The Relations Among Stress, Executive Functions, and Harsh Parenting in Mothers

Abstract

Stress is a common experience in most mothers' lives, and theoretical models posit that mothers' experience of stress may spillover into their parenting behaviours. However, individual factors, such as maternal executive functioning (EF) skills, may buffer the association between stress and parenting. Research has examined these associations using correlational designs with socioeconomic status (SES) and household chaos used as indicators of stress, and has demonstrated inconsistent patterns with regard to the moderating role of EF. The first aim of this study was to replicate previous findings by examining how maternal EF moderates the association between SES and household chaos, and harsh parenting. Furthermore, because correlational research designs preclude the ability to make causal inferences about the effects of stress on parenting, the second aim of this study extended existing research by investigating the effects of experimentally induced stress on harsh parenting behaviours and whether maternal EF moderates these effects. The second aim also investigated these questions in relation to childblaming attributions. To accomplish these aims, a sample of 104 mothers with children (6-10 years old) participated in a laboratory-based study. Mothers completed measures that assessed their EF skills, household chaos, SES, and harsh parenting behaviours. Additionally, mothers were randomly assigned to either a stress group, where they performed a speech in front of a panel of judges, or a control group. Following the stress (or control) induction, mothers rated their child-blaming attributions and harsh parenting behaviours in response to vignettes of common child misbehaviours. Findings from the first aim revealed an interaction between household chaos and EF (assessed with cognitive tasks), such that greater EF skills reduced the association between household chaos and harsh parenting behaviours. However, findings from the second aim indicated no significant effects of experimentally induced stress on child-blaming This study was approved by the Behavioural Research Ethics Board at the University of British Columbia (Approval Certificate Number: H17-02560).

Intergenerational Transmission of Abusive Parenting: Role of Prospective Maternal Distress and Family Violence

“…Moreover, parental stress has been associated with less nurturing parenting behaviors (Pereira et al, 2012), harsher discipline strategies (Jackson & Choi, 2018), and perpetration of physical abuse (Taylor et al, 2009; Warren & Font, 2015), laying the theoretical foundations for a process of intergenerational continuity of abusive parenting mediated by stress in adulthood. This would be consistent with the ecological-developmental model, in which CM disrupts victims’ abilities to tolerate stress (Berenz et al, 2018), compromising parenting abilities and increasing the risk for hostile or aggressive parent-child interactions (Park & Johnston, 2020). To our knowledge, no studies have tested parental stress as a mediator of the intergenerational transmission of abusive parenting.…”

Socio-economic disadvantage is associated with alterations in brain wiring economy

“…A second possible contributing factor is stress. Children experience socio-economic disadvantage also experience greater levels of stress [78 – 82], and this early stress response has been cited by many as a crucial mediating mechanistic pathway that links early life adversity to poorer long-term outcomes (e.g. [42]).…”

Competencias parentales y su influencia en la inhibición y planificación de escolares

“…Las FE son capacidades mentales indispensables para que las personas puedan desenvolverse eficazmente, creativamente y con aceptación social (Diamond, 2020;Park & Johnston, 2020;Stelzer et al, 2012). Además, son necesarias para lograr objetivos complejos en situaciones novedosas y ambientes cambiantes que requieren capacidad de anticipar, predecir y flexibilizar la conducta (Tirapu et al, 2018).…”