Executive Function and Parenting in the Context of Homelessness
Publication Date
2-1-2017
Document Type
Article
Organizational Units
College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Psychology
Keywords
Environmental stress, Executive function, Homelessness, Parenting
Abstract
There is mounting evidence that maternal executive function (EF) plays a critical role in parenting behavior. However, the majority of the research on this topic has been conducted in low-risk samples. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether individual differences in maternal EF are associated with parenting behavior in the high-risk, high adversity context of family homelessness. The study included 94 mothers and their children, ages 4 to 6 years, living in emergency homeless shelters. Mothers completed a battery of “hot” and “cool” EF tasks as well as a self-report questionnaire of perceived stress. Parenting measures were based on observed parent– child interactions that were later coded for harsh and positive parenting practices. Results indicated that hot EF in mothers was related to positive parenting. The relation between maternal planning ability, assessed by a cool EF task, and harsh parenting was also significant, but only for mothers reporting higher levels of stress. These findings add to a growing body of research suggesting that the influence of EF and other forms of cognitive control on parenting need to be interpreted within the context of environmental stress and adversity.
Copyright Date
2-1-2017
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
All Rights Reserved.
Publication Statement
Copyright is held by the American Psychological Association. User is responsible for all copyright compliance. This article was originally published as:
Monn, A. R., Narayan, A. J., Kalstabakken, A. W., Schubert, E. C., & Masten, A. S. (2017). Executive function and parenting in the context of homelessness. Journal of Family Psychology, 31(1), 61–70. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0000275
Accepted Manuscript is openly available through the "Link to Full Text" button.
The published Version of Record is available at libraries through Compass or Worldcat.
Rights Holder
American Psychological Association
Provenance
Received from CHORUS
Language
English (eng)
Publication Title
Journal of Family Psychology
Volume
31
Issue
1
First Page
61
Last Page
70
ISSN
1939-1293
Recommended Citation
Monn, A. R., Narayan, A. J., Kalstabakken, A. W., Schubert, E. C., & Masten, A. S. (2017). Executive function and parenting in the context of homelessness. Journal of Family Psychology, 31(1), 61–70. https://doi.org/10.1037/fam0000275