Impacts of Income Inequality on Parental Stress and Child Social Competence
Faculty Mentor
Sara Haden
Major/Area of Research
Psychology
Description
INTRODUCTION: Parenting styles impact interpersonal skills of children, determining how they will function in society. Stressors can cause parents to adopt more negative parenting styles. Previous studies have confirmed that increased parental stress leads to anxiety and aggression in children due to increases in negative parenting behaviors and abuse potential. Another study determined that increased parental stress is negatively associated with child social competence in early childhood. While results of previous studies support each other, they fail to be representative of large, diverse communities. The purpose of this project was to explore the relationship between parent stress and child social competence as a result of differing parenting styles across varying levels of income and socioeconomic status.
METHOD: 121 parents with children ages 5 to 11 years from the United States were recruited on social media. Of the 121 participants, 85 were female, 12 were male, and 24 were undisclosed. Participants completed surveys on demographics and income as well as questions from the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Parenting Practices Interview (PPI), and Social Competence Scale (SCS). It was hypothesized that income inequality will lead to increased parenting stress, which will have a significantly negative effect on child social competence due to changes in parenting practices. Hypotheses were tested by fitting mediation models predicting social competence.
RESULTS: As predicted, as parental stress increased, positive parenting decreased, negative parenting increased, and child social competence decreased. There were significant indirect effects between income, positive parenting practices, stress, and social competence, with values of R2 in the models ranging from 0.1104 to 0.2739.
DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: Results indicated that income inequality has a significant indirect effect on social competence in children.
Impacts of Income Inequality on Parental Stress and Child Social Competence
INTRODUCTION: Parenting styles impact interpersonal skills of children, determining how they will function in society. Stressors can cause parents to adopt more negative parenting styles. Previous studies have confirmed that increased parental stress leads to anxiety and aggression in children due to increases in negative parenting behaviors and abuse potential. Another study determined that increased parental stress is negatively associated with child social competence in early childhood. While results of previous studies support each other, they fail to be representative of large, diverse communities. The purpose of this project was to explore the relationship between parent stress and child social competence as a result of differing parenting styles across varying levels of income and socioeconomic status.
METHOD: 121 parents with children ages 5 to 11 years from the United States were recruited on social media. Of the 121 participants, 85 were female, 12 were male, and 24 were undisclosed. Participants completed surveys on demographics and income as well as questions from the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Parenting Practices Interview (PPI), and Social Competence Scale (SCS). It was hypothesized that income inequality will lead to increased parenting stress, which will have a significantly negative effect on child social competence due to changes in parenting practices. Hypotheses were tested by fitting mediation models predicting social competence.
RESULTS: As predicted, as parental stress increased, positive parenting decreased, negative parenting increased, and child social competence decreased. There were significant indirect effects between income, positive parenting practices, stress, and social competence, with values of R2 in the models ranging from 0.1104 to 0.2739.
DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: Results indicated that income inequality has a significant indirect effect on social competence in children.