Family Instability and Young Children's School Adjustment: Callousness and Negative Internal Representations as Mediators

Abstract

This study examined the mediating roles of children's callousness and negative internal representations of family relationships in associations between family instability and children's adjustment to school in early childhood. Participants in this multimethod (i.e., survey, observations), multiinformant (i.e., parent, teacher, observer), longitudinal study included 243 preschool children (M = 4.60 years) and their families. Findings from the lagged, autoregressive tests of the mediational paths indicated that both children's callousness and negative internal representations of family relationships mediated longitudinal associations between family instability and children's school adjustment problems over a 2-year period (i.e., the transition from preschool to first grade). Findings are discussed in relation to the attenuation hypothesis (E. J. Susman, 2006) and emotional security theory (EST; P. T. Davies, M. A. Winter, & D. Cicchetti, 2006).

Detouring in the family system as an antecedent of children’s adjustment problems.

“…Because children tend to rely more heavily on prior representations as a way to simplify and comprehend challenging and novel interpersonal contexts (Johnston et al, 2009), children from detouring families who are repeated targets of parental rejection or exclusion may in turn draw on these internal representations in interpreting others’ actions as being aggressive and purposeful (i.e., hostile attribution bias); struggle with regulating their anger and aggressive behavior (i.e., externalizing problems); and seek out or structure interactions in other settings where they are also excluded, rejected, or targeted (e.g., peer victimization and rejection). This interpretation is consistent with findings from other studies that children’s internal representations of themselves or their families mediate associations between other indices of relationship discord (e.g., family instability, interparental conflict) and adjustment problems (e.g., Coe, Davies, & Sturge-Apple, 2017, 2018).…”

Coparental discord and children’s behavior problems: Children’s negative family representations as an explanatory mechanism.

“…When discord is not successfully encapsulated within the specific subsystem in which it originated, it may contribute to disengaged or enmeshed family relationship structures. For example, the diffuse boundaries in enmeshed families are manifested in emotional entanglement between members across family subsystems (Coe, Davies, & Sturge-Apple, 2018). Proliferation of discord across family relationships is posited to carry more significant risks for children than discord that is confined to the interparental subsystem (Davies, Cummings, & Winter, 2004; Grych & Fincham, 1990).…”

Heterogeneity in effects of parent–child separation on young–adult substance use disorder.

“…Given the heterogeneity in constructs in prior literature examining family-related adversity, it is important to distinguish cumulative parent–child separation, the construct examined in the present study, from the broader construct of family instability. The definition of family instability often varies by study, with some studies defining it as instability in family structure, residence, and parental employment (e.g., Coe et al, 2018; Li et al, 2019), others as number of caregiver changes (e.g., Ha et al, 2020; Mok et al, 2018) and others, still, as type of family transition (e.g., exit vs. entry of parent; Cabrera et al, 2019; Panico et al, 2019).…”