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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2021 Feb 18.
Published in final edited form as: Child Abuse Negl. 2012 Mar 16;36(3):226–235. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2011.10.012

Parental child abuse potential and subsequent coping competence in disadvantaged preschool children: Moderating effects of sex and ethnicity

Cristina M Lopez a,*, Angela Moreland Begle a, Jean E Dumas b, Michael A de Arellano a
PMCID: PMC7890930  NIHMSID: NIHMS1668961  PMID: 22425165

Abstract

This study evaluated the effects of abuse potential in parents on subsequent coping competence domains in their children, using a model empirically supported in a high-risk community sample by Moreland and Dumas (2007). Data from an ethnically diverse sample of 579 parents enrolled in the PACE (Parenting Our Children to Excellence) program was used to evaluate whether parental child abuse potential assessed at pre-intervention negatively contributed to child affective, achievement, and social coping competence in preschoolers one year later, and whether these associations were moderated by sex or ethnicity. Cross-sectional results indicated that parental child abuse potential was negatively related to child affective and achievement coping competence, after accounting for variance associated with child behavior problems. However, child abuse potential was not predictive of subsequent coping competence in any domain after controlling for previous levels of child coping competence. No moderating effects were found for sex and ethnicity, but results showed main effects of sex and ethnicity in cross-sectional analyses. Clinical implications and future directions are discussed.

Keywords: Child coping, Child abuse potential, Sex differences, Ethnic differences, Child maltreatment

Introduction

Given the high rates of substantiated child abuse and neglect in the United States (over 10 per 1,000 children under age 18 were victims of substantiated maltreatment in 2008; US Department of Health and Human Services, 2010) and the well-established connection with subsequent short- and long-term emotional, cognitive, and physical difficulties among children (Aber, Allen, Carlson, & Cicchetti, 1989; Dubowitz, Pitts, & Black, 2004; Egeland, Yates, & Appleyard, 2002), researchers have long sought to reduce the occurrence of child maltreatment and related consequences by focusing on identification of critical antecedents or risk factors for abuse and neglect (e.g., Belsky, 1993; Ornduff, Kesley, Bursi, Alpert, & Bada, 2002).

Child coping competence

Like adults, children are faced with multiple challenges in their daily environments, such as demands, developmental tasks, and major life events—which each require some kind of coping response from the child (Blechman, Prinz, & Dumas, 1995; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Children can cope with challenges in prosocial, antisocial, or asocial ways. Children who cope prosocially are able to overcome the problem or difficulty by relying on available resources, such as former knowledge or assistance from others. Children who cope in an antisocial manner use aggressive or destructive means of attempting to solve the challenge, or deny any responsibility in seeking a solution. Finally, children who cope asocially respond to the challenge by withdrawing from the situation or from others, often in fear or distress, thus avoiding the challenge or attempting to minimize it instead of learning from it (Izard, 1984; Waters & Sroufe, 1983). According to coping competence theory (Dumas, 1997; Moreland & Dumas, 2007), the coping responses that children practice regularly early in development serve as precursors of school age prosocial, antisocial or asocial conduct. Specifically, children with high levels of prosocial coping and low levels of antisocial and asocial coping tend to follow more adaptive developmental trajectories, are better able to handle normative and stressful life events in an appropriate manner, and are less likely to develop psychological problems such as externalizing or internalizing disorders. The opposite is true of children with low levels of prosocial coping and high levels of antisocial or asocial coping (Compas, Conner-Smith, Saltzman, Thomsen, & Wadsworth, 2001; Eisenberg, Fabes, & Guthrie, 1997; Skinner, 1995).

Coping competence theory assumes that challenges requiring a coping response fall into three distinct domains of child coping competence: social, for challenges involving primarily interpersonal and social situations and demands; achievement, for challenges involving mainly goal-directed activities, such as physical skills, self-care tasks, and academic responsibilities; and affective, for challenges requiring solutions to emotional situations and demands. The theory posits that these broad domains are overlapping in nature, yet still assess a child’s ability to cope in a variety of situations rather than focusing on one distinct area (e.g., school, peers, family, medical, etc.) (Moreland & Dumas, 2007). Empirical studies have found evidence to support the theory’s predicted associations among child characteristics, such as attachment, ability to solve problems, individual attributions, developmental level, social support, and sociodemographic characteristics, and the individual domains of coping (Compas, 1987; Moreland & Dumas, 2007; Moss, Gosselin, Parent, Rousseau, & Dumont, 1997; Normandeau & Gobeil, 1998). Further, a child’s coping style has been associated with other important child characteristics, including child behavior problems. Specifically, children who display lower levels of social, achievement, and affective coping competence were rated by parents as exhibiting higher levels of disruptive behavior (Moreland & Dumas, 2007).

Although child coping competence is posited to remain fairly consistent throughout the course of development, research shows that children display different levels of coping skills as a function of sex (Anshel, Sutarso, & Jubenville, 2009; Moreland Dumas, 2007). Specifically, young girls typically show much greater levels of coping competence than boys, especially in the social and affective domains, which may reflect the different developmental trajectories that boys and girls experience. For example, Moreland and Dumas (2007) found that 3–6 year old girls displayed higher levels of social, achievement, and affective coping competence than same age boys.

Measurement of parental child abuse potential

Commonly used methods for investigating child maltreatment incidence rates include self-reports from parents and referrals to Child Protective Services (CPS). However, difficulties involved in accessing CPS databases (Chaffin & Valle, 2003) and parent reluctance to admit abuse or neglect (Ammerman, 1998) often result in underestimated rates of child maltreatment (Chalk & King, 1998). With the use of child maltreatment risk instruments, which provide information regarding the likelihood or “potential” for the adult respondent to perpetrate child maltreatment, researchers have been able to avoid the critical limitations traditionally associated with child abuse reporting statistics. Although not commonly utilized in practice, child maltreatment risk instruments can also be used by practitioners in a clinical context. For example, the scale could be used as a screening measure for identification of referrals to parent training within a pediatric primary care setting.

The Child Abuse Potential Inventory (CAPI; Milner, 1986) is the most widely used and strongly supported child maltreatment risk instrument, and recent identification of the CAPI as a valid instrument to assess risk or potential for child maltreatment (Chaffin & Valle, 2003) has led to its classification as the primary risk assessment tool currently available (Medora, Wilson, & Larson, 2001). However, it is important to note the distinction often made between parental child abuse potential and occurrence. Specifically, Chaffin and Valle (2003) argued that reducing risk may not be equivalent to rates of actual child abuse occurrence. Child abuse occurrence typically refers to a determination of child abuse by an official agency, while parental child abuse potential refers to a parent’s self-report of the likelihood or possibility of abuse perpetration. Although studies show that CAPI scores are highly correlated with actual abuse (Milner, Gold, Ayoub, & Jacewitz, 1984), elevated parental child abuse potential does not necessarily imply that abuse has been committed (Chaffin & Valle, 2003).

The CAPI has been normed on groups with a wide range of sociodemographic characteristics, such as race, income, and level of abuse (Milner, 1986). A review of the CAPI determined that internal consistency estimates (alpha) for the Abuse Scale range from 0.85 to 0.98 for physically abusive parents and general population groups (Milner, 1994). The CAPI has shown adequate test–retest, construct, predictive, and concurrent validity in previous studies (see review by Milner, 1994). For example, the CAPI has been reported to adequately distinguish between groups of at-risk and control subjects, as well as differentiate between differing levels of risk in the at-risk group (Ayoub, Jacewitz, Gold, & Milner, 1983).

Parental child abuse potential and later coping competence

In a review of contextual factors associated with child maltreatment, Hecht and Hansen (2001) found that, in addition to parental stress, parent psychopathology, and demographic factors (i.e., ethnicity, marital status, family income), limited quality and frequency of positive parent and child interactions contributed to poor child adjustment. In addition, mothers perpetrating abuse reported more ineffective problem-focused coping than non-abusive mothers (Cantos, Neale, O’Leary, Gaines, 1997). Given that parents reporting elevated parental child abuse potential tend to engage in more maladaptive coping themselves (Rodriguez, 2009) and that children often model their coping skills after parental coping strategies observed at home (Kavanagh, Youngblade, Reid, & Fagot, 1988; Lahey, Conger, Atkeson, & Treiber, 1984; Trickett & Susman, 1988), the likelihood that elevated parental child abuse potential has detrimental effects on child coping competence, one characteristic of child adjustment, merits further investigation.

Although evidence suggests that there is a relationship between parental endorsement of potential for child maltreatment and the coping responses of children, that evidence is limited due to a gap in the literature that does not directly address the relationship between parental child abuse potential and subsequent child coping competence within one study design. In addition, researchers have traditionally used coping theories validated for adults and extended them to include children and adolescents (Compas et al., 2001; Skinner & Zimmer-Gembeck, 2007) and therefore do not take into account the role of child behavior problems, which has been shown to impact child coping competence (Moreland & Dumas, 2007). Much of the existing research has only examined cross-sectional relationships between parental child abuse potential and variables related to child coping, and have used samples consisting primarily of Caucasian children.

Cross-sectional examination of effects of parental discipline on child internalizing symptoms have demonstrated that parents reporting higher abuse potential scores (as assessed by the CAPI) had children who reported higher anxiety and depressive symptoms as well as some components of attributional styles (Rodriguez, 2003, 2006). However, most of these samples did not consist of high-risk cases (e.g., ethnic minority, low-income) and did not control for childhood behavior problems. While a study by Rodriguez and Eden (2008) resulted in similar associations between parental discipline and attributional styles in a sample children diagnosed with externalizing disorders, these findings are cross-sectional and do not directly assess the construct of child coping competence. In a study by Kolko, Kazdin, Thomas, and Day (1993), high-abuse-potential mothers reported greater child antisocial behavior (e.g., externalizing problems, impulsivity), depression, self-injury, and family stress than mothers endorsing low-abuse-potential. Though child reports corroborated this information with high-risk children endorsing more severity of depression and lower positive assertion, the study did not test longitudinal associations and the constructs assessed did not include a direct measure of coping competence across multiple domains (i.e., more than affective competence). Additional reviews of the literature found 1 longitudinal study conducted by Dukewich, Borkowski, and Whitman (1999) in a sample consisting predominantly of African Americans that controlled for child behavior problems. While results indicated that CAPI scores were predictive of adaptive functioning and children’s intelligence up to 2 years later, no direct measure of child coping competence was included and the CAPI-short form (25 items vs. 77-item abuse scale used in other studies) was used. Thus, given differential rates of parental child abuse potential and child coping competence among ethnic groups and the lack of predictive studies, direct examination of coping styles among various ethnic groups in a longitudinal design warrants further investigation.

The present study

This study extends previous research by using a child-focused coping model by Moreland and Dumas (2007), which has been empirically supported in a high-risk community population, to assess child competence across 3 domains (i.e., social, achievement, and affective coping competence) and investigate parental child abuse potential and child coping competence while controlling for the influence of child behavior problems. The study also extends previous research by investigating the association between parental child abuse potential and child coping competence among an ethnically diverse sample drawn from a socio-demographically disadvantaged urban population. We hypothesized that higher levels of parental child abuse potential would be related to decreased child coping competence concurrently 1 year later, after accounting for child behavior problems. Given the strong association between the 3 domains (i.e., social, achievement, and affective) of child coping competence, we hypothesized that higher levels of parental child abuse potential would be significantly related to each separate domain of child coping competence, both concurrently and longitudinally. In addition, we predicted that girls would have higher levels of coping competence than boys across both time points. Although no predictions regarding moderation of sex and ethnicity were made a priori, exploratory investigation of these interactions were also conducted.

Method

The study used data collected as part of a large intervention project known as Parenting Our Children to Excellence (PACE). PACE is a preventive intervention that aims to promote harmonious parent–child interactions in low- and high-risk families, and thus increase the likelihood of positive child and parent outcomes. PACE is an 8-week, behaviorally oriented, structured group parenting program designed for parents of preschoolers and delivered at the daycare centers the children attend. The program was developed by Dumas on the basis of research on the promotion of parenting effectiveness and child coping competence (Dumas, Prinz, Smith, & Laughlin, 1999), and was designed to evaluate and reduce common obstacles to engagement in prevention programs. It is manualized in terms of content and process, and addresses childrearing concerns and challenges commonly experienced by parents of young children in a format that fosters active parental participation and mutual support. Sessions cover eight topics: (1) bringing out the best in our children, (2) setting clear limits for our children, (3) helping our children behave well at home and beyond, (4) making sure our children get enough sleep, (5) encouraging our children’s early thinking skills, (6) developing our children’s self-esteem, (7) helping our children do well at school, and (8) anticipating challenges and seeking support. Due to potential treatment effects, all analyses controlled for number of PACE sessions that parents attended. Empirical evaluation of the PACE program has indicated that higher engagement in PACE is associated with improved child coping competence and lower levels of parent stress and parental child abuse potential (Begle & Dumas, 2010).

Participants

Demographic characteristics of the 579 participants are summarized in Table 1. Overall, African American mothers comprised the largest portion of parent respondents (46%), followed by Caucasian mothers (42%), Caucasian fathers (4%), and African American fathers (3%). In general, parents were young (52% aged 30 or younger), single (53%), employed (66%), and had completed high school (71%). African American boys comprised the largest portion of child participants (31%), followed by African American girls (25%), Caucasian boys (23%), and Caucasian girls (19%). Children’s ages ranged from 3 to 6 years (mean age = 4.40, SD = 0.78).

Table 1.

Descriptive information (n = 579).

Variables Overall M (SD) Caucasian M (SD) African American M (SD)
Parent
 Sex (%)
  Male 7% 8% 7%
  Female 93% 92% 93%
 Age (M) 31 (7.05) 33.36 (6.85) 28.51 (6.41)
 Race (%)
  Caucasian 48% – –
  African American 52% – –
 Income (M) $24,250 ($11,809) $34,400 ($10,121) $16,253 ($10,704)
Child
 Sex (%)
  Male 52% 55% 49%
  Female 48% 45% 51%
 Age 4.4 (0.78) 4.37 (0.75) 4.43 (0.81)
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Note: M = mean; SD = standard deviation.

Procedures

All procedures were approved by the Purdue University Institutional Review Board (IRB). Fifty daycare centers were recruited with the help of Child Care Answers, an Indianapolis childcare provider training and licensing agency. To receive the program, centers had to serve: (1) a minimum of 35 families with children between the ages of 3 and 6 at time of recruitment, and (2) an economically and ethnically diverse population. All parents of children ages 3–6 were eligible to participate in PACE. When parents had more than 1 child between ages 3 and 6, they were asked to focus on the oldest child as the target child for the study. Families did not have to meet set income criteria and were not recruited to obtain predetermined percentages of participants from different ethnic groups.

At each center, recruitment strategies included displaying poster advertisements in numerous locations, sending program registration forms to all eligible parents, and staffing a registration table twice a week for 4 weeks during which eligible parents were informed about PACE and invited to participate. Poster advertisements summarized the content of each session and stated that the program was free and that, at each session, parents and children would receive a free meal, free childcare, and $3 in cash to cover cost of transportation. Parents were given opportunities to ask questions before deciding to participate and providing informed consent. Parents who decided to participate enrolled in the program by turning in a completed enrollment form or attending the first session.

Following enrollment in the PACE program, parents completed a Parent Survey at pre-assessment and 1-year follow up. The survey is a structured interview individually administered by trained staff at the parents’ home or at their children’s daycare center, depending on parent preference. It included measures of sociodemographic characteristics, parental child abuse potential, child coping competence, and child behavior problems. Parents provided informed consent before each interview and received $35 in cash at completion.

Tracking.

To obtain measures at 1-year follow-up, trained research assistants implemented a standardized procedure to track all parents who enrolled in the program, whether they attended sessions or not. As necessary: (1) up to 5 attempts were made to contact the parent by phone, leaving a scripted message if needed each time to ask the parent to contact the PACE office; (2) Alternate contact person(s), provided by the parent at program enrollment, were contacted to request the parent’s new contact information and to ask the parent to call the office; (3) A letter was mailed to the parent’s most recent address on file; (4) A letter was delivered to the daycare center the child attended at the time the parent enrolled in PACE, to be forwarded to the family; (5) A trained interviewer went to the parent’s last known address to schedule or complete an interview in person.

Measures

Parental child abuse potential.

The Child Abuse Potential Inventory (CAPI) is a 160-item, self-report screening instrument for child physical abuse risk, endorsed in an agree/disagree, forced-choice format. The main risk indicator on the CAPI is the Abuse Scale, which consists of 77 items and 6 factor subscales (i.e., Distress, Rigidity, Unhappiness, Problems with Child and Self, Problems with Family, and Problems with Others). The sum of parent’s responses to the Abuse subscale was used in the current study.

The CAPI has been normed on groups with a wide range of sociodemographic characteristics, such as race, income, and level of abuse (Milner, 1986). A review of the CAPI determined that internal consistency estimates (alpha) for the Abuse Scale range from 0.85 to 0.98 for physically abusive parents and general population groups (Milner, 1994). The CAPI has shown adequate test–retest, construct, predictive, and concurrent validity in previous studies (see review by Milner, 1994). For example, the CAPI has been reported to adequately distinguish between groups of at-risk and control subjects, as well as differentiate between differing levels of risk in the at-risk group (Ayoub et al., 1983).

Child coping competence.

The Coping Competence Scale (CCS_R; Moreland & Dumas, 2007) consists of 26 parent-report items rating competence on a 5-point Likert scale, from (1) Very good to (5) Very poor. The scale has high internal consistency (Cronbach α = .91 in Moreland & Dumas (2007); and .91 at pre-intervention and .93 at 1-year follow-up in the current study) and correlates significantly with other measures of adjustment in the preschool years (Moreland & Dumas, 2007). The CCS_R consists of 3 subscales, which include 8 affective coping competence items (e.g., “listens with interest to what others say,” “stands up for own point of view without being a bully”), 8 social coping competence items (e.g., “cares about other people’s feelings,” “stays calm when he/she is frustrated”), and 10 achievement coping competence items (e.g., “concentrates well when learning something new,” “finishes tasks that he/she starts”). The affective (Cronbach α = .81 at pre-intervention and .78 at one-year follow-up), social (Cronbach α = .88 at pre-intervention and .88 at 1-year follow-up), and achievement (Cronbach α= .83 at pre-intervention and .82 at 1-year follow-up) coping competence subscales showed adequate internal consistency in the present study.

Child disruptive behavior.

Time 1 child disruptive behavior was measured using the Disruptive Behavior Disorders Rating Scale (Cappa, Begle, Conger, Dumas, & Conger, 2011), while Time 3 disruptive behavior was measured with the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory-2 (ECBI; Boggs, Eyberg, & Reynolds, 1990). Initially developed as a teacher measure of DSM-III-R disruptive behavior disorder symptoms (Pelham, Gnagy, Greenslade, & Milich, 1992), the scale was revised to include the DSM-IV symptoms and adapted for use with parents (Cappa et al., 2011). Several studies have found the DBDRS to be a valid measure of preschool disruptive behavior and the measure is frequently used (Hoza & Owens, 2003; Querido & Eyberg, 2003). Only attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) symptoms were assessed, given that all children were preschoolers. Participants rated each symptom on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 0 “Not at all” to 3 “Very much,” and rated how well each symptom best described the target child. Their responses were summed to obtain dimensional ratings of ADHD and ODD symptoms at home and preschool. In the current study, the DBD-ADHD and the DBD-ODD scales showed high internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.87 and 0.83, respectively).

At Time 3, parents completed the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory-2 (ECBI; Boggs et al., 1990). This 36-item inventory assessed child disruptive behavior using the Intensity subscale, which measures frequency-of-occurrence of commonly observed disruptive behaviors from (1) never to (7) always, was used in the present study. The scale was internally consistent (Cronbach α = .91 in Boggs et al. (1990), and .91 at pre-intervention and .92 at 1-year follow-up in the current study). Among clinically referred children, the ECBI has shown high concurrent validity with other measures of externalizing and internalizing child behavior (e.g., Boggs et al., 1990). Responses were summed at each time point to obtain quantitative ratings of intensity of child behavior problems, with higher scores reflecting more disruptive behavior.

Results

Preliminary analyses

As several of the variables had a significantly skewed distribution (values greater 2.0; e.g., Curran, West, & Finch, 1996), non-parametric Spearman correlations were computed. Bivariate correlational analyses (see Table 2) demonstrated that all three child coping subscales were significantly associated with parental child abuse potential, as well as with child behavior problems at Time 1. Of the 579 parents who enrolled in the program, 579 completed the Parent Survey at pre-intervention, and 421 (73%) at 1-year follow-up. No significant differences were found among parents with and without missing data on any of the study variables, showing that data was missing completely at random (MCAR; Little & Rubin, 1987). Thus, missing data were handled using listwise deletion.

Table 2.

Bivariate analyses of child coping, demographics, parental child abuse potential, and child’s behavior problems.

Variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
1. Center –
2. Child sex .02 –
3. Child ethnicity .24* .06 –
4. Attendance .15* .03 .30* –
5. Bx Problem-ADHD −.02 .10 .02 −.02 –
6. Bx Problem-ODD .04 .04 .12* .00 .64* –
7. Income .15* .02 .47* .28* −.04 −.01 –
8. CAPI −.05 .07 −.22* −.03 .21* .21* −.39* –
9. Social CC −.04 −.11 −.11 −.04 −.30* −.33* .02 −.16* –
10. Achievement CC −.06 −.15* −.12 −.01 −.23* −.20* −.01 −.17* .66* –
11. Affective CC −.10 −.13* −.05 .01 −.29* −.27* .10* −.24* .72* .90* –
Mean – – – 4.30 19.19 7.28 $24,250 110.86 1.99 2.27 1.97
Standard deviation – – – 0.78 8.23 4.47 $11,809 84.68 0.47 0.43 0.49
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Note: Bx, behavior; CAPI, pre-intervention Child Abuse Potential Inventory; and CC, follow up Coping Competence.

*

p < .01.

Cross-sectional relationships between parental child abuse potential and child coping competence

To evaluate the cross-sectional relationship between parental child abuse potential and concurrent child coping competence, a hierarchical multivariate linear regression analysis was conducted on each of the three domains of competence (i.e., social, achievement, affective coping competence). For all regressions, variance associated with center, family income, and attendance in the PACE program (to control for intervention effects on the outcome variables) were entered in the first block, as well as sex and ethnicity of the child. Given the association between child behavior problems and child coping competence, concurrent behavior problems (i.e., ADHD and ODD) were entered in the second block before entering CAPI scores in the third block. Finally, to examine any moderating effects of sex or ethnicity on the cross-sectional relationship between parental child abuse potential and child coping competence, the interaction terms of sex by CAPI scores and ethnicity by CAPI scores were entered in the fourth block. Results of the regressions entered in the fourth block can be found in Table 3.

Table 3.

Hierarchical regression analyses for cross-sectional child coping competence.

Variable Social CC
 Achievement CC
 Affective CC
B SE B β B SE B β B SE B β
Center −.035 .018 −.074 −.002 .017 −.004 −.069 .020 −.143**
Sex −.040 .018 −.085* −.050 .017 −.116** −.048 .019 −.100*
Ethnicity −.013 .021 −.028 −.073 .020 −.171** −.016 .023 −.032
Income .005 .022 .010 −.022 .021 −.053 .030 .024 .062
Attendance −.006 .019 −.012 .016 .018 .037 −.005 .021 −.011
Behavior problems-ADHD −.105 .023 −.222** −.147 .022 −.344** −.134 .025 −.278**
Behavior problems-ODD −.148 .023 −.310** −.003 .022 −.008 −.034 .025 −.069
Child abuse potential −.029 .021 −.061 −.045 .019 −.104* −.048 .022 −.098*
Sex × CAPI −.010 .018 −.021 −.016 .017 −.037 .024 .020 .048
Ethnicity × CAPI −.004 .019 −.008 .008 .018 .017 .009 .020 .017
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Note: CAPI, pre-intervention Child Abuse Potential Inventory; CC, coping competence.

*

p < .05.

**

p < .01.

Although center (β = −.068, t = −3.42, p = .001), family income (β = .046, t = 2.06, p = .039), and behavior problems associated with ADHD (β = −.141, t = −5.67, p < .001) were significant predictors of concurrent affective child coping competence, higher scores on the CAPI (β = −.046, t = −2.08, p = .038) were still uniquely associated with lower affective child coping competence. In addition, significance of the F-change test (ΔR2 = .007, p = .038) indicated that inclusion of the CAPI variable added significantly to the prediction of cross-sectional child affective coping competence scores, even after controlling for other predictive variables (i.e., sex, ethnicity, family income, and behavior problems).

Similar results were found for achievement coping competence. Although child behavior problems associated with ADHD (β = −.152, t = −7.05, p < .001) was a significant predictor, parental child abuse potential was uniquely associated with achievement coping competence (β = −.047, t = −2.45, p = .015) such that higher scores on the CAPI were associated with lower concurrent achievement coping competence. This relationship accounted for significant variance above and beyond the effects of other variables included in the model (ΔR2 = .009, p = .015). Contrary to expectations, while problems associated with ADHD (β = −.108, t = −4.75, p < .001) and ODD (β = −.152, t = −6.57, p < .001) were significant predictors of cross-sectional social coping competence, parental child abuse potential was not (β = −.030, t = −1.46, p = .15) after controlling for other predictor variables (ΔR2 = .003, p = .146).

Differences in sex and ethnicity

The main effects of sex and ethnicity on child coping competence were also tested to examine sex and ethnicity differences in child coping competence. For affective coping competence, sex was significant in block 1 (β = −.067, t = −3.23, p = .001) and remained significant (β = −.048, t = −2.48, p = .013) even after behavior problems and CAPI were accounted for in block 3. Parents of female children reported higher levels of concurrent affective coping competence than parents of male children. Ethnicity was not a significant predictor of affective coping competence (β = −.026, t = −1.07, p = .286). With regard to achievement coping competence, both sex and ethnicity were significant in block 1 and remained significant in block 3 (β = −.049, t = −2.91, p = .004; β = −.073, t = −3.66, p < .001, respectively) after accounting for parental child abuse potential and child behavior problems. As expected, girls (M = 2.40, SD = .37) exhibited higher levels of achievement coping competence than boys (M = 2.28, SD = .40). Similarly, African American children exhibited more achievement competency than their Caucasian counterparts. Results for social coping competence showed that sex was significant in block 1 and remained significant in block 3 (β = −.040, t = −2.27, p = .024) after accounting for CAPI and child behavior problems. Consistent with affective and achievement competence, girls exhibited higher levels of social coping competence than boys. Ethnicity was only marginally significant in block 1 (β = −.043, t = −1.77, p = .078) and was no longer significant after accounting for child behavior problems and CAPI.

Although no specific hypotheses were made regarding moderating effects of sex and ethnicity, interaction effects were evaluated in block 4 of the hierarchical regressions. Results showed that the concurrent relationship between parental child abuse potential and affective coping competence was not moderated by sex (β = .024, t = 1.18, p = .24) or ethnicity (β = .009, t = .427, p = .67). Likewise, no moderation of sex (β = −.016, t = −.908, p = .36) or ethnicity (β = .008, t = .432, p = .67) was found between cross-sectional parental child abuse potential and achievement coping competence. The interactions of sex (β = −.010, t = −.545, p = .59) and ethnicity (β = −.004, t = −.214, p = .83) with parental child abuse potential were also non-significant in the prediction of social coping competence.

Longitudinal associations between parental child abuse potential and child coping competence

In addition to cross-sectional associations, this study extends the literature by evaluating the longitudinal relationship between parental child abuse potential and child coping competence. Hierarchical multivariate linear regression analyses were conducted on each of the three domains of competence (i.e., social, achievement, affective coping competence) at one year follow up, while controlling for Time 1 levels of coping competence. As with the cross-sectional analyses, variance associated with center, family income, attendance in the PACE program (to control for intervention effects on the outcome variables), sex, and ethnicity were entered in the first block; concurrent behavior problems (i.e., Time 2 ECBII) were entered in the second block; and Time 1 CAPI scores were entered in the third block. Finally, to examine any potential moderating effects of sex or ethnicity on the longitudinal relationship between parental child abuse potential and child coping competence, the interaction terms of sex by Time 1 CAPI scores and ethnicity by Time 1 CAPI scores were entered in the fourth block. Results of the regressions entered in the fourth block can be found in Table 4.

Table 4.

Hierarchical Regression Analyses for Longitudinal Prediction of Child Coping Competence.

Variable Social CC
 Achievement CC
 Affective CC
B SE B β B SE B β B SE B β
Center .011 .017 .027 −.010 .015 −.025 −.005 .016 −.012
Sex .000 .017 .000 −.015 .015 −.038 .003 .016 −.006
Ethnicity −.030 .019 −.070 −.008 .018 −.021 −.035 .019 −.085
Income .034 .020 .076 .013 .018 .034 .054 .020 .128**
Attendance −.004 .018 −.010 .012 .016 .028 .014 .018 .032
T1 coping competence .173 .018 .401 .195 .016 .511** .182 .017 .436**
Beh Prob – T2 ECBI-2 −.163 .018 −.384** −.091 .016 −.237** −.133 .017 −.332**
Child abuse potential .007 .019 .017 −.010 .017 −.025 −.013 .019 −.032
Sex × CAPI .011 .018 .026 .000 .016 .001 −.012 .017 −.030
Ethnicity × CAPI .012 .017 .027 .019 .016 .047 −.004 .017 −.010
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Note: ECBII, Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory-2; CAPI, pre-intervention Child Abuse Potential Inventory; and CC, follow up Coping Competence.

**

p < .01.

Results for subsequent affective coping competence indicated that family income (β = .060, t = 3.23, p = .001) and concurrent behavior problems (β = −.136, t = −8.41, p < .001) still predicted significant variance in affective coping competence at the one year follow up, even after controlling for levels of affective coping competence at Time 1 (β = .184, t = 10.84, p < .001). Contrary to expectations, Time 1 CAPI was not predictive of subsequent affective coping competence when controlling for Time 1 affective coping competence (β = −.016, t = −.861, p = .39).

Similarly, results for longitudinal achievement coping competence demonstrated that previous levels of achievement coping competence (β = 196, t = 12.24, p < .001) and concurrent behavior problems (β = −.093, t = −5.80, p < .001) were the only significant predictors. Unlike cross-sectional analyses, parental child abuse potential (β = −.009, t = −.519, p = .60) was not predictive of subsequent achievement coping competence. Consistent with affective and achievement coping competence, results for social coping competence also indicated that Time 1 social coping competence (β = .173, t = 9.53, p < .001) and concurrent behavior problems (β = −.164, t = −9.09, p < .001) were the only significant predictors. Contrary to predictions, social coping competence was not predicted by Time 1 CAPI (β = .010, t = .515, p = .61).

Discussion

Results from the current study demonstrate that while concurrent parental child abuse potential among parents of preschoolers is associated with some domains of negative child coping competence, these associations are not present over time. This study extended the literature by examining both concurrent and longitudinal relationships between the specific constructs of child coping competence and parental child abuse potential. Concurrent findings were consistent with relevant literature on the relations between parent coping strategies and parental child abuse potential (Rodriguez, 2009), and parent stress and child coping competence among preschoolers (Cappa et al., 2011). Contrary to hypotheses, longitudinal analyses demonstrated that concurrent child disruptive behaviors were better predictors of coping competence than parental child abuse potential. Results build upon the extant literature in several ways.

First, previous research has focused primarily on risk factors, rather than consequences of abuse. The current study builds upon this literature by highlighting the effects of parental child abuse potential on child coping competence and also speaks to the strong connection between early disruptive behaviors and child coping competence, even at such an early developmental period. Second, we utilized the coping competence model empirically supported by Moreland and Dumas (2007), which includes three distinct but overlapping domains of competence (i.e., social, achievement, and affective). This extends findings that focused primarily on overall coping among children, by demonstrating that parental child abuse potential may be most detrimental to achievement and affective coping competence. These findings are not surprising, given that parents who report higher levels of parental child abuse potential tend to display higher levels of stress and ineffective coping strategies when dealing with challenges that arise in their own environments (Timmer, Borrego, & Urquiza, 2002).

Consistent with research demonstrating significant links between parent and child coping strategies (Guralnick, 1999; Weiss, Sullivan, & Diamond, 2003), these results suggest that young children may model their coping strategies (e.g., how to handle emotions) from their parents’ ways of coping. In addition, we accounted for child behavior problems in the model, which is essential given the strong association with these constructs (Compas et al., 2001) and examined these constructs over a one year time-span. The inclusion of child behavior problems added strength to previous findings since it directly demonstrated the negative influence of externalizing behaviors, such as those related to Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), on coping competence across all three domains. While ADHD is often considered in the context of the classroom (associated with achievement competence), results from this study highlight the overarching effects that ADHD has on social competence (e.g., blurting out responses to other children, interrupting games) as well as affective competence (e.g., poor emotional regulation, impulsivity).

In addition, the current study builds upon previous literature by examining sex and ethnicity differences. Findings were consistent with previous literature (Moreland & Dumas, 2007; Kistner, David-Ferdon, Lopez, & Dunkel, 2007), such that girls demonstrated higher levels of coping competence than boys on all three domains. More importantly, results demonstrated that sex did not moderate the relationship, either concurrently or longitudinally, between any of the three coping competence domains. These findings suggest that, although girls and boys display different levels of coping competence, these differences may not influence the development of subsequent coping patterns, as exhibited by the lack of sex differences at the 1 year follow up. Further, results demonstrated that parents of African American children report them displaying higher levels of achievement coping competence than did parents of their Caucasian peers. One potential variable that may account for this difference is social desirability. Studies have shown that ethnic families are less likely to report or be aware of academic difficulties than Caucasian parents (Lynch & Stein, 1987). Future studies should examine these relationships further, in an attempt to identify additional factors that may influence the development of coping competence among African American families.

Contrary to expectations, no longitudinal associations between parental child abuse potential and subsequent child coping competence was found. With scores on the CAPI decreasing over time even while controlling for effects of the intervention, it is possible that spontaneous testing effects may have contributed to our results (Twenge & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2002). Given that Head Start facilities are not often used as research sites, it is possible that parents completing these forms were very sensitive to testing effects and that merely reading the items brought potential discipline problems to their attention. In addition, lack of longitudinal associations may suggest that the effects of parental child abuse potential are larger for young children in earlier developmental periods (as those seen in cross-sectional results). Alternatively, the lack of longitudinal associations may also be a function of measurement. While Dukewich et al. (1999) found predictive associations between parental child abuse potential and adaptive behavioral functioning in young children while controlling for behavior problems, the parental child abuse potential construct was assessed using the CAPI Short Form.

While results of this study delineate the relationship between early parental child abuse potential and child coping competence, it is important to consider additional influences on child coping competence. Specifically, future studies should examine the influence of additional parent (e.g., satisfaction, efficacy, locus of control, psychological health) and child (e.g., internalizing symptoms, emotion regulation, cognitive ability) factors that may contribute to subsequent child coping competence, as well as resiliency factors. In addition, subsequent research should try to replicate results of the longitudinal analyses before generalizing these results to other populations (e.g., older children, children who have been abused, children diagnosed with externalizing behavior disorders, etc.).

Limitations

Important limitations must be considered. First, conclusions were based upon a sample of 3–6 year olds from a high risk community population, in which children may have faced multiple environmental stressors that could interfere with their ability to effectively cope with challenges (Moreland & Dumas, 2007). Second, the results indicated that effects among the relationships were very small, as characterized by small increment R-square values. Thus, while results were significant, the variance accounted for was small and suggest that there are other factors that can further explain the relationships between these variables that might also carry more clinical significance. Third, the study utilized self-report instruments to operationalize all constructs, rather than using multi-methods of assessment (e.g., CPS reports, parent–child observations, reports from collateral informants), which would have addressed potential effects of shared method variance by breaking up variance accounted by methods of assessment. In addition, shared method variance may have influenced the significant association of the three coping subscales to child abuse potential and child behavior problems at Time 1.

In addition, the use of a contextual variable (i.e., parental child abuse potential) rather than firsthand reports of abuse from parents or CPS may have limited the results. While the CAPI is the “gold-standard” risk instrument for child maltreatment, evidence suggests that CAPI scores only account for about 17% of the variance in actual CPS reports (Chaffin & Valle, 2003). Finally, data relied primarily on mother report from African American or Caucasian parents. To increase generalizability, future studies should investigate the relationship among parental child abuse potential and coping competence within lower risk environments, with various age groups, among populations with different base rates for parental child abuse potential and confirmed maltreatment, and within samples of broader ethnic/racial backgrounds and multiple-informants.

Conclusion

While results from concurrent analyses support the hypotheses that higher levels of parental child abuse potential are associated with reductions in affective and achievement child coping competence, examination of the longitudinal relationships among these variables suggested that externalizing symptoms are predictive of subsequent child coping competence rather than parental child abuse potential. These findings expand the literature by utilizing the coping competence model (Moreland & Dumas, 2007) in examining the influence of parental child abuse potential across three distinct but overlapping domains (i.e., social, achievement, and affective coping competence). Further, the study built upon findings from previous researchers by investigating sex and ethnicity differences among constructs. Specifically, girls and African Americans reported higher levels of achievement coping competence than their counterparts. In addition, direct examination of the longitudinal effects of child abuse potential on coping competence demonstrated the influential role of child behavior problems in the development of adaptive coping competence across multiple domains, even in such a young developmental period. The results highlight the importance of incorporating assessment of parental child abuse potential into prevention and intervention efforts but more importantly, the importance of prevention (e.g., PACE) of early disruptive behaviors in order to improve child coping competence among preschool children.

Acknowledgments

This study would not have been possible without the collaboration of Marsha Hearn-Lindsey, Director, Child Care Answers, Indianapolis, of all the parents and children who participated in various aspects of the research, and of staff members who played major roles in data collection and program implementation, including Amanda Mosby, Sharon Hampton, and Stephanie Wynder. Their help and encouragement are gratefully acknowledged.

The support and encouragement of Linda Anne Valle, Ph.D., and Michele Hoover are gratefully acknowledged.

This study was supported by grant R49/CCR 522339 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the last author. Drs. Lopez and Begle are supported by the National Institute of Mental Health Training Grant T32 MH18869-15.

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