Experimental Support for a Family Systems Approach to Child Development: Multiple Mediators of Intervention Effects across the Transition to Parenthood

Mark E Feinberg, Damon E Jones, Mark E Feinberg, Damon E Jones

Abstract

The analysis of mediational pathways in intervention trials represents the strongest method available for establishing causal links between developmental factors and child outcomes. This paper assesses mediation of the effects of Family Foundations on toddler emotional and behavioral adjustment through parent-related factors (parental stress, parental depression, coparenting negativity, parenting negativity). Data come from the second trial of Family Foundations, a universal preventive program delivered at the transition to parenthood. Mediating mechanisms were assessed at 10 months postpartum (posttest); and child outcomes were measured at two years post-birth. Results indicated that putative mediators did not significantly mediate outcomes when considered one at a time; but the set of mediators collectively mediated child outcomes. Implications for assessing mediation in future trials are discussed.

Keywords: Prevention; child; couple; family; mediation.

Conflict of interest statement

Dr. Mark Feinberg created the Family Foundations program and is the owner of a private company, Family Gold, which disseminates the Family Foundations program. Dr. Feinberg’s financial interest has been reviewed by the Institutional Review Board and the Conflict of Interest Committee at The Pennsylvania State University.

Figures

Figure 1. Path model results (standardized coefficients…
Figure 1. Path model results (standardized coefficients estimates for mother / father) testing mediational associations between intervention participation and child adjustment at follow-up assessment
Note: *p<0.05; **p<0.01; ^p<0.10. Each depicted path actually represents the two distinct paths for mothers and fathers included in the model. Direct paths from intervention to child behavior outcomes were non-significant and not depicted. Control variables for mediators included baseline marital status, age, family income, economic strain, geographical region indicator, social desirability self-report. Control variables for outcomes include baseline family income, child age, child gender.

References

    1. Abidin RR ( 1995). Parenting Stress Index (3rd ed.). Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
    1. Achenbach T, & Rescorla L (2000). Manual for the ASEBA Preschool Forms and Profiles. Burlington: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.
    1. Belsky J, & Pensky E (1988). Marital change across the transition to parenthood. Marriage & Family Review, 12(3–4), 133–156.
    1. Britner PA, Marvin RS, & Pianta RC (2005). Development and preliminary validation of the caregiving behavior system: Association with child attachment classification in the preschool Strange Situation. Attachment & Human Development, 7(1), 83–102.
    1. Cicchetti D, & Hinshaw SP (2002). Editorial: Prevention and intervention science: Contributions to developmental theory. Development and Psychopathology, 14(04), 667–671. doi:doi:10.1017/S0954579402004017
    1. Cowan CP, & Cowan PA (1995). Interventions to ease the transition to parenthood: Why they are needed and what they can do. Family Relations: Journal of Applied Family & Child Studies, 44(4), 412–423.
    1. Cowan CP, & Cowan PA (2000). When partners become parents: The big life change for couples. Mahwah, NJ, US: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers.
    1. Crnic K, & Greenberg MT (1987). Maternal stress, social support, and coping: Influences on the earlymother-infant relationship In Boukydis CFZ (Ed.), Research on Support for Parents and Infants in the Postnatal Period (pp. 25–40). Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation.
    1. Davies PT, & Cummings EM (1994). Marital conflict and child adjustment: An emotional security hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 116(3), 387–411.
    1. Dickersin K, Chan S, & Chalmers TC (1987). Publication bias and clinical trials Controlled Clinical Trials, 8(4), 343–353. doi:10.1016/0197-2456(87)90155-3
    1. Doss BD, & Rhoades GK (2017). The transition to parenthood: impact on couples’ romantic relationships. Current opinion in psychology, 13, 25–28. doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2016.04.003
    1. Eisenberg N, Valiente C, Spinrad TL, Cumberland A, Liew J, Reiser M, . . . Losoya SH (2009). Longitudinal relations of children’s effortful control, impulsivity, and negative emotionality to their externalizing, internalizing, and co-occurring behavior problems. Developmental Psychology, 45(4), 988–1008.
    1. Feinberg M (2002). Coparenting and the Transition to Parenthood: A Framework for Prevention. Clinical Child & Family Psychology Review, 5, 173–195.
    1. Feinberg ME (2003). The internal structure and ecological context of coparenting: A framework for research and intervention. Parenting: Science and Practice, 3(3), 95–131. doi:
    1. Feinberg ME, Kan ML, & Goslin MC (2009). Enhancing coparenting, parenting, and child selfregulation: Effects of Family Foundations 1 year after birth. Prevention Science, 10(3), 276–285. doi:10.1007/s11121-009-0142-0
    1. Field TM (2000).Infants of depressed mothers In Johnson SL & Hayes AM (Eds.), Stress, coping, and depression. (pp. 3–22). Mahwah, NJ, US: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers.
    1. Forehand R, Lafko N, Parent J, & Burt K (2014). Is Parenting the Mediator of Change in Behavioral Parent Training for Externalizing Problems of Youth? Clinical Psychology Review, 34(8), 608–619. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2014.10.001
    1. Halford WK, Petch J, & Creedy D (2010). Promoting a Positive Transition to Parenthood: A Randomized Clinical Trial of Couple Relationship Education. Prevention Science, 11(1), 89–100.
    1. Hayes AF (2009). Beyond Baron and Kenny: Statistical mediation analysis in the new millennium.Communication Monographs, 76(4), 408–420.
    1. Heinicke CM (2002). The transition to parenting. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
    1. Jones D, Feinberg M, Hostetler M, & Roettger M (in press). Parenting, coparenting, and child outcomes of Family Foundations: Impact and pathways at 2 years postpartum
    1. Jones DE, Feinberg ME, Hostetler ML, Roettger ME, Paul IM, & Ehrenthal DB (in press). Family and child outcomes 2 years after a transition to parenthood intervention. Family Relations.
    1. Katz LF, & Low SM (2004). Marital violence, co-parenting, and family-level processes in relation to children’s adjustment. Journal of Family Psychology, 18, 372–382.
    1. Lipman EL, & Boyle MH (2008). Linking poverty and mental health: A lifespan view Retrieved from Ontario, Canada:
    1. MacKinnon D (2008). Introduction to Statistical Mediation Analysis. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis Group/Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
    1. Malik NM, & Lindahl KM (2004). System for coding interaction in dyads In Kerig PK & Baucom DH (Eds.), Couple Observational Coding Systems. NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
    1. Margolin G, Gordis EB, & Oliver PH (2004). Links between marital and parent-child interactions: Moderating role of husband-to-wife aggression. Development and Psychopathology, 16(3), 753–771.
    1. Marlow D, & Crowne DP (1961). Social desirability and response to perceived situational demands. Journal of Consulting Psychology,, 25, 109–115.
    1. McHale JP (2007). Charting the bumpy road of coparenting. Washington D.C.: Zero to Three.
    1. McHale JP, Kuersten-Hogan R, & Lauretti A (2001). Evaluating coparenting and family-level dynamics during infancy and early childhood: The Coparenting and Family Rating System In Kerig PK & Lindahl KM (Eds.), Family observational coding systems: Resources for systemic research. (pp. 151–170). Mahwah, NJ, US: Lawrence Erlbaum.
    1. Merrifield KA, & Gamble WC (2013). Associations Among Marital Qualities, Supportive and Undermining Coparenting, and Parenting Self-Efficacy: Testing Spillover and Stress-Buffering Processes. Journal of Family Issues, 34(4), 510–533. doi:10.1177/0192513×12445561
    1. Muthén LK, & Muthén BO (2010).Mplus User’s Guide. Los Angeles, CA: Muthén & Muthén.
    1. NICHD Early Child Care Research Network. (1999). Chronicity of maternal depressive symptoms, maternal sensitivity, and child functioning at 36 months. Developmental Psychology, 35(5), 1297–1310.
    1. O’Hara MW, & Swain AM (1996). Rates and risk of postpartum depression--a meta-analysis. Intternational Review of Psychiatry, 8, 37–54.
    1. Olds DL (2006). The nurse-family partnership: An evidence-based preventive intervention. Infant Mental Health Journal, 27(1), 5–25. doi:10.1002/imhj.20077
    1. Patterson GR, & Fisher PA (Eds.). (2002). Recent developments in our understanding of parenting:Bidirectional effects, causal models, and the search for parsimony (Vol. 5). Mahwah, NJ:: Erlbaum.
    1. Porter CL, Wouden-Miller M, Silva SS, & Porter AE (2003). Marital Harmony and Conflict: Links to Infants’ Emotional Regulation and Cardiac Vagal Tone. Infancy, 4(2), 297–307. doi: 10.1207/S15327078IN0402_09
    1. Preacher KJ, & Hayes AF (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 40, 879–891.
    1. Radloff LS (1977). The CES-D Scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied psychological measurement, 1(3), 385–401. doi:10.1177/014662167700100306
    1. Rutter M, Pickles A, Murray R, & Eaves L (2001). Testing hypotheses on specific environmental causal effects on behavior. Psychological Bulletin, 127(3), 291–324. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.127.3.291
    1. Sandler IN, Schoenfelder EN, Wolchik SA, & MacKinnon DP (2011). Long-Term Impact of Prevention Programs to Promote Effective Parenting: Lasting Effects but Uncertain Processes. Annual review of psychology, 62(1), 299–329. doi:doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.121208.131619
    1. Schulz MS, Cowan CP, & Cowan PA (2006). Promoting healthy beginnings: A randomized controlled trial of a preventive intervention to preserve marital quality during the transition to parenthood. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74(1).
    1. Shapiro AF, & Gottman JM (2005). Effects on marriage of a psycho-communicative-educational intervention with couples undergoing the transition to parenthood, evaluation at 1-year post intervention. Journal of Family Communication, 5(1), 1–24. doi:
    1. Slep AM, & O’Leary SG (2005). Parent and partner violence in families with young children: Rates, patterns, and connections. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73(3), 435–444. doi:10.1037/0022-006X.73.3.435
    1. Solmeyer AR, & Feinberg ME (2011). Mother and father adjustment during early parenthood: the roles of infant temperament and coparenting relationships quality. Infant Behavior and Development, 34, 504–514.
    1. Solmeyer AR, Feinberg ME, Coffman DL, & Jones DE (2014). Effects of the Family Foundations prevention program on coparenting and child adjustment: A mediation analysis. Prevention Science, 15, 213–223.
    1. Teti DM, O’Connell MA, & Reiner CD (1996). Parenting sensitivity, parental depression and child health: The mediational role of parental self-efficacy. Early Development & Parenting, 5(4), 237–250.
    1. Tice DM (1992). Self-concept change and self-presentation: the looking glass self is also a magnifying glass. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63(3), 435–451.
    1. Walther VN (1997). Postpartum depression: A review for perinatal social workers. Social Work in Health Care, 24, 99–111.
    1. Wood RG, Moore Q, Clarkwest A, Killewald A, & Monahan S (2012). The long-term effects of Building Strong Families: A relationship skills education program for unmarried parents. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.

Source: PubMed

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Conditions

Drug Interventions

3
Subscribe