Adverse Childhood Experiences and Parental Warmth: A Mixed Methods Analysis of Adversity and Parenting Behavior With a Community Sample of Mothers
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Date
2024-01-09
Authors
Fisher, Stephanie
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
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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Keywords
ACEs, Adverse Childhood Experiences, Maternal Warmth, Mixed Methods, Parental Warmth, Supportive Parenting