Background: Parents’ attitudes towards their children are central to parenting and promoting healthy child development including child behavior, executive functioning, and peer interactions (John-Seed & Weiss, 2002; Blum & Ribner, 2021). Mindfulness practices, and specifically loving-kindness meditations (LKMs), may promote more positive parenting emotions (Kirby & Baldwin, 2018; Ren et al., 2020). The goal of the current project is to 1) test whether LKMs improve parent attitudes, compared to a focused imagery control, and 2) examine whether parent childhood maltreatment history moderates these associations. Methods: A preliminary sample of 39 parents of toddlers (18- to 36 months), predominantly White non-Hispanic mothers, participated in an online study. Parent history of childhood maltreatment was measured via parent retrospective report and parent attitudes of warmth and negativity were assessed via behavioral coding of a five-minute parent speech about their child (Caspi et al., 2004). Results: Eight parents in each group (i.e., LKM and control) reported a history of childhood maltreatment. On average, parents expressed greater warmth when talking about male children (t = -2.52, p < 0.05). The LKM did not have a significant effect on parent negativity (β = 0.04, p = 0.78) or warmth (β = 0.01, p = 0.94), nor did parent childhood maltreatment history moderate these associations. Conclusion: These preliminary results are supported by previous research demonstrating no association between childhood maltreatment history and parent attitudes, however, larger samples are needed to determine the efficacy of LKMs on parent attitudes.

The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked widespread changes in many different areas of our everyday lives, including human interaction, technology, and schooling. Recently, many families engaged in teaching and learning in the home environment. Parents have gone from being caregivers to the expert in the room regarding their children’s virtual math learning. Math is a difficult (NMAP, 2008) and disliked topic (Mielicki et al., 2021; Sidney et al., 2021). Additionally, many parents have learned math differently than children are taught about it today (cf. Common Core State Standards in Mathematics were released in 2010; Jay et.al, 2018; Thompson et al., 2021). All of these factors may lead parents to feel math anxiety (Ashcraft, 2002; Ramirez et al., 2018), which includes symptoms of worry, unease, as well as nervousness toward the subject. In the current study, approximately 2,000 participants, some of whom were parents, were originally recruited from a large Qualtrics panel in early 2021, and were then recontacted one year later to complete a follow-up survey in early 2022. In the survey, we focused on whether a parent’s self-reported math anxiety rating correlated with the importance they placed on teaching their children math at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, and their perceived ability to do so. Findings may show that parents with higher levels of math anxiety may believe that math is crucial to teach at home, yet they may not believe they are capable of teaching their children about math.

Research has shown that exposure to inter-parental conflict as a child, especially in contexts of poverty, can increase the risk of developing internalizing mental health symptoms in adolescence. However, theory and research suggest that caring and sensitive interactions with caregivers may help to buffer children from the potentially negative developmental impacts of exposure to inter-parental conflict. Using data from the Family Life Project (N = 1,292), a prospective longitudinal sample of children in predominately low-income and rural communities, this study will apply multiple regression to test the extent to which the relation between inter-parental conflict exposure in childhood and emotional problems in adolescence is weaker for youth who experienced higher levels of maternal sensitivity. To do this we will examine the unique and interactive effects of exposure to inter-parental conflict across the first 10 years of life and the moderating role of positive parenting on child emotional symptoms at age 13. Models will statistically control for sociodemographic factors, as well as infant temperament and emotional problems at age three. Statistically significant main and interactive effects will be used to test the hypothesis that the presence of positive and sensitive parenting will weaken the association between the experience of inter-parental conflict across childhood and emotional problems in adolescence. Results are currently pending and will be available towards the end of July.

Does Parents’ Education and Experience Affect Encouragement to Study? Brianna Herrera, Kali Trzesniewski Latino youth living in the US often grow up in poverty and continue to live in poverty as adults. One of the factors that contributes to this is the high rate of school dropout, which limits their ability to find work that pays a living wage. Research has shown that parental involvement is a malleable factor that can boost academic outcomes. However, few studies have examined the factors that affect the level of parental involvement for Latino youth. According to my previous research conducted, I discovered that parents encouraging their children to study had the most positive influence on students achieving high school graduation. Research has concluded that educated parents are more aware of their children’s academic needs and comfortable with creating learning environments; resulting in improved student achievement. The goal of this study is to test whether the level of parent’s education affects their level of involvement, specifically focusing on home-based methods involvement. Using an existing sample dataset of 674 Mexican-origin youth and their parents, who have been assessed annually since the children were in 5th grade, I will test whether parents’ level of involvement is impacted by the parent’s education level based on the dataset and updates on their high school level of achievement. This research is significant because it will help understand a possible correlation that can negatively affect student academic achievement and create possible solutions that will help parents feel more comfortable in being academically involved in their children’s education.