Pathways from Food and Housing Insecurity to Adolescent Behavior Problems: The Mediating Role of Parenting Stress

Caregiver stress and social determinants of health in key populations: immigrant parents, parents of children with medical complexity, and adolescent parents

“…Social and community context also play key roles in a family's health. Hispanic ethnicity protects against parental stress in one recent study [3 ▪▪ ], and a child's Spanish language acquisition was more closely related to the quality of mother–child interactions – and more likely to be impacted by maternal stress – compared with English language acquisition in bilingual households [22 ▪ ]. Social supports moderate the effect of caregiver financial losses on mental health [23 ▪ ], and increases positive parenting practices [24 ▪ ].…”

“…During the COVID-19 pandemic, adolescents with low- to moderately-educated parents experienced higher levels of stress, and stress for a longer duration, than peers with highly-educated caregivers [10 ▪ ]. Conversely, parental education at a high school level or higher is protective against parenting stress [3 ▪▪ ]. Student opinion of COVID-19 distance learning was negatively correlated with parents’ perceived stress [10 ▪ ] and student worry about family finances correlated with low academic achievement [11 ▪ ,12 ▪ ].…”

“…Economic stability includes food and housing security. In one recent longitudinal study where over 2400 mothers and their children in the United States were followed over a 10-year period, food insecurity was linked to increased parenting stress; parental stress, in turn, mediated the link between food insecurity and adolescent internalizing and externalizing behaviors [3 ▪▪ ]. Economic uncertainty, magnified by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, increased caregiver stress and has been the focus of multiple recent studies [4 ▪ –7 ▪ ].…”

Prospective Associations of Childhood Housing Insecurity With Anxiety and Depression Symptoms During Childhood and Adulthood

“…Childhood housing insecurity is a construct often referring to a lack of safe and stable housing and occurs for a variety of reasons . Across the literature, operationalizations of housing insecurity have included frequent residential moves, living in overcrowded or doubled-up spaces, involuntary familial separation, and homelessness .…”

“…hildhood housing insecurity is a construct often referring to a lack of safe and stable housing and occurs for a variety of reasons. [1][2][3][4][5][6] Across the literature, operationalizations of housing insecurity have included frequent residential moves, living in overcrowded or doubled-up spaces, involuntary familial separation, and homelessness. [3][4][5][6][7] Despite consensus that housing insecurity is relevant to child development, the lack of a formal definition makes it challenging to characterize, 3 and studies seeking to elucidate the association of housing insecurity with developmental or well-being outcomes across the life course have yielded inconsistent results.…”