Date of Award

12-2025

Degree Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

School

Psychology

Committee Chair

Sara Jordan

Committee Chair School

Psychology

Committee Member 2

Stephanie Smith

Committee Member 2 School

Psychology

Committee Member 3

Zachary LaBrot

Committee Member 3 School

Psychology

Abstract

According to the family stress model (FSM), economic pressure, or the perceived strain of economic hardship, contributes to parent mental health problems, which impacts parenting behaviors and, in turn, results in negative child outcomes like child externalizing behavior. Studies have shown that routines within a household can mitigate child externalizing behavior problems, but relatively few studies have applied routines to the context of the FSM. The goal of this cross-sectional study was to assess the pathways through which parental distress and family routines link the association between economic pressure and child externalizing behavior. Participants included 89 female primary caregivers with a young child (aged 2-5) enrolled in a Head Start program in the Southeastern United States. Participants completed online questionnaires via Qualtrics in exchange for $10 gift cards. Simple mediation models revealed that more economic pressure was associated with more parental distress and fewer family routines, and when considered separately, both factors indirectly predicted more child externalizing behaviors. However, there was no association between parental distress and family routines, providing insufficient evidence to support a serial mediation model consistent with the FSM framework. Instead, post-hoc analyses provided support for a parallel mediation model combining the two simple mediations models. Greater economic pressure was associated with more externalizing behaviors through fewer family routines and separately, through greater parental distress. Regarding implications for practice, practitioners may find that interventions aimed at implementing family routines or lessening parental distress may lessen child externalizing behavior problems even in the context of economic hardship.

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Available for download on Friday, May 01, 2065

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