The effect of parenting stress on child behavior problems in high-risk children with prenatal drug exposure Article

Bagner, DM, Sheinkopf, SJ, Miller-Loncar, C et al. (2009). The effect of parenting stress on child behavior problems in high-risk children with prenatal drug exposure . CHILD PSYCHIATRY & HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, 40(1), 73-84. 10.1007/s10578-008-0109-6

cited authors

  • Bagner, DM; Sheinkopf, SJ; Miller-Loncar, C; LaGasse, LL; Lester, BM; Liu, J; Bauer, CR; Shankaran, S; Bada, H; Das, A

authors

abstract

  • Objective: To examine the relationship between early parenting stress and later child behavior in a high-risk sample and measure the effect of drug exposure on the relationship between parenting stress and child behavior. Methods: A subset of child-caregiver dyads (n = 607) were selected from the Maternal Lifestyle Study (MLS), which is a large sample of children (n = 1,388) with prenatal cocaine exposure and a comparison sample unexposed to cocaine. Of the 607 dyads, 221 were prenatally exposed to cocaine and 386 were unexposed to cocaine. Selection was based on the presence of a stable caregiver at 4 and 36 months with no evidence of change in caregiver between those time points. Results: Parenting stress at 4 months significantly predicted child externalizing behavior at 36 months. These relations were unaffected by cocaine exposure suggesting the relationship between parenting stress and behavioral outcome exists for high-risk children regardless of drug exposure history. Conclusions: These results extend the findings of the relationship between parenting stress and child behavior to a sample of high-risk children with prenatal drug exposure. Implications for outcome and treatment are discussed. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

publication date

  • March 1, 2009

published in

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

start page

  • 73

end page

  • 84

volume

  • 40

issue

  • 1