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Multicenter Study
. 2009 Mar;40(1):73-84.
doi: 10.1007/s10578-008-0109-6. Epub 2008 Jul 15.

The effect of parenting stress on child behavior problems in high-risk children with prenatal drug exposure

Daniel M Bagner  1 , Stephen J Sheinkopf, Cynthia Miller-Loncar, Linda L LaGasse, Barry M Lester, Jing Liu, Charles R Bauer, Seetha Shankaran, Henrietta Bada, Abhik Das
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

The effect of parenting stress on child behavior problems in high-risk children with prenatal drug exposure

Daniel M Bagner et al. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. 2009 Mar.

Abstract

Objective: To examine the relationship between early parenting stress and later child behavior in a high-risk sample and measure the effect of drug exposure on the relationship between parenting stress and child behavior.

Methods: A subset of child-caregiver dyads (n=607) were selected from the Maternal Lifestyle Study (MLS), which is a large sample of children (n=1,388) with prenatal cocaine exposure and a comparison sample unexposed to cocaine. Of the 607 dyads, 221 were prenatally exposed to cocaine and 386 were unexposed to cocaine. Selection was based on the presence of a stable caregiver at 4 and 36 months with no evidence of change in caregiver between those time points.

Results: Parenting stress at 4 months significantly predicted child externalizing behavior at 36 months. These relations were unaffected by cocaine exposure suggesting the relationship between parenting stress and behavioral outcome exists for high-risk children regardless of drug exposure history.

Conclusions: These results extend the findings of the relationship between parenting stress and child behavior to a sample of high-risk children with prenatal drug exposure. Implications for outcome and treatment are discussed.

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