Profiles of Maternal-Child Interactions and their Association with Children’s External Resilience Resources

• Published in: Journal of child and family studies 2024-09, Vol.33 (9), p.3004-3019
• Main Authors: Hasselle, Amanda J., Howell, Kathryn H., Napier, Taylor R., Howie, Whitney C., Thurston, Idia B.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acquired immune deficiency syndrome; Adversity; AIDS; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Caregivers; Child and School Psychology; Child Rearing; Children; Children & youth; Class differences; Communication; Domestic violence; Dyads; HIV; Human immunodeficiency virus; Intimate partner violence; Mothers; Older children; Original Paper; Parent Child Relationship; Parent-child relations; Parenting Styles; Parents & parenting; Psychology; Psychosocial factors; Psychosocial functioning; Resilience; Social classes; Social Sciences; Socioeconomic status; Sociology; Substance abuse; Well being
• ISSN: 1062-1024; 1573-2843
• DOI: 10.1007/s10826-024-02881-4

Parent-child interactions, which substantially impact children’s psychosocial functioning, can be affected by caregiver adversity exposure. Considering that caregivers and their children often have divergent perspectives on their interactions, the current study included maternal- and child-reports of parenting practices and parent-child communication as indicators in a latent profile analysis. This study included 263 dyads comprised of children aged 8–17 ( M Age  = 12.13, SD  = 2.77; 88.2% Black) and their female caregivers ( M Age  = 36.43, SD  = 7.89; 82.9% Black) who were recruited based on caregivers’ differing experiences with the SAVA syndemic (i.e., potentially harmful substance use, intimate partner violence (IPV), HIV, or none of these adversities). After identifying empirically-derived profiles of maternal-child interactions, we examined associations between these established profiles and children’s external resilience resources. A three-class model emerged as the best fit: Concordant: Child/Mother Positive (C-PP; 73.4%), Discordant: Child Very Negative/Mother Slightly Negative (D-CN; 13.1%), and Discordant: Child Positive/Mother Negative (D-CP; 11.8%). Caregiver endorsement of SAVA syndemics did not predict class membership. Dyads with older children were more likely to be in the D-CN class, and dyads reporting lower SES were more likely to be in the D-CP class. Compared to children in the D-CN class, children in the C-PP class reported significantly higher resilience in school (Est. = −0.42, p  = 0.006), community (Est. = −0.51, p  = 0.001), and peer (Est. = −0.37, p  = 0.004) contexts. No other class differences emerged. Findings highlight the importance of positive and consistent maternal-child interactions, which may help youth access a network of resilience resources that can promote healthy development and bolster well-being. Highlights Most mother-child dyads agreed that their interactions, which included parenting practices and communication, were positive. When mothers and children agreed that their interactions were positive, children reported higher external resilience resources. Maternal SAVA (substance abuse, violence, AIDS/HIV) did not affect whether mother-child reports of parenting were concordant/positive. Older children were more likely to be in dyads with very negative child perspectives on parenting and slightly negative maternal perspectives. Mothers with lower SES were more likely to report negative views of their parenting