Abstract
We examined the mediating effect of parenting stress on the association between children’s internalizing and externalizing behaviors and mothers’ negativity and inconsistency in conflict behaviors during a week of daily mother–child conflict interactions. Mothers reported on children’s internalizing and externalizing behaviors and their parenting stress, as well as the most salient conflict interaction with their 5- to 8-year-old child each day for 1 week. Means and standard deviations across the week in destructive conflict characteristics were calculated to examine the average negativity and inconsistency in mother–child conflict interactions. Parenting stress mediated associations between child externalizing behaviors and both inconsistency and average negativity of destructive conflict characteristics during conflict across the week. Results are discussed in terms of distinctions between internalizing and externalizing behaviors and the value of examining variability in mother–child interactions as well as average tendencies.
Highlights
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Parenting stress mediated relations between child externalizing behavior and mother–child conflict qualities.
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Means and standard deviations across the week in destructive conflict characteristics were calculated to examine the average negativity and inconsistency in mother–child conflict interactions.
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Parenting stress related to greater average negativity and inconsistency in destructive characteristics during mother–child conflict.
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Villarreal, D.L., Smith, O.A. & Nelson, J.A. Child Behavior Problems Related to Inconsistency and Average Negativity in Mother–Child Conflict Characteristics: The Mediating Role of Parenting Stress. J Child Fam Stud 31, 1859–1868 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-02146-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-02146-4