The influence of support and stress on maternal attitudes☆,☆☆
Introduction
As studies continue to document the adverse effects of poor parenting on a child's immediate and long-term developmental prospects, identifying the mechanisms that either impede or enhance parenting becomes critical. Theories largely derived from the child maltreatment literature have posited that characteristics of the child, parent and the surrounding environment interact to determine parental functioning (Belsky, 1984; Cicchetti & Lynch, 1993; Rutter, 1987; Vondra & Belsky, 1993). In general, the empirical base provides support for this multi-dimensional approach. Past research reveals that maternal childrearing attitudes are influenced by child characteristics such as neonatal health (Snow, 1998), maternal attributes including the experience of abuse as a child (Miller, Handel, Gilner, & Cross, 1991), maternal depression (Cadzow, Armstrong, & Fraser, 1999; Kotch, Browne, Dufort, Winsor, & Catellier, 1999), young maternal age (National Research Council, 1993), and the settings in which the parent-child relationship are embedded such as the mother's informal support network (Coohey, 1995, Kotch et al., 1999, Thompson, 1995).
To date, however, few studies have explored how change among these dimensions shapes parenting. Parenting studies often rely on cross-sectional data that provide a snapshot of the relationship between the child, parent, and their immediate environment at a given point in time (e.g., Bogenschneider, Small, & Tsay, 1997; Peterson & Hawley, 1998) or longitudinal studies that use early indicators to explain subsequent parent attitudes (Cadzow et al., 1999) or behaviors (Kotch et al., 1999). While these studies report a strong association between partner support and positive parenting, little evidence exists demonstrating that a change in partner support leads to a change in parenting attitudes, evidence needed to establish a causal link from support to parenting. Some evaluation studies have investigated the impact of support programs on parenting attitudes over time (see Cerny & Inouye, 2001), but have not examined whether simultaneous changes in other dimensions of the parent's environment contribute to change in parenting, a key component of these multi-dimensional theories.
In this article, data from a longitudinal study of at-risk mothers of newborns are used to examine an expanded version of Belsky's (1984) process model of parenting. According to Belsky and his co-workers, the combination of parental attributes, child characteristics, and contextual sources of support and stress are the primary determinants of parenting (Belsky, 1984; Vondra & Belsky, 1993). Belsky contends that child characteristics contribute the least to the parenting system while parental attributes represent the strongest influence. Support and stress, representing the middle subsystem, are the foci of this study. Support and stress often function as the least stable components of the parent environment in contrast to the more stable and enduring nature of child and parental attributes. This study seeks to illuminate the process by which changes in levels of support and stress during the first year of the newborn's life influence maternal attitudes toward childrearing.
In Belsky's (1984) model, the marital relationship, social network, and work environment constitute the primary sources of support and/or stress for parents. While retaining this overall framework, the current study extends these components of support and stress. First, the increase in the percent of never married parents combined with the decline in US marital rates (Fields & Casper, 2001) argues for the inclusion of unmarried partners when assessing the influence of the primary “marital” relationship. Studies suggest that partners, whether married or not, represent significant sources of support (or stress) for parents (Coohey, 1995; Crnic, Greenberg, Rogozin, Robinson, & Basham, 1983).
Second, recent studies suggest a need to elaborate the social network construct to include both informal and formal support sources. Informal support, for example, from partners, family, or friends has received growing attention as a predictor of parenting (Kotch et al., 1999) and is synonymous with social network in Belsky's model (Belsky, 1984). The recent proliferation of formal social support programs, especially home visiting services (see Gomby, Culross, & Behrman, 1999; Kluger, Alexander, & Curtis, 2000), suggests that some new parents have access to another support source independent of their social network. Although home visitation has been conceptualized as a support program (Thompson, 1995), the empirical evidence is mixed regarding its influence on parenting behavior and parental attitudes (see Olds & Kitzman, 1993; Wekerle & Wolfe, 1993). Some studies report positive short (Olds, Henderson, Chamberlin, & Tatelbaum, 1986) and long-term impacts on parenting (Kitzman et al., 1997; Seitz, Rosenbaum, & Apfel, 1985). In contrast, other studies report a short term-effect (Lyons-Ruth, Connell, Grunebaum, & Botein, 1990) or no effect on caregiving (Marcenko & Spence, 1994; Seigel, Bauman, Schafer, Saunders, & Ingram, 1980). These discordant findings underscore the need for more research on the overall effects of home visitation on parenting.
Recent studies report mixed evidence for Belsky's (1984) theory. Bogenschneider et al. (1997) found that the specific dimensions outlined by Belsky exert main effects on parental monitoring and responsiveness for a group of White, middle-class parents of adolescents. In contrast to Belsky's assertion that parental attributes function as the most powerful determinant of parenting, Bogenschneider and co-workers note that child characteristics, followed by stress and/or support, appear most influential with this adolescent population. Belsky, Rosenberger, and Crnic (1995) failed to find direct child, parent or contextual effects on attachment security in a sample of middle and working class mothers of newborns. Subsequent analyses did indicate an interactive effect such that more challenges to the parenting environment (i.e., few personal resources, low marital quality, limited social support, negative infant emotionality) corresponded with greater levels of insecure attachments for the newborns. Although not explicitly testing Belsky's model, a study by Kotch and his co-workers highlight the interplay between stress and support in predicting child maltreatment reports (Kotch et al., 1999). The presence of informal social support, provided by family, neighbors, or friends reduced the likelihood of reports for families experiencing elevated stress levels in a high risk sample of Black and White mothers of 4-year olds.
The current study provides a longitudinal examination of an expanded version of Belsky's process model of parenting (Belsky, 1984) with an ethnically diverse group of “at-risk” parents of newborns. The elaborated model extends the definitions of two original constructs. First, in terms of marital support, this study redefines this concept as “partner” support to include both married and unmarried partner support. Second, the parent's social network has been expanded beyond informal support to include formal (i.e., institutional) support sources. The primary purpose of this study is to analyze whether fluctuations in stress and/or support impact maternal attitudes during the first year of the child's life. To this end, the study tests three hypotheses:
H1: changes in stress and support will exert greater impacts on change in punitive parenting attitudes than maternal or child characteristics;
H2: an increase in stress will lead to more punitive parenting attitudes; and
H3: an increase in support will correspond to a decrease in punitive parenting attitudes.
Section snippets
Method and procedures
All protocols and data collection methods were approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse as well as the IRB of the participating hospital (Kapialoni Medical Center) prior to participant enrollment in the study. The study followed “at-risk” parents of newborns living in Ewa and Diamond Head, Hawaii. “At-risk” status was determined with a two-step process designed by the Hawaii Healthy Start program. First, hospital records for all new
Sample characteristics
Table 1 presents a comparison of the visited and non-visited mothers on initial demographic characteristics and psychological functioning. As this comparison demonstrates, three demographic variables significantly differentiated the two groups. Visited mothers were more likely to be unemployed, without a high school degree, and currently a teenager than their non-visited counterparts (ps < .05). Because these differences suggest that visited mothers entered the study at a higher degree of risk
Discussion
The results support the proposition that changes within the family's proximal environment produce direct effects on punitive parenting attitudes of mothers during the first year of a child's life. In line with Belsky's (1984) process model of parenting, multiple factors directly influenced the physical abuse potential of these mothers, although the domain corresponding to change in maternal attitudes differed from the domain identified by Belsky as the most influential determinant of the
Conclusion
The findings confirm the complexity of the parenting system and the need to construct holistic intervention approaches that take into account the multiple dimensions that shape parenting. Reliance on one approach, be it home visitation, parent support programs, or employment and training services, ignores that greater sphere in which the parent-child relationship is embedded. Integrating the systems that focus on these separate arenas will yield the greatest opportunity for strengthening
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Gail Breakey and Betsy Dew, both formerly of the Hawaii Family Support Center, and Loretta Fuddy of the Hawaii Department of Health, for providing the support and vision needed to conduct this study. Special thanks go to the participating home visitors and families for opening their professional and personal lives to observation. The author also gratefully acknowledges Deborah Daro, Elizabeth Jones, Dan Lewis, Greg Duncan, and Diana Slaughter-Defoe for their many
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An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Conference on Human Development, Charlotte, NC, April 15–17, 2002.
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This research was partially funded by a grant from the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect to the Center for Child Abuse Prevention Research, Prevent Child Abuse-America (NCCAN Grant #90-CA-1511).