Contributions of Observed Parent Socialization of Coping and Skin Conductance Level Reactivity to Childhood Adjustment

Abstract

This research examined the longitudinal association between parent socialization of coping and child adjustment, as well as the moderating role of children's skin conductance level reactivity (SCLR). Participants were a community sample of children (n = 64, M age = 9.02, 54.5% females, 93.2% Caucasian) and their parent(s). Parent coping suggestions were observed while their child engaged in a stressful challenge task, during which the child's SCLR, a measure of children's physiological reactivity to stress, was also measured. Parent(s) completed the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001) at baseline and a 6-month follow-up to assess internalizing and externalizing problems. Results revealed that secondary control engagement suggestions predicted fewer internalizing problems over time. In addition, disengagement suggestions predicted fewer externalizing problems over time among children with high SCLR. This study provides evidence that parent coping suggestions serve as a resource that protects youth from developing adjustment problems.

Socialization of coping in a predominantly female sample of caregivers: Contributions to children’s social adjustment in middle childhood.

“…This procedure builds upon prior work by allowing us to capture coping suggestions in real time with a task that is developmentally appropriate for middle childhood samples. Using this paradigm, we found that secondary control engagement suggestions predicted more internalizing symptoms over time and disengagement suggestions predicted more externalizing symptoms over time among youth with heightened physiological reactivity (Stanger et al, 2017), which supports the predictive validity of this method.…”

“…For children who are highly frustrated or aroused during a stressful task, parent encouragement to disengage could be beneficial in other domains of adjustment. In this sample, Stanger et al (2017) found that disengagement suggestions predicted fewer externalizing problems over time, but only among youth with high physiological arousal during the mirror-tracing task. Thus, disengagement suggestions should not be interpreted as uniformly maladaptive.…”

“…A coding manual was created by the authors, based on Compas and colleagues' coping framework (Compas et al, 2001) and Abaied and Rudolph's (2010) Socialization of Coping Questionnaire, to measure the frequency of primary control engagement, secondary control engagement, and disengagement coping suggestions ver-balized by the parent toward their child during the stressful task. (See also Stanger et al, 2017).…”

“…We developed a protocol for observing real-time coping suggestions in middle childhood in the context of a laboratory stressor and coded them using Compas and colleagues’ updated coping framework (Compas et al, 2001) for conceptualizing coping suggestions (Stanger, Abaied, Wagner, & Sanders, 2017). Children traced a star pattern while looking at their hand through a mirror, a task that is widely used to induce moderate stress in this age group (e.g., Erath, El-Sheikh, & Cummings, 2009).…”

Parasympathetic and sympathetic reactivity moderate maternal contributions to emotional adjustment in adolescence.

“…In a middle childhood sample, Boyce et al (2006) found that father involvement interacted with maternal depression and autonomic reactivity (indexed via mean arterial blood pressure), such that youth with low father involvement, high maternal depression, and high blood pressure reactivity demonstrated the most severe mental health symptoms. Other studies of middle childhood have found that parent depressive symptoms predicted internalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms, and social problems in those with high SCLR (Cummings, El-Sheikh, Kouros, & Keller, 2007), observed parent disengagement coping suggestions predicted less externalizing problems among those with high SCLR (Stanger, Abaied, Wagner, & Sanders, 2016), and harsh parenting predicted externalizing problems among boys with low SCLR (Erath, El-Sheikh, & Cummings, 2009).…”