HOUSEHOLD CHAOS, MATERNAL DISTRESS AND PARENTING: ASSOCIATIONS WITH CHILD FUNCTION ACROSS MULTIPLE DOMAINS

Abstract

Proximal risk factors including household chaos, parenting and maternal distress can have a broad impact on multiple domains of child development and functioning. Using multiple methodologies including a meta-analysis and structural equation modeling with an empirical, cross-sectional design from a larger longitudinal research study; in this dissertation, I examine the impact of household chaos on child executive functioning, socioemotional and physiological stress outcomes, the role that parenting plays in this association, and how maternal distress predicts chaos in the home. In study 1, I conduct a meta-analysis examining the direct association between household chaos and child executive functioning, as well as multiple potential moderators (e.g. child age, sex and race/ethnicity). It incorporates 26 studies, with 27 independent effect sizes with a total sample of 8,944 children. Overall, I found a significant effect of r = .22 between household chaos and child executive function. Among the moderators assessed, only measurement approach of executive functions (informant-completed questionnaire versus direct assessment) was significant, with informant-completed questionnaires yielding an effect of r = .27 compared to direct assessment, r = .16. I conducted a series of separate moderation analyses for questionnaire and direct assessment effects. No significant moderators emerged from the questionnaire analyses, despite heterogeneous effect sizes. Direct assessment analyses revealed that both household chaos dimensions (disorganization and instability) were significantly related to child executive functions, however instability was a stronger correlate (r = .21) than disorganization (r = .09). Composition of the sample was also a significant moderator with effects increased with the proportion of minorities, and with parents with lower levels of education. Building on this work, in studies 2 and 3, I used cross-sectional empirical data from a sample of 137 mothers and their school-aged (5-year old) children. During home visits, mothers completed questionnaires assessing their mood, stressful experiences, the home environment and their child’s socioemotional functioning. Mothers also completed a video tour of the home. Mother-child interactions were videotaped and later coded for parenting. Both mothers and children independently completed behavioural assessments of executive function. Also, hair samples were collected from mothers and children from which the stress hormone, cortisol, was extracted as a biomarker of chronic stress. In order to empirically test the findings from the meta-analysis, in my second study, I used structural equation modeling to examine the indirect effect of household chaos on child executive functioning via parenting. I found that household chaos was directly and indirectly (via maternal cognitive sensitivity and emotional availability) associated with a latent variable of child executive functioning. Furthermore, instability, but not disorganization, significantly predicted child executive functioning directly and indirectly via parenting. Finally, sex-based analyses indicated that the effect of chaos on child executive functioning was significant through indirect effects only for boys. In the third study, in order to elucidate potential contributing factors to household chaos, I used a structural equation model to examine the indirect effects of a linear regression-weighted composite variable of maternal distress (depression, negative affect and physiological stress) on child hair cortisol levels and externalizing and internalizing behaviour problems via household chaos. I found that maternal distress had both direct and indirect effects (via household chaos) on child hair cortisol levels; however, only indirect effects were significant for externalizing and internalizing behaviour problems. Also, the indirect effect was only significant for household disorganization, but not instability, for child hair cortisol and externalizing and internalizing behaviour problems. Taken together, the findings from my dissertation demonstrate that: 1) household chaos has a direct, negative effect on child executive functioning and an indirect effect via parenting; and 2) maternal distress plays an important role in predicting the levels of chaos within the home which has implications for child chronic stress levels and behavioural problems. Collectively, these findings highlight the need to take a multi-method approach to measuring executive functioning in children and further, to develop and evaluate interventions that aim to support mothers, improve parenting and promote order and stability within the home in order to foster healthy developmental trajectories for children.