Date of Award

12-15-2014

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Mark Weist

Abstract

Minimal literature has examined predictors of parenting stress for parents of adolescents and what may contribute to the impact of these predictors, particularly those regarding adolescent behavior. The current study sought to evaluate whether adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing behaviors significantly predicted parenting stress and whether adolescent social skills moderated the relationship. Covariates of gender, age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status were entered first into a multiple regression moderation model and followed by internalizing and externalizing behaviors, social skills, and interaction terms, respectively. The overall model explained 19 percent of the variance in parenting stress. While internalizing behaviors significantly predicted parenting stress, externalizing behaviors were not a significant predictor and social skills did not moderate the relationship. Future research should investigate other contributors to parenting stress and compare more specific components of the broad constructs of internalizing and externalizing behaviors (e.g. symptoms of anxiety, depression, inattention/hyperactivity, and aggression).

Rights

© 2014, Marissa Miller

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