Citation

Brody GH, Chen YF, Kogan SM, Murry VMB, Logan P, Luo Z. J. Marriage Fam. 2008; 70(2): 319-331.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, National Council on Family Relations, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1741-3737.2008.00484.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This longitudinal study was designed to test hypotheses, derived from a stress proliferation framework, regarding the association between perceived racial discrimination and changes in parenting among African American mothers in the rural South. A sample of 139 mothers and their children were interviewed 3 times at 1-year intervals. Mothers reported on perceived discrimination and two proliferated stressors: stress-related health problems and depressive symptoms. Both mothers and children reported on mothers’ competence-promoting parenting. Structural equation modeling revealed a chain-like sequence: Perceived discrimination forecast increases in mothers’ stress-related health problems, which in turn were positively associated with depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms constituted the proximal variable associated with decreases in mothers’ competence-promoting parenting. These results emerged independent of socioeconomic characteristics.