Límites de Atterberg

of parenting stress?

Parenting stress is presumed to interfere with the development of an infant’s regulation skills and has been implicated in the development and maintenance of internalising and externalising problem behaviours (Cicchetti & Toth, 1991).

Proposed mechanisms for the effect of parenting stress on child problem behaviours include direct exposure to stress, heritability, parent-child dysregulation, exposure to negative emotionality and modeling (McCarty & McMahon, 2003). Twin and

adoption studies have demonstrated a strong genetic component to dyadic

mutuality of three year olds and their mothers (Deater-Deckard & O’Connor, 2000). Interpersonal theory predicts compromised parenting mediates the relationship between parenting stress and the development of child problem behaviours (Crnic & Low, 2002; Grant et al., 2006; Hammen & Rudolph, 1996; Webster-Stratton, 1990). High maternal stress has been associated with less supportive, more controlling

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parenting in mothers in high and low risk samples across the preschool period (Belsky, Woodworth & Crnic, 1996; Campbell, Shaw & Gilliom, 2000; Crnic, Gaze & Hoffman, 2005; Crnic &Low; Deater-Deckard, 2004; Kochanska, Aksan, Penney & Boldt, 2007; McKelvey, Fitzgerald, Schiffman & Von Eye, 2002; Popp, Spinrad & Smith, 2008; Smith, 2010).

Some researchers have emphasised the cumulative effects of stressors, where the total amount of stress regardless of its sources determines outcomes (Abidin; Belsky, 2002; Morgan, Robinson & Aldridge, 2002). Child vulnerability, attachment, parenting and familial adversity risk factors have been shown to operate in additive and multiplicative ways such that it is the cumulative risk experienced by a child rather than specific patterns of individual risk factors that seems to matter with respect to levels of problem behaviours (Belsky & Fearon, 2002; Greenberg, Speltz, DeKlyen & Jones, 2001). In support of the cumulative risk argument, Gregory, Eley and Plomin (2004) concluded the same environmental factors contributed to the development of early anxiety and conduct problems in preschoolers.

The use of cumulative risk indicators however masks developmental

mechanisms associated with the development of internalising versus externalising problem behaviours. There are few studies that delineate specific pathways to either internalising or externalising problem behaviours (Thompson & Raikes, 2003). Bogels and Brechman-Toussaint (2006) proposed a specific pathway to internalising

problem behaviours from the interaction of anxious temperament with family

factors such as maternal anxiety and family stress. However there is a paucity of such studies with infants. Very little is known about how early patterns of risk appear, what the risk factors are in infancy and how problem behaviours vary over the first two years and with developmental stage.

Crnic, Gaze and Hoffman (2005) investigated the effects of cumulative stress over the preschool period on mother-child interaction and child behaviour at age 5 in a low risk community sample. After controlling for child temperamental negativity, stress explained a small amount of variance in maternal positivity with child (5%) and

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dyadic pleasure (7%) but none of the variance in maternal negativity with child or dyadic conflict. However cumulative stress accounted for 15% of the variance in CBCL child problem behaviours at age 5. The authors proposed parenting may

mediate specific aspects of parenting stress that affect the child’s emotional security. The results of this study suggest mechanisms other than through the affective tone in the parent-child relationship link parenting stress to child problem behaviours. The authors concluded parenting stress was a multidimensional construct with differential relations with parenting, parent-child relationships and the development of child problem behaviours. Note also this study considered total problems only and did not investigate potential pathways from parenting stress to internalising versus externalising problem behaviours.

Despite known dimensionality of parenting stress, research has predominantly considered the effects of total parenting stress on the development of child

internalising and externalising problem behaviours. Differential relations may reflect different mechanisms from different sources of parenting stress (Grant et al., 2003; McMahon, Grant, Compas, Thurm & Ey, 2003). Some aspects of parenting stress may be indirectly related to child regulation via their effects on parenting or on maternal well being. For example, Smith (2010) found contextual stress measured as high workload and financial stress, but not parent-child relationship stress, was associated with negative parenting of three year olds.

Other aspects of parenting stress may have direct effects on child regulation (Yates, Obradovic & Egeland, 2010). Costa, Weems, Pelerin and Dalton (2006) considered concurrent associations of specific aspects of parenting stress, using the PSI short form (Abidin, 1990) and controlling for maternal psychopathology, with CBCL internalising and externalising problem behaviours in a high risk referred sample of children aged 5-17 years. Stress arising from dysfunctional parent-child interactions, including negative parent perceptions and feelings of alienation or disappointment, was related to internalising problem behaviours. Stress arising from having a child with a difficult child temperament was related to both internalising and externalising problem behaviours. Consistent with overreporting of problem

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behaviours by mothers with mental health difficulties (De Los Reyes & Kazdin, 2004), maternal psychopathology accounted for the relation between parental distress and child problem behaviours.

Thus the study described above demonstrated different relations with internalising versus externalising problem behaviours from different aspects of parenting stress. For example stress arising from within the parent-child relationship may be more associated with internalising problem behaviours. Or stress arising from a mother’s relationships with others apart from her child may be more

associated with externalising problem behaviours. An investigation of the potential differential effects of toddler internalising versus externalising problem behaviours from different sources of stress may help to elucidate developmental mechanisms.

3.9 Looking at the development of toddler problem