Minor Parenting Stresses with Young Children

Keith A. Cmic
The Pennsylvania State University

Mark T. Greenherg
University of Washington

GRNIC, KEITH A., and GREENBERG, MARK T. Minor Parenting Stresses with Young Children. GHILD
DEVELOPMENT, 1990, 61, 1628-1637. The importance of major life stress and minor daily hassles
associated with parenting was studied in 74 mothers and their 5-year-old children. Of interest were
the relative and absolute contributions of the stress factors to indices of parental, child, and family
functioning. Mothers completed questionnaires regarding stressors, aspects of parenting and indi-
vidual psychological status, social support, family functioning, and child behavioral status. Mother-
child pairs were also observed in interactions in a laboratory setting. Analyses indicated that life
stress and parenting daily hassles significantly predicted aspects of child, parent, and family status.
Hassles, however, proved to be a more powerful stress construct. Further analyses indicated that
mothers' social support moderated the influence of hassles on indices of matemal behavior. The
results are discussed in relation to the potential for minor parenting stresses to influence microsocial
processes within parent-child relationships and contribute to dysfunction in children and families.

Within any family, parents are routinely 1984; Sameroff & Seifer, 1983), child
challenged by child-rearing and caregiving psychopathology (Mash & Johnston, 1983),
demands, and children's behavior can at major childhood illness or handicap (Beck-
times be fhistrating and annoying. All parents man, 1983), and major negative life change
have some experience with being nagged or (Cmic, Creenberg, Ragozin, Robinson, &
whined at, settling arguments between sib- Basham, 1983). Routinely, greater stress is
lings, repeatedly cleaning up their children's significantly associated with less optimal par-
messes, as well as a myriad of other possible ent and family functioning, less optimal
everyday events of a similcir nature. Although parent-child interactions, and lower child
any one of these events may have litde developmental competence.
significance in and of itself, their cumulative
impact over a day, several days, or longer may Although it is clear that major life
represent a meaningful stressor for a parent. stresses are negatively related to various
Parents' appraisal of these events and their aspects of the parent, child, and family sys-
significance may have important implications tem, research also suggests that major life
for parental, family, and child functioning. stresses are low-frequency occurrences for
most families (Cmic & Creenberg, 1987). Re-
Belsky (1984) has proposed that contex- cently, LazEims and his colleagues (Kanner,
tual sources of stress are a major determinant Coyne, Schaefer, & Lazarus, 1981; Lazarus,
of parenting and can both direcdy and indi- 1984; Lazarus, Cohen, Folkman, Kanner, &
rectly infiuence children's development The Schaefer, 1980; Lazarus, DeLongis, Folkman,
research that supports such considerations & Gruen, 1985) have similarly questioned the
has typically involved assessment of the ad- utility of the major life event approach, and
verse impact of difficult life circumstance proposed that the cumulative impact of rela-
such as poverty and low SES (Belle, 1981; tively minor daily stresses ("daily hassles")
Wemer & Smith, 1982), single parenting may have major adaptational significance.
(Weinranb & Wolf, 1983), parental psycho- Lazarus hypothesizes further that an individ-
pathology (Garmezy, Masten, & Tellegen, ual's cognitive appraisal of the significance of

This research was supported by the USPHS, Matemal and Ghild Health Services, grant
number MGJ-530487. We are grateful to the mothers and children who participated in this study
and acknowledge the dedication and excellence of our research staff: Nancy Slough, Heather
Garmichael-Olson, and Kathy Sullivan. Requests for reprints should be sent to Keith Gmic,
Department of Psychology, 612 Moore Building, The Pennsylvania State University, University
Park, PA 16802.
[Child Development, 1990, 61, 1628--1637. © 1990 by the SocietyforResearch in Child Development, Inc.
Allrightsreserved. 0009-3920/90/6105-0018$01.00]

these events for one's own well-being is tbe
primary factor predicting the impact of the
stressor.
Initial research suggests that daily has-
sles, as appraised by the individual, are con-
siderably better predictors of psychological
well-being than are life events and operate
independently in the prediction of depression
and anxiety across various adult populations
(DeLongis, Coyne, Dakof, Folkman, & Laza-
rus, 1982; Lazams et al., 1985). Although this
approach to stress research is not without crit-
ics who prefer more objective measurement
of events without individual appraisal (e.g.,
Dohrenwend & Shront, 1985), the importance
of cognitive appraisal of events has been rea-
sonably well established across daily has-
sles as well as major life event approaches
(Lazarus et al., 1985; Sarason, Johnson, &
Siegel, 1978).
Hassles are conceptualized as the irritat-
ing, frustrating, annoying, and distressing de-
mands that to some degree characterize
everyday transactions with the environment.
Some hassles may be situationally deter-
mined and infrequent, while others may be
repetitive because the individual remains in
the same context with consistent predictable
demands. Such a conceptualization is paiticu-
lai-ly applicable to families with young chil-
dren, as children's behavior often creates
situations that are at odds, challenging, or
interfering with parental responsibilities. Any
single event may or may not be considered a
hassle, bnt the cumulative impact of these
events may adversely affect parent-child rela-
tionships. Patterson (1983) has shown, for ex-
cimple, that minor daily hassles experienced
by mothers predicted irritable responding
to their children during home observations,
which in turn increased the likelihood of ag-
gressive responding by their children. Simi-
laiiy, Dumas (1986) found that mothers in-
teracted significantly more aversively with
their children on days when they had experi-
enced aversive interactions with other adults
than on days in which they had not.
The present stndy explored minor par-
enting stresses within the specific context
of parent-child relationships. Daily hassles
specifically associated with parenting were
considered to be minor, potentially stressful
events that normally occur in families with
young children. The purpose of this study
was to describe tbe frequency and the ap-
praised intensity of these hassles, and to ex-
plore their relations with various indices of
parenting, family status, and parent-child in-
Crnic and Greenberg 1629
teractions. In view of evidence that parental
social supports can moderate the infinence of
stress on parents and families (Cmic et al.,
1983; Crockenberg, 1981, 1987; Unger &
Powell, 1980; and Weinraub & Wolf, 1983), a
third purpose was to determine relations be-
tween minor parenting stresses, matemal so-
cial supports, and indices of parental func-
tioning.
Method
Subjects
Subjects for this study were 74 mother-
child pairs participating in a longitudinal proj-
ect since the children were 1 month old. At
the time of this study, the children were all 5
years of age (M = 5.1). Thirty-four of the chil-
dren were bom prematurely, with an average
birthweight of 1,407 grams and average gesta-
tional age of 31.4 weeks. The preterms were
generally healthy infants, and any infants
with significant neurological or medical prob-
lems were initially excluded from the sample.
Full-term infants and their mothers were case
matched to the preterm-mother pairs on in-
fant race, mother's education, and single ver-
sus two-parent families. Groups were like-
wise balanced on infant sex and birth order.
The groups did not differ significantly on the
background demographic variables at age 5.
Mothers' education averaged 12.9 and
13.0 years and mothers' age averaged 29.4 and
27.6 years for the preterm and full-term
groups, respectively. Both groups were pre-
dominantly white (85%), two-parent families
(86%), and approximately 20% received some
form of public assistance or welfare income.
Procedure
Mothers were contacted to schedule the
5-year visit as part of the project's regular lon-
gitudinal protocol. An appointment time was
scheduled for the mother and child to come
to the university, and mothers were mailed a
set of questionnaires to be completed and
brought to the scheduled visit. Dnring the
visit, the mother-child pairs were observed in
interaction in both free-play and structured
situations.
Mother-child interactions were observed
and video-recorded from an adjacent room
through a one-way mirror. In the room with
the mother and child were a table and two
chairs, a box of age-appropriate toys, and sev-
eral current magazines. Mothers and children
were asked to behave as if they were at home
and feel free to do whatever they liked. This
free-play situation lasted 10 min. Following
this episode, the mother-child pair was asked
1630 Child Development
to sit together at the table and was given a
task requiring joint problem solving. An Etch-
a-Sketch was provided for the pair, along with
two geometric forms copied on a piece of pa-
per. The mother-child pair was asked to re-
produce the figures, beginning with the first
form and moving to the second when they
were satisfied with the reproduction of the
first. Mothers were asked to use one knob
(vertical) and the child the other (horizontal).
The first form was a simple square, and the
second was a cross. The square, having four
sides, was considered to be an easy figure to
reproduce, while the cross (which had 12
sides) was somewhat more complicated and
required greater cooperation.
Measures
The measures described below were in-
cluded in the set of questionnaires mailed to
the mothers.
Parenting Daily Hassles (PDH).—This is
a 20-item measure of typical everyday events
in parenting and parent-child interactions de-
veloped for this study. In response to each
item, the parent rated the frequency of occur-
rence on a 4-point scale (rarely, sometimes, a
lot, constantly) and how hassled they felt by
the event. Degree or intensity of hassle was
rated on a 5-point scale from no hassle = 1 to
big hassle = 5.
Two scores were initially computed from
the PDH, a Frequency scale score, which
refiected the sum of the frequency ratings on
all 20 items (rarely = 1, constantly = 4; Cron-
bach's alpha = .81), and an Intensity scale
score, which reflected the sum of the hassle
ratings on all 20 items (alpha = .90). The two
scales were highly correlated, r = .78.
The PDH was also subjected to a factor
analysis (varimax rotation). Three factors
emerged with eigenvalues > 1.00 for both the
Frequency and Intensity scales. These factors
were similar for both scales. Only the factors
from the Intensity scale are presented, as this
scale was of greatest theoretical interest and
subsequently produced the most meaningful
findings. The three factors accounted for a cu-
mulative 86% of the variance in the measure,
and only two items did not load on one of the
three factors. The three factors were moder-
ately intercorrelated, with r values ranging
from .48 to .61.
Hassle factor 1 (Parenting Tasks) was dis-
tinct from the others in that the items involve
typical duties or tasks normally associated
with parenting. Hassle factors 2 and 3 both
included items describing challenging cbild
behavior and tberefore were combined to
create a single factor (Challenging Behavior;
alpha = .86). All subsequent analyses involv-
ing factor scores utilized the original Par-
enting Tasks factor and the combined Chal-
lenging Behavior factor. Items comprising
these factors are reported in Table 1, with the
corresponding factor loadings.
Parenting and family.—Mothers com-
pleted a number of measures related to their
parenting and life satisfaction, life stress, and
family status. These included the Satisfaction
with Parenting Scale (SWPS), General Life
Satisfaction (CLS), matemal social support,
the Life Experiences Survey (LES: Sarason et
al., 1978), and the Family Environment Scale
(FES; Moos & Moos, 1981). Family demo-
graphic data were also obtained in a qnestion-
naire format.
The SWPS is a 12-item measure that as-
sesses mother's degree of pleasure with her
child and satisfaction with parenting role
(alpha = .68). The GLS is a single-item rating
of overall life satisfaction on a 5-point scale
ranging from very bad to very good. The so-
cial support measure is a series of questions
regarding available sources of emotional sup-
port and matemal satisfaction, with support at
three ecological levels: (1) intimate relation-
ships (alpha = .77), (2) friendships (alpha =
.85), and (3) community (alpha = .65). Both
availability and satisfaction were rated for
eacb type of support, with satisfaction rated
on a four-point scale. The SWPS, GLS, and
support measures correlate positively with
various indices of parenting and parent-child
interactions (Cmic et al., 1983; Crnic, Green-
berg, & Slongh, 1986; Cmic & Greenberg,
1987).
The LES is a measure of life stress that
provides an index of negative life change over
the preceding 8—12-month period. For this
measure, mothers rate a series of 46 life
events as having either occurred or not oc-
curred, indicate whether their impact was
good or bad, and then rate degree of effect
(none, some, moderate, great). The sum of de-
gree of effect of all items occurring and rated
as negative produced an index of negative life
change. Life stress is theoretically indepen-
dent of "hassles" as a stressor and was in-
cluded in this study to determine the relative
infiuence of major life stress in relation to that
of more minor stresses associated with par-
enting.
The FES involves 90 true-false items de-
signed to assess the structure, style, and func-
tioning of the family as a system along 10 di-
 Crnic and Greenberg 1631
TABLE 1
MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS OF THE FREQUENCY AND INTENSITY RATINGS OF THE PDH ITEMS
WITH THEIR GORRESPONDING FACTOR LOADINGS

Frequency Intensity Factor

Item Scale Scale Loading
Parenting tasks factor:
1. Gontinually cleaning up kids' messes 2.75 (.77) 2.72 (1.02) .48
2. Kids' schedules interfere with parent/household needs . . . 1.53 (.81) 1.65 (.97) .65
3. Sibling arguments require referee 1.65 (.93) 2.03 (1.53) .53
4. Kids are constantly under foot or in the way 1.75 (.52) 2.03 (.93) .40
5. Having to change plans to meet kids' needs 1.69 (.64) 1.64 (.82) .78
6. Kids get dirty and need to have clothes changed 1.75 (.81) 1.60 (.87) .48
7. Difficulties getting kids ready for outings on time 1.76 (.63) 2.09 (1.04) .54
8. Having to run extra errands just for kids 1.68 (.81) 1.52 (.76) .62
Ghallenging behavior factor:
1. Reing nagged, whined at, or complained to 2.35 (.65) 2.93 (1.00) .53
2. Kids don't listen, won't do what they are asked without
being nagged 2.25 (.69) 2.89 (1.15) .81
3. Kids demand to be entertained or played with 1.97 (.82) 1.92 (.94) .63
4. Kids resist or struggle over bedtimes 1.97 (.82) 2.36 (1.29) .59
5. Need to keep a constant eye on what kids are doing 2.09 (.93) 1.87 (.92) .60
6. Kids interrupt adult conversation or interaction 2.27 (.70) 2.50 (1.01) .31
7. Kids are difficult to manage in public places 1.63 (.72) 2.12(1.10) .57

mensions. These 10 dimensions combine to
form three major indices of family function-
ing: (1) the Family Relationship Index (com-
prised of Cohesion, Expression, Confiict;
alpha = .62); (2) the System Maintenance In-
dex, which produced the expected negative
correlation between the Control and Organi-
zation dimensions that comprise this index
(r = - .28); and (3) the Personal Growth In-
dex, which was excluded from further analy-
ses because of poor reliability (alpha = .21).
Behavioral/emotional status.—Measures
of the mothers' and children's psychological
sttitus were also obtained. Mothers completed
a variant of the Brief Symptom Index (BSI;
Derogatis & Spencer, 1982), a 35-item rating
scale measuring their emotional functioning
along indices of hostility, depression, anxiety,
insensitivity, and other problems, and the
Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach &
Edelbrock, 1983), a normed measure provid-
ing indices of children's internalizing and ex-
tei-nalizing problems as well as social compe-
tence.
Behavioral interaction coding.—Mother-
child interactions were coded from videotape.
Global 5-point ratings of the quality of
mothers' and children's behavior were made
along seven dimensions, the first three of
which are the major dimensions of inter-
est from our previous studies (e.g., Cmic et
al., 1983; Cmic & Creenberg, 1987): (1)
gratification from interaction assessed the de-
gree to which mother and child enjoyed their
interaction with each other; (2) affect assessed
the quality of their affective tone, ranging
from negative to positive; (3) sensitivity/
responsiveness assessed maternal sensitivity
to child cues (intmsive/nonsynchronous to
good rhythm/synchronous) and the child's re-
sponsiveness to the mother (avoidant or nega-
tive to positive engagement); (4) control as-
sessed the degree to which each member
attempted to control the activity of the dyad;
(5) involvement assessed the amount or de-
gree to which one member of the dyad was
involved in the activity of the other; (6) activ-
ity assessed the degree of activity or energy of
each member (from low-key/quiet approach
to high active pace); and (7) behavioral or-
ganization assessed the coherence of the
activity that each member was involved in
(from disorganized/nnfocnsed to organized/
thematic/focnsed activity).
Each of the seven codes was scored sepa-
rately for the mother and the child and sepa-
rately for the free-play and structured situa-
tions. Observers were trained on practice
videotapes until acceptable levels of reliabil-
ity were reached. Interobserver reliability
was measured as percent of exact agreements
(77%), and percent agreements within one
scale point (98%). Global ratings were chosen
over other possible approaches on the basis of
arguments by Bakeman and Brown (1980), as
well as our own previous data, which suggest
1632 Child Development
that such ratings offer a fhiitful and meaning-
ful approach to the study of general behav-
ioral characteristics of mothers and children
during interaction.
Results
Group Differences
To determine whether differences ex-
isted between the preterm and full-term
gronps on the PDH measure, simple t tests
were conducted. No differences were found
between the groups on mean scores for either
the Frequency or Intensity scales, nor were
differences found for the two hassle factor
scores. To further test group equivalence,
separate Pearson correlations were computed
to examine relations between the PDH scores
and the parent, child, family, and behavioral
variables. For a difference between correla-
tions to be significant, a difference of .38
would be required in this sample. Fewer than
a chance number of correlations equaled or
exceeded the .38 figure. Civen these indica-
tions of equivalence between groups, data
were combined for all subsequent analyses.
Descriptive Findings on Hassles
Mean scores and standard deviations for
the PDH factor items are provided in Table
1. There is fair correspondence between
mothers' ratings of frequency and intensity of
hassles, as was also suggested by the .78 cor-
relation between the two scales. Means and
standard deviations were 37.3 (6.9) for the
Frequency scale total, and 41.8 (12.2) for the
Intensity scale total.
TABLE 2
SIMPLE GOBHELATIONS BETWEEN PDH SCALE SCORES AND PARENT AND GHILD
DEPENDENT FACTORS
DEPENDENT FACTOR
Psychological status:
Total child behavior problems
Ghild social competence
Total maternal symptoms (BSI)
Parent and family status:
Satisfaction with parenting....
General life satisfaction
Family relationship index
Family system maintenance...
Negative life stress
*p< .05.
** p < .01.
*** p < .001.
Several demographic factors were related
to mothers' reports of hassles. Mothers who
worked outside the home reported fewer has-
sles (t = 2.16, p < .05) and lower intensity of
hassles (t = 2.95, p < .01), and mothers of
boys reported significantly greater intensity
of hassles, particularly for the Challenging
Behavior factor (t = 2.52, p = .01). Number of
children in the family correlated only with
the Parenting Tasks factor (r = .42, p < .001).
Neither mother's age nor education was sig-
nificantly associated with any hassle measure.
Pearson correlations between the hassle
scale scores and the major dependent mea-
sures of interest are reported in Table 2. Al-
though both scales produced significant rela-
tions to parent, child, and family factors, the
Intensity scale produced more frequent and
greater magnitude correlations.
Mothers' ratings of the items on the PDH
also indicated that some events were per-
ceived as more of a hassle than others. This is
most clearly demonstrated by the mean inten-
sity ratings on the two factors. Mothers' rat-
ings on the Challenging Behavior factor av-
eraged 2.53, while the average rating for
Parental Tasks was 1.85. The overall factor
score means and standard deviations were as
follows: 16.5 (5.80) for Parenting Tasks, and
16.6 (5.33) for Challenging Behavior.
Relations between Life Stress and Hassles
Negative life stress was not significantly
related to either the PDH Scale scores or the
factor scores (r ranged from .00 to —.12). The
two hassle factor scores, however, were mod-
erately related to each other (r = .51).
PARENTING DAILY HASSLES
Frequency Scale Intensity Scale
.38*** .47***
- .32** -.26*
.27* .36**
-.33** - .49***
-.15 - .32**
-.23 - .36**
-.21 - .32**
-.13 -.05
 Crnic and Greenberg 1633
TABLE 3
REGRESSION STATISTICS FOR THE STRESS PREDICTIONS OF GHILD, PARENT, AND FAMILY FACTORS

Griterion and Predictor F'' Mult. R R^ r Overall iF

Total behavior problems:
1. Life stress 09 .03 .01 .04
2. Ghallenging behavior.... 30.10*** .56 .31 .58
3. Parent tasks 5.81* .62 .38 .26 13.82***
Ghild social competence:
1. Life stress 4.00* .24 .06 - .24
2. Ghallenging behavior 6.19** .39 .16 -.34
3. Parent tasks 1.90 .42 - .17 - .10 4.10*
Parent status:
1. Behavior problems 25.99*** .52 .28 -.52
2. Life stress 6.89** .58 .35 - .29
3. Ghallenging behavior 6.43** .63 .41 - .45
4. Parent tasks 07 .63 .41 - .27 10.98***
FES family relationships:
1. Behavior problems 11.18*** .37 .14 - .37
2. Life stress 1.89 .40 .16 - .15
3. Ghallenging behavior 2.41 + .44 .20 - .33
4. Parent tasks 96 .46 .21 - .27 4.21**
FES system maintenance:
1. Behavior problems 79 .10 .01 -.10
2. Life stress 28 .12 .01 - .07
3. Ghallenging behavior 4.27* .27 .08 - .24
4. Parent tasks 73 .28 .08 - .17 1.36
" F value reflects the increase in variance accounted for by that variable at entry.
+ p < .08.
*p< .05.
** p < .01.
*** p < .001.

Stress Predictors of Child, Parent, and
Family Factors
A series of separate hierarchical regres-
sion analyses was performed to examine the
extent to which life stress and daily hassles
predicted children's behavioral status, mater-
nal parenting status, and perceived family
functioning. Resnlts of these analyses are pre-
sented in Table 3.
In the prediction of child behavior prob-
lems and social competence, lffe stress was
entered first, followed in order by the hassle
factors Challenging Behavior and Parental
Tasks. Life stress was entered first to allow for
determination of the independent infiuence
of hassles above and beyond that of life stress.
All three stress factors significantly pre-
dicted child behavioral status. Only the hassle
factors accounted for a significant percent of
the variance in the total behavior problem
scores, while the life stress and Challenging
Behavior factor significantly contributed to
the children's social competence. In each
case, greater stress was associated with more
behavior problems and lower social com-
petence.
Regressions involving the prediction of
parenting status and family functioning were
similar to those described above, with the ex-
ception that the total child behavior problem
score was entered prior to the three stress pre-
dictors. By covarying behavior problems in
this way, we can test the independence of the
behavior problem and hassle factors in the
prediction of parent and faniily status, provid-
ing evidence that behavior problems and has-
sles are not simply measures of the same con-
stmct. This is important for demonstrating the
discriminant validity of the hassles measure,
especially given the association between the
CheJlenging Behavior factor and the measure
of total child behavior problems.
Child behavior problems strongly pre-
dicted both parent and family relationship
status when entered first, but both life stress
and the Challenging Behavior hassle factor
significantly predicted parent statns as well.
Only the Challenging Behavior factor signifi-
cantly predicted family system maintenance.
1634 Child Developnient
Notably, each association was in the expected
direction, with greater levels of behavior
problems and stress predicting less positive
parent and family status.
Mother-Child Interactions
Another set of hierarchical regressions
was performed for the mother-child interac-
tion ratings. The stress factors did not sig-
nificantly predict matemal behavior in any of
the seven behavioral categories rated. In con-
trast, the Challenging Behavior—hassle factor
did significantly predict child responsiveness
to parent (F = 4.28, p < .05) and child control
(F = 4.28, p < .05) dnring interaction. Greater
perceived hassle was associated with less
child responsivity (accounting for 8% of the
variance) and more attempts to control the in-
teraction (accounting for 7% of the variance).
Social Support as a Moderator of Stress
The ability of mothers' perceived emo-
tional support to serve as a moderator of ma-
temal life stress and daily hassles was as-
sessed. Stress X support interaction terms
were entered in regression equations follow-
ing the hierarchical entry of life stress, par-
enting daily hassles (challenging behavior),
intimate support, friendship support, and
community support factors. An F to enter
minimum was established for interaction term
entry (F to enter = 2.0) to keep the number of
variables entering to only those with mean-
ingful contributions.
Although neither the stress nor support
factors produced main effects on the indices
TABLE 4
STRESS AND SUPPORT VARIABLE INTERACTION TERMS PREDICTING MATERNAL
INTERACTIVE BEHAVIOR
Griterion and Interaction Term
Maternal gratification:
LS'' X community
PDH'' X friendship
PDH X intimate
Matemal affect:
LS X friendship
PDH X friendship
PDH X community
PDH X intimate
Maternal sensitivity:
PDH X community
PDH X friendship
PDH X intimate
" Life stress.
^ Parenting daily hassles.
+ p < .08.
' p < .05.
"p< .01.
of maternal behavior, several stress x support
interaction terms were predictive of maternal
behavior. Overall, few significant life stress x
support interactions were predictive, al-
though it is notable tbat a significant life stress
X intimate support interaction predicted
mothers' psychological well-being as indexed
by the score on the BSI (F = 5.34, p < .05),
and a life stress x community support in-
teraction predicted mothers' parenting satis-
faction (F = 4.21, p < .05).
Various support indices did, however, in-
teract with the parenting daily hassles factor
(and, to a lesser degree, life stress) in relation
to matemal interactive behavior. These
findings are reported in Table 4. Post hoc
comparisons (Duncan's multiple range) indi-
cated that under higher levels of stress,
mothers with greater support satisfaction had
more positive behavior than mothers with low
support (all p < .05).
Discussion
Minor parenting hassles appear to be an
important source of stress, not only in their
ability to contribute additively to major life
stress predictions, bnt also as a meaningful
independent construct for assessing stress
within the parent-child context. It is impor-
tant to emphasize that hassles, at least as mea-
sured within this study, represent typical or
normal events, and that the sample includes
typical children. In fact, when mothers' rat-
ings of children's behavior problems were
F to Enter Ghange
5.92* .09
4.56* .09
2.56 .04
2.46 .04
7.27** .10
5.57* .07
3.63* .06
3.04* .05
2.07 .03
3.22 + .05

covaried in the analyses, parenting hassles
continued to account for a significant portion
of the variance in the prediction of parent and
family status. This suggests that hassles in-
volving challenging behavior cannot be con-
sidered simply another measure of problem
behavior. Mothers' cognitive appraisal of the
significance of the events as a stressor contrib-
utes additively and independently to the pre-
diction.
Patterson (1983) has suggested that it is
not children who are directly at risk because
of stress; rather, it is the family system. The
family system, in turn, determines eventual
child adjustment. That stress significandy pre-
dicted various aspects of matemal and family
functioning offers some support for this no-
tion. There was, however^ a certain amount of
specificity in the predictive function of major
and minor stressors. In general, minor par-
enting stresses were more predictive of ma-
temal, child, and family status than was major
lifie stress, an outcome similar to that reported
by Kanner et al. (1981) in studies predicting
adult psychological distress. Further, the Par-
enting TTasks factor added little beyond the
contribution of the Challenging Behavior fac-
tor, although this was to some degree a func-
tion of order of entry in the regression hier-
archy and the shared variance between the
two factors. Only in relation to mothers' rat-
ings of child behavior problems did both has-
sle factors contribute significantly.
Previous research has implicated stress
as a determinant in the development of
psychopathology during childhood (see Gar-
mezy & Rntter, 1983). Our findings indicate
that various indices of stress reported by
mothers contributed significantly to predic-
tions of more child behavior problems and
lower social competence, as well as to greater
maternal distress. These findings, however,
do not imply a causal link. It is likely that
children who are more chedlenging are more
likely to be perceived as presenting a hassle,
and mothers reporting greater distress would
be more likely to perceive parenting as a
hassle.
It is also possible, however, that some
ekiments of matemal distress could be a func-
tion of the cumulative hassles of child rear-
ing over some period of time, and more diffi-
cult child bebavior a function of less optimal
parent-child relations facilitated by these
minor stresses. Patterson's (1983) data are il-
lustrative of the possibility that minor stresses
can function as change agents within parent-
child relationships. He found that on those
Crnic and Greenberg 1635
days that mothers reported more minor
stresses or hassles, they were more likely to
show irritability with their children. The chil-
dren, in turn, were more likely to respond
with aggressive behavior. Our flndings indi-
cate that parenting hassles are related to less
satisfied parenting and less functional family
status. Perceived hassles may function to de-
crease parental satisfaction and impede posi-
tive family relationships over time, or, con-
versely, less satisfied parents and less
functional family units may promote condi-
tions under which parenting is appraised to
be a hassle. In either respect, the relations are
likely to be both circular and dynamic, with
potential for creating or perpetuating parental
distress, family dysfunction, and disruption in
children's development. Prospective longitu-
dinal studies are needed to disentangle these
issues.
Although Sigel (1985) has emphasized
the importance of attending to parental per-
ceptions in the stndy of the family and child
development (a notion we likewise endorse),
observed behavioral interactions offer one im-
portant source of potential validation of ma-
ternal perceptions. Our findings indicated
that hassles predicted less responsive and
more controlling child behavior during in-
teractions with mothers, suggesting that ma-
temal appraisal of hassles may indeed have
some actual basis in child behavior. Some-
what surprisingly, however, no associations
were found between hassles and matemal be-
havior. The context of the observations may
well have been the critical determining factor
in this regard, as onr laboratory observations
involved highly controlled situations. Obser-
vations in natural environments, in which the
range of behavioral options is mnch greater,
will likely provide a more meaningful context
for measuring interaction that might be in-
fiuenced by minor stresses associated with
parenting (Dnmas, 1986; Patterson, 1983).
Finally, while we fonnd no direct associ-
ations between minor parenting stresses and
matemal behavior, the interaction of hassles
and matemal support did predict mothers' be-
havior. Both friendship and community sup-
port consistently acted to moderate mothers'
experience of daily hassles on indices of ma-
temal interactive behavior. Intimate support
produced only a single significant moderator
effect of daily hassles for mothers' affect, al-
though severa] others approached signifi-
cance. These findings, in contrsist to previous
research during the infancy period (Cmic et
al., 1983; Crockenberg, 1981, 1987), suggest
that emotional support from friends, some-
1636 Child Development
what more than husbands or partners, buffers security of infant-mother attachment. Child De-
mothers from the adverse effects of daily has- velopment, 52, 857-865.
sles of parenting. It may be that emotional Crockenberg, S. B. (1987). Predictors and correlates
support from other mothers (i.e., friendships) of anger toward and punitive control of tod-
is sufficient to be protective because they are dlers by adolescent mothers. Child Develop-
more likely to share this common daily expe- ment, 58, 964-975.
rience of hassles with children's behavior. In DeLongis, A., Coyne, J. C , Dakof, C , Folkman, S.,
contrast, emotional support, while important, & Lazams, R. S. (1982). Relationship of daily
does not serve an entirely similar fianction. hassles, uplifts, and major life events to health
Perhaps, in the case of daily hassles with chil- status. Health Psychology, 1, 119-136.
dren, mothers need more instrumental sup- Derogatis, L. R., & Spencer, P. M. (1982). The
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Carmezy, N., Masten, A. S., & Tellegen, A. (1984).
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