Date of Award
Spring 2013
Degree Type
Masters Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Psychology
Committee Chair
Bonnie Nicholson
Committee Chair Department
Psychology
Committee Member 2
Melanie Leuty
Committee Member 2 Department
Psychology
Committee Member 3
Emily Yowell
Committee Member 3 Department
Psychology
Abstract
Adoptive parents are at risk for experiencing a high level of parenting stress (McGlone, Santos, Kazama, Fong, & Mueller, 2002) throughout the duration of the adoption experience. Adoptee background factors have been found to contribute to increased levels of parenting stress and distress in adoptive parents (Brooks, Simmel, Wind, & Barth, 2005; McDonald, Lieberman, Partridge, & Homby, 1991; McGlone et al., 2002). Increased parenting stress has been associated with negative outcomes for both parent and child (Ang, 2008; Deater-Deckard, Smith, & Ivy 2005; Morgan, Robinsion, & Aldridge, 2002). Hardiness, family hardiness and parental self-efficacy are protective factors that have all been found to be negatively associated with distress (Beasley, Thompson, & Davidson, 2002; Sevigny & Loutzenhiser, 2009; Svavarsdottir & Rayens, 2005) but have not been studied in a population of adoptive parents. Given the unique challenges of parenting an adopted child, the current study evaluated the relationship between hardiness, family hardiness, parenting self-efficacy, and parenting stress in a sample of adoptive parents. Results demonstrated that hardiness, family hardiness, and parenting self-efficacy predicted parenting stress in adoptive parents. Both hardiness and parenting self-efficacy emerged as unique predictors of parenting stress whereas family hardiness did not. 1bis was the first study to demonstrate that hardiness, family hardiness, and parenting self-efficacy buffer against the negative effects of parenting stress for adoptive parents.
Copyright
2013, Erica Danielle Raisanen
Recommended Citation
Raisanen, Erica Danielle, "The Role of Hardiness, Family Hardiness, and Parenting Self-Efficacy on Parenting Stress in Adoptive Parents" (2013). Master's Theses. 518.
https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/518
