Journal of Intellectual Disability Research
487
doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2788.2010.01268.x
volume 54 part 6 pp 487–500 june 2010
Early childhood predictors of mothers’ and
fathers’ relationships with adolescents with
developmental disabilities
jir_1268
487..500
D. B. Mitchell & P. Hauser-Cram
Boston College, Boston, MA, USA
Abstract
earlier parenting stress. The father–teen relationship
was also predicted by early behaviour problems, but
this relation was mediated by parenting stress. Socioeconomic status, type of disability and the child’s
level of functioning were not predictive of later relationships between parents and teens. Mothers and
fathers did not differ significantly in their reports of
perceived positive relationships with their teens.
Conclusions The findings from this study suggest
two important points of potential intervention
during the early intervention years. First, parenting
assistance and support to reduce stress during the
early childhood years can benefit both mothers and
fathers. Second, helping families and children cope
with and diminish problem behaviours is likely to
yield multiple advantages for parents and children
and deserves emphasis in early intervention and
pre-school programmes.
Background The importance of positive parent–
adolescent relationships is stressed in research on
adolescents, although very little is known about this
relationship when a teen has developmental disabilities (DD). We investigated the relationships of adolescents with disabilities with their mothers and
their fathers in order to answer a number of questions regarding these relationships. In particular, we
asked: are there differences in the relationships of
mothers and fathers with their adolescent with
DD? Are there early childhood predictors of the
parent–teen relationship and are those based on
variables that are amenable to intervention?
Finally, do these predictors differ for mothers and
fathers?
Methods This study focused on the relationships of
72 mothers and 53 fathers with their 15-year-old
teens with DD and their predictors from the early
childhood years. Data were collected from parents
through interviews and self-administered questionnaires, and from their children with disabilities
through structured assessment when children were
age 3 years and again at age 15 years.
Results Analyses indicated that both mother–teen
and father–teen relationships were predicted by
Introduction
Correspondence: Dr. Darcy B. Mitchell, Boston College, Lynch
School of Education, Campion Hall 239, Chestnut Hill, MA
02167-3813, USA (e-mail: mitchedf@bc.edu)
Contemporary research on adolescent development
consistently emphasises the importance of connected and positive parent–adolescent relationships
Keywords developmental disabilities, parent-child
relationship, parent-adolescent relationship,
parenting stress, behaviour problems, early
intervention
© 2010 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
volume 54 part 6 june 2010
Journal of Intellectual Disability Research
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D. B. Mitchell & P. Hauser-Cram • Early childhood predictors of relationships
(Collins & Laursen 2004). Although adolescence is
a time when children gain independence and
increase in competence, the need for supportive
relationships with parents remains high during this
life phase of transition, transformation and realignment (Connell & Wellborn 1991; Lerner 2002).
Indeed, parental connectedness has been found to
be among the most important factors in the emotional well-being of adolescents (Resnick et al.
1997).
The role of mothers has long been known to be
of importance in the lives of their teenaged children. Positive relationships between mothers and
their teens have been shown to relate to fewer externalising and internalising behaviours (Corona et al.
2005; Bynum & Kotchick 2006) and higher selfesteem (Bynum & Kotchick 2006; Milevsky et al.
2007) in typically developing adolescents. The role
of fathers also is receiving increased attention in the
literature on typically developing adolescents.
Fathers who are involved in their adolescents’ lives
have teens who are better adjusted and who are
more satisfied in their relationships as adults (Lamb
& Lewis 2004). Positive teen relationships with
fathers relate to less alcohol and drug use (Ledoux
et al. 2002; Jordan & Lewis 2005), fewer suicide
attempts (Ackard et al. 2006) and fewer behaviour
problems at school ( Williams & Kelly 2005).
In contrast to this increased focus on the parent–
adolescent relationship in families with typically
developing adolescents, little is known about these
parental relationships with their teens with disabilities. Orsmond et al. (2006) investigated the predictors of positive relationships of mothers and their
teenaged children with autism, and found that characteristics of children, such as better health, and of
mothers, such as low levels of pessimism, predicted
better relationships. A qualitative study of adolescents with disabilities and their parents, largely
mothers, found that parents felt that relationships
with their teens had become more challenged at this
time (Schneider et al. 2006), possibly as a result of
the length of time that they had been bearing the
burden of caregiving. Studies have not focused specifically on the quality of relationships between adolescents with disabilities and their fathers.
From a family systems perspective of development (Minuchin 2002), critical relationships and
their initial trajectories are often established during
the early years of life (Shonkoff & Phillips 2000).
The climate in the family when children are young
sets a tone that allows children to gain a positive
sense of self and a sense of belonging that contributes to their ability to maintain later relations
(Minuchin 2002). Attachment theory (Ainsworth &
Bell 1970) suggests that the emotional relationship
that children develop with parents early in life
creates working models that establish a pattern for
later relationships. The stress experienced by
parents, including daily family hassles, and its
reflection in parental behaviours, is related to the
ways mothers think about their young children
(Aber et al. 1999). As early intervention (EI) programmes work with young children with disabilities
and their families, the factors in children’s lives at
this juncture provide a key point of intervention.
Indeed, Guralnick’s (2005) developmental systems
approach to EI places family patterns of relationships at its core. EI services are an important part
of the lives of young children with developmental
disabilities (DD) and their families, and research
suggests the importance of EI in supporting families of children with disabilities (NEILS 2008). No
research, however, has investigated the role of early
factors in the lives of children with disabilities and
their families as they relate to later relationships
between parents and adolescents with DD. Such
information would be valuable to those who provide
services to children and families in EI and preschool programmes as well as to parents themselves, especially if findings relate to constructs that
are amenable to intervention. Therefore, the focus
of the current investigation is on the following questions: do mothers and fathers differ in their relationships with their adolescent with DD? Are there
early childhood predictors of the parent–teen relationship and if so, are those predictors based on
relatively intransigent variables, such as socioeconomic status or child gender, or are they based
on variables that are amenable to intervention, such
as psychological processes? Finally, do these predictors differ for mothers and fathers?
In a review of parenting science, Bornstein
(2006) maintained that three types of factors are of
critical importance in relation to parenting competence: (1) the characteristics of the child; (2) the
parenting context; and (3) the intrapersonal or
intrapsychic processes of the parents. It is likely that
© 2010 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
volume 54 part 6 june 2010
Journal of Intellectual Disability Research
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D. B. Mitchell & P. Hauser-Cram • Early childhood predictors of relationships
these three factors measured during early childhood
may also be critical in parenting an adolescent with
DD, although the extent to which research supports
this supposition is not known.
In regard to child characteristics, the type of disability may relate to the parent’s perspective of the
parent–teen relationship. The ‘Down syndrome
advantage’ has been proposed by Hodapp et al.
(2001). They suggest that the behavioural styles of
individuals with Down syndrome, together with a
broad knowledge base distinct to Down syndrome,
may lead to more positive parent psychological processes (such as less stress and depression) than
found in parents of children with other types of disabilities. This notion has been supported by
Abbeduto et al. (2004), who found that mothers of
adolescents with Down syndrome reported closer
relationships to their children than did mothers of
children with autism. Stoneman (2007) found,
however, that in a sample of young children with
Down syndrome and other intellectual disabilities
(IDs) such advantages disappeared when income
differences were controlled, and Corrice & Glidden
(2009) found few differences in mothers of teenaged children, particularly when maternal age and
child behaviour were controlled. Other child
attributes, such as cognitive and adaptive skills, also
may relate to parental perceptions of their adolescent as parents witness normative or slower acquisition of such skills in their child with disabilities in
comparison to other children (Orsmond et al.
2004). Finally, early behaviour problems of children
with disabilities have been a central focus of several
studies (Baker et al. 2002; Chadwick et al. 2005;
Emerson et al. 2005), which have noted a higher
level of behaviour problems among children with
IDs than among typically developing children.
Moreover, according to the National Early Intervention Longitudinal Study (NEILS 2008), 32% of
families indicated that they had difficulty knowing
how to handle their child’s behaviour. Children’s
problem behaviours are believed to have a bidirectional relationship with maternal stress over time
(Hastings et al. 2006) and with the mother–
adolescent relationship (Smith et al. 2008). Therefore, early behaviour problems, if not addressed,
may interfere with positive relationships with
parents, both contemporaneously and in later years.
Indeed, it is likely that early behaviour problems
and parental responses to them develop a transactional cycle that directs, if not determines, the
parent–child relationship.
Parenting naturally takes place within the context
of the family. The socio-economic assets of families,
including income and parental levels of education,
have been explored in many studies and found to
relate to parent–child relationships (Bradley &
Corwyn 2002) as well as parent–adolescent relationships (Chen & Berdan 2006), with families with
greater resources reporting more positive relationships. Parents’ psychological functioning is a valuable part of family relationships. Although parenting
any child is associated with some level of stress,
high levels of parenting stress may affect parental
functioning and prevent the development of a positive parent–child relationship (Crnic & Greenberg
1990; Peterson & Hawley 1998; Östberg & Hagekull
2000; Mckelvey et al. 2002). Consistent with a
transactional model of development (Sameroff &
Fiese 2000), early parenting stress is likely to relate
to the parent–child relationship in an iterative
fashion over the years so that early parenting stress
may result in less positive parent–teen relationships.
As little research has been conducted with respect
to fathers of adolescents with disabilities, it is difficult to predict what factors will influence their relationships with their children. Studies comparing
fathers and mothers of children with disabilities
have tended to focus on parental stress, depression
or adaptation to having a child with special needs
and typically have focused on the early childhood
years. These studies have shown that predictors of
parental stress and depression differ between
mothers and fathers (e.g. Keller & Honig 2004;
Hastings et al. 2005; Davis & Carter 2008; Mitchell
et al. 2009; Tehee et al. 2009), but a clear pattern
has not emerged in these findings.
Understanding key predictors of positive parent–
adolescent relationships is critical to furthering
sources of support for individuals with DD. In this
study, we are focusing on parents’ perceptions of
their relationships with their teens with DD and the
early childhood factors in families and children that
predict the quality of those relationships. We
expected that the parent–adolescent relationship
would be more positive if: (1) parents had greater
socio-economic resources through family income
and parental education; (2) children were diagnosed
© 2010 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
volume 54 part 6 june 2010
Journal of Intellectual Disability Research
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D. B. Mitchell & P. Hauser-Cram • Early childhood predictors of relationships
with Down syndrome rather than other developmental delays; (3) children had higher levels of
functioning; (4) children had fewer behaviour problems; and (5) parents experienced less stress associated with parenting when children were exiting EI
programmes at the age of 3 years. We expected that
each set of constructs would add significant prediction in turn (i.e. above and beyond the others in the
equation). Finally, we posited that the factors predicting parent relationships with adolescents would
be different for fathers and mothers.
Methods
Participants
The children and families represented in this study
were enrolled in the Early Intervention Collaborative Study, a longitudinal investigation of 190 children with disabilities and their mothers, with 120
fathers participating (Shonkoff et al. 1992; Hausercram et al. 2001). These families were originally
recruited in 1985–1987 when they entered EI services in Massachusetts or New Hampshire because
of the special needs of their infant or toddler. The
current investigation focused on data collected
when the children were 3 years old and again at 15
years. At the 15-year data collection time point, 139
families continued to participate in the study, and
112 of the adolescents continued to need educational services and were on Individualized Education Plans. Of these, 72 mothers and 53 fathers,
representing 82 families, completed all of the measures utilised in the present analysis in relation to
their child at age 3 years and also completed a
measure of the parent–teen relationship at age 15
years. These families do not differ significantly from
the larger group of parents who participated at the
age 15 years data collection point in relation to
years of education, family income, race/ethnicity of
children or parents, and child’s gender, adaptive
score or cognitive score. They also did not differ
significantly from the original families in the study
on those background variables, nor on the predictor
variables of child behaviour problems or parenting
stress for either mothers or fathers.
The sample of children with DD included 34
children with diagnoses of Down syndrome, and 48
children with a range of other DD (e.g. cerebral
palsy, Rett syndrome, non-specific IDs). The
average cognitive performance as measured by a
test composite score on the McCarthy Scales of
Children’s Abilities (McCarthy 1972) or the Bayley
Scales of Infant Development (Bayley 1969), of the
sample at age 3 years was 59.4 (SD = 21.4) and the
Vineland Adaptive Standard Score (Sparrow et al.
1984) was 63.2 (SD = 11.3). Children’s cognitive
scores at age 3 years ranged from 27 to 124, with
72% of children scoring below a score of 70. Adaptive scores ranged from 42 to 106, with 80% scoring
below 70. Just over half (54%) of the children were
male. The sample was predominantly European
American (93%).
Procedure
Data were collected through home visits by field
staff members who were blind to the study’s
hypotheses. These visits included interviews with
both fathers and mothers separately and a multidimensional structured assessment with the child.
Fathers and mothers also separately completed selfadministered questionnaires.
Measures
Parent–adolescent relationship
Parents completed the Positive Affect Index (Bengtson & Schrader 1990), which is a measure of parent
perception of the extent of positive feelings between
a parent and a particular child. Parents respond to
a 10-item Likert questionnaire consisting of two
sub-scales. The first sub-scale, Parent Feelings
Toward Teen, asks parents about their feelings of
positive affect towards their children, and the
second sub-scale, Teen Feelings Toward Parent, asks
parents their beliefs about their children’s feelings
towards them. Questions in the Parent Feelings
Toward Teen sub-scale of this measure includes,
‘How well do you trust your son/daughter?’ and
‘how fair do you feel you are to your son/daughter?’
The Teen Feelings Toward Parent sub-scale
includes, ‘How well do you feel your son/daughter
understands you?’ and ‘how well do you feel your
son/daughter trusts you?’ Responses range from 1
(not well) to 6 (extremely well). As the scales were
highly correlated (r = 0.70 for mothers and r = 0.77
for fathers), these two sub-scales were summed to
© 2010 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
volume 54 part 6 june 2010
Journal of Intellectual Disability Research
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D. B. Mitchell & P. Hauser-Cram • Early childhood predictors of relationships
create the Positive Affect Index, which has a possible range of 10–60. Moreover, prior investigations
of the discriminate validity of the Positive Affect
Index reported that the items from both sub-scales
load on a single factor, with relatively uniform loadings (Bengtson & Schrader 1990; Bengtson & Allen
1993). Cronbach’s alpha on the Positive Affect
Index for this sample was 0.90 for mothers and
0.91 for fathers.
Child disability
Type of disability was drawn from the initial data
files at the time of the children’s enrolment in the
study and again assessed at age 3 years. The children were categorised into two disability groups:
Down syndrome and other DD. Down syndrome
was confirmed by medical record review.
Child gender
Child behaviour problems
The Child Behavior Checklist for Ages 2–3 years
(CBCL/2–3) (Achenbach & Edelbrock 1983) was
completed by mothers and was used to measure the
extent of children’s problem behaviours at age 3
years.
The CBCL/2–3 (Achenbach & Edelbrock 1983) is
a 100-item measure that assesses a child’s behavioural problems and social competencies. Items are
scored 0–2, depending on the degree to which each
statement about children’s behaviour characterises
the child. The CBCL consists of six sub-scales,
which are combined to create two groupings: Externalising (aggressive and destructive behaviour) and
internalising (withdrawn, somatic complaints and
anxious/depressed) behaviour problems. A ‘total
problems’ T-score was used for this investigation.
The Cronbach’s alpha for Child Behavior Problems
for this sample was 0.93.
Child gender was drawn from initial data files.
Parenting stress
Socio-economic status
As family income at child age 3 years and parent’s
education were correlated (r = 0.50), they were
combined by averaging standardised scores from
the two scales to form a composite measure of
socio-economic status.
Child functioning
Child functioning incorporated measures of child
cognitive and adaptive skill. Cognitive scores were
based on standard scores from the McCarthy Scales
of Children’s Abilities (McCarthy 1972) or for
those functioning below the limits of the McCarthy
Scales, the Bayley Scales of Infant Development
(Bayley 1969). Children were individually assessed
by trained field staff during home visits when children were age 3 years. Adaptive skills were measured by the Vineland Adaptive Behaviour Score
(Sparrow et al. 1984), completed by mothers via
interview by trained field staff during a home visit.
Cronbach’s alpha for the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Score was 0.97. As cognitive and adaptive skills
scores were highly correlated in this sample
(r = 0.73), they were combined by averaging standardised scores from the two scales to form a composite measure of child skills.
The Parenting Stress Index (PSI) (Abidin 1995)
was completed by fathers and mothers when children were age 3 years. The PSI is a 101-item selfadministered Likert scale. It is comprised of two
sub-scales, child-related stress and parent-related
stress, and also yields a total parenting stress score,
which was used in this investigation. Responses
range from strongly agree to strongly disagree, with
higher scores indicating greater stress in the parent–
child system. Cronbach’s alpha on the PSI for this
sample was 0.94 for mothers and 0.95 for fathers.
Statistical analyses
Descriptive statistics were calculated for all variables
(see Table 1). For families in which both parents
completed measures, paired sample t-tests were
used to compare scores on the mother–teen and
father–teen relationships as well as parenting stress.
Because of the limited sample size and resulting
power considerations concerning the number of
variables in equations, initial analyses were conducted to determine if gender related to the
outcome variables.
Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used
to test hypothesised relations with family variables
(socio-economic status) entered first followed by
© 2010 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
volume 54 part 6 june 2010
Journal of Intellectual Disability Research
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D. B. Mitchell & P. Hauser-Cram • Early childhood predictors of relationships
Table 1 Descriptive statistics (n = 82)
Mothers
Measure
Age 15 years Criterion Variables
Parent–teen relationship
Age 3 years family characteristics
Parenting stress
Years of education
Family income at child Age 3 years
(Age 15 years Income)
Age 3 years child characteristics
Child cognitive score
Child adaptive score
Child behaviour problems
Mean
49.9
223.0
14.3
$25–35K
$45–55K
59.4
63.2
50.1
SD
7.1
43.5
2.3
$5–7.5K
Fathers
Mean
SD
t
48.6
7.1
-0.05
230.9
14.3
45.1
3.2
-0.88
21.4
11.3
10.0
child variables (type of disability, functioning and
behaviour problems). Parenting stress when the
child was age 3 years was entered last to see if this
added significantly over and above other variables
to contribute to the parent’s later relationship with
his or her adolescent. The general order of variables
was created so that constructs less amenable to
intervention were entered first (such as family
socioeconomic status, child type of disability and
child functional skills) followed by those more amenable to intervention (child behaviour problems and
parenting stress).
Results
The father–teen and mother–teen relationships were
first analysed with respect to one another (Table 1).
The mothers’ relationships were similar to those of
fathers (r = 0.33, P = 0.02), as was the level of
parenting stress (r = 0.43, P < 0.001). Individual
items from the parent–adolescent relationship
measure (Bengtson & Schrader 1990) were analysed
to determine if parents differed in their reports of
these questions; no significant differences were
found (Table 2). T-tests conducted to test whether
the child’s gender was related to either the parent–
teen relationship also demonstrated no difference
for mothers or for fathers [t(70) = 0.37, P = 0.71
and t(51) = -0.80, P = 0.43, respectively].
Initial correlational analyses examined the associations among the outcome variables, mother–teen
and father–teen relationships, and the predictor
variables (Table 3). As expected, parenting stress
was negatively correlated with both father–teen and
mother–teen relationships. Disability status and
child behaviour problems were correlated with
father–teen, but not mother–teen relationships, with
fathers reporting more positive relationships with
teens with Down syndrome over those with other
developmental delays and with teens having fewer
behaviour problems.
Regression analyses were conducted to assess the
extent to which the mother–teen and father–teen
relationships at age 15 years were each predicted by
the following age 3 years variables in turn: socioeconomic status, type of disability, child’s functioning, child’s behaviour problems and parenting
stress. As indicated in Tables 4 and 5, socioeconomic status was not found to relate to the
mother–teen relationship (F1,70 = 1.31, P = 0.26) or
the father–teen relationship (F1,51 = 0.09, P = 0.77).
Disability status and child functioning at age 3 years
also were not found to be related to the mother–
teen relationship (F1,69 = 0.15, P = 0.70; F1,68 = 0.02,
P = 0.89) or the father–teen relationship
(F1,50 = 3.99 P = 0.051; F1,49 = 0.11, P = 0.74) after
socio-economic status was included in the equation.
Child problem behaviours at age 3 years
(b = -0.17) were unrelated to the mother–teen relationship at age 15 years (F1,67 = 1.75, P = 0.19)
(Table 4). In contrast, for fathers, early problem
behaviours (b = -0.36) were related to the father–
teen relationship (F1,48 = 6.69, P = 0.01) when
entered into the regression model (Table 5). Fathers
© 2010 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
volume 54 part 6 june 2010
Journal of Intellectual Disability Research
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D. B. Mitchell & P. Hauser-Cram • Early childhood predictors of relationships
Table 2 Individual item scores on the parent–child relationship measure
Mothers
Fathers
Paired sample measure
Mean
SD
Mean
SD
t
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
4.6
5.2
4.4
4.7
5.3
4.7
4.3
5.0
5.1
5.4
1.1
0.9
1.0
1.2
.99
0.9
1.3
0.8
0.8
0.9
4.4
5.3
4.6
4.8
5.2
4.4
4.6
4.8
5.1
5.4
1.0
0.9
0.9
1.1
1.1
0.9
1.1
0.8
0.9
0.8
0.32
-0.35
-1.32
-0.48
0.56
1.84
-0.76
1.15
0.16
0.39
How
How
How
How
How
How
How
How
How
How
well does your child understand you?
well does your child trust you?
fair is your child towards you?
much respect do you feel from your child?
much affection does your child have for you?
much do you understand your child?
well do you trust your child?
fair are you toward your child?
much do you respect your child?
much affection do you have for your child?
Analyses using paired t-tests were conducted on the subsample of mother–father pairs, and no items were found to differ significantly.
Table 3 Intercorrelations between criterion and predictor variables
1.
n
2.
N
3.
n
4.
n
5.
n
6.
n
7.
n
8.
n
Mother–teen relationship
Father–teen relationship
Socio-economic status
Type of disability
Cognitive and adaptive composite
Child behaviour problems
Mother parenting stress
Father parenting stress
1
2
3
4
5
1
72
0.33*
50
0.14
72
0.06
72
0.00
72
-0.20
72
-0.44***
72
-0.30*
58
1
53
0.04
53
0.27*
53
0.04
53
-0.39**
53
-0.31*
57
-0.58***
53
1
82
0.17
82
0.03
82
-0.29**
82
-0.13
72
-0.05
67
1
82
-0.14
82
-0.24*
82
-0.13
80
-0.18
67
1
82
-0.02
82
-0.01
80
-0.30*
67
6
7
8
1
80
0.54***
65
1
67
1
0.64**
80
0.52**
67
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed), ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed), *** Correlation is significant
at the 0.001 level (2-tailed).
of children experiencing more behaviour problems
at age 3 years reported experiencing poorer later
relationships with their teens. However, when
father’s parenting stress was included in the model,
this relation was eliminated, b = -0.07, P = 0.64.
Finally, both the mother–teen and the father–teen
relationship were predicted by parenting stress
(b = -0.54, -0.55, respectively) when the child was
age 3 years, over and above that predicted by socioeconomic status, type of disability, child functioning
and behaviour problems (F1,66 = 14.12, P < 0.001 for
mothers and F1,47 = 14.62, P < 0.001 for fathers).
Parents who reported less parenting stress when
children were age 3 years reported more positive
relationships with their teens at age 15 years
(Tables 4 and 5). Further analyses were conducted
© 2010 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
volume 54 part 6 june 2010
Journal of Intellectual Disability Research
494
D. B. Mitchell & P. Hauser-Cram • Early childhood predictors of relationships
Table 4 Variables predicting the
mother–teen relationship
(n = 72)
Predictor variable
ß at entry
ß in final
model
DR2
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
0.14
0.05
0.02
-0.17
-0.54***
0.12
0.02
0.00
0.19
-0.54***
0.02
0.00
0.00
0.03
0.17***
Socio-economic status
Child type of disability
Cognitive and adaptive composite
Child behaviour problems
Mother’s parenting stress
Overall model: R2 = 0.21, F = 14.12, P < 0.001, R2 adjusted = 0.15.
* P < 0.05, *** P < 0.001.
Table 5 Variables predicting the
father–teen relationship
(n = 53)
Predictor variable
ß at entry
ß in final
model
DR2
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
0.04
0.28
0.05
-0.36*
-0.55***
-0.02
0.16
-0.13
-0.07
-0.55***
0.00
0.07
0.00
0.11*
0.19***
Socio-economic status
Child type of disability
Cognitive and adaptive composite
Child behaviour problems
Father’s parenting stress
Overall model: R2 = 0.38, F = 14.62, P < 0.001, R2 adjusted = 0.32.
* P < 0.05, *** P < 0.001.
to determine if the sub-scales of child behaviour
problems (internalising and externalising), parenting stress (child-related or parent-related) or child
functioning (cognitive and adaptive score) contributed uniquely to the parent–teen relationship.
Results for each sub-scale were found to contribute
similarly to their respective total scales.
Procedures described by Frazier et al. (2004)
were used to test the possible mediation of the
effects of early behaviour problems and the father–
adolescent relationship by father stress. Although a
range of options exist for analysing mediation
models (MacKinnon 2008), one recommended
approach involves testing to see if several conditions
are met (Frazier et al. 2004). First, a significant
relation must be found between the criterion
measure, the parent–adolescent relationship, and
the predictor variable, behaviour problems. Second,
significant relations must be found between the cri-
terion variable and the mediating variable, father
stress, and between the mediating variable and the
predictor variable, child behaviour problems.
Finally, the relation between the predictor and criterion variables must be completely or significantly
reduced when the mediating variable is introduced
into the regression equation.
All conditions were met to test father parenting
stress as a potential mediator of early behaviour
problems and the father–child relationship (Fig. 1).
The regression coefficient for child behaviour problems as a predictor of father–teen relationship was
reduced from b = -0.36, P < 0.05 in the penultimate
step to b = -0.07, P = 0.64, in the final model when
parenting stress was included. This full mediation
was further tested using bias-adjusted bootstrapping
with 1000 bootstrap re-samples (95% CI = -0.207,
-0.007) and found to be significant (Preacher &
Hayes 2008).
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D. B. Mitchell & P. Hauser-Cram • Early childhood predictors of relationships
Father parenting stress
.45***
–.55***
–.07
Father–adolescent
Child behaviour
problems
relationships
–.36*
Figure 1 Father stress mediates the
relation between child behaviour
problems and the father–adolescent
relationship.
Discussion
Child characteristics
Mother–teen and father–teen relationships were
generally positive and not significantly different. The
mean scores on this measure (49.8, SD = 7.1 for
mothers and 48.4, SD = 7.2 for fathers) were consistent with those reported in other studies of
parents’ relationships with adolescents and adults
with disabilities using the same measure of relationships (Bengtson & Schrader 1990), such as Essex
(2002) (51.2, SD = 5.9 for mothers; 48.7, SD = 6.4
for fathers) and Kring and others, 2008 (47.9,
SD = 7.2 for mothers). The results of this investigation, however, point to two critical factors from the
early childhood years, at a time when children with
disabilities are often enrolled in EI programmes,
which have an important relation to the parent–
adolescent relationship in later years: the extent of
the child’s behaviour problems and the stress that
the parents experience in their parenting roles.
Characteristics of children can create
differential responses from parents, leading to
variation in the quality of the parent–child
relationship (Rubin & Burgess 2002), and this
pattern is believed to be true for children and adolescents with disabilities as well as their typically
developing peers (Hodapp 2002; Hauser-cram et al.
2009).
In this study, type of disability was found to
relate to the father–child, but not mother–child,
relationship, and this relation disappeared after
including socio-economic status in the model.
These findings are consistent with recent studies of
the Down syndrome advantage (Stoneman 2007;
Corrice & Glidden 2009), which suggest that additional factors, such as income and age, may reduce
or eliminate this advantage.
Child level of functioning was not found to relate
to the relationships of either mothers or fathers
with their teens in this study. This finding is contrary to our prediction and also differs somewhat
from that found in a study of parents and their
adult children with mild to profound ID, in which
both fathers and mothers reported feeling closer to
adult children with greater functional skills (Essex
2002). This lack of relation, however, is consistent
with the findings from a study of adolescents and
adults with autism, in which a diagnosis of ID was
not predictive of the mother–child relationship
(Orsmond et al. 2006). We speculate that parents
may have adapted well to their child’s pattern of
functional skills in developing their relationships
with their teens. As adolescents move into adulthood, however, when even greater levels of
autonomy are expected, the individual’s level of
Socio-economic status
Socio-economic status, as measured by both family
income when the child was age 3 years and parental
education, was not found to be related to the
quality of the later parent–child relationship for
either mothers or fathers in this study. A study of
parents of adults with ID similarly found that paternal education was unrelated to fathers’ feelings
about their adult children but did find an association between the mother’s level of education and
her relationship with her adult child with disabilities
(Essex 2002). We note, however, that the sample
studied here was primarily middle income; studies
with a larger array of low-income families may yield
a different set of findings.
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D. B. Mitchell & P. Hauser-Cram • Early childhood predictors of relationships
functional skills may become more salient to the
parent–adult child relationship.
In contrast to early functional skills, we found
that children’s early behaviour problems are indicators of potentially deleterious father–teen relationships. Importantly, these results suggest that the
stress that fathers feel with respect to parenting
their teens may be the process by which the father
relates child behaviour problems to the relationship
with his teen. This result suggests that early behaviour problems, mediated by the stress they engender
in fathers, may stimulate or be the result of difficulty in the father–child relationships. This investigation suggests a link between those early problem
behaviours, parenting stress, and the much later
relationships of fathers with their teens with
disabilities.
Clear relations between the behaviour problems
of typically developing adolescents and the parent–
teen relationship have been documented in the literature (Marcus & Betzer 1996; Allen et al. 1998;
Buist et al. 2004), and for adolescents and adults
with disabilities, teen behaviour problems have been
found to be a factor in the mother–child relationship (Kring et al. 2008). We did not find a relation
between early child behaviour problems and later
mother–teen relationships. In a study of parents of
adults with disabilities, Essex (2002) also found that
behaviour problems predicted the quality of father–
child, but not mother–child, relationships. Predictions from the early years were not included in
these prior studies.
Although most studies suggest that mother and
father ratings of behaviour problems are correlated
(Essex 2002; Baker et al. 2003), it is also believed
that mothers witness more behaviour problems in
children (Baker & Heller 1996). Perhaps because of
the frequency with which mothers view such behaviours, they display more adaptation to children’s
problem behaviours over time, but this speculation
requires testing in future studies.
Parenting stress
Consistent with the relations hypothesised in this
investigation, perceived parenting stress when children were age 3 years was a characteristic of both
fathers and mothers that acted as a significant
factor in the quality of the relationships that parents
later reported having with their adolescents. Greater
early stress levels were related to poorer relationships between both mothers and fathers and their
adolescents with disabilities. We speculate that
parenting stress during the early childhood years
sets a tone for the dynamic relationships within the
family, and that tone in turn, affects parent–child
relationships. Parents who are highly stressed in
their parenting role have more difficulty being sensitive to their child’s needs and are more likely to
respond with over- or under-involvement (Crnic
et al. 2005), setting in motion a series of transactions that result in poor parent–child relationships.
We additionally speculate that high levels of parenting stress during the early childhood years may
affect the internal working models of both children
and parents during the attachment process, as has
been reported in other studies (e.g. Hadadian &
Merbler 1996), and that such models may continue
to affect parent–child relationships.
Limitations
This study has several limitations related to the
sample and the measures. The families in this
sample are largely European American and have
moderate incomes. Therefore, the extent to which
these findings apply to more diverse families is not
known. Also, given the reliance on self-report from
parents for some measures, potential biases due to
shared variance exist. In addition, concurrent measures of the predictor variables might add valuable
perspectives to our understandings of these relations. Many changes and events occur within families over the long period of time investigated here,
and further investigations might produce a distinct
picture of why early predictors result in such longterm effects. Finally, the view of the parent–
adolescent relationship reported here is from the
perspective of the parent. The perspectives of other
family members, such as siblings, deserve study as
does, importantly, the view of the adolescent him or
herself.
Other important considerations include the attrition in the sample from age 3 years to age 15 years
and questions regarding the direction of the mediating effect of stress on child behaviour problems.
Although overall attrition in the sample was not
excessive, some parents found the parent–child rela-
© 2010 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
volume 54 part 6 june 2010
Journal of Intellectual Disability Research
497
D. B. Mitchell & P. Hauser-Cram • Early childhood predictors of relationships
tionship measure to be difficult to complete with
respect to their adolescent children. Questions
about the adolescents’ feelings towards the parents
were particularly challenging, as parents did not feel
qualified to assess adolescent feelings. As we only
utilised data from those individuals who had completed all of the measures needed here, our sample
was somewhat restricted. In terms of the mediating
effects of paternal stress, there is clearly a possibility
here for alternative explanations for this relation as
there appears to be a complex relation among early
child behaviour problems, parenting stress and later
father–adolescent relationships.
Implications
Despite the limitations, we hope that this study will
stimulate more research on both mother–adolescent
and father–adolescent relationship in families where
an adolescent has DD and to the early factors in
children and families that can be protective of these
relationships in later years. The findings from this
study suggest the potential importance of intervention during the early childhood years to help both
mothers and fathers reduce their experience of
parenting stress. Fathers in particular are often
overlooked by service providers, yet many fathers
have expressed a desire to have greater involvement
with their child with DD (Hadadian & Merbler
1995). Programmes that include families through
parent support groups and provision of respite care
and that can refer parents to professional therapies,
are likely to be able to reduce parental stress (Hastings & Beck 2004). Practices that focus on families
have been shown to both reduce child behaviour
problems and to improve parent well-being (Dunst
et al. 2007). The results of the investigation presented here suggest that this focus is likely to serve
children’s social-emotional development and may
result in improved relationships with their parents
during their adolescent years.
Department of Health and Human Services. We
wish to thank the many children and families who
have participated in this investigation.
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