Parenting is inherently stressful at times and several studies have shown that being a caregiver of a child who is disabled is even more stressful. A number of studies have tried to identify demographic and psychosocial variables which are predictive of parenting stress levels. It is obvious from these studies that parenting stress is complex as there is no general consensus as to what the factors are which exacerbate or mediate parenting stress in caregivers of children who are disabled. The aim of this study was therefore to assess the parenting stress levels of caregivers of children who are disabled and to try to establish whether the level of the child’s disability influenced parenting stress levels. Further objectives were to ascertain whether various psychosocial and demographic variables were predictive of parenting stress levels. In order to meet these objectives the Parenting Stress Index/Short Form was sent to caregivers of children with cerebral palsy who were attending Frances Voorweg School in Johannesburg. Caregivers also completed a demographic questionnaire. The severity of disability of the children was classified using the Gross Motor Function Classification System. Thirty-five parenting stress questionnaires were returned to the researcher. Means and frequencies were used to summarise the demographic data. T-tests were performed to establish whether there was any significant difference between the parenting stress levels of caregivers of children who were more functionally disabled and those whose children were less disabled. Pearson’s correlations were used to determine whether there was any correlation between demographic variables and parenting stress levels. The parents of the children in the sample showed clinically significant, and in many cases, pathological levels of parenting stress. This stress was however, not in anyway influenced by the severity of their children’s disabilities. The only variable that correlated strongly to the level of parenting stress was found to be the income level of the family (r=0.8). The results of this study confirm that parenting stress is complex and that it is not a simple matter to predict the parenting stress levels of caregivers of disabled children. Therapists should evaluate the needs of each family individually and follow a family centred approach when managing children with cerebral palsy.

Drawing on Bowen's family systems theory, this study was designed to fill a gap in research regarding how raising a child with autism impacts the systemic functioning of a family unit, and provide evidence of the need for more comprehensive resources and support for families of children with autism. In this study, families of children with autism were invited to complete the Parenting Stress Index and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. These measures were used to determine the relationship between the level of problem behavior of a child with autism and the level of problem behavior of a typically-developing sibling when these variables are moderated by maternal parenting stress. For each family, a secondary caregiver perspective on the problem behavior of the typically developing sibling was also considered. A purposeful sampling procedure yielded only 21 usable pairs of data on primary caregiver parenting stress and problem behavior of a child with autism; thus, the planned analyses were revised and a bivariate correlation was run on these variables. Although this revised study did not yield significant results in the particular sample obtained, it highlights the challenges encountered when intending to run research such as this and indicated ways future researcher could attempt to proactively address these challenges. This study also shows the potential for positive social change from more comprehensive supports for families of children with autism that may decrease parenting stress, reduce problem behaviors of typically-developing siblings, and improve treatment outcomes for children with autism.

This study assessed marital quality, coparenting, and parenting stress over time for parents of children with intellectual disability by creating developmental trajectories from longitudinal data. Both mothers and fathers (N = 152 couples), with children ages 6-18 at the first wave, evaluated their relationship and parenting stress on up to 4 occasions over a 14-year period. The study provided separate models of change over time for mothers and fathers which showed that marital quality, coparenting, and parenting stress are dynamic relationship constructs that changed during the child’s development. Overall, marital quality was found to follow a curvilinear pattern, with declines when children were adolescents and increases as children entered young adulthood. Positive coparenting increased linearly over time for mothers and fathers, and negative coparenting declined linearly for mothers. With an emphasis on transition periods in the family life cycle, trajectories included indicators of the child’s development to allow for periods of discrete change in the trajectories based on the child’s entrance into adolescence and young adulthood. The child’s entrances into these developmental periods were associated with changes in levels of marital quality and coparenting for mothers only. Patterns for stress over time depended on the parent reporting, with mothers reporting decreases in parent and family problems over time and a quadratic trend for pessimism, with initial growth in reported pessimism followed by declines as the children exited adolescence. Fathers, however, did not report significant changes for parent and family problems and perceived increases in pessimism with time. The study also assessed how support in the marital and coparenting roles with time is associated with levels of parenting stress. Marital quality consistently predicted lower levels of parent and family problems for both parents, but findings for associations between marital quality and pessimism, and coparenting with both types of stress, varied depending on the parent reporting.

Thesis (M.A. in human development)--Washington State University, May 2009. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on June 9, 2009). "Department of Human Development." Includes bibliographical references (p. 57-63).

Investigación que tiene como primer objetivo anzlizar psicométricamente el Cuestionario de Estrés Parental, versión abreviada, y como segundo comparar el estrés parental total y de cada dimensión de la prueba según el sexo, grupo de edad, número de hijos y apoyo externo. Se utilizó un muestreo no probabilístico internacional quedando la muestra compuesta por 370 padres de familia de Lima Moderna con hijos entre 0 y 3 años de edad, que presentaban un desarrollo físico y psicológico saludable. Los participantes completaron una ficha sociodemográfica y respondieron al Cuestionario de Estrés Parental. Los resultados indican que el instrumento cuenta con propiedades psicosométricas satisfactorias en esta población y que existen diferencias estadísticament significativas en el estrés según las variables de sexo, número de hijos y apoyo externo. / Tesis

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are stressful or traumatic events that occur during childhood that impact health and wellbeing, thus having long-lasting effects. In the context of parenting, a history of ACEs can impact a caregiver’s ability to manage stress and interfere with their ability to provide sensitive and regulated caregiving. Thankfully, there are many ways that one can foster resilience in the face of past ACEs. This study aims to help mothers combat ACEs and parenting stress by experimentally investigating the benefits of two resilience-building programs. The first is an emotion-based program that focuses on emotion regulation, self-care, and attachment theory. The second is a behavior-based program that focuses on developmental milestones and general behaviorally based parenting practices (e.g. positive reinforcement, punishment). The present project uses a pre/post/follow-up design to assess parenting stress before and after engagement in the resilience-building programs. Mothers of 3-year-old children will complete the ACEs Questionnaire, which assesses how many and what specific ACEs participants have (pre-assessment), and the Parental Stress Scale (PSS), which assesses their parenting stress (pre, post, follow up). Although statistical analyses will be conducted to examine differences in PSS scores, the ACEs Questionnaire will only be used to ensure that the sample examined is mothers with ACEs, as participants who report no ACEs will be excluded from data analysis. In addition to self-report questionnaires, participants visit the Affect, Regulation, Coping, and Health (ARCH) lab to complete moderately stressful tasks while physiological data is obtained; data from lab visits will not be analyzed in this project but will be collected since this research is a part of a larger study called the 2Gen: Feeling Better Project (2Gen) that aims to examine emotion coregulation and physiological synchrony between mothers and their three-year-old children. After the pre-assessment, participants will be randomly assigned to one of the two 8-week programs (Emotion Curriculum, Behavior Curriculum) which will be provided through electronic links to brief videos. Participants also receive binders with the video scripts, handouts, resources, and reflection questions for each week’s content. Due to being at early stages in data collection, the present project will summarize the 2Gen protocol and will simulate data using mean parenting stress values from comparable studies. That simulated data will then be analyzed using JASP, an open-source statistics software. A 2x2 factorial ANOVA will be run to compare pre and post PSS scores for the emotion and behavior-based resilience-building programs. We hypothesize that parenting stress scores will decrease for all participants; however, we anticipate this change to be greater for those who receive the emotion-based program.

Mind-Mindedness, a parent’s tendency to attribute thoughts and intentions to his or her child, is related to numerous child outcomes including infant attachment security and child social-cognitive development. Despite established research, the construct is still developing and current research continues to provide clarification. This study sought to contribute to the clarification of mind-mindedness in three main ways. First, the present study examined within-parent consistency with respect to mind-mindedness, parenting stress, and parenting style. Results indicated that parenting stress and parenting style tended to covary for two children in the same family, whereas mind-mindedness did not. Additionally, parents tended to experience different levels of parenting stress or utilize different parenting strategies between their two children. By contrast, significant differences for mind-mindedness were not found. Secondly, the present study examined the relation between mind-mindedness and parenting stress. Results supported an inverse relation between mind-mindedness and parenting stress for the older child. Results also revealed a positive relation between mind-mindedness and parental distress for the younger child; this was specifically relevant for children age 30 months and younger. Multiple interpretations for this finding are explored. Third, this study examined the relations between parenting style, parenting stress, and mind-mindedness. Results indicated two general trends: For the younger children, when parents thought about their child in a more mind-minded manner, they also tended to utilize more authoritative parenting strategies; this parenting style was also related to lower parenting stress. For the older children, when parents thought about their child in a more mind-minded manner, they also tended to utilize less authoritarian parenting strategies as well as experience less parenting stress as related to parent-child dysfunctional interactions. The findings of this study support previous findings regarding mind-mindedness and parenting stress as well as contribute to an improved understanding of the consistency of parenting constructs between two children in the same family and the relation between parenting stress and parenting style. These findings also raise questions for future research with respect to mind-mindedness in very young children. Future research areas and implications are discussed. / Graduate

No description available.

Research has consistently shown that parents raising a child with autism spectrum disorders, or ASDs, have higher levels of stress than parents of typically-developing children or children with other disabilities. These parents’ higher levels of stress are attributed to a number of different factors, including early atypical development, getting the diagnosis, lack of awareness of resources, lack of support from their communities, unmet resource and schooling needs for their ASD child, financial strain, strain on the couple relationship, managing maladaptive behaviors, regulatory problems of the ASD child may experience, communication problems between ASD child and parent, parents’ perception of their own competency, ambiguity of the ASD child’s future, and the future of the family as a whole. The purpose of this project was to decrease parents’ levels of stress (while increasing their perception of competency and knowledge of autism) in a four-session course. Pre- and post- test data showed that participating parents decreased their stress level, increased their knowledge about autism, and felt more competent in raising their child. For future trainings, it would be important to encourage participation and retention of participants by offering an incentive. In addition, including more specific criteria for parents eligible for the program in order to target more families raising a child with an ASD.

This present study examined the application of generalizability theory (GT) to the Parenting Stress Index (PSI) long and short forms for families having children with disabilities. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the dependability of parenting stress data scores gathered from families having children with disabilities. The data for the present study came from an extant data set collected by the Early Intervention Research Institute (EIRI; Contract #800-85-0173) at Utah State University. The EIRI studies represented attempts to assess the benefits and cost of conducting early intervention programs. The EIRI data were recoded at the item level for the Psychometrics Project, which established norms, reliability, and validity information on self-report, family-functioning measures gathered from families having children with disabilities. The GT study results suggested that the items facet made a large contribution, indicating that there may not be any established trends in item responses. An explanation for the items facet indicates that the PSI forms provide an accurate measure of overall parental stress. According to the times facet results, the effects of time are minimal except the increase between occasion one to occasion two. Classical reliability theory (CRT) and GT analyses provide contradictory results, probably due to GT's multiple error source analyses compared to CRT's examination of a single error source in one analysis. GT study analyses indicate that the highest g and phi coefficients are produced with the highest number of administrations and items. However, administering the highest number of administrations and items would be impractical within any setting. The original number of items from the Parent Domain, Child Domain, and short PSI total score should be administered twice to increase the dependability of scores and still fall within practical limitations. A researcher and/or practitioner may want information to decide what form, long or short, to choose. If the PSI is to be used as a quick screening tool or as one test in a complete assessment, the short form may be of more use. If the PSI is to be used as a primary source of information about parent and child interactive systems, the long PSI version would be recommended.