Developmental Psychology · 1997 · 292 citations · 38 references
Social SciencesHuman DevelopmentPsychologyChild DevelopmentDevelopmental PsychologyFamily StudiesFamily ContextsFamily FunctioningFamily ProcessesFamily StressParent-child RelationshipsParentingChild Adjustment DisordersFamily Coping ProcessesFamily Stress ProcessesFamily Support ProcessesMaternal ParentingParent-child Relationship AdjustmentSingle-parent Family Adjustment
Seventy‑five percent of the sample lived in poverty. A family process model was tested, linking adequacy of family financial resources to academic and psychosocial adjustment among 156 African American 6‑ to 9‑year‑old children with single mothers who lived in the rural South. The model posits that financial resources influence child outcomes through mother‑child relationship quality, family routines, and child self‑regulation. Financial resource inadequacy was associated with higher maternal depressive symptoms and lower self‑esteem, which related to poorer family routines and mother‑child relationship quality; these pathways mediated child academic and psychosocial adjustment through self‑regulation, with a partially mediated model fitting better for boys.
A family process model was tested, linking adequacy of family financial resources to academic and psychosocial adjustment among 156 African American 6- to 9-year-old children with single mothers who lived in the rural South. Seventy five percent of the sample lived in poverty. Lack of adequate financial resources was associated with more depressive symptoms and lower self-esteem among mothers. Self-esteem was linked with family routines and mother-child relationship quality. The paths from mother-child relationship quality and family routines to child academic and psychosocial adjustment were mediated by the development of child self-regulation. An alternative partially mediated model improved the fit of the data for families with boys.
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