Factors associated with parenting stress in parents of 18-month-old children: Parenting stress in parents of toddlers.
Amrik Singh Khalsa, Zachary A Weber, Bharathi J Zvara and 3 others
PMID 34978103WHAT IT FOUND
Parents with depressive symptoms, avoidant romantic attachment, or frequent spousal disputes reported significantly higher parenting stress.
Children with better self-regulation (effortful control) were associated with lower parental stress. Anxiety symptoms and food insecurity lost significance when controlling for other factors.
Key findings
01In the final adjusted model, parents with depressive symptoms, avoidant romantic attachment, and those reporting more spousal disputes had higher Parental Distress scores, while children with higher effortful control had lower scores.
02Anxiety symptoms and food insecurity were significantly associated with higher parenting stress in unadjusted analyses but did not show a statistically significant relationship in the final model.
03There were no statistically significant differences in mean Parental Distress scores based on child sex, race/ethnicity, parent education, marital status, or insurance status.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The analysis is cross-sectional, so it cannot determine cause and effect (e.g., whether stress causes depression or vice versa). The sample was predominantly biological mothers (93%), so findings may not apply to fathers or other caregivers. Romantic relationship measures (dyadic cohesion, spousal disputes) were only collected for parents with a partner in the household (77% of the sample). The study excluded children with major developmental delays, feeding disorders, or sensory impairments, limiting generalizability to clinical populations.
Declared interests
No financial or competing interests to disclose.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that anxiety and food insecurity are unrelated to parenting stress. They showed significant associations in unadjusted analyses but lost significance in the final model, likely due to overlap with depressive symptoms and other factors. This does not mean they are irrelevant, but that their unique contribution was not detected in this specific adjusted model.