Structural Relationships among Household Chaos, Maternal Negative Parenting, Child Executive Function, and Child Aggression

Objectives: This study aimed to identify the structural relationships among household chaos, maternal negative parenting behavior, child execution function, and child aggression; further, it demonstrates the mediating effects of maternal negative parenting and child execution function on the relationship between household chaos and child aggression.Methods: The participants comprised 206 children, aged between 3 and 5, and their mothers. This study observed Cronbach’ α and the descriptive statistics and performed frequency analysis, one-way random analysis, and partial correlation analysis via SPSS 20.0 program. The bootstrapping method was used to examine the mediating effect while the structural equation model analysis was performed using AMOS 22.0.Results: First, child aggression was positively associated with household chaos, mother’s intrusiveness, coercion, and neglect parenting but negatively associated with child inhibition, transition, working memory, and satisfaction delay tasks. Second, maternal negative parenting and child executive function were shown to mediate sequentially in the relationship between household chaos and child aggression. It was also found that maternal negative parenting and child executive function were partially mediated in the relationship between household chaos and child aggression.Conclusion: The data suggest the importance of mediating the effects of maternal negative parenting and child executive function on the relationship between household chaos and child aggression. These findings could highlight the significance of child executive function for the development of aggression and provide the basic data for the program to help those children who show aggressive behaviors in their early childhood educational institutions along with the evidence of parental education programs.

Needing to shout to be heard? Affective dysregulation, caregiver under-responsivity, and disconnection between vocal signalling and autonomic arousal in infants from chaotic households

Higher levels of household chaos have been related to increased child affect dysregulation during later development. To understand why this relationship emerges, we used miniature wearable microphones and autonomic monitors to obtain day-long recordings in home settings from a cohort of N=74 12-month-old infants and their caregivers from the South-East of the UK. Our findings suggest a disconnect between what infants communicate and their physiological arousal levels, that are likely to reflect what they experience. Specifically, in households which families self-reported as being more chaotic, infants were more likely to produce negative affect vocalisations such as cries at lower levels of arousal. This disconnection between signalling and autonomic arousal was also present in a lab still face procedure, where infants from more chaotic households showed reduced change in facial affect and slower physiological recovery despite equivalent change in arousal during the still face episode. Finally, we found that this disconnect between what infants communicate and their physiological arousal levels may influence the likelihood of a caregiver responding. Implications for understanding the mechanisms underlying the relationship between household chaos, emotion dysregulation and caregiver under-responsivity are discussed.

The Impact of Household Chaos and Dietary Intake on Executive Function in Young Children

Children’s executive functions (EFs) emerge over time and can be shaped by household environments and dietary intake. However, there is a lack of knowledge about how these factors influence EFs in children aged 18–24 months. This study tested a model exploring the relations between parent-reported dietary intake, household chaos, and child EF. The sample consisted of 294 families participating in the STRONG Kids2 birth cohort study of nutrition and child health. Caregivers completed the Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ), the Confusion, Hubbub, and Order Scale (CHAOS), and the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function®-Preschool Version (BRIEF-P) to assess model variables. Regression analyses revealed a significant and independent association between assorted snacks and processed foods and two EF subscales. There were also significant associations between household chaos and each EF subscale. There was no significant moderation effect. These findings suggest that family households characterized by dysregulation are associated with children’s EF difficulties during early childhood and that the role of unhealthy dietary intake in child EF should be explored further. Future longitudinal studies that include multi-method approaches are needed to document the mechanisms through which household chaos impacts child EF over time.

Family Function and Child Adjustment Difficulties in the COVID-19 Pandemic: An International Study

To estimate specific proximal and distal effects of COVID-19-related restrictions on families on children’s adjustment problems, we conducted a six-site international study. In total, 2516 parents from Australia, China, Italy, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America living with a young child (Mage = 5.77, SD = 1.10, range = 3 to 8 years, 47.9% female) completed an online survey between April and July 2020. The survey included the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and family risk factors (parent distress, parent–child conflict, couple conflict, and household chaos) as well as a scale to index COVID-19-related family disruption. Our analyses also included public data on the stringency of national restrictions. Across the six sites, parental responses indicated elevated levels of hyperactivity, conduct, and emotion problems in children from families characterized by heightened levels of parent distress, parent–child conflict, and household chaos. In contrast, increased peer problems were more strongly related to COVID-19-related social disruption and stringency measures. Mediation models demonstrated that associations between COVID-19 social disruption and child difficulties could be explained by parental distress. Taken together, these results suggest that although the experience of the pandemic differed across countries, associations between COVID-19-related family experiences and child adjustment difficulties were similar in their nature and magnitude across six different contexts. Programs to support family resilience could help buffer the impact of the pandemic for two generations.

A mixed methods analysis of environmental and household chaos: considerations for early-childhood obesity research

Background Chaos has implications for child health that may extend to childhood obesity. Yet, results from studies describing associations between chaos and childhood obesity are mixed. New approaches to studying the environments of young children may help to clarify chaos-obesity relationships. Methods We conducted a concurrent mixed methods analysis of quantitative and qualitative data describing home and neighborhood chaos among a diverse cohort of 283 caregiver-toddlers dyads from Ohio. We examined the underlying structure of environmental and household chaos using exploratory factor analysis then sought to validate the structure using qualitative field notes. We generated total scores for factors of chaos and described their distributions overall and according to cohort characteristics. Additionally, we conducted a thematic content analysis of brief ethnographies to provide preliminary construct validity for our indicators of chaos. Results Dyads varied according to household composition, income, education, and race/ethnicity. We found evidence for a multi-factor structure for chaos, which included disorganization and neighborhood noise. Household disorganization scores ranged from 0 to 7.3 and were on average 2.1 (SD = 1.8). Neighborhood noise scores ranged from 0 to 4 and were on average 1.1 (SD = 1.1). Both disorganization and neighborhood noise were associated with indicators of socioeconomic disadvantage, such as lower educational attainment and household income. Qualitative data from households with high and low scores on the two identified factors were aligned in ways that were supportive of construct validity and further contextualized the social and material environments in which chaos occurred. Conclusions Chaos represents a complex construct with implications spanning various disciplines, including childhood obesity research. Previous studies suggest challenges associated with measuring chaos may limit the conclusions that can be drawn about which aspect of chaos (if any) matter most of early childhood weight development. We advance the literature by demonstrating chaos may be comprised of conceptually distinct subdomains. Future childhood obesity prevention research may benefit from more contemporary measure of chaos, such as those relying on direct observations that account for a multifaceted underlying structure.

Effects of household chaos and parental responsiveness on child executive functions: a novel, multi-method approach

Background Executive functions can be adversely affected by contextual risks in the home environment including chaos and parenting challenges. Furthermore, household chaos negatively influences parenting practices. Few studies, however, have examined the role of parenting in the association between household chaos and child executive functions. Methods Using a sample of 128 school-aged children (mean = 61.9 months, SD = 2.0, range 58–68 months) and their mothers, the present study examined direct and indirect effects (via parental responsiveness) of household chaos on child executive functioning. Multi-measures were used including performance-based assessments, behavioural observations, questionnaires, and video-home tours. Results Household chaos had both a direct effect on child executive functions (β = − .31, 95% CI [− .58, − .04]) and an indirect effect (β = − .05, 95% [− .13, − .01]) via parental responsiveness. Further, the indirect effect was only significant for household instability. Conclusion These findings indicate that parental responsiveness may be compromised by household chaos, with implications for the executive functions of school-aged children. Preventative strategies are needed to improve the stability in the home and strengthen parenting practices.