This study investigates the degree to which the cumulative risk index predicted school readiness in a Head Start population. In general, the reviewed studies indicated the cumulative risk model was efficacious in predicting adverse developmental outcomes. This study built on this literature by investigating how child, parent, and family risk factors predicted school readiness in Head Start children using two statistical models. Specific aims of this study included identifying 1) to what degree multiple predictors contributed to school readiness and 2) to what degree the cumulative risk index contributed to school readiness. Participants included 176 Head Start children ages 3 to 5 years. Data were analyzed using multivariate regression to determine if the cumulative risk model was a stronger predictor of school readiness than any risk factor in isolation. Hierarchical regression was also utilized to determine if individual risk factors contributed anything above and beyond the sum, the cumulative risk index. Multiple regression analysis revealed that older age and previous enrollment in Head Start predicted higher scores, while low income predicted lower scores, as did taking the test in Spanish. Analysis also revealed that higher scores on the cumulative risk index predicted lower test scores. The analysis revealed that the individual risk factors did not contribute to the model above and beyond the cumulative risk index. Adding the individual risk factors did not account for more variance than using gender, age, and the cumulative risk index as the only predictors. Similarly, the cumulative risk index did not account for more variance than using age and gender as the only predictors. The current study adds empirical support to the continued use of the cumulative risk model in predicting adverse developmental outcomes.

This study investigates the degree to which the cumulative risk index predicted school readiness in a Head Start population. In general, the reviewed studies indicated the cumulative risk model was efficacious in predicting adverse developmental outcomes. This study built on this literature by investigating how child, parent, and family risk factors predicted school readiness in Head Start children using two statistical models. Specific aims of this study included identifying 1) to what degree multiple predictors contributed to school readiness and 2) to what degree the cumulative risk index contributed to school readiness. Participants included 176 Head Start children ages 3 to 5 years. Data were analyzed using multivariate regression to determine if the cumulative risk model was a stronger predictor of school readiness than any risk factor in isolation. Hierarchical regression was also utilized to determine if individual risk factors contributed anything above and beyond the sum, the cumulative risk index. Multiple regression analysis revealed that older age and previous enrollment in Head Start predicted higher scores, while low income predicted lower scores, as did taking the test in Spanish. Analysis also revealed that higher scores on the cumulative risk index predicted lower test scores. The analysis revealed that the individual risk factors did not contribute to the model above and beyond the cumulative risk index. Adding the individual risk factors did not account for more variance than using gender, age, and the cumulative risk index as the only predictors. Similarly, the cumulative risk index did not account for more variance than using age and gender as the only predictors. The current study adds empirical support to the continued use of the cumulative risk model in predicting adverse developmental outcomes.

This study examined the influence of contextual risk factors and parental depression on the social-emotional functioning of very young children. Ninety-four young children were recruited as part of a larger ongoing research project recruiting caregivers and children from Early Head Start programs in South Florida. Children ranged in age from 12 to 36 months and included 65 girls and 29 boys. There were 94 caregivers in the current study: 91 mothers, 2 fathers, and 1 foster mother. Caregivers were diverse in terms of age, ranging from 19 to 42 years of age (M = 27.31, SD = 5.75), ethnicity (84% African- or Caribbean-American, 14.9% Hispanic/Latino, and 1.1% Mixed/Other), and in number of years of school completed, ranging from 1 to 16 years (M = 12.02, SD = 1.91). The current study employed a cumulative risk factor perspective in examining the social-emotional functioning of infants and toddlers. Specifically, the current study tested both a threshold model and a linear model of cumulative risk. Study measures included a background questionnaire, a measure of parental depression, a measure of parenting stress, a measure of child exposure to violence, and a measure of traumatic life events in a child?s life. Further analyses examined ethnicity as a moderator of the relationship between cumulative risk and difficulties with social-emotional functioning. Results showed a significant linear relationship between cumulative risk and social-emotional functioning. However, ethnicity did not moderate this relationship. When individual risk factors were examined post hoc, parental depression, stressful parent-child interactions, having a child with special needs, and community violence were shown to significantly predict difficulties with social-emotional functioning among very young children. These data have important implications for prevention and intervention efforts.

Understanding pathways to physical child abuse may aid in creating and implementing abuse prevention services. Yet studying child abuse in community samples of parents is fraught with challenges. One solution to these challenges is to examine markers of physical child abuse, rather than asking about abuse directly. The goal of the current investigation is to test a theoretical model of processes that increase the presence of four proximal risk factors, or markers, which have been linked to increased risk for physical child abuse in mothers of young children. The four markers of physical child abuse include: child abuse potential, over-reactive discipline, spanking acceptance, and mothers’ negative child perceptions. Positive associations between an accumulation socio-contextual risk and markers of physical abuse are hypothesized. An accumulation of socio-contextual risk is expected to indirectly predict markers of physical abuse by reducing parenting locus of control, or parents’ perceptions of control in the parent-child relationship. Furthermore, social support and children’s externalizing behavior problems are expected to diminish or intensify this mediated process, respectively. Participants included 85 mothers of young children (ages 1½ to 5 years) from diverse backgrounds. Of the four markers of abuse, cumulative risk and parenting locus of control were correlated only with mothers’ child abuse potential and no statistical association between cumulative risk and parenting locus of control was found. Limited support for moderation hypotheses emerged. Theoretical implications are discussed.

Both contextual risk and sensitive parenting have been associated with children’s social skills in early childhood (Brody, Stoneman, Smith & Gibson, 1999; Connell & Prinz, 2002; Oravecz, Koblinsky & Randolph, 2008, Trentacosta, 2008). However, it is not clear how sensitive parenting might impact children’s social skill development in the context of accumulation of risk. The current study tests two possible models. The first model, based on Rutters’ (1979) tests the theory that cumulative risk may moderate the relationship between sensitive parenting and social skills. The second model based on The Family Stress model (Conger, Conger, Elder, Lorenz, Simons & Whitbeck, 1992) tests the theory that sensitive parenting mediates the relationship between accumulation of risk and children’s social skills. The results supported the first model indicating that cumulative risk moderated the relationship between sensitive parenting and children’s social skills. When risk accumulated, there was a relationship between sensitive parenting and social skills where the highest level of sensitive parenting was associated with the highest level of social skills.

The cumulative risk model is used to explain the coexistence of small gender differences and large health disparities between husbands and wives. Specifically, the current model incorporates conflict (a risk factor), support (a protective factor), and coping (a moderator of the conflict-stress link) to predict cortisol slopes for newlywed husbands and wives. One hundred and seventy-two couples completed both global and daily measures of protective factors (empathy, responsiveness, and perceived support), risk factors (withdrawal, loyalty, self-silencing, and negativity), and coping (self-distraction, substance use, emotional support, and rumination). For the six days that participants provided daily reports of these constructs, participants also provided waking and evening saliva samples for later determination of salivary cortisol levels. I hypothesized that men would incur more protective factors than would women, and that these protective factors would be associated with steeper cortisol slopes (i.e., healthy cortisol slopes.) Further, I hypothesized that women would incur more cumulative risks than would men, and that these risks would be associated flatter cortisol slopes (i.e., unhealthy cortisol slopes). Finally, I hypothesized that the association between cumulative risk and cortisol slopes would be moderated by coping, such that theoretically-effective coping strategies would blunt the impact of cumulative risks whereas ineffective coping strategies would exacerbate the impact of cumulative risks. Support for these hypotheses was mixed. Women did incur fewer cumulative protective factors than did men; however, there were no gender differences in cumulative risks for this highly satisfied newlywed sample. The impact of both cumulative protection and cumulative risk on cortisol slopes differed for men and women. Coping moderated the impact of cumulative risk on daily cortisol slopes, but again these patterns were different for men and women. Future work must continue to isolate gender differences in relationship processes to understand resulting health implications. With further refinement, the proposed model can provide a more holistic explanation of gendered health disparities, and perhaps identify ways that women and men can experience more equivalent health benefits from romantic relationships. / text

By 18 months children demonstrate a range of social-cognitive skills that reflect their emerging capacity to understand and engage in intentional relations with others. Intention understanding is a critical component of children’s social cognition at this age. Although individual differences in social cognition have been linked to neurocognitive maturation, socio-cultural models of development suggest that environmental influences operate in the development of intention understanding, with distal factors operating through proximal processes. In the current study of 501 children and their mothers, we tested and found support for a model in which an accumulation of distal environmental risks was associated with lower maternal responsivity, which was in turn associated with lower social-cognitive competency at 18 months. In addition, part of this effect operated through children’s concurrent language ability. Findings are discussed with respect to the Vygotskian themes of internalization and semiotic mediation.

By 18 months children demonstrate a range of social-cognitive skills that reflect their emerging capacity to understand and engage in intentional relations with others. Intention understanding is a critical component of children’s social cognition at this age. Although individual differences in social cognition have been linked to neurocognitive maturation, socio-cultural models of development suggest that environmental influences operate in the development of intention understanding, with distal factors operating through proximal processes. In the current study of 501 children and their mothers, we tested and found support for a model in which an accumulation of distal environmental risks was associated with lower maternal responsivity, which was in turn associated with lower social-cognitive competency at 18 months. In addition, part of this effect operated through children’s concurrent language ability. Findings are discussed with respect to the Vygotskian themes of internalization and semiotic mediation.

Pediatric asthma disproportionately affects racial/ethnic minority children and children living in low-income, urban areas. Many families living in low-income, urban areas experience a number of stressors that can place children/adolescents at risk for worse asthma outcomes. This study examined the impact of a cumulative risk model of stressors (e.g., ED visits, quick-relief medication use, lung function, asthma control, QOL) in urban children (7-12 years) with persistent asthma. This study further aimed to examine both the original cumulative risk model and an adolescent-specific cumulative risk model as predictors of asthma outcomes in a sample of 60 adolescents (13-17 years). Asthma-related caregiver support was examined as a potential buffer in the association between stress and asthma outcomes. Secondary data analyses were completed on sixty-one caregiver and child dyads (7-12 years old). Data were collected from a separate sample of 60 urban families of adolescents with asthma (13-17 years old). The two cohorts were also combined for analyses. The original cumulative risk model developed for the younger children (7-12 years) was a predictor of child QOL in the younger cohort, and QOL and asthma control in the adolescent cohort. However, this finding in the younger cohort (7-12 years) was not supported in pooled data analyses. The original cumulative risk model predicted QOL, asthma control, and quick-relief medication use in the combined cohort analyses (children 7-17 years). The adolescent-specific cumulative risk model was a significant predictor of adolescent QOL and asthma control. Asthma-related caregiver support was only a significant moderator of the association between cumulative risk and asthma control among adolescents. Child age did not moderate associations between cumulative risk and asthma outcomes in the combined cohort. Overall, findings suggest that the accumulation of stress can have a negative impact on asthma outcomes, especially for urban adolescents with asthma. Further research is needed to determine the most central sources of stress that urban school-aged children with asthma experience and to replicate findings for adolescent with asthma. The buffering role of asthma-related caregiver support in the association between cumulative stress and asthma outcomes needs to be examined further in children and adolescents with asthma.

Intensive mothering (IM) is increasingly being recognized as a dominant parenting discourse. IM, conceptualized as hyper-parenting ideals that place pressure on mothers to cultivate children's cognitive development, has also been demonstrated to have consequences for mothers' mental wellbeing. On the other hand, IM attitudes also appear to contribute to parenting strategies that can be considered beneficial for young children's developmental growth. Considering these complexities, the present research was grounded in a theoretical framework guided by ecological and risk and resilience theories to test a holistic model which positioned IM as having indirect associations with children's executive functioning (EF) through two pathways: positive parenting strategies and parenting stress. Contrary to the theoretical purposes of IM-informed parenting, IM did not contribute to better cognitive outcomes in 3–5-year-old children through positive parenting. Instead, IM indirectly contributed to higher reports of dysfunctions in children's EF through the mechanism of parenting stress. Further, a conditional process model advanced previous understandings of IM by illuminating the processes through which cumulative risk strengthened the associations between these core constructs. Based on the results presented in this research, IM ideology is argued to be a context of risk for families with an accumulation of contextual risk factors. / Doctor of Philosophy / This research study investigated how modern parenting beliefs, called "intensive mothering", related to mothers' experiences with parenting stress, parenting behaviors that are considered good for young children, and young children's developmental outcomes. Intensive mothering involves beliefs such as "children needs should come before the parents' needs" and "it is the mothers' job to make sure young children are intellectually stimulated as much as possible." While these ideas would seem like good things for young children, this study found that having such high standards for mothers parenting expectations create more stress in mothers which, consequently, was related to worse developmental outcomes for young children. If the families who participated in this research had a few characteristics that make it harder for families to thrive, like limited financial resources, then they seemed to report even more parenting stress and even worse outcomes for their children. These findings suggest that holding such high parenting expectations may unintentionally hurt mothers and their children.