The importance of parent self-regulation and parent-child coregulation in research on parental discipline

A process model of parental executive functioning as a spillover mechanism linking interparental conflict and parenting difficulties across parenting domains

There is a well-documented interdependency between destructive interparental conflict (IPC) and parenting difficulties (i.e., spillover effect), yet little is known about the mechanisms that "carry" spillover between IPC and parenting. Guided by a cascade model framework, the current study used a longitudinal, multimethod, multi-informant design to examine a process model of spillover that tested whether parental executive functioning (working memory, cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control) served as a mediator of the prospective associations between IPC and subsequent changes in parenting over a 2-year period. Mothers and fathers were separated into differentiated models and multiple domains of parenting were examined (i.e., authoritarian discipline and scaffolding behavior). Participants included 231 families (both mothers and fathers of preschoolers). Race was reported as White (62%), Black (21%), Mixed (8%), Asian (3%), or Other (6%) and 14% considered their ethnicity to be Hispanic/Latino. Median household income was $65,000. Results indicated that for fathers, IPC indirectly predicted domain-general parenting difficulties (increased authoritarian parenting and decreased scaffolding) via deficits in paternal cognitive flexibility (but not inhibitory control or working memory). In mothers, IPC directly predicted domain-specific parenting difficulties (decreased scaffolding only) that did not operate via maternal executive functions. Notably, these effects occurred over and above the influence of parental socioeconomic status. This study constitutes a first step toward documenting parental executive functioning as a mechanism underlying the spillover of IPC to the parent-child relationship. Family interventions intended to interrupt IPC spillover should emphasize father involvement and consider targeting parental executive functions as change mechanisms. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Mindfulness Intervention Improves Coping and Perceptions of Children's Behavior among Families with Elevated Risk

Mindfulness-informed interventions (MIIs) are increasingly common but have not been extensively studied among families with elevated levels of risk (e.g., those involved in child protective services and/or receiving financial assistance). These families often experience high rates of stressors that can impact coping strategies, interpersonal dynamics, and relationships. Given that mindfulness has been shown to promote health and wellbeing, this study used a sample from two pilot randomized controlled trials to test the extent to which a mindfulness-informed intervention improved coping strategies and perceptions of children's behavior among 53 families with elevated risk. A principal components analysis with a direct oblimin rotation revealed that cognitive-emotion coping strategies could be characterized by three factors: positive adaptation, negative adaptation, and positive refocusing. Intention-to-treat analysis indicated significant group by time differences, with intervention participants demonstrating improvements in positive refocusing coping, positive adaptation coping, and perceptions of children's behavior problems compared to participants in the waitlist control group. No significant differences were found for negative adaptation coping strategies. Findings provide preliminary support for the benefits of mindfulness training in a sample generally underrepresented in the mindfulness intervention literature.

Parental Regulation of Parent and Child Screen-Based Device Use

Media use and screen time show both positive and negative effects on child development. Parents' behaviors, perceptions, and regulation of parent and child screen-based device (SBD) use may be critical understudied factors in explaining these mixed effects. We developed the Parent Screen-Based Device Use Survey (PSUS) to assess parental use of multiple SBDs (e.g., computers, phones, TVs) and tested its factor structure across two United States samples of mothers of children aged 2 to 6 years old (total N = 402). Subscales captured parental SBD use related to Discipline, Limit-Setting, Involvement, Child Care, Family Norms, Self-Regulation, Dysregulation, and Parenting Support, and showed good factor loadings and internal reliability. Validity was tested in relation to parent distress, parent executive function problems, and child behavior problems. Parental limit-setting and involvement were either unrelated to or related to fewer parent and child problems, whereas parental use of SBDs for self-regulation, child care, discipline, support, and family activities, as well as parents' more dysregulated use, were related to more parent and child problems. The PSUS holds promise in addressing the parental mechanisms that underlie media effects on child development.

Parental working memory buffers associations between COVID-19 hardships and child mental health

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has impaired young children's mental health, underscoring the need for research on protective factors. Using a cross-sectional design, we examined whether parental working memory (WM) buffered relations between COVID-19 hardships (home-life, economic, and quarantine) and child internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Female parents (N = 339; 83.19% White/Caucasian, 8.85% Black/African American, 3.54% Asian, 1.47% Native American, and 2.36% mixed race; 7.67% Hispanic/Latinx ethnicity) of children 2-5-years-old reported COVID-19 hardships and child internalizing and externalizing symptoms and completed a backward digit span task to measure WM. All types of COVID-19 hardships were positively related to child internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Higher parental WM weakened positive relations between all types of hardships and child internalizing symptoms, and between home-life and economic hardships and externalizing symptoms. Results suggest that parental WM, a malleable target for intervention, may buffer associations between the detrimental effects of COVID-19 and young children's mental health.

The Interplay between Socioeconomic Status, Parenting and Temperament Predicts Inhibitory Control at Two Years of Age

This paper investigates the interplay between environmental factors (socioeconomic status (SES) and parenting) and temperament in the development of inhibitory control (IC) at 2 years of age. We administered to toddlers (n = 59) a delay of gratification task which measures IC in the context of self-regulation. Parents reported their toddlers' temperament, parenting strategies, and SES. We hypothesized that poorer IC would be associated with more reactive temperament, less effortful control, lower SES and inconsistent/coercive parenting practices. Finally, we explored the interaction between temperament, parenting and SES. We found that both coercive parenting and low-SES were negatively correlated to IC at the age of 2 years. Temperamental reactivity was unrelated to IC, whereas temperamental effortful control (EC) was positively associated with IC. Results revealed a moderation effect of EC on the influence of coercive parenting and SES in toddlers' IC. Toddlers from lower SES backgrounds and with lower EC were more affected by inconsistent/coercive parenting practices and showed the poorest IC. In contrast, toddlers exhibiting high and average levels of EC seemed to be protected from the detrimental effect of low-SES and inconsistent/coercive parenting on IC. These results suggest that strengthening toddlers' EC and improving parents' parenting skills might be especially relevant for the development of IC in the context of self-regulation, particularly by preventing self-regulatory problems in children from socioeconomically deprived environments. Future studies with larger samples, focusing on populations from severe socioeconomically deprived environments, or intervention studies will be needed in order to confirm and expand our findings.