Psychological and affective disorders often strongly influence parents’ affective interactions andresponses, and consequently poor mental health is associated with harsh, inconsistent, and detachedparenting (Zahn-Waxler et al., in Vol. 4 of this Handbook). Being nurturing, rewarding, attentive,and involved with a child requires concentration, patience, and emotional resources that may bedifficult to muster under psychological distress. For example, depressed mothers often demonstrateparenting patterns that reflect the emotional symptoms of their mental state, view the role of parentingless positively and often exhibit feelings of rejection and hostility toward their children (Downeyand Coyne, 1990; Field, 1995). These affective reactions are manifested in three possible patterns.Some depressed mothers withdraw from their children and respond with little affect or energy; othersbecome hostile toward their children, usually resorting to interfering and intrusive parenting. Stillothers may alternate between withdrawn and intrusive behaviors. In all cases, the mothers’ responsesto the needs of their children tend to be less consistent, frequent, and positive (Downey and Coyne,1990).Research in this field has emphasized the associations among economic decline, economic strain,and parental psychological well-being, particularly depression (e.g., McLoyd, 1997). Accordingly,research on low-income families has explored whether elements of depressive parenting patternsare associated with economic hardship and children’s maladjustment. It is important to note that
these correlations depend on the age and gender of the child, and they do not account for all of
the association between family poverty and child well-being (Watson, Kirby, Kelleher, and Bradley,
1996).
The work by Elder and colleagues on children of the Great Depression (Elder, 1974; Elder, Liker,
and Cross, 1984; Elder, Nguyen, and Caspi, 1985) found strong associations among economic hardship,
parental psychological well-being, and children’s well-being in two-parent families. Fathers
who experienced job loss and economic deprivation were more distressed psychologically and more
prone to explosive, rejecting, and punitive parenting. Preschool-age children in these families, especially
boys, were more likely to exhibit problem behaviors, and adolescent girls were more likely to
have lower feelings of self-adequacy and to be less goal oriented. Adolescent boys fared better than
either adolescent girls or younger children. Elder and colleagues (1985) speculated that the gender
and age differences reflected different experiences in families during times of deprivation. During
such times, adolescent boys sought economic opportunities outside of the home, which limited the
time they spent with their families, perhaps also reducing the amount of negative family interactions they experienced. Younger children and adolescent girls did not have access to buffers provided by
extrafamilial activities.
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