Parenting Challenges Among Families Experiencing Homelessness with Children with and without Externalizing Behavior...

Area of Science:

• Child Psychology
• Family Studies
• Public Health

Background:

• Externalizing behavior problems (EBP) in children can significantly impact family dynamics and parenting stress.
• Homelessness presents unique challenges for caregivers, potentially exacerbating parenting difficulties.
• Understanding parenting factors in diverse housing situations is crucial for targeted interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare parenting factors between caregivers of children with and without externalizing behavior problems (EBP).
• To examine differences between children in a homeless shelter sample and a stable housing sample.
• To identify specific challenges faced by caregivers in homeless settings.

Main Methods:

• Recruited 914 children (ages 2.01-7.49) and their primary caregivers from homeless shelter and stable housing settings.
• Caregivers completed questionnaires on parenting stress and underwent observational measures of parent-child interactions.
• Logistic regression and multivariate analyses were used to compare groups.

Main Results:

• Children in homeless shelters were less likely to be identified with EBP, particularly Black and Hispanic children.
• The homeless shelter group with EBP reported the highest overall stress levels.
• Mothers in the homeless shelter-EBP group showed more negative verbalizations; homeless shelter groups had fewer total verbalizations than stable housing groups.

Conclusions:

• Parenting stress and negative parent-child interactions are amplified in homeless shelters when children have EBP.
• Integrating universal parenting programs into homeless shelters can mitigate parenting stress.
• Such programs are valuable for addressing health disparities in vulnerable homeless populations.