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

Abstract

Objective: To examine differences in parenting factors among caregivers with children with and without externalizing behavior problems (EBP) in a community homeless shelter sample versus a stable housing sample.

Method: Nine hundred and fourteen children (ages = 2.01-7.49 years, SD = 1.45 years, 40.8% female, 54.3% Black, 46.7% Hispanic) were recruited from a service-driven research project in a shelter setting (n = 638) and a longitudinal/clinical study (n = 276). Primary caregivers (97% mothers) completed a parenting stress questionnaire and an observational measure of parent-child interactions.

Results: Logistic regression indicated that children who were Black and/or of Hispanic background were less likely to be identified as having elevated EBP but only in the homeless shelter sample. Multivariate analyses indicated that the homeless shelter-EBP group reported the highest levels of overall stress compared to the homeless shelter-typically developing (TD), stable housing-EBP and stable housing-TD groups. Mothers from the homeless shelter-EBP group exhibited a higher proportion of negative verbalizations relative to caregivers from all other groups while mothers from the homeless shelter-TD group exhibited a higher proportion of positive verbalizations relative to the caregivers from the homeless shelter-EBP group and the stable housing TD group. Both homeless shelter groups engaged in less total verbalizations relative to both stable housing samples, with the stable housing-EBP group exhibiting the most verbalizations.

Conclusions: High levels of parenting stress and negative parent-child interactions within a homeless shelter sample are exacerbated by having a child with EBP. Embedding universal parenting programs in a homeless shelter setting to reduce parenting stress would be valuable to address health disparities in this vulnerable population.