Hispanic mothers' influences on children's coping with stress

Yadira Amy Olivera

Considerable research has been conducted on the role of the parents in the development of child coping, but it has focused primarily on general parental characteristics such as warmth, consistency, and authoritative discipline. Few researchers have examined the specific mechanisms through which parents impact their children's coping style, even more so in minority populations or in individuals with low socio-economic status. The current study examined how the specific strategies low-income Hispanic mothers use to help their children are cope with stressful situations predict preschool-aged children's coping during two stressful tasks in a laboratory setting. Child coping behaviors during the stressful tasks where coded by two coders, and parent questionnaires where completed, including the Parenting Dimensions Inventory, the Scaffolding Questionnaire, The Bidimensional Acculturation Scale for Hispanics, and the Emotion Regulation Checklist. Gender and acculturation were examined as possible moderators of the relationship between mother's general parenting, specific parenting strategies, and child coping. Results identified a number of significant relationships between general parenting, specific parenting strategies, and child coping/emotional regulation. Mediation and moderation analyses identified two significant mediational pathways. The negative relationship between maternal inconsistency and children's social emotional regulation was significantly mediated by mothers' dismissing the importance of stressful situations. Blaming the child was also found to be a mediator between maternal inconsistency and children's social emotional regulation, leading to an unclear conclusion of which scaffolding strategy was the true mediator. No moderation relationships were found. This study adds to the child coping literature in terms of how parents' strategies may play a role, specifically in a low-income minority population. Understanding how these specific strategies influence children's coping with stress can help program developers learn what specific strategies parents should use to assist their children in developing stronger coping skills.

Hispanic mothers' influences on children's coping with stress

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