Socioemotional and behavioral adjustment among school-age children with learning disabilities: the moderating role of maternal personal resources.

The study examined the role of maternal personal resources (mother's attachment style, coping strategies, and affect) in moderating the effects of learning disabilities (LD) on children's socioemotional and behavioral adjustment (self-rated sense of coherence, loneliness, and hope; and mother-rated child behavior checklist measures), as well as on their secure attachment among school-age children with LD. The sample consisted of 110 mother-child dyads: 59 mothers and their children with LD (29 boys, 30 girls) and 51 mothers and their typically developing children (21 boys, 30 girls) from the same schools. Preliminary analyses indicated significant group differences on all children's measures and in several of the maternal personal resources. Mothers' low use of avoidant coping strategies and less avoidance in close relationships with significant others were found to moderate the effect of children's disabilities on children's level of loneliness, feelings of hope, and secure attachment. Results are discussed in terms of understanding these maternal personal resources' influences on socioemotional wellbeing among school-age children with LD.

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Research on children's development and later socioemotional adjustment has emphasized the contribution of vulnerability and protective factors at the individual, family, and community levels (Campbell, 2003; Luthar & Cicchetti, 2000). However, most studies investigating children with learning disabilities (LD) have emphasized the effect of children's individual characteristics on their socioemotional and behavioral functioning. These studies suggested that internal neurological factors (e.g., information-processing disorders, impulsivity, performance and production deficits), which affect the academic skills of these children, may also affect their social and emotional perceptions and interpretations, which, in turn, may impair their social, emotional, and behavioral skills (Bender & Wall, 1994; Culbertson, 1998; Spafford & Grosser, 1993). Thus, such children evidence diverse socioemotional difficulties such as high levels of peer rejection and loneliness, low sense of coherence, low self-concept, and high levels of depression and anxiety (e.g., Bender & Wall, 1994; Culbertson, 1998; Margalit & Levin-Al-Yagon, 1994; Morrison & Cosden, 1997; Wenz-Gross & Siperstein, 1998). In addition, research has shown that children with LD demonstrate more behavioral problems, somatic problems, and withdrawn behaviors than do typically developing children (Dyson, 2003; Grolnick & Ryan, 1990). On the other hand, research focusing on personal factors that protect children with LD from maladjustment outcomes has emphasized the role of factors such as high verbal skills, high self-esteem, and a delineated understanding of the nature and course of the disabilities (Morrison & Cosden, 1997).

In examining the family level of vulnerability and protective factors that may contribute to children's adjustment, studies have underscored the parental and familial characteristics that affect parents' capacity to provide optimal care. These variables may include family rigidity or disorganization, family cohesion, parenting behaviors, parental well-being, and parents' psychopathology (Campbell, 2003; Greenberg, Speltz, & DeKlyen, 1993; Luthar & Cicchetti, 2000; Werner, 1993). These aspects of familial and parental characteristics have been linked with disruptive behavior problems in early childhood (Campbell, 1994; Patterson & Dishion, 1988; Snyder, 1991; Webster-Stratton, 1990), as well as with maladjusted functioning in middle childhood and adolescence (e.g., Cummings, Davies, & Campbell, 2000; Greenberg, Lengua, Coie, & Pinderhughes, 1999; Sheeber, Hops, & Davis, 2001). Moreover, several follow-up studies have suggested that maladaptive functioning among children is more likely to persist when associated with family dysfunction or parental psychopathology (Campbell, 1994, 1998; Denham et al., 2000; Greenberg et al., 1993).

Despite the growing awareness regarding the contribution of the family level to children's adjustment, especially parental personal resources among a variety of low-risk and high-risk samples (e.g., Belsky, 1984; Belsky & Barends, 2002; Campbell, 2003; Parke, 2004; van Bakel & Riksen-Walraven, 2002), relatively few studies have focused on these aspects among children with LD. Moreover, inasmuch as most of the research literature on parenting focused on maternal personal resources (see Campbell, 2003, for a review), they will comprise the focus of the current study.

Maternal Personal Resources

A variety of research supported the prediction that parents' psychological resources, as well as their developmental histories, directly influence childrearing quality and, through parenting, child development (Belsky, 1984; Belsky & Barends, 2002; Parke, 2004). Moreover, Belsky (1984) argued that parental psychological resources comprise the most important determinant--more influential than the child's individual characteristics or the contextual sources. According to his model, to provide optimal childcare, parents must possess sufficient psychological resources manifested in abilities to take others' perspectives, regulate impulses, feel secure in their own lives, and find ways to meet their owns needs. Research on parental personal resources assumed to play a substantial role in child development has examined parental well-being and psychopathology (e.g., Campbell, 2003; Goodman & Gotlib, 2002; Greenberg et al., 1993; Luthar & Cicchetti, 2000; Werner, 1993), parental personality (Belsky & Barends, 2002), and parental ego-resiliency (van Bakel & Riksen-Walraven, 2002), among others.