Parenting practices in low-resource contexts

According to the latest numbers, more than half of the world's population of children are currently living in settings which can be defined as low-resource contexts such as low-and-middle income countries (LMICs), or they are facing forced displacement or experiencing armed conflict (Sanders et al., 2021; UNHCR, 2021). Previous studies on child development and parenting suggested that adverse conditions such as extreme poverty, lack of education, unable to reach social services and resources or being exposed to war trauma are all critical risk factors for children's development. Negative experiences in low resource contexts may also make adults vulnerable in terms of parental mental health and poor parenting such as low level of involvement with their children, decreased warmth towards children or more frequent use of harsh parenting (Cobham & Newnham, 2018; Lansford & Deater-Deckard, 2012). In this dissertation, I investigated the factors affecting parenting in three different low-resource contexts namely LMIC, armed-conflict setting and post-displacement setting. In Chapter II, using an actor-partner interdependence mediation model, I examined how parents' justifying attitudes towards violence against women relate to their own (actor effects) and their partners' (partner effects) level of parental involvement, which then links with their preschool children's early development. Using data from 16,010 families living in 19 LMICs, the associations between maternal and paternal justification of violence against women, parental involvement and children's early development were tested. The results showed that mothers' greater justification of violence against themselves were associated with lower levels of maternal and paternal involvement, while fathers' greater justification of violence against their wives was related to lower paternal involvement. In these models, paternal and maternal involvement mediated several associations between justification of violence and early childhood development. This study was one of the first studies suggesting that parental attitudes towards violence against women may interfere with parenting and child development during the early childhood period. In Chapter III, I examined whether, and to which extent, the associations between conflict intensity and children's and early adolescents' functioning problems are mediated through maternal harsh discipline in a nationally representative sample of Iraqi mothers and their children. Using data from 9623 Iraqi mothers and their children who participated in UNICEF MICS, I also tested whether the associations between conflict intensity, parental discipline and child functioning were similar for children and early adolescents. Results showed that higher conflict intensity was associated with greater levels of maternal harsh discipline and increased levels of social and behavioral problems in children. In turn, greater maternal discipline predicted greater levels of anxiety and depression, learning and cognitive problems and social and behavioral difficulties in children. Maternal harsh discipline also significantly mediated the association between conflict intensity and all child functioning problems. Furthermore, the associations between conflict intensity, parental discipline and child functioning were similar for children and early adolescents suggesting that there might be no difference in terms of vulnerability of different age groups in the face of armed conflict and harsh parenting. Finally, in Chapter IV, I focused on post-displacement risk factors in a sample of Syrian refugee fathers currently residing in Turkey. Using the daily stressor model of refugee mental health (Miller & Rasmussen, 2010), in this study, I tested a multiple linkage model between war trauma, different post-displacement difficulties, paternal mental health and parenting behaviors. Cross-sectional data collected from 291 Syrian refugee fathers who have fled from Syria and resettled in Turkey with their children between 2 to 5 years showed that war trauma of fathers was associated with greater levels of subjective, material, interpersonal stressors and a greater level of discrimination. In turn, displacement stressors negatively predicted paternal mental health indicators such as depression, anxiety and PTSD and also with increased paternal punitive behavior and decreased paternal warmth. Indirect effects showed that war-trauma has a negative impact on parenting of Syrian refugee fathers mostly through paths including discrimination as a mediator. The results of the current dissertation together with the previous literature clearly establish the negative impact of adversities such as poverty, war and forced displacement on parents and children of different ages. Considering the findings of this dissertation, I suggest that parents and their children living in low-resource contexts such as LMIC, conflict-affected settings, and post-displacement settings might benefit from services and policies reducing justification of violence against women, promoting parental mental health, parental positive discipline and cognitive reappraisal of daily stressors of parents.