Examining the Relations Between Parenting Stress, Harsh Parenting Practices, and Children’s Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms

This study examines: relations between maternal parenting stress in infancy and preschool-aged children’s internalizing and externalizing symptoms; whether verbal and physical harsh parenting practices mediate these relations; and whether these relations are moderated by child gender. Research links maternal parenting stress to harsh parenting, which is a risk factor for children’s internalizing and externalizing symptoms. But limited research has examined how maternal stress in infancy affects preschool-aged children’s outcomes, or how verbal and physical harsh parenting practices independently affect these outcomes. The study data came from the Future of Families & Child Wellbeing Study. Results indicate maternal parenting stress in infancy positively predicts internalizing and externalizing symptoms in preschool-aged children; although verbal and physical harsh parenting practices serve as a mediator generally, there is an nonsignificant relation between physical harsh parenting in toddlerhood and externalizing symptoms in preschool-aged children; and preschool-aged children’s outcomes were not moderated by child gender.