"Positive (i.e., warm, sensitive, responsive) and negative (i.e., hostile, controlling) parenting behaviors are related to developmental outcomes in children, including outcomes in cognitive, behavioral, and socio-emotional functioning. According to Belsky's process model (1984), parenting behaviors are multiply determined by factors stemming from the parent's psychological resources, contextual stressors or supports, and characteristics of the child. While it is understood that parenting determinants such as intimate partner violence (IPV), maternal depressive symptoms, income status and social support have influence on positive and negative parenting behaviors, the developmental trajectories of these determinants and their relation to parenting behaviors has not yet been examined. The current study used a multi-method approach in a longitudinal dataset to examine how developmental trajectories of four parenting determinants (i.e., IPV, maternal depressive symptoms, income status, social support) from age 1 to age 4 influence positive and negative parenting behaviors during preschool. Latent growth curve models were fitted for each of these trajectories' effects on both positive and negative parenting behaviors as the outcome variable at age 4. The age 1 levels of the examined parenting stressors (IPV, maternal depressive symptoms, income) were found to influence preschool parenting behavior in the expected directions. There were no effects for the slope trajectories on parenting behavior. These findings indicate the importance examining parenting stressors early in the parenting relationship, as they may have enduring influences on later parenting behavior."--Page ii.
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