Special Education Theses and Dissertations

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Browsing Special Education Theses and Dissertations by Subject "Adverse Childhood Experiences"

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    Adverse Childhood Experiences and Parental Warmth: A Mixed Methods Analysis of Adversity and Parenting Behavior With a Community Sample of Mothers
    (University of Oregon, 2024-01-09) Fisher, Stephanie; Giuliani, Nicole
    Parenting is an important and complex experience that drives a child’s healthy development and well-being as an adult. Parenting has strong implications for child outcomes, and the link between a history of adversity and unsupportive parenting practices as an adult has been well-established in research. The effects of childhood adversity on supportive parenting, however, are still unclear. Parental warmth is a key component of supportive practices, but little is known about how exposure to adverse childhood experiences can impact warmth-related parenting behaviors. In order to investigate this relationship further, 84 mothers and their 3 to 5 year-old children participated in parent-child interactions and self-report measures. Data from the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Questionnaire (ACE-Q; Felitti et al., 1998) and related variables of importance were analyzed using a mixed methods approach with quantitative statistical analyses and qualitative analysis of non-participant observations. This study aimed to closely understand the relationship between ACEs and parental warmth by operationalizing ACEs in three distinct ways, assessing related parenting behaviors, discovering differences among mothers with high ACE scores, and exploring data synergistically guided by qualitative analysis. Findings from this study indicate that more exposure to adverse childhood events is related to fewer warm behaviors as a parent, and that socio-emotional factors may play an influential role in this association.
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    Intergenerational Trauma of Mothers to Children: Relation to Preschoolers' Negative Life Events and Social Emotional Skills
    (University of Oregon, 2021-09-13) Walden, Emily; McIntyre, Laura Lee
    Childhood trauma has negative effects across development and into adulthood, including within parenting. Young children may be vulnerable to intergenerational trauma when their mothers have past histories of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), given the importance of mother-child attachment and lifelong risks associated with ACEs. When children transition to preschool, their social emotional learning (SEL) skills develop rapidly as they navigate friendships and emotions, but these skills may be at risk if early negative life events (NLEs) are experienced, especially if those are linked with mothers’ early traumas. The purpose of this study was to examine associations between mothers’ ACEs and their children’s SEL skills, and to see whether children’s NLEs and mother-child SEL behaviors separately moderated this relationship. Participants included 88 biological mother-child dyads, with children 3- to 5-years-old. Results indicated that mothers’ ACEs and children’s SEL skills were negatively associated; early NLEs, especially those connected to mothers’ traumas, were negatively associated with child SEL skills. ACEs were related differently across mother and child SEL behaviors. This study provides understanding that may inform prevention and intervention efforts related to mothers with ACE exposure and their preschool children.