Keywords

stress, health, cognitions, parent-child relationships

Abstract

Research to date indicates that parental and cognitive variables play a role in stress responses and health outcomes. Although researchers are beginning to focus on developmental processes in stress/health outcomes, there is little research examining which parental behaviors are most predictive of stress/health and whether cognitive variables mediate this relationship. As a result, the current study examines the self-reports of 160 late adolescents regarding parental behaviors, cognitive variables, and stress/health outcomes. In addition, blood pressure reactivity to a stressful situation was collected as a physiological measure of stress. The results suggest that, among the parental behaviors that are examined, parental overprotection and poor monitoring are the most predictive variables of adolescents' stress/health. The results indicate that adolescents' cognitions also are significant predictors of their self-reported stress/health. Further, adolescents' cognitions fully mediate the relationship between paternal behaviors and stress/health outcomes and partially mediate the relationship between maternal behaviors and stress/health outcomes. Finally, measures of blood pressure reactivity are not significantly related to study variables or were related in unpredicted directions. Possible explanations for these results are discussed. Overall, future research should examine parental overprotection and poor monitoring as important distal variables in adolescents' stress/health but should examine adolescents' cognitions as a more salient and immediate predictor of adolescents' stress/health.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2008

Advisor

Renk, Kimberly

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree Program

Psychology

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0002367

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0002367

Language

English

Release Date

October 2013

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

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Included in

Psychology Commons

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