The interplay between family instability and maternal communication patterns in predicting children's family representations and symptomatology.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study examined associations among family instability, maternal communication quality, child internal representations of family security, and child functioning in a sample of 224 kindergarten children and their parents. Guided by the Emotional Security Theory (Davies & Cummings, 1994) as well as a developmental psychopathology perspective (Cicchetti, 1993), it was proposed that family instability---a persistent state of chaos and unpredictability in the family---would impact children's functioning (internalizing and externalizing) both directly and indirectly through children's internal representations. In addition, we investigated whether maternal communication (regarding family coping, cohesion, and security in the face of emotionally challenging events) would interact with family instability in stress buffering or potentiating ways. First, structural equation models were used to test the direct and indirect paths from family instability to child functioning. Results did not support direct paths between family instability and child internalizing nor externalizing over and above family demographics (socio-economic status and minority status); however, consistent with extant research, there was evidence of a bivariate correlation between family instability and child internalizing. Furthermore, contrary to predictions, the indirect paths from family instability to child internalizing or externalizing through child family representations were not supported, nor was there evidence that this model functioned differently for boys and girls. Next, the proposed moderator model was tested using multiple regression analysis. Results suggest that, consistent with risk and protective models, children's family representations were predicted by the interaction between family instability and maternal communication quality. However, the nature of the interaction suggested that while high quality communication can buffer children from the impact of family instability if it fits with children's experience (of low instability), it can amplify the impact of instability if it does not fit with children's experiences (of high instability); these findings were not dependent on child gender. Results are discussed in terms of the contributions they make to extant knowledge and future investigation pertaining to the impact of risk factors on children and the capacity of parents to effectively assuage their children's concerns and buffer them from the impact of risk circumstances such as family instability.