Parenting Stress as A Moderator of the Relationship Between Child Emotional and Behavioral Problems and Parental Readiness for Change

The current study applied the Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change (Prochaska & DiClemente, 1983) to parenting behavior, as past research has suggested that increasing parental motivation and readiness for change is associated with greater client participation and improved therapeutic outcomes (Dowell & Ogles, 2010; Karver et al., 2006). The current study attempted to replicate Jones et al.’s (2017) primary findings and add to the current body of literature on parental readiness for change by examining parenting stress as a moderator of the relationship between internalizing and externalizing child problems and parental readiness for change (Jones et al., 2017; Wade & Andrade, 2015). Data was collected at a medium-sized outpatient child, adolescent, and family therapy clinic in the Appalachian region. Guardians completed the Behavior Assessment System for Children, Third Edition (BASC-3), Parenting Readiness for Change Scale (PRFCS), Parenting Stress Index Fourth Edition (PSI-4)/Parenting Stress Index, Fourth Edition Short-Form (PSI-4-SF) or the Stress Index for Parents of Adolescents (SIPA; Sheras et al., 1998). The moderator was not examined due to the violation of multicollinearity and an insufficient number of participants in the high-stress parenting group. The current study found that after controlling for child age and family court status, child internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and parenting stress did not predict level of parental readiness for change. An exploratory analysis found that externalizing problems predicted parenting stress over and above just internalizing problems.