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Who Looks on the Bright Side? Expectations of Low-Income Parents with a Disruptive Young Child

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Abstract

Low-income parents are more likely to have a child with disruptive behaviors. Furthermore, these parents are likely to struggle with low expectations about the future, which can interfere with treatment response to even the most effective treatments. The purpose of this study was to explore correlates of low-income parents’ expectations, specifically hopelessness and optimism, in families with clinic-referred disruptive young children. Using baseline data from an intervention trial (Jones et al., 2021), we used a multi-informant approach to test whether parenting behaviors, child misbehavior, and parental daily stressors were related to parent hopelessness and optimism. Results based on the Everyday Stress Index indicated that only daily stressors, particularly those related to relationships and responsibilities, were related to parent feelings of hopelessness and optimism. Results were interpreted through transactional and ecological systems theories, particularly the Family Stress Model (Conger & Conger, 2002), as well as a low-income parent’s self-efficacy as a caregiver. Clinical implications are discussed.

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Data Availability

Work with data is ongoing and have thus not yet been deposited. Data are available upon request with approval.

Notes

  1. Given our aim to better understand parent expectations as they relate to intervention for child disruptive behaviors, we excluded parents who were currently experiencing a depressive or psychotic episode, or who were actively engaging in substance use. The presence of depression, psychosis, or substance abuse in a parent may call for a differing treatment approach that prioritizes individual treatment for the parent (Forehand & Sullivan, 2017).

  2. For this caregiver, observations identified atypically high levels of attends and rewards (>5 SDs above the mean) and atypically low numbers (i.e., zero) of questions and instructions during the parent-child interaction.

  3. We excluded child and parent characteristics from Figure 1 as they were not primary constructs of interest.

  4. Given the low factor loadings of two items on the Relationship/Responsibilities factor, we reran the model with the two lowest loading factors dropped (.29 & .30). Results were consistent with the model including the original items.

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This research was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (grant F31HD098825 to A. S.) and the National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH100377 NCT01367847; R21MH113887; ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03597789). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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  1. University of Vermont, 2 Colchester Ave, Burlington, VT, 05405, USA

    Alexandra D. W. Sullivan, Nicole Breslend & Rex Forehand

  2. University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA

    Kat L. Wright

  3. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    April Highlander & Deborah J. Jones

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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Alexandra Sullivan, Rex Forehand, Deborah Jones, Nicole Breslend, and April Highlander performed material preparation, data collection and data analysis. Alexandra Sullivan, Kat Wright, and Rex Forehand wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript and read and approved the final manuscript.

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Alexandra D. W. Sullivan, Kat L. Wright, Nicole Breslend, April Highlander, Rex Forehand and Deborah J. Jones have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

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Sullivan, A.D.W., Wright, K.L., Breslend, N. et al. Who Looks on the Bright Side? Expectations of Low-Income Parents with a Disruptive Young Child. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 43, 766–777 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-021-09888-x

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