The effects of crisis parentin

The Metropolitan State College of Denver

When you picture homelessness, do you imagine a person wandering the streets and sleeping under bridges? Homelessness goes beyond the street. The findings of an annual study done by the Colorado Department of Human Services on October 23, 2001 reports that families currently make up 65% of homeless people in Metro Denver. The percentage of homeless families is up from 50% in 1998 and 25% in 1989. The number of homeless children aged 12 and under is currently 3,522 (Kreck 2002). Most of these young homeless people do not wander the streets, nor do they sleep under bridges. In many cases, these youth come from poor homes and unstable living situations. Whether that is the family moving frequently, living in a shelter, or the youth shuttling between the homes of several different relatives and friends, homelessness is a usually a process, not an event. These transient living conditions create insecurity in the lives of youth. This insecurity can lead to maladaptive behaviors. Here, we can see that there is a connection between homelessness and maladaptive behaviors in children.

When a homeless shelter or transitional housing of any type becomes home to a child, noise levels are increased, crowding is imminent, and chaos is an every-day occurrence. Home chaos has been related to poor cognitive competence, less adequate language development, greater likelihood of a more difficult temperament, reduced mastery motivation, and an increased risk of accidental injury in children. Chaotic home environments can interfere with parenting behavior by undermining parents’ confidence in their parenting and by eliciting negative parental moods. Parents in chaotic homes have been shown to be less responsive, less involved, less likely to show objects to the child or to demonstrate how something works, less vocally stimulating and more likely to interfere with infant exploratory activities (Corapci and Wachs, 2002).

The onset of homelessness can be a major contributing factor in maternal depression. Studies have shown a direct association between poor maternal mental health, particularly depression, and impaired parenting (Cowal, Shinn, Weitzman, Stojanovic & Labay, 2002). It is posited that “relative to nondepressed mothers, depressed mothers have been reported to be less sensitive and responsive to their children’s signals, more likely to resort to coercion or withdrawal to resolve conflicts with their children, and more hostile, irritable, and angry in their interactions” (Cowal et al., 2002). These behaviors are often associated with an authoritarian style of parenting. Overcontrolling, overprotective, intolerant, dominant, and intrusive parental behaviors are in turn associated with adolescent depression, an external locus of control, lower levels of competence, low self-esteem, and learned helplessness (Finkelstein, Donenberg and Martinovich, 2001).

Parenting Behavior as a Risk Factor for Children

It is clear that there is a direct connection between parenting in crisis and maladaptive behav

Some topics in this essay:
Corapci Wachs, Metro Denver, Smailes Brook, Stojanovic Labay, Neal Frick-Horbury, Donenberg Martinovich, College Denver, Corapaci Wachs, Archives Psychiatry, Children Maladaptive, maladaptive behaviors, parenting behavior, psychiatric disorders, behaviors associated, wachs 2002, noise crowding, parental behaviors associated, parental behaviors, homeless families, smailes brook 2001, neal frick-horbury, frick-horbury 2001, corapci wachs 2002, cohen kasen smailes, kasen smailes brook,