EFFECTS OF STRESSORS ON PARENTING ATTITUDES AND FAMILY FUNCTIONING INA PRIMARY PREVENTION PROGRAM

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between soc ial stressors and parental attitudes and family functioning. Data were collected from a non-random sample of 542 parents of newborns at loca l hospital systems. Significant relationships were found between numbe r of stressors and more functional scores for each of the outcome vari ables. In addition, females had significantly higher scores than males for each parenting attitude variable. Small but significant relations hips were also found between perceptions of economic well-being and so cial support and each of the parenting and family functioning variable s. Implications of the findings for primary prevention programming are discussed.