Parental, Marital and Socioeconomical Stress as Predictors of the Quality of Mother-Son and Mother-Daughter Interaction.

To estimate the influence of maternal stress, marital conflict, and psychosocial risk on the interaction between mothers and their children, this study observed 97 mother-child pairs in a laboratory setting in the presence of another unfamiliar mother-child pair. All families were francophone families from the Montreal, Canada, region; children were between 31 and 70 months old. The quality of the mother's and child's observed interactions and sociability was coded, and mothers completed questionnaires assessing parental stress, quality of marital relationship, availability of social support, and family socioeconomic status. Analysis suggested that economic, marital, and parental stress accounted for up to eight times more variance in mother-son interaction than in mother-daughter interaction. Mothers who reported more social isolation, a more coercive marital relationship, and greater stress in the parental role were more distant, colder, and less attentive in their interaction with their preschool sons than other mothers. (MM)