Mahrer Nicole E, Rinne Gabrielle R, Guardino Christine M, Swales Danielle A, Shalowitz Madeleine Ullman, Ramey Sharon Landesman, Schetter Christine Dunkel
University of La Verne, Psychology Department, 1950 Third Street La Verne, CA 91750, USA.
University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Psychology, 502 Portola Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
OBM Integr Compliment Med. 2025 Mar;10(1). doi: 10.21926/obm.icm.2501011. Epub 2025 Mar 4.
Certain observable parenting behaviors contribute to the risk of children developing internalizing and externalizing problems. Yet parenting behaviors do not affect all children uniformly and effects may depend on identifiable child characteristics. One factor is a child's biological sensitivity to the caregiving environment, an indicator of which is a stress hormone, cortisol. This longitudinal study examines two dimensions of observable parenting behaviors, responsive and rejecting/harsh. These parenting behaviors and child cortisol awakening response (CAR) were measured during home visits in a sample of 100 mostly low-income White and Latina/Hispanic mothers and their children at ages 4-6. Children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors were assessed one year later. We tested the effects of responsive and harsh/rejecting parenting on child internalizing and externalizing and examined child CAR as a moderator. Results indicated that responsive parenting predicted better child mental health as indexed by fewer internalizing and externalizing behaviors, whereas harsh/rejecting parenting predicted more internalizing behaviors. Harsh/rejecting parenting interacted with child CAR such that harsh/rejecting parenting predicted more externalizing only among children with low CAR; there was no interaction of responsive parenting with child CAR. These results elucidate how child CAR may shape mental health outcomes associated with harsh/rejecting parenting.
某些可观察到的养育行为会增加儿童出现内化问题和外化问题的风险。然而，养育行为对所有儿童的影响并非一致，其效果可能取决于可识别的儿童特征。一个因素是儿童对养育环境的生理敏感性，其一个指标是应激激素皮质醇。这项纵向研究考察了可观察到的养育行为的两个维度，即反应性和拒绝/严厉性。在对100名主要为低收入白人及拉丁裔/西班牙裔母亲及其4至6岁孩子进行家访期间，对这些养育行为和儿童皮质醇觉醒反应（CAR）进行了测量。一年后评估了儿童的内化行为和外化行为。我们测试了反应性养育和严厉/拒绝性养育对儿童内化和外化行为的影响，并将儿童CAR作为调节变量进行了考察。结果表明，反应性养育预示着儿童心理健康状况更好，表现为内化和外化行为减少，而严厉/拒绝性养育则预示着更多的内化行为。严厉/拒绝性养育与儿童CAR存在交互作用，即严厉/拒绝性养育仅在CAR较低的儿童中预示着更多的外化行为；反应性养育与儿童CAR不存在交互作用。这些结果阐明了儿童CAR可能如何塑造与严厉/拒绝性养育相关的心理健康结果。
