very young children. Nurses can help mothers understand and capitalize on their infants’ capacity to interact, particularly in early months of life. Future research should include changes in interaction patterns over time and exploration of factors that may have an impact on parent-child interactions.

Social Outcomes Associated With Media Viewing Habits of Low-Income Preschool Children

Research Findings: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between preschool childrens social outcomes in the classroom (including hyperactivity, aggression, and social skills) and their media viewing habits (including the amount of television they watch and whether they watch videos/movies that are rated as inappropriate for young children). The participants were 92 low-income pre-kindergarten-age children for whom we obtained parent reports of media viewing habits and teacher reports of classroom behavior. The results suggested that viewing of inappropriate content was associated with higher hyperactivity and aggression scores and a lower social skills rating, whereas the amount of viewing was not related to these classroom outcomes. Policy: There has been a great deal of focus on how both the amount and content of television viewed affects social development in middle and later childhood. These studies have helped influence the development of guidelines for parents of young children to limit media viewing. The findings from the present study suggest that school personnel and others should monitor the content of what preschoolers are watching and should educate parents about the potential impact of media viewing on childrens classroom behavior.

Growing Up in Violent Communities: Do Family Conflict and Gender Moderate Impacts on Adolescents' Psychosocial Development?

This study examined the moderating effects of family conflict and gender on the relationship between community violence and psychosocial development at age 18. The study sample consisted of 728 children and families who were part of the Infant Health and Development Program study of low-birth-weight, pre-term infants. In this sample, adolescent psychosocial outcomes were predicted by community violence differently for male and female children and based on their experiences of conflict at home. For male children, being in a high conflict family as a child exacerbated the negative effects of community violence such that internalizing problems (depression and anxiety) and risk-taking behaviors increased as community violence increased, while being in a low conflict family protected the child against the negative impacts of the community. For female adolescents, there were no moderating effects of family conflict on the relationship between community violence and externalizing problems. Moderating effects for internalizing problems demonstrated that being in low conflict families did not serve as protection against community violence for girls as was demonstrated for boys. These findings demonstrate the long-term effects of community violence on child development, highlighting the importance of gender and family context in the development of internalizing and externalizing problems.

Does the Quality of Stimulation and Support in the Home Environment Moderate the Effect of Early Education Programs

The current study was designed to investigate how the quality of stimulation and support available to children in the home interacts with participation in Early Head Start to determine childrens development. Data were obtained as part of the national evaluation of Early Head Start (EHSRE), a randomized trial involving 3,001 children and families from 17 program sites. Hierarchical linear regression analyses were used to examine the interaction of EHS with (a) early maternal emotional warmth and (b) provision of a stimulating home environment on childrens development at ages 3 and 5. Findings showed EHS sometimes differentially benefited children who came from households where the levels of warmth and stimulation were lowest. However, there was evidence of other forms of moderation as well.

Exposure of Low-Income Families and Their Children to Neighborhood Violence and Paternal Antisocial Behavior

Objective. We examined the relation between neighborhood violence and father antisocial behavior with a national sample of fathers from low-income families with 3-year-old children Design. Children were classified into 4 groups based on their exposure to father antisocial behavior and neighborhood violence. Results. Children who experience high levels of each performed more poorly on indicators of emotion regulation. Children in risk groups were exposed to higher levels of family conflict, father depression, and poorer internal and external physical environments than children who were in the low-risk group. Children with fathers who were not antisocial were 3 times more likely to be spanked when the father resided in a high-risk neighborhood. Conclusions. Fathers should be included in early prevention programs targeting families with very young children, and such programs simultaneously challenged to broaden into community networks.

Assessing adverse experiences from infancy through early childhood in home visiting programs

The general aim of early intervention and home visiting programs is to support families to minimize Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). However, assessing childrens exposure to these risks is complicated because parents serve as the conduit for both measurement and intervention. The primary aims of the study were to develop an assessment of childrens exposure to ACEs and to examine concurrently measured parental child abuse and neglect potential and child social-emotional functioning. Home visiting programs in a southern state implemented the Family Map Inventories (FMI) as comprehensive family assessment and child screenings (N=1,282) within one month of enrollment. Children (M=33 months of age, SD=20) were exposed at rates of 27% to one, 18% to two, 11% to three, and 12% to four or more FMI-ACEs. FMI-ACEs were associated with increased parental beliefs and behaviors associated with child abuse and neglect. FMI-ACEs also significantly predicted the likelihood of the child having at-risk social-emotional development; children with 4 or more FMI-ACEs were over 6 times more likely than those with none to have at-risk scores. The findings add to our understanding of the negative impact of trauma on children and families. Assessing these risks as they occur in a family-friendly manner provides a platform for early intervention programs to work with families to increase family strengths and reduce the impacts of adverse experiences for their children.

Parenting: linking impacts of interpartner conflict to preschool children's social behavior.

Family conflict is known to have detrimental impacts on the social development of young children. An important issue in counseling parents and the development of intervention for children is the extent to which other family environmental conditions are the path through which conflict impacts childrens development. This study examined two maternal parenting behaviors (harsh discipline and warmth) that may alter the impact of interpartner conflict on child social development and behavior in a large (n = 440 girls, n = 451 boys) sample of ethnically diverse, low-income families of preschool children. Interpartner conflict was associated with poorer child social development and behavior problems. This study found that interpartner conflict increased harsh discipline, which resulted in poorer child social development. This study, however, found no evidence that interpartner conflict impacted child development through its impact on maternal warmth in that mothers experiencing conflict did not alter the level of warm parenting practices. These findings suggest that, when encountering families experiencing interpartner conflict, clinicians should not only direct families to interventions to lessen family conflict but also counsel them on the mechanism (harsh discipline) by which children are impacted by the conflict.

Longitudinal Connections of Maternal Supportiveness and Early Emotion Regulation to Children’s School Readiness in Low-Income Families

Maternal supportiveness and children’s emotion regulation are considered crucial for the development of school readiness, and enhancing both is particularly important for children from low-income families who are at higher risk for reduced school readiness. This study uses latent growth curve analysis to examine longitudinal connections between maternal supportiveness and toddler emotion regulation as predictors of children’s cognitive school readiness at age 5 and as mediators of the relation between family demographic risk and cognitive school readiness. The sample includes 1,258 mother–child dyads enrolled in the Early Head Start Research Evaluation project. Results support the hypothesized connections between initial and subsequent growth in maternal supportiveness and children’s emotion regulation with later cognitive school readiness. Children’s initial emotion regulation and growth in emotion regulation partially mediate the relation between initial maternal supportiveness and school readiness. Maternal supportiveness, but not emotion regulation, partially mediates the effects of demographic risk on school readiness. Tests of gender moderation indicate that model effect sizes in the relation between maternal supportiveness and emotion regulation are more robust for girls. Findings imply that enhancing early maternal supportiveness and children’s emotion regulation benefits children’s early learning readiness. Limitations of the study and future directions are considered as well.