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Panel information
Panel 14. Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Abstract

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Parenting stress is a principal predictor of harsh parenting, or the use of physically or psychologically aggressive or neglectful discipline (Jackson & Choi, 2018). Socioeconomically disadvantaged Black mothers demonstrate some of the highest stress levels in the United States and this stress may increase as their children age (Nomaguchi & House, 2013). However, no studies have examined the stress trajectories of Black mothers from lower socioeconomic status as their children age from toddlerhood to adolescence, nor how those trajectories may be related to harsh parenting. Thus, the current study conducted a secondary multilevel analysis using data from the longitudinal Future Families and Child Wellbeing Study (The Trustees of Princeton University, 2023) to examine two aims. The first was to document the parenting stress trajectories of socioeconomically disadvantaged Black mothers as their children age from 3 to 15 years. It was hypothesized that mothers would demonstrate increased stress as their children aged, due to the increasing dangers faced by Black children as they grow older (Priest et al., 2018; Tipre & Carson, 2022). The second aim of the current study was to decipher the potential influence of the same Black mothers’ cumulative parenting stress trajectories on harsh parenting behaviors from when their children are 3 to 15 years old. Maternal stress was examined at both single time points and cumulatively to begin to disentangle the difference between concurrent associations of parenting stress with parenting behaviors and the effects of persistent stress over time. It was hypothesized that mothers experiencing increased stress would participate in harsher parenting behaviors, and that this relationship would strengthen as children aged. For the first aim, fixed effects of a multilevel analysis revealed maternal stress decreased from when children were 3 to 9 (β = -.34, p = .014) and 3 to 15 years old (β = -.39, p < .0001), contrary to expectations. It is possible that as children grow older and become more independent, Black mothers may feel less overwhelmed by their responsibilities and parenting may serve as less of an acute stressor. Their parenting coping abilities may also strengthen over time, thereby reducing parenting stress levels; however, future work is needed to further understand this effect. For the second aim, there were significant positive interactions between cumulative maternal stress and child age (treated categorically with age 3 as the reference group) on harsh parenting at ages 9 (β = .08, p = .0001) and 15 years (β = .06, p < .0001), but not at age 5 (p = .938). This suggests that the effects of cumulative stress on harsh parenting may not emerge until later in childhood. It is possible the impact of stress on harsh parenting may be dependent on the build-up of stress as it accumulates over time, instead of more acute stress (Conger et al. 1992; Park & Johnston, 2020). Advancing the literature concerning parenting practices across diverse demographics is an important step toward more representative and equitable scientific inquiry and understanding.

Author information

Author	Role
Theresa Allison Moore, University of Missouri Saint Louis	Presenting author
Hannah White, PhD, University of Missouri Saint Louis	Non-presenting author
Abby Jenson, University of Missouri Saint Louis	Non-presenting author

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