Building the Puzzle: An Exploration of Parenting, Emotion Socialization, Adversity and their Associated Psychosocial Outcomes in Appalachia.

Authors' Affiliations

Kelly Daniel, Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN. Jess Potter, Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN. Diana Morelen, Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN.

Location

Culp Room 304

Start Date

4-6-2022 2:00 PM

End Date

4-6-2022 3:20 PM

Faculty Sponsor’s Department

Psychology

Name of Project's Faculty Sponsor

Diana Morelen

Classification of First Author

Graduate Student-Master’s

Competition Type

Competitive

Type

Oral Presentation

Project's Category

Psychology

Abstract or Artist's Statement

Decades of research on parenting and emotion socialization have yielded consistent results that more supportive, warm, emotion-focused, and balanced parenting results in better long-term outcomes for children, particularly outcomes related to internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Further, in the context of childhood adversity, supportive and sensitive relationships and environment appear to protect against the development of internalizing symptomology. However, limited knowledge exists regarding these processes and their outcomes for children in rural Appalachia. The current project aimed to explore parenting, emotion socialization, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and internalizing and externalizing symptoms in college students raised in rural Appalachia. The sample consists of 591 students attending college in the Appalachian Highlands who completed self-report measures of retrospective parenting styles (i.e., how their parents parented them as a child), emotion socialization (i.e., emotion expression and environment in their home as a child), adverse childhood experiences (i.e., adverse experiences occurring for them prior to the age of 18), and religious support (i.e., experiences of being supported or unsupported by religious group as a child). Participants also completed self-report measures of current internalizing (i.e., depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms) and externalizing (i.e., alcohol use, drug use) symptoms. To explore possible avenues of risk and resilience, simple moderation analyses were conducted in SPSS using Hayes’ PROCESS 4.0 Macro to explore if supportive or unsupportive environments moderate the relationship between ACEs and internalizing or externalizing symptoms. In both supportive and unsupportive emotional environment models for internalizing symptoms, the interactions were not significant, indicating no presence of moderation. However, in both supportive and unsupportive emotional environment models for externalizing symptoms, the interactions were significant, suggesting moderation. Further, authoritarian parenting also significantly moderated the relationship between ACEs and externalizing symptoms. Specifically, in a sample of students attending college in the Appalachian Highlands, in the context of high childhood adversity, growing up in a family marked by discouraging the displays of negative emotions and punitive parenting in childhood appear to be protective factors against substance use in adulthood, but not against depression or anxiety. Further, religious social support from childhood was not a protective factor in the context of ACEs and mental health outcomes. These results are inconsistent with much of the parenting and emotion socialization literature and suggest that Appalachian families may have different adaptive processes of parenting and emotion socialization. These results offer one piece of a much larger puzzle to understanding avenues for risk and resilience for children and families in Appalachia. As such, the results will be discussed in the context of Appalachian culture with a focus on further exploration of these processes and their implications.

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Apr 6th, 2:00 PM Apr 6th, 3:20 PM

Building the Puzzle: An Exploration of Parenting, Emotion Socialization, Adversity and their Associated Psychosocial Outcomes in Appalachia.

Culp Room 304

Decades of research on parenting and emotion socialization have yielded consistent results that more supportive, warm, emotion-focused, and balanced parenting results in better long-term outcomes for children, particularly outcomes related to internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Further, in the context of childhood adversity, supportive and sensitive relationships and environment appear to protect against the development of internalizing symptomology. However, limited knowledge exists regarding these processes and their outcomes for children in rural Appalachia. The current project aimed to explore parenting, emotion socialization, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and internalizing and externalizing symptoms in college students raised in rural Appalachia. The sample consists of 591 students attending college in the Appalachian Highlands who completed self-report measures of retrospective parenting styles (i.e., how their parents parented them as a child), emotion socialization (i.e., emotion expression and environment in their home as a child), adverse childhood experiences (i.e., adverse experiences occurring for them prior to the age of 18), and religious support (i.e., experiences of being supported or unsupported by religious group as a child). Participants also completed self-report measures of current internalizing (i.e., depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms) and externalizing (i.e., alcohol use, drug use) symptoms. To explore possible avenues of risk and resilience, simple moderation analyses were conducted in SPSS using Hayes’ PROCESS 4.0 Macro to explore if supportive or unsupportive environments moderate the relationship between ACEs and internalizing or externalizing symptoms. In both supportive and unsupportive emotional environment models for internalizing symptoms, the interactions were not significant, indicating no presence of moderation. However, in both supportive and unsupportive emotional environment models for externalizing symptoms, the interactions were significant, suggesting moderation. Further, authoritarian parenting also significantly moderated the relationship between ACEs and externalizing symptoms. Specifically, in a sample of students attending college in the Appalachian Highlands, in the context of high childhood adversity, growing up in a family marked by discouraging the displays of negative emotions and punitive parenting in childhood appear to be protective factors against substance use in adulthood, but not against depression or anxiety. Further, religious social support from childhood was not a protective factor in the context of ACEs and mental health outcomes. These results are inconsistent with much of the parenting and emotion socialization literature and suggest that Appalachian families may have different adaptive processes of parenting and emotion socialization. These results offer one piece of a much larger puzzle to understanding avenues for risk and resilience for children and families in Appalachia. As such, the results will be discussed in the context of Appalachian culture with a focus on further exploration of these processes and their implications.