Everyday stress is associated with negative maternal-adolescent relationship quality, which can impact adolescent mental and physical well-being. Guided by family stress theory, the purpose of this study was to test the associations between everyday stressors, open family communication, maternal social support, and maternal-adolescent relationship quality with a sample identified as at-risk for child maltreatment. Consistent with family stress theory, the resources of open family communication and maternal social support were hypothesized to be associated with the relationship between everyday stressors and maternal-adolescent relationship quality. The sample was from the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN) and included 460 biological and adoptive mothers. Path analyses were used to analyze the direct and indirect relationships proposed in the model. In this sample, results demonstrated maternal everyday stress was negatively associated with later maternal-adolescent relationship quality. Additionally, maternal everyday stress was negatively associated with both open family communication and maternal perception of social support, while open family communication and maternal perception of social support were positively associated with later maternal-adolescent relationship quality. Based on these results, clinically addressing resources such as open family communication and maternal perception of social support would be beneficial for families in which there is low maternal-adolescent relationship quality. However, these results were based on a specific population and a secondary dataset; therefore future research would benefit from including additional respondents and measures. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Family and Child Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2014. / May 13, 2014. / At-Risk Sample, Family Stress Theory, Maternal-Adolescent Relationships, Resources / Includes bibliographical references. / Lenore M. McWey, Professor Directing Dissertation; Anne E. Barrett, University Representative; Wayne H. Denton, Committee Member; Ming Cui, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_254458 |
| Contributors | Lettenberger-Klein, Cassandra G. (authoraut), McWey, Lenore M. (professor directing dissertation), Barrett, Anne E. (university representative), Denton, Wayne H. (committee member), Cui, Ming (committee member), Department of Family and Child Sciences (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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