ERIC Number: EJ1443945
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024-Dec
Pages: 20
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1053-1890
EISSN: EISSN-1573-3319
Child Social Support Moderates the Association between Maternal Psychopathology and Child School Engagement
Kari N. Thomsen; Kathryn H. Howell; Debra Bartelli
Child & Youth Care Forum, v53 n6 p1291-1310 2024
Background: School engagement is a positive, malleable aspect of youth functioning that may be influenced by familial factors. Both risk and protective factors may affect youth's school engagement. Objective: Utilizing an intergenerational transmission of risk framework, the current study examined how maternal factors (i.e., maternal psychopathology, maternal trauma history, maternal education) and youth factors (i.e., social support) relate to school engagement. Methods: Participants were 117 youth of color aged 8-13 years (M[subscript age] = 9.96, SD = 1.40), 51% female, 89% Black or African American and their female primary caregivers; all families had experienced adversity. Using a single-group, cross-sectional design, hierarchical linear regression models examined direct and interactive effects. The first block included maternal psychopathology (i.e., anxiety or depression), maternal trauma history, maternal education, and child social support. The second block added the interaction between maternal psychopathology and child social support. Results: Results revealed a direct, positive relation between child social support and school engagement. Social support also moderated the association between maternal anxiety and school engagement; for individuals with extremely low social support, higher maternal anxiety was related to lower school engagement. Conclusions: Results illustrate the value of an intergenerational approach to exploring how maternal factors have implications for youth functioning. Findings also highlight the importance of social support among families of color exposed to adversity. Limitations include the cross-sectional design; thus, future research would benefit from longitudinal examination of maternal and child factors related to school engagement to assess temporal and directional effects.
Descriptors: Social Support Groups, Mothers, Individual Characteristics, Mental Health, Trauma, Educational Attainment, Parent Background, Preadolescents, Early Adolescents, Anxiety, Depression (Psychology), Psychopathology, Correlation
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A