Concordance between parents in offspring maltreatment as perceived by emerging adult college students

Parental Discipline During Emerging Adulthood: A Person-Centered Approach

Although most parental discipline research examines the effects of discipline in children and adolescents, recent research has demonstrated that emerging adults continue to receive parental discipline. Importantly, a newly validated instrument for assessing discipline specifically during emerging adulthood has been created. Scales from this instrument include maternal and paternal approval, disappointment, and abuse, and these scales were associated with other parenting behaviors and psychological outcomes during emerging adulthood. However, a person-centered approach has not been conducted with this instrument. Given that discipline occurs at an idiographic level and that group norms inform such behaviors, a person-centered approach would identify highly informative emerging adult profiles based on patterns of discipline they receive from their parents. Thus, the current study utilized latent profile analysis (LPA) of 1110 participants attending a Southern United States university to identify emerging adult discipline profiles. These groups were then associated with parental and emerging adult psychological problems to gain an understanding of how these factors relate to different patterns of discipline across gender. Results best supported four profiles labeled as approving, distant, disappointed, and abusive. These groups reported increasingly higher parental and personal psychological problems across approving, distant, disappointed, and abusive profiles. Gender moderated some of these effects. Implications and future directions are discussed.

The Mental Health of Emerging Adults: Hostile Home Environments and COVID-19

Purpose

Due to shifts in societal and educational expectations alongside the COVID-19 pandemic, many emerging adults live with their family of origin for extended periods of time. Little is known about patterns of parent-perpetrated maltreatment in emerging adulthood. Therefore, this study evaluates the relation between forms of parent-perpetrated maltreatment, including economic abuse, and COVID stress, on symptoms of depression, anxiety, and traumatic stress.

Method

423 emerging adults who were enrolled in college in the United States in March of 2020 were recruited via MTurk to complete an online survey. An age-related COVID questionnaire and six empirically validated measures assess levels of COVID-19 exposure, lifetime maltreatment, economic abuse, and mental health status.

Results

13.0% of participants reported maltreatment that most recently occurred over the age of 18 in their household of origin. Mean COVID stress level was found to be significantly higher in the Maltreated Over 18 group compared to the Never Maltreated group (t(345) = -3.03, p = 0.003), and in the Maltreated Under 18 group compared to the Never Maltreated group (t(346) = -3.20, p = 0.002). In accounting for the contribution of demographic variables, maltreatment chronicity, economic abuse, and COVID stress, our model predicted 38.6% of variance in depression symptoms, 37.2% of variance in anxiety symptoms, and 42.9% of variance in traumatic stress.

Conclusions

Findings indicate need for increased maltreatment screenings within the emerging adult population and calls for age-specific interventions to address the mental health disparities experienced by emerging adults with maltreatment histories.

Emerging Adult Antisocial Problems and Psychological and Physical Maltreatment: Moderation by Other Parent-Child Relationship Quality

Current research supports that both psychological/physical maltreatment by parents and parent-child relationship quality strongly correlate with children's psychopathology. Less research has examined the interaction effects among these variables, especially in emerging adults. The current study analyzed the association between psychological/physical maltreatment experienced from one parent and antisocial behaviors displayed by emerging adults, as well as the moderating effect of the other parent's parent-child relationship quality. This sample included 1,364 emerging adults (953 females, 411 males) who reported on past year psychological and physical maltreatment and parent-child relationship quality. Results indicated that, when considered together, parent-child relationship quality was a stronger predictor of emerging antisocial problems than maltreatment, with the exception of the father-son dyad. Additionally, overall findings suggested that having a high-quality relationship with one caregiver was associated with lower antisocial problems in the context of high maltreatment from the other caregiver. Nevertheless, there were deviations from this norm. Unexpectedly, the lowest antisocial problems in females were associated with higher levels of paternal physical maltreatment combined with higher levels of maternal parent-child relationship quality. Moreover, the combination of low paternal psychological maltreatment and low maternal relationship quality was associated with particularly high antisocial problems in males. It is important to note the findings in the context of this sample of college students, who could be considered an advantaged group relative to some others. Since our sample might not represent our entire population of interest, which is emerging adults, it is important for future studies to examine these relationships across more diverse emerging adults. Practical implications are discussed.

Emerging Adult Report of Childhood Maltreatment and Related Facets of Impulsivity

Childhood maltreatment is related to a host of outcomes, many of which may be partially explained by the transdiagnostic factor of impulsivity. The research linking maltreatment to impulsivity is well supported. However, research differentiating between emotional and physical maltreatment and impulsivity is lacking, particularly with regard to facets of trait impulsivity. Thus, the current study examined the links between childhood emotional and physical maltreatment and current impulsivity traits of positive and negative urgency, lack of perseverance, lack of premeditation, and sensation seeking in emerging adults. Furthermore, effects of maltreatment are known to differ by the gender of the parent and the gender of the child. Thus, differences between parent-emerging adult child gender dyads were also examined. Results suggested both physical and emotional maltreatment were associated with negative urgency across the parent-child gender dyads. Emotional maltreatment and physical maltreatment differed in relation to impulsivity facet across parent and child gender. Results contribute to a knowledge base to use in future exploration of emotional and physical maltreatment outcomes and targets of intervention.

Effect of Parental Corporal Punishment on Endorsement of Its Use: Moderated Mediation by Parent Gender and Attitudes Toward Corporal Punishment

Previous research has examined the factors that place an individual at a risk of using harsh discipline on children. Chief among these predictors is an individual's own experience of corporal punishment, as well as favorable attitudes toward corporal punishment as a parenting strategy. However, few studies have examined the relationships among these variables in emerging adults. Thus, the current study advanced this area of research by examining how attitudes toward corporal punishment mediated the association between the experience of corporal punishment within the past year and the endorsement of corporal punishment as a future parenting strategy of choice among emerging adults when presented with a vignette. In addition, the current study examined gender differences among study variables, including participants' parental disciplinary practices and whether participants were more accepting of using corporal punishment against a boy or girl in a hypothetical vignette. Participants (N = 393; M_age = 19.21) completed an online survey that included a hypothetical vignette depicting child misbehavior. Results from the current study suggested the experience of corporal punishment from mothers appeared to have more of an influence on the decision to endorse corporal punishment in the vignette for both emerging adult males and females. The findings from the current study highlight the importance of reducing the use of corporal punishment as a discipline strategy, as the experience of corporal punishment appears to shape attitudes which may favor future use of the practice.