Date of Award

8-2024

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

School

Psychology

Committee Chair

Dr. Sara S. Jordan

Committee Chair School

Psychology

Committee Member 2

Dr. Nora E. Charles

Committee Member 2 School

Psychology

Committee Member 3

Dr. Kristy D. McRaney

Committee Member 3 School

Psychology

Committee Member 4

Dr. Bonnie C. Nicholson

Committee Member 4 School

Psychology

Abstract

Maternal psychological distress has consistently been linked to emotional and behavioral problems in school-aged children. Given the high prevalence and negative outcomes of child emotional and behavioral problems, parenting variables have been examined as mechanisms underlying this relation. Research has demonstrated that mothers who endorse high psychological distress report high parenting stress, which contributes to the use of more negative parenting practices. Moreover, parenting stress has been shown to relate to negative parenting practices through parenting inflexibility. Yet, no known study has examined parenting stress, negative parenting practices, and parenting inflexibility as pathways through which parental psychological distress relates to child internalizing and externalizing behaviors in one model. The aim of this study was to test a model of these relations by conducting a path analysis within the SEM framework. A sample of 156 mothers of school-aged children was previously collected through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to complete measures of psychological distress, parenting stress, parenting inflexibility, negative parenting practices, and child internalizing and externalizing behaviors. The hypothesized model had poor model fit; however, most of the direct paths were significant, and parenting inflexibility mediated the relationship between parenting stress and negative parenting practices. An alternative model with additional direct paths was tested, resulting in significantly better model fit. Specifically, parental psychological distress also predicted parenting inflexibility and child internalizing behaviors. Post-hoc indirect effects were also examined. Results suggest that targeting parenting inflexibility and negative parenting practices through interventions may prevent or decrease child behavioral problems among mothers with high psychological distress.

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