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Children's and parents' daily stressful events and psychological symptoms

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Abstract

Associations of children's daily stressful events and their parents' daily hassles and psychological symptoms with children's emotional/behavioral problems were examined in a sample of fourth- and fifth-grade children and their parents. Correlational analyses indicated that children's self-reports of depressive symptoms were associated with children's daily stressors and mothers' daily hassles, and children's selfreports of anxiety symptoms were associated with children's daily stressors and both mothers' and fathers' daily hassles. Mothers' and fathers' reports of their children's internalizing emotional/behavioral problems were correlated with mothers' and fathers' daily stressors and symptoms. Hierarchical multiple-regression analyses revealed that (a) children's self-reports of depressive symptoms were associated with children's daily stressors, (b) children's self-reports of anxiety symptoms were associated with their parents' daily hassles, (c) mothers' reports of their children's internalizing emotional/behavioral problems were marginally associated with parents' symptoms, and (d) fathers' reports of their children's internalizing emotional/behavioral problems were associated with parents' symptoms and children's self-reports of daily stressors.

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This research was supported by funds from the William T. Grant Foundation. Preparation of this manuscript was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH43819. We gratefully acknowledge Normand Ledoux, Carole Giunta, Sue Annette, Jane Racoosin, Bea Woodward, and Carol Moors for their assistance in data collection, and Harold Leitenberg and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on an earlier draft of this article. The first author is now a Clinical Fellow in Psychology, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.

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Banez, G.A., Compas, B.E. Children's and parents' daily stressful events and psychological symptoms. J Abnorm Child Psychol 18, 591–605 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01342749

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01342749

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