PHD, Kent State University, 2013, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Psychological Sciences

Literature and research with adult mothers indicate a transactional relation between maternal depressive symptoms and child behavior. Evidence also indicates that gender may moderate this relation, such that males may be more vulnerable to their mothers' depression early in life and may display higher levels of externalizing behavior than females. However, little research to date has investigated these relations in samples of adolescent mothers, specifically Latina adolescent mothers, and none, to the author's knowledge, have investigated the transactional nature of the relation. Latina adolescent mothers are important to study as they have the highest birthrate in the U. S. compared to other ethnic groups. Adolescent mothers also face negative risk factors that influence their own psychological adjustment; and their children already face high risk for negative outcomes. One potential protective factor for children of adolescent mothers is mothers' romantic partners whose involvement in child care has been shown to buffer children against the negative effects of maternal depressive symptoms and other maternal risk factors. Investigating these relations is imperative to inform intervention and prevention efforts for Latina adolescent mothers and their children. Using a sample of primarily Puerto Rican adolescent mothers and their toddlers for which data were collected at two time points, 6 months apart; the current study used a path analysis framework to test hypothesized models. First, the longitudinal, transactional relations between maternal depressive symptoms and two child behavior variables - internalizing and externalizing problems - were examined. Second, the current study examined the direct and moderating effects of gender in order to better understand the nature of the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and child behavior in our sample. Lastly, the potential protective effect of partner child care involvement was investigated to test whether (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Josefina Grau Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Beth Wildman Ph.D. (Committee Member); Kathryn Kerns Ph.D. (Committee Member); Karla Anhalt Ph.D. (Committee Member); Rhonda Richardson Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

PHD, Kent State University, 2013, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Psychological Sciences

The demands and challenges of early parenthood place adolescent mothers at high risk for developing adjustment difficulties. The current longitudinal study examined the types of relationships that Latina adolescent mothers have with their partners, based on the young mother's level of acculturation and enculturation. The study also examined positive (e.g., partner support, relationship satisfaction) and negative (e.g., relationship strain) aspects of romantic relationships that impact both relationship continuity and the adolescent mothers' psychological adjustment. One hundred and twenty five Latina adolescent mothers (M age=19.49 years; SD=1.34; of primarily Puerto Rican origin) who reported having a partner and their young children participated in this study at T1; one hundred and eight of these mothers returned for a second assessment 6 months later (T2). The majority of participants resided with their partners (70.4%) and approximately 42% of the young mothers were in relatively long-lasting (3 or more years) relationships with their partners. Around 19% of mothers were married, and marriage and co-residence with partner related to higher perceived instrumental support. Mothers' cultural orientation was related to characteristics of these relationships. Less acculturated mothers and mothers who were highly enculturated were more likely to be married and living with partners. The partners of more enculturated mothers were also more likely to be the child's biological father. Roughly 78% of participants who had a partner at T1 and returned for T2 reported the same partner at T2. Although a few demographic and relationship characteristics were related to continuity (e.g., co-residence and relationship with child's father, having Latino partners, and longer relationships), relationship satisfaction was the only unique predictor of continuity. In regard to associations with mother's psychological distress, non-tangible support, satisfaction, and strain at (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Josefina Grau (Committee Chair); Karla Anhalt (Committee Member); Kristin Mickelson (Committee Member); Beth Wildman (Committee Member); Maria Zaragoza (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

MA, Kent State University, 2018, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Psychological Sciences

Research on parenting has placed an increasing emphasis on bidirectional processes of parent-child interactions to more fully describe the quality of the parent-child relationship. A frequently examined bidirectional process is dyadic synchrony; an interactional style characterized by harmonious and mutually responsive behavioral and emotional exchanges. Despite the positive implications of dyadic synchrony, few studies have examined how both maternal behaviors and child characteristics contribute to this interactional style. Moreover, a majority of the research examining correlates of dyadic synchrony has been done with European American and low-risk families. Latina adolescent mothers are of particular interest, because they face higher levels of cumulative risk (e.g., low socioeconomic status, lack of knowledge about parenting and child development), yet are underrepresented in the literature. The current study tested how maternal sensitivity and child characteristics together contribute to dyadic synchrony displayed by young Latina mothers and their toddlers. Results indicated that although there were no gender differences in the level of dyadic synchrony, this interaction style likely has different precursors and correlates for girls and boys. Specifically, maternal sensitivity appears to be important for the sample as whole, child temperament appeared to be important for mother-daughter interaction quality. Implications for future research and parent-child interventions are discussed.

Committee: Josefina Grau (Advisor); Manfred van Dulmen (Committee Member); Karla Anhalt (Committee Member); Beth Wildman (Committee Member) Subjects: Developmental Psychology; Ethnic Studies; Families and Family Life; Gender; Psychology

BS, Kent State University, 2017, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Psychological Sciences

Latina adolescents are at increased risk for developing symptoms of psychological distress. They often face higher levels of poverty and lower education levels than other adolescent groups, in addition to experiencing acculturative stressors. Adolescent Latina mothers experience additional stressors related to parenting at a young age. Social support has been shown to reduce risk for psychological distress; however, there are several factors that influence this relation. The association of perceived social support from adolescent mothers' mothers and fathers on psychological distress was examined. Familism, a family-centric Latino value, was examined as a potential moderator in the relation between social support and distress, as adolescents who endorse more familistic values may take advantage of support provided by mothers and fathers better than adolescents who endorse fewer values. Preliminary correlations revealed that support from adolescents' mothers and fathers was associated with lower distress. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that after controlling for adolescent age, financial stress, and negative life events, mother support was no longer associated with lower distress; father support was still associated with lower distress. Additionally, familism did not moderate the relationship between social support and distress for mother or father support. Findings contribute to the body of research on father support, but further research is needed to examine the quality and importance of support providers to determine why there were differences in distress between those perceiving mother and father support.

Committee: Josefina Grau Ph.D. (Advisor); Christopher Flessner Ph.D. (Committee Member); Angela Neal-Barnett Ph.D. (Committee Member); Rhonda Richardson Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

PHD, Kent State University, 2016, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Psychological Sciences

Adolescent mothers are at risk for poor parenting adjustment and their children are at risk for behavior and learning problems. These young mothers' own mothers (the children's grandmothers), are a key presence in their lives, but the contribution of grandmother childcare involvement to mother-child interactions is mixed in the literature. Research is needed to better understand the conditions under which grandmother involvement in childcare can be beneficial for mother-child interactional styles like dyadic synchrony, which is characterized by mutual engagement, reciprocity, and warmth. Recent findings suggest that the quality of the mother-grandmother relationship is one of the factors that may determine whether grandmother childcare is beneficial for parenting adjustment. The current study investigated mother-grandmother relationship quality as well as other conditions (e.g., grandmother coresidency with mother, mother nativity status, child gender) that may foster higher levels of dyadic synchrony in a sample of primarily Puerto Rican young mothers (N= 160; Mage=19.5 years) and their toddlers (Mage=18.2 months). Descriptive information on dyadic synchrony measures in this sample, including mutual positive affect, dyadic reciprocity, and a dyadic synchrony composite, is presented. Hierarchical linear regressions examined grandmother coresidency, mother nativity, and child gender as demographic and contextual factors that may qualify how grandmother childcare relates to dyadic synchrony. Findings indicated that higher levels of grandmother childcare involvement related to displays of more dyadic reciprocity for mother-daughter dyads but not mother-son dyads. For the main research question, grandmother supportiveness and acceptance did not moderate the association between grandmother childcare involvement and dyadic synchrony, even after taking into account child and maternal characteristics. However, group differences by gender remained significant, above and beyo (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Josefina Grau PhD (Committee Chair); Beth Wildman PhD (Committee Member); Manfred van Dulmen PhD (Committee Member); Susan Roxburgh PhD (Committee Member); Carla Goar PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Developmental Psychology; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Psychology

MA, Kent State University, 2015, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Psychological Sciences

Specific parenting behaviors have distinct associations with children's functioning. Mothers' guiding and controlling behaviors influence the development of a child's compliance, a reflection of the child's self-regulatory abilities. Maternal strategies involving collaboration and guidance are often associated with an internalized, committed compliance, and maternal strategies demonstrating high directiveness and control are frequently related to defiance in children (Braungart-Rieker et al., 1997). However, these findings are largely based on samples of European American, adult mothers, whose parenting practices and environmental contexts differ from Latina mothers and adolescent mothers. Due to differences in cultural values, unique mother-child behavior associations are expected in samples of Latinas, as a more directive parenting style tends not to be associated with negative child outcomes as it often is for European American mothers (Ispa et al., 2004). The goal of the current study was to examine associations between maternal behaviors and child compliance and defiance behaviors with the prediction that associations between maternal control and child defiance would differ by mothers' reported orientations to both Latino (enculturation) and American (acculturation) culture. This study included 146 Latina, adolescent mothers and their 24-month-old children. Behavioral codes extracted from a toy clean-up task measured mother and child behaviors (Kochanska & Aksan, 1995), and enculturation and acculturation were measured with a maternal self-report questionnaire. The current study found a positive association between maternal gentle guidance and child committed compliance, with no significant differences by cultural orientation. Importantly, more frequent use of control was related to more child defiance for mothers reporting high levels of acculturation but not for those reporting low levels of enculturation

Committee: Josefina Grau Ph.D. (Advisor); Karla Anhalt Ph.D. (Committee Member); Manfred van Dulmen Ph.D. (Committee Member); Beth Wildman Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Clinical Psychology; Developmental Psychology

PHD, Kent State University, 2014, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Psychological Sciences

Adolescent mothers and their children are at an increased risk for compromised development. In particular, children of adolescent mothers face delays in language development, which poses further risks to their overall functioning. Research indicates that parenting stress and the quality of maternal behaviors are key areas of difficulty for adolescent mothers, and these difficulties have each been associated with poor language functioning in the larger literature. Notably, Abidin's parenting stress theory proposes direct links between parenting stress, child language functioning and parenting behavior, as well as an indirect relation through parenting. However, there is a lack of studies examining how these variables work together to influence language development, especially among minority and adolescent mothers. To the author's knowledge, no study has investigated the meditational effect between parenting stress and language development in these populations. Therefore, we know little about how parenting stress and specific parenting behaviors relate to each other or to child outcomes in adolescent families of Latino origin. The current study sought to add to the literature by using a within group design to examine if Abidin's parenting stress model extends to a sample of Latina adolescent mothers and their 18-month-old children. The current study also explored the differential roles of child and parent domain stress, as well as the relative roles of sensitivity and cognitive-growth fostering parenting behavior to inform intervention and prevention efforts for Latina adolescent mothers and their children. Findings showed some support for Abidin's parenting stress model. Results were consistent with theory in that child domain stress related to a parenting behavior composite. However, there were no significant relations from stress in the child and parent domain to language functioning, as well as from stress in the parent domain to parenting behaviors. N (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Josefina Grau (Advisor) Subjects: Psychology

MA, Kent State University, 2009, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Psychological Sciences

Though previous research on European American and mixed samples of adult mothers indicates that maternal depression relates to higher levels of behavior problems in children, research on Latina adolescent mothers has been scarce. The current study aimed to add to the literature by assessing the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and child internalizing and externalizing problems in a sample of adolescent Latina mothers and their 18-month-old children. Furthermore, romantic partners of young Latina mothers have been identified in the literature as an important source of support, and some studies and theories indicate that they may also play an important role in the lives of the children of these mothers. Thus, an additional goal of the study was to investigate the potential direct and indirect effects of partner social support and child care on maternal depressive symptomatology and child internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. 135 participants and their target children residing in a large Midwestern city were recruited to participate in the study. Data were collected at a home visit conducted by two female researchers via observation, computer-aided questionnaires, and paper questionnaires. Results of analyses supported the hypothesis that maternal depressive symptoms significantly relate to both child internalizing and child externalizing in this sample. Moreover, results indicate that partner social support directly relates to maternal depressive symptoms. Results did not support the hypothesis that partner child care would directly relate to child outcomes. Support for the indirect effect of partner social support on child internalizing through maternal depression was found. Lastly, results provided evidence of the buffering effect of partner child care such that maternal depressive symptoms were related less strongly to child internalizing problems at higher levels of partner child care than at lower levels of partner child care.

Committee: Josefina M. Grau PhD (Advisor); Manfred H.M. van Dulmen PhD (Committee Member); Jeffrey A. Ciesla PhD (Committee Member); Karla Anhalt PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Developmental Psychology; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Psychology

MA, Kent State University, 2009, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Psychological Sciences

One hundred and thirty five Latina adolescent mothers (of primarily Puerto Rican origin) and their young children participated in this study. Relations between partner support, relationship strain, and psychological adjustment were examined. The romantic relationships of these young mothers were also explored. Results indicated that mothers were likely to have a partner (74.1%) and to have long-lasting (3 or more years) relationships (42%) with them. Results also indicated that strain had an independent effect on psychological distress and social support did not. In addition, the interactive effects of support and strain in predicting psychological distress were explored. The association between partner support and psychological distress was moderated by relationship strain. Greater support was related to less distress when levels of strain were high. However, it was related to higher distress at low levels of strain. Results also suggested that social support moderated the relation between relationship strain and psychological distress. The relation between strain and distress was stronger at lower levels of support than at higher levels of support. Results are discussed in light of Latino cultural values, developmental issues, and implications for intervention.

Committee: Josefina Grau (Advisor); Karla Anhalt (Committee Member); Manfred van Dulmen (Committee Member); Beth Wildman (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

MA, Kent State University, 2013, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Psychological Sciences

Social support and parenting research with adolescent mothers has principally focused on samples of African American and European American mothers and support provided by the parenting adolescent's own mother. There are gaps in the available empirical evidence regarding support provided by other members of the adolescent mother's network and parenting by Latina mothers. The current study explores the number of friends and types of friend social support (emotional, socializing, child care) in a sample of Latina adolescent mothers (N=168). Friend social support types were examined as separate predictors of maternal behaviors displayed during a social play interaction, above and beyond the effect of grandmother support. Friends were found to be a considerable source of support, as 61% of mothers reported some type of support from friends. Mothers reporting greater emotional support from friends displayed more maternal sensitivity and cognitive growth fostering behavior. In contrast, mothers indicating greater friend socializing support displayed less cognitive growth fostering behavior. Child care assistance from friends was related to the display of more detachment and less cognitive growth fostering behavior for younger, but not for older adolescent mothers. These findings emphasize the importance of assessing the types of friend support as separate measures in an ecological context that takes into account mother's individual and developmental characteristics.

Committee: Josefina Grau (Committee Chair); Beth Wildman (Committee Member); Manfred van Dulmen (Committee Member); Rhonda Richardson (Committee Member) Subjects: Developmental Psychology; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Psychology