Oliver, Bonamy R;
Midouhas, Emily;
(2023)
Maternal psychological distress and children's adjustment problems: Mediation by household chaos.
Journal of Family Psychology
10.1037/fam0001143.
(In press).
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Abstract
Research over many decades has considered the crucial role of maternal psychological distress (e.g., depression, anxiety) for children's psychological adjustment (externalizing and internalizing problems), suggesting bidirectional influences over time. However, little is known about the extent to which household chaos (e.g., noise, disorganization, lack of calm) may mediate this mutual association, despite an understanding that chaos is a powerful stressor in the home. Conducting secondary data analysis in a large scale, prospective longitudinal study of families with children-the U.K.'s Millennium Cohort Study-we accounted for stability in both maternal psychological distress and children's internalizing and externalizing problems and examined the extent to which household chaos mediated the mutual association between maternal psychological distress and children's behaviors. Using what we term a mutual-mediation model, we found that both maternal psychological distress and children's adjustment problems predicted household chaos at Age 5, and in turn, that chaos predicted maternal psychological distress and child adjustment problems at Age 7. We found a dominance of children's externalizing problems in the prediction of household chaos, and all pathways were strongest for maternal psychological distress and externalizing problems compared to child internalizing problems. Our findings suggest that research would be well-minded to consider both child and parent effects on household chaos, as well as its mediation potential. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Maternal psychological distress and children's adjustment problems: Mediation by household chaos |
| Location: | United States |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1037/fam0001143 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0001143 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Open Access funding provided by University College London: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0). This license permits copying and redistributing the work in any medium or format, as well as adapting the material for any purpose, even commercially. |
| Keywords: | household chaos, externalizing behavior, internalizing behavior, Millennium Cohort Study, psychological distress |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Psychology and Human Development |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10177009 |
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