Who’s Home? Caregiver Links to Adolescent Psychological and Achievement Outcomes

Bethany S. Quinn, Rike Frangos, and Laura D. PittmanIntroduction•Adolescents of depressed parents have been found to display higher rates of internalizing problems such as depression, as well as externalizing behavior problems (Goodman & Tully, 2006).Research has shown that if there is a mentally healthy father present in a home where the mother is depressed, many of these negative child outcomes become less prevalent (Gotlib & Goodman, 1999). Adolescents of mothers with internalizing symptoms have been found to score lower on measures of academic performance (Goodman & Brand, 2008)The research of this phenomenon has been broadened to include other family members. For example, Silverstein and Ruiz (2006) claim that grandparents can buffer the transmission of maternal depression to their grandchildren. This poster will examine whether the presence of a father or grandmother in the home will buffer this expected risk when examining low-income adolescents’ psychological and academic outcomes.

MethodProceduresThis study used data from two waves of the Welfare, Children and Families: A Three-City Study, a random sample of low-income families. 1153 adolescents are represented in this sample (10-14 years old at Wave 1; 14-21 years old at Wave 3).• Biological mothers were the primary caregivers of all children in these analyses.•This study used data collected in 1999 (Wave 1) and follow up data collected in 2005-2006 (Wave 3). •97% of the sample were below two times the poverty line.

Measures•Mothers’ psychological symptoms were assessed using the Brief Symptom Inventory- 18, which contains 18 original items from the BSI (BSI-18; Derogatis, 2000). Adolescent externalizing and internalizing symptoms and total problem behaviors were assessed using The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach, 1992).•Mathematical and reading achievement was assessed using the Applied Problems and Letter- Word Identification subtests respectively from the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery - Revised (Woodcock & Mather, 1989, 1990).•Mothers reported on the presence of fathers and grandmothers in the home at Wave 1 & 3.

Data Analysis•All analyses controlled for child gender and corresponding variables at Wave 1.•A series of OLS regressions were run predicting adolescent outcomes at Wave 3. •Wave 1 maternal internalizing symptoms, and either father presence in the home, and grandmother presence were entered into the equation.•Interaction terms were added to the regression model to test whether father or grandmother presence in the home moderated the links between mother’s internalizing symptoms and adolescent outcomes. Interaction terms were created by centering mothers’ BSI scores with father presence and grandmother presence respectively. If there were significant interactions, they were probed according the methods by Aiken and West (1990).

Sample Characteristics

• 42% African American; 48% Hispanic; 8.5 %White , 1.5% Other

• 50% male; 50% female

• 63% mother has high school degree ; 37% mother has no high school degree

• 4.8% father in home at Wave 1 & 3 (n = 56)

• 1.4% grandmother in home at Wave 1 & 3 (n = 16)

Table 2. OLS Regressions Predicting with Father Presence Adolescents’ Socioemotional and Academic Outcomes

Note: *p < .05, **p < .01; standardized beta coefficients are presented

Conclusions & Discussion

.

Figure 1. Interaction of Father Presence on Mother’s Psychological Symptoms Predicting

Overall Adolescents’ Problem Behaviors

Table 1. Descriptive Statistics (N = 1153)

ResultsMain Effects•Mothers’ internalizing symptoms predicted higher adolescents externalizing behaviors internalizing symptoms and overall psychological problems. Father presence predicted lower reading achievement over time (see Table 2). Grandmother presence did not predict adolescent outcomes (see Table 3).

Interactions•Father presence moderated the link between mother internalizing symptoms and overall adolescent problem behaviors over time (r = .63, p = .04; see Figure 1). Mother’s internalizing symptoms related to children’s increased problem behaviors only if there was no father present in the home over time. If a father was present in the home over time, a buffering effect was observed such that mother’s internalizing symptoms did not relate to problem behaviors .Similarly, father presence moderated the link between mother internalizing symptoms and adolescent internalizing symptoms (r = .67, p =.03; see Figure 2). Interactions between mother’s psychological symptoms and grandmother presence did not predict adolescent outcomes.

Variables M SD Range

Child’s age at wave 1 11.91 1.42 10-14

Mother Internalizing at Wave 1 (BSI) 8.39 10.85 0-65

Child Behavior Checklist Total 51.95 11.63 24-81

Child Externalizing Behaviors 53.07 10.67 33-86

Child Internalizing Behaviors 52.26 11.49 31-82

Math Achievement 88.59 11.47 34-142

Reading Achievement 94.61 18.84 26-165

References Achenbach, T. M., Howell, C. T., Quay, H. C. & Conners, C. K. (1991). National survey of problems and competencies

among four- to sixteen-year-olds: Parents' reports for normative and clinical samples. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 56, 5-120.

Derogatis, L.R. (1975). Brief Symptom Inventory. Baltimore: Clinical Psychometric Research. Gotlib, I. H., & Goodman, S. H. (1999). Children of parents with depression. In W. Silverman, & T. Ollendick (Eds.) Developmental issues in the clinical treatment of children (pp. 415-432). Needham Heights MA:

Allyn & Bacon. Goodman, S. H., & Brand, S. R. (2008). Parental psychopathology and its relation to child psychopathology. In M. Hersen & A. Gross (Eds.) Handbook of Clinical Psychology, (Vol. 2, pp.937-965). Hoboken,

NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Goodman, S. H., & Tully, E. (2006). Depression in women who are mothers. In C. Keyes, & S. Goodman (Eds.) Women and Depression: A Handbook for the Social, Behavioral, and Biomedical Sciences (pp. 241-280). Cambridge NY: Cambridge University Press. Silverstein, M. & Ruiz, S. (2006). Breaking the chain: How grandparents moderate the transmission of maternal depression to their grandchildren. Family Relations, 55, 601-612. Woodcock, R. W., & Mather, N. (1989). WoodcockJohnson-Revised Tests of Achievement: Examiner's Manual. In R. W.

Woodcock & M. B. Johnson, Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery-Revised. Itasca, IL: Riverside Publishing. Woodcock, R. W., & Muñoz-Sandoval, A. F. (1996). Batería Woodcock-Muñoz: Pruebas de aprovechamiento-Revisada.

Itasca, IL: Riverside Publishing.

Figure 2. Interaction of Father Presence on Mother’s Psychological Symptoms Predicting

Adolescents’ Internalizing Symptoms

Conclusions•Consistent with prior research, the results show that adolescents who live with mothers struggling with internalizing symptoms will also have higher levels of internalizing, externalizing and overall psychological problems (Goodman & Brand, 2008; Goodman & Tully, 2006). However, there was no link between mothers’ internalizing symptoms and adolescents’ academic outcomes. Being a longitudinal study, the significance of these results demonstrates that mother’s internalizing symptoms are linked to adolescents’ problem behaviors over time. •Many studies have examined the relationship between mothers’ internalizing symptoms and child outcomes. This study adds to that literature in that it studies how the presence of other caregivers influences these relationships.•When mothers had high internalizing symptoms, father presence appeared to function as a buffer that prevented adolescents from developing problem behaviors. Additionally, grandmother presence did not predict adolescent outcomes in this sample.•Thus, these findings suggest that different caregivers may have very unique and interacting effects on children’s social-emotional and academic outcomes.

Limitations and Future Research •A limitation of this study is that father and grandmother psychopathology and family SES were not used as controls. Father psychopathology in addition to mother psychopathology has been shown to have an additive negative effect on child outcomes and thus should be controlled in future studies (Gotlib & Goodman, 1999). •Another limitation is that adolescent outcomes were mother-report rather than self-report, which may influence the findings. •Finally, the current sample focuses on low-income families, thus, future research may want to compare whether similar results are found when father and grandmother psychopathology and SES are considered, specifically including higher SES families.

Table 3. OLS Regressions Predicting with Grandmother Presence Adolescents’ Socioemotional and Academic Outcomes

Note: *p < .05, **p < .01; standardized beta coefficients are presented

Caregiver and Control VariablesExternalizingBehaviors

InternalizingBehaviors

Total Problem Behaviors

MathAchievement

ReadingAchievement

Wave 1 Outcomes .45** .40** .41** .53** .67**

Child Sex .05 .06 .05 -.01 .02

Mother Internalizing Symptoms (Wave 1).11** .16** .12**

-.06.02

Father Presence .01 -.02 -.02 -.04 -.07*

F Ratio 54.20** 46.24** 50.70** 62.69** 121.23**

R2 .25 .23 .23 .29 .44

Caregiver and Control VariablesExternalizingBehaviors

InternalizingBehaviors

Total Problem Behaviors

MathAchievement

ReadingAchievement

Wave 1 Outcomes .45** .40** .39** .53** .67**

Child Sex .05 .06 .05 -.01 .02

Mother Internalizing Symptoms (Wave 1) .12** .16** .15** -.06 .02

Grandmother Presence -.01 -.02 -.02 -.01 -.06

F Ratio 52.77** 47.79** 49.09** 65.97** 134.308**

R2 .25 .23 .23 .29 .45