Parental Self-Efficacy and Parenting through Adversity (original) (raw)
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Journal of Child and Family Studies, 2005
We contribute to the theoretical and research knowledge base regarding the pathways between parental social support, family well being, quality of parenting, and the development of child resilience in families with a child with serious emotional problems. Little conceptual development has been done that provides a theoretical framework for studying the relationships among these variables. We identify key findings from social support theory and research, including the impact of social support on family well being and the parents' capacity to parent, and the experience of parental social support in families with a child with a disability. We review the constructs of family well being, quality of parenting, and child resilience. Further, we explain the pathways between parental social support, family well being, quality of parenting, and child resilience in families with a child with serious emotional problems. Key variables of the model and the nature of their interrelationships are described. Social support is constructed as a protective mechanism with main and buffering effects that can impact family well being, quality of parenting, and child resilience at a number of junctures. The conceptual model's implications for future theory development and research are discussed.
Children and Youth Services Review, 2019
Exposures to adverse childhood experiences compromise the early developmental foundation of people long before they become parents. These exposures partly take place within the family environment-a context tightly shared by parents and children. Despite considerable evidence regarding effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), differential patterns of childhood and adulthood adversity accumulation among currently parenting adults is relatively less understood. The present study helps address this gap using the 2011 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Washington State data of respondents ages 18 and older who are currently parenting a minor child. Results demonstrate the proliferative nature of adversities, increasing risk of elevated life course stress, as well as parental socioeconomic, health and functioning outcomes that affect the family environment. Findings also suggest the resilience of some parents who, despite exposures to ACEs, were able to avoid heightened adversities in later life that could pose risk to their children's developmental environments.
Parenting and Resilience: A Literature Review
In the last few years, the everyday word ‘resilience’ has captured the attention and imagination of an increasing number of academics and professionals. Resilience has positive connotations and entails understanding and seeking out good outcomes for individuals or families in circumstances where problems were to be expected. Compared with the traditional study of child development, which has tended to portray ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’ patterns, a resilience approach offers a more differentiated account. In professional practice, resilience means looking for strengths and opportunities to build on, rather than (or alongside) problems and deficits to be remedied or treated. This review considers parents’ actual and potential contributions to children’s resilience and to parental resilience, which is sometimes subsumed within ‘family resilience’. However, since most publications are concerned with resilience in relation to children and young people, the specific role of parents often has to be inferred. The review draws on important UK-based publications on resilience and includes more selective references to the comparatively huge American literature, as well as significant material from elsewhere.
Child Development Perspectives, 2015
In this article, we address three questions concerning the long-term effects of parenting-focused preventive interventions: 1) Do prevention programs promote effective parenting in families facing normative stressors as well as those facing frequent adversity? 2) Do parenting programs prevent children's long-term problems? 3) Do changes in parenting mediate long-term effects of programs? We address these questions by summarizing evidence from 22 programs with randomized trials and followups of three years or longer. We describe in more detail two interventions for divorced and bereaved families, suggesting that they prevent a range of problems and promote a range of developmental competencies over a prolonged period. Program effects to strengthen parenting mediated many of these long-term outcomes.
Addressing Adversity to Support Family and Child Well Being
2016
This study documented that nearly half of a large national sample of Head Start and Early Head Start children enrolled in participating programs experienced adversity and that this adversity is related to their learning and development. However, children in the programs, including those who had experienced adversity, had better outcomes in some domains if they had longer durations in their early childhood programs. Implications of these findings include the need to a) understand the experiences of the children and families in Head Start as part of preventing and reducing adversity; b) address the effects of adversity in instructional and other interventions to promote children’s learning and development; and c) work to retain high risk families through targeted programming and professional development.
Resilience in parenting among young mothers: Family and ecological risks and opportunities
Children and Youth Services Review, 2011
The present study used a person-centered approach to examine resilience in parenting among a sample of young mothers (under age 21 at childbirth). Resilient functioning as a parent was defined as the lack of perpetration of child maltreatment (substantiated reports of child abuse and neglect) in the context of risk. Risk factors were assessed at multiple levels, including family (e.g., negative childhood histories in family of origin) and ecological (e.g., neighborhood poverty, mother's financial stress) levels. Analyses revealed a group of mothers who demonstrated resilience in parenting despite a context of substantial risks from their childhood histories (e.g., negative family relationships) and current ecologies (e.g., economic and neighborhood conditions). Mothers in the resilient group were less likely to a) live with their families of origin, and b) to rely on their own mothers as sources of emotional or caregiving support. Data also indicated that young mothers' resilient functioning as parents was associated with higher rates of depressive symptoms among these mothers, perhaps suggesting a "cost" or limit to resilient parenting functioning in young mothers. Results are discussed in a resilience framework.
Supportive Care in Cancer, 2014
Purpose Promoting parent resilience may provide an opportunity to improve family-level survivorship after pediatric cancer; however, measuring resilience is challenging. Methods The "Understanding Resilience in Parents of Children with Cancer" was a cross-sectional, mixed-methods study of bereaved and non-bereaved parents. Surveys included the Connor-Davidson Resilience scale, the Kessler-6 psychological distress scale, the Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory, and an open-ended question regarding the ongoing impact of cancer. We conducted content analyses of open-ended responses and categorized our impressions as "resilient," "not resilient," or "unable to determine." "Resilience" was determined based on evidence of psychological growth, lack of distress, and parent-reported meaning/purpose. We compared consensus impressions with instrument scores to examine alignment. Analyses were stratified by bereavement status. Results Eighty-four (88 %) non-bereaved and 21 (88 %) bereaved parents provided written responses. Among nonbereaved, 53 (63 %) were considered resilient and 15 (18 %) were not. Among bereaved, 11 (52 %) were deemed resilient and 5 (24 %) were not. All others suggested a mixed or incomplete picture. Rater-determined "resilient" parents tended to have higher personal resources and lower psychological distress (p=<0.001-0.01). Non-bereaved "resilient" parents also had higher post-traumatic growth (p=0.02). Person-level analyses demonstrated that only 50-62 % of parents had all three instrument scores aligned with our impressions of resilience. Conclusions Despite multiple theories, measuring resilience is challenging. Our clinical impressions of resilience were aligned in 100 % of cases; however, instruments measuring potential markers of resilience were aligned in approximately half. Promoting resilience therefore requires understanding of multiple factors, including person-level perspectives, individual resources, processes of adaptation, and emotional wellbeing.