Parenting daily hassles, child temperament, and social adjustment in preschool

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Abstract

The goal of this study was to explore the relations between child temperament, parenting daily hassles, and children’s social adjustment in preschool. The participants were 122 preschool children (Mage=48.59 months, SD=6.92). Parents completed measures of child temperament and parenting daily hassles. Preschool social adjustment was assessed through teacher ratings and behavioral observations. Among the results, parenting daily hassles predicted child externalizing problems beyond the contribution of child temperament characteristics. As well, child temperament interacted with parenting hassles in the prediction of adjustment outcomes. Results are discussed in terms of the complex inter-associations between child temperament and stress and their contributions to child social adjustment.

Introduction

Stress is a part of life for most children. It may be generated through major life events (i.e., war, parental death, ill-health), or more commonly through the stressors of daily life, such as homework, arguments with parents, fights with siblings, and peer teasing. These relatively minor stressful events, or daily hassles, may play a critical role in understanding stress and symptoms within individuals (Compas, Howell, Phares, Williams, & Ledoux, 1989). In fact, results from several studies have indicated that daily hassles are better predictors of adjustment than are major life events for adults (Kanner, Coyne, Schaefer, & Lazarus, 1981; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) as well as for children and adolescents (Compas, Davis, & Forsythe, 1985; Rowlinson & Felner, 1989). In this regard, it has been argued that major life events may have their most significant impact on health and adjustment indirectly, by increasing the frequency and intensity of daily stressors, which in turn lead to symptoms (Compas et al., 1989; Farber, Primavera, & Felner, 1983).

The psychological and behavioral effects of stress on children’s adjustment can be quite extensive. Children experiencing stress will generally show higher levels of maladaptive behavior than children who are not experiencing stress (e.g., Cowen et al., 1992; Creasey, Mitts, & Catanzaro, 1995). Some children experiencing stress may display internalizing problems, including depressive symptoms, clinging behavior, hypersensitivity, and social withdrawal. In contrast, other children may respond to stress by exhibiting externalizing behaviors such as hyperactivity, aggression, attention seeking, rough play, and non-compliance (Banez & Compas, 1990, Cowen et al., 1992, Rybski-Beaver, 1997; Strauss, Forehand, Smith, & Frame, 1986).

The underlying nature of the link between stress and adjustment is likely quite complex. Different kinds of stress likely have differential impacts on children (Compas et al., 1989, Crnic & Greenberg, 1990). As well, children may differ in their responses to stress as a function of their temperamental characteristics (Barton & Zeanah, 1990). The primary goal of the present study was to explore the associations between stress in the home (i.e., parental daily hassles), child temperament, and children’s social adjustment at preschool. In addition, we sought to investigate how child temperament and parenting stress might interact in the prediction of child social adjustment.

There is a large empirical literature linking parenting stress (in particular, maternal stress) to a wide range of child adjustment difficulties (Crnic & Greenberg, 1990, Holahan & Moos, 1987, Kyrios & Prior, 1990, Mash & Johnston, 1983, Myers et al., 1992; Pianta, Egeland, & Sroufe, 1990; Stewart, Deblois, & Cummings, 1980). Moreover, there is evidence to suggest that children of parents who are experiencing high levels of daily parenting stress may be more adversely affected than if a major life crisis had occurred in the family (Kliewer & Kung, 1998).

Crnic and Greenberg (1990) described two types of daily hassles related to having children. The first includes hassles related to the everyday routine of the child’s life (e.g., preparing them for school, sibling arguments, scheduling, housework), whereas the second is more directly related to undesirable child behavior (e.g., whining, misbehaving, being difficult to manage). Results from this study also indicated that parenting hassles related to challenging behaviors were more strongly associated with negative child outcomes than hassles due to general parenting tasks.

The effects of a stressor are influenced by the meaning this event has for the individual (Compas et al., 1989). In this regard, parenting daily hassles would seem particularly likely to have a significant impact on child social adjustment, given the obvious salience to both child and parent. In support of this notion, Creasey and Reese (1996) reported that parenting hassles were associated with child adjustment problems even when controlling for the effects of non-parenting hassles.

There are various plausible underlying conceptual mechanisms to account for the link between parenting stress and child outcomes. It has often been assumed that the direction of effect is from parent to child. In this regard, social-ecological theorists (e.g., Bronfenbrenner, 1979, Bronfenbrenner, 1989) have suggested that children’s psychological functioning can be influenced not only by their own stress level, but also by the levels of stress experienced by other family members. Thus, parenting stress might influence child adjustment indirectly through its effects on parents. That is, daily stressors may exacerbate any existing co-parenting difficulties within the family and increase stress levels in turn (Belsky, Crnic, & Gable, 1995). As well, when parents are themselves stressed, their accessibility to their children is compromised. For example, a mother’s inability to regulate negative emotions predicts child anxiety (Jenkins & Smith, 1991, LaFreniere & Dumas, 1992).

Alternatively, it is possible that the relation between family stress and child outcomes may be accounted for conceptually via common associations with certain child characteristics (Strelau, 2001). That is, the direction of effect may also be from child to parent, with certain child temperamental traits directly contributing towards family stress as well as influencing child behavioral adjustment.

There are numerous and somewhat diverse theoretical and conceptual approaches to the study of child temperament (see Rothbart & Bates, 1998, Wachs & Kohstamm, 2001, for recent reviews). Temperament can be broadly defined as the physical basis for the affective arousal, expression, and regulation components of personality (Goldsmith et al., 1987). Variability in these components contributes to differences in individual personality characteristics. ‘Adverse’ temperamental traits can be broadly organized into three groups (Bates, 2001; Caspi, Henry, McGee, Moffit, & Silva, 1995; Rothbart & Bates, 1998). The first group is related to negative affect (sometimes labeled “reactivity”) and includes negative emotional reactivity and difficulty in affect regulation. The second group concerns resistance to control (sometimes labeled “manageability”) and encompasses lack of attention, low agreeableness, and strong attention to rewarding stimuli. Finally, the third group constitutes shyness/inhibition (sometimes labeled “low approach”) and involves wary responses to new situations and people.

It can be speculated that these different clusters of temperamental traits might be differentially associated with parenting stress. Children who are temperamentally highly reactive, difficult to soothe, active, and/or inattentive may be exceedingly difficult for parents to manage (Goldsmith et al., 1987). Moreover, such “difficult” children are more likely to elicit negative reactions from parents (Barron & Earls, 1984, Carson & Bittner, 1994, Rutter, 1987, Thomas & Chess, 1977). There is some direct evidence to suggest that child temperament tends to contribute directly towards increased family stress (e.g., Gelfand, Teti, & Fox, 1992; Hagekull & Bohlin, 1990). More recently, Oestberg and Hagekull (2000) reported a direct effect of child difficult temperament on parenting stress in a path analytic model that also controlled for major life events, social support, and domestic workload. As such, it seems likely that the temperamental characteristics of resistance to control and negative affect would be positively related to parenting daily hassles—particularly hassles related to challenging child behaviors.

In contrast, temperamentally shy children might represent a lesser source of family stress. Shyness is characterized by behavioral withdrawal and less verbal communication (Crozier, 2001). As compared to behaviors displayed by children with more difficult temperaments, shy behaviors might be perceived as less “challenging” by parents. In support of this notion, it has been reported that child shyness appears to elicit less punitive control and less anger from parents as compared to other forms of child negative behaviors (Coplan, Hastings, Lagace-Seguin, & Moulton, 2002; Rubin & Mills, 1992).

There is a large body of empirical research linking child temperament to indices of social adjustment in early childhood (e.g., Caspi et al., 1995; Goldsmith, Aksan, Essex, Smider, & Vandell, 2001; Jewsuwan, Luster, & Kostelnik, 1993; Kyrios & Prior, 1990, Mobley & Pullis, 1991, Slee, 1986, Zadjeman & Minnes, 1991). In their review of the relations between temperament and adjustment, Rothbart and Bates (1998) reported that specific temperament dimensions relate in a differentiated way to adjustment outcomes. Shyness/inhibition is typically associated with internalizing problems, resistance to control is generally correlated with externalizing problems, and negative affect has been related to both adjustment outcomes.

Thus, there is some empirical support for the notion that the relation between parenting hassles and child maladjustment is accounted for (or at least enhanced) via common associations with child temperament. In order to further explore this assertion in the current study, we also sought to explore whether parenting daily hassles would demonstrate a relation with indices of child adjustment even when controlling for the effects of child temperamental characteristics.

To this point, some conceptualizations of possible linear relations between parenting stress, child temperament, and social adjustment have been described. However, interactive effects also need to be considered. Strelau (2001) argued that “temperament plays the role of moderator in all stages producing stress and its consequences” (p. 156). In this regard, it has been speculated that temperament can buffer against risk factors/stressors or heighten responses to an event (Rothbart & Bates, 1998). However, as Bates (2001) points out, there have been surprisingly few significant interaction effects uncovered between child temperament and the parenting environment in the extant literature.

To date, researchers have not directly explored the interaction between parenting stress and child temperament in the prediction of social adjustment in early childhood. It has been suggested that temperament may predict differential responses to stress (Barton & Zeanah, 1990). Children who are highly reactive, difficult to soothe, active, and/or inattentive may demonstrate extreme and reactive responses to stress (Chess, Thomas, & Birch, 1968). Strelau (1996) highlighted the role of temperament in regulating the relations between the individual and the external world, especially in difficult (i.e., stressful) environments. In work with adults, Strelau (2001) conceptualizes emotional reactivity as a temperament risk factor that strengthens the relations between life stress and mental health. Thus, one might expect children with more difficult temperaments (i.e., negative affect, resistance to control) to be most negatively affected by parental stress.

In the present study, social adjustment was operationalized in terms of multi-source assessments of internalizing and externalizing problems, as well as social competence. Internalizing and externalizing problems represent the major axes of behavioral maladjustment in childhood (e.g., Achenbach, Howell, Quay, & Conners, 1991), and social competence is a primary contributor to social adjustment (e.g., Dodge, Pettit, McClaskey, & Brown, 1986). To begin with, teachers rating were collected. There has been some concern among researchers regarding the potential “overlap in content” between measures of child temperament and measures of social adjustment (e.g., Sanson, Prior, & Kyrios, 1990). Thus, in order to broaden our assessment of child adjustment, observations of children’s free-play behaviors were also collected.

Observational indices included social play and reticent behavior. Social-interactive play is considered a marker variable for social competence and adaptation in early childhood (Coplan & Rubin, 1998). Reticent behavior consists of onlooking (watching other children play without attempting to join in) and unoccupied behaviors (staring into space, wandering aimlessly), and appears to represent fear and anxiety in social contexts (Coplan et al., 1994).

The goal of the present study was to examine links between parenting daily hassles, child temperamental characteristics, and young children’s social adjustment in preschool. Drawing upon the extant literature, it was expected that child negative affect and resistance to control (but not shyness) would be related to parenting daily hassles (particularly hassles pertaining to challenging child behavior). It was also predicted that child temperament would be related to adjustment outcomes. Specifically, it was hypothesized that shyness would be associated with internalizing problems, resistance to control would be correlated with externalizing problems, and that negative affect would be related to both internalizing and externalizing problems. All three temperamental clusters were expected to be negatively associated with social competence.

As well, parenting daily hassles (particularly related to challenging child behaviors) were expected to be associated with social maladjustment (i.e., child externalizing and internalizing problems, and a lack of social competence).

In concert, these findings would be consistent with the notion that the relation between parenting hassles and child social adjustment is enhanced by a common association with certain child characteristics. However, it has also been asserted that parenting hassles also have a direct impact on child adjustment. Thus, it was further hypothesized that parental daily hassles would continue to predict indices of child social maladjustment (i.e., child externalizing and internalizing problems, and a lack of social competence) even when controlling for child temperament.

Finally, it is also possible that parenting daily hassles moderate the relation between child temperament and social adjustment. In this regard, the interaction between child temperament and parenting daily hassles was explored in the prediction of internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and social competence. Hypotheses for theses analyses were primarily exploratory in nature. However, it was speculated that the relation between “difficult temperament” (i.e., negative affect, resistance to control) and child social adjustment would be more pronounced in environments characterized by more parenting daily hassles.

Section snippets

Subjects

The participants in this study were 122 children (58 boys, 64 girls) between the ages of 36 and 60 months (Mage=48.59 months, SD=6.92). The children were attending 13 preschools and childcare centers in and around Ottawa, Canada. The sample was 83% Caucasian with a variety of other ethnic groups also represented (5% Black, 4% Hispanic, 3% Asian, and 5% other). The sample was also of varied socioeconomic status. Approximately 17% of mothers and 19% of fathers had completed high school, 67% of

Demographic variables

To begin, a series of correlations was computed between demographic variables (child age, parental education level) and (1) daily hassles; (2) child temperament characteristics; and (3) indices of adjustment.1 Results indicated no significant relations between these variables, with the exception of a positive correlation between child age and externalizing problems (r=.19, p<.05). As such, age and parental education

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to examine the relations between parental stress, child temperament, and children’s social adjustment in preschool. Both the linear (i.e., direct and indirect) and interactive (i.e., moderating) associations among these variables were explored. The current study was correlational in nature, and thus does not allow for causal inferences. Moreover, the observed effect sizes were relatively small. However, our results suggested an intricate set of associations between

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a Social Science Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) grant to author Coplan. The authors wish to thank, Daniel Lagace-Seguin, Melissa Madger, Antonia Manka, Kavita Prakash, Jennifer Nowak, Andrea Schwartz, and Rachel White for their help in the collection and coding of data. We are also grateful to the instructors, parents, and children who participated in this study.

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