Understanding Family Routines in a Head Start Sample: A Family Stress Model Perspective

<p>According to the family stress model (FSM), economic pressure, or the perceived strain of economic hardship, contributes to parent mental health problems, which impacts parenting behaviors and, in turn, results in negative child outcomes like child externalizing behavior. Studies have shown that routines within a household can mitigate child externalizing behavior problems, but relatively few studies have applied routines to the context of the FSM. The goal of this cross-sectional study was to assess the pathways through which parental distress and family routines link the association between economic pressure and child externalizing behavior. Participants included 89 female primary caregivers with a young child (aged 2-5) enrolled in a Head Start program in the Southeastern United States. Participants completed online questionnaires via Qualtrics in exchange for $10 gift cards. Simple mediation models revealed that more economic pressure was associated with more parental distress and fewer family routines, and when considered separately, both factors indirectly predicted more child externalizing behaviors. However, there was no association between parental distress and family routines, providing insufficient evidence to support a serial mediation model consistent with the FSM framework. Instead, post-hoc analyses provided support for a parallel mediation model combining the two simple mediations models. Greater economic pressure was associated with more externalizing behaviors through fewer family routines and separately, through greater parental distress. Regarding implications for practice, practitioners may find that interventions aimed at implementing family routines or lessening parental distress may lessen child externalizing behavior problems even in the context of economic hardship.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters Thesis

Year dc:date.available

2025

Author dc:creator

• Delgadillo, Arianna A.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Sara Jordan
• Stephanie Smith
• Zachary LaBrot

• economic hardship
• routines
• parenting
• family stress
• Social and Behavioral Sciences

Repository record dc:identifier

https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/1174

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:aquila.usm.edu:masters_theses-2224