Abstract
High stress in parents may affect parenting and subsequent child socioemotional and behavioral development. Previous evidence suggests that highly stressed parents are more likely to engage in negative parenting, which is less structured and more punitive. However, the effects of life stress versus parent specific stress on parent-child interactions in early childhood has not been well studied, especially in minority and low-income samples. Thus, the current study assessed the relationship between perceived life stress, parenting-related stress, and observed parenting responses to young children during a structured, mildly challenging parent-child task. Predominantly minority and low-income parents and their children (2-5 years old; 54 dyads) completed the Perceived Stress Scale, the Parenting Stress Inventory, and participated in a structured 5-minute interaction task, the Toy-Wait Task (TWT), that was video-taped and coded by blind raters. The coding utilized a standardized system with good reliability assessing 1) Affect (parent and child positive and negative affect, shared positive affect), 2) Positive Parenting Behaviors (warmth, structured good involvement, listening/engagement), and 3) Negative Parenting Behaviors (reactivity, judgment, critical parenting). Significant associations were found between perceived life stress and parenting stress, (r (54) = 0.61, p<.01). Parents with higher perceived life stress scores showed more negative affect (r=0.291, p<.05) and lower involvement with the child (r=-0.367, p<.05), while parenting specific stress did not yield significant effects (p's > 0.05). Findings suggest that interventions that reduce stress in minority and low-income parents of young children may also improve parenting of young children with potential impact on decreasing child psychopathology risk.