Early Family Conflict and Behavioral Outcomes in Children from Low-Income Families: The Indirect Effects of Parental Depression and Parenting Practices

Rong Huang (), Rachel Chazan-Cohen and Delaina Carlson
Additional contact information
Rong Huang: Department of Psychological Science and Counseling, Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, TN 37044, USA
Rachel Chazan-Cohen: Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA
Delaina Carlson: Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA

IJERPH, 2024, vol. 21, issue 12, 1-17

Abstract: Family conflict has been demonstrated as a risk factor impacting children’s mental health and behaviors; however, the mechanisms underlying these connections are unclear. Focusing on 1622 children from low-income families (51.4% boys, 38.3% White, 35.5% Hispanic/Latino, 22.1% African American, 4.1% other), the current study examines the role that maternal depression and parenting behaviors play in the associations between family conflict in early childhood and children’s internalizing and externalizing behaviors in early adolescence. Family conflict was positively associated with maternal depression at age 3 and detached parenting at age 5; however, maternal depression was linked to increased child internalizing and externalizing behaviors, and detached parenting was associated with decreased behavioral outcomes. Maternal depression at age 3 and intrusive parenting at age 5 successively mediated the association between family conflict and child externalizing. Multi-group analysis indicated different indirect paths of parenting behaviors in boys and girls. Specifically, in boys, the indirect effect of detached parenting on the links between family conflict and externalizing and internalizing behaviors was sustained. In girls, maternal depression and intrusive parenting sequentially explained the link between family conflict and externalizing behaviors. The findings highlighted the importance of addressing family well-being and parenting support, especially for children from low-income families.

Keywords: family conflict; internalizing; externalizing; detached parenting; intrusive parenting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/12/1664/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/12/1664/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:12:p:1664-:d:1543042

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().