Graduation Year

2025

Date of Submission

4-2025

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Psychology

Reader 1

Stacey N. Doan

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© 2025 Elise M Power

Abstract

Early life adversity has been shown to have a variety of negative effects on adult functioning, including parenting quality, with implications for child wellbeing. Adverse early life experiences including poverty have been linked to long-term disruptions in emotional, cognitive, and physiological functioning that compromise the ability to provide sensitive, nurturing care. The present study investigated whether emotional regulation difficulties, physiological regulation, and cognitive function mediate the relationship between early life financial insecurity and parenting quality. A sample of 132 mother-child dyads completed self-report measures, biological samples, and cognitive assessments. A multiple mediation model ran in SPSS, revealed a significant indirect effect of early life financial insecurity on parenting quality through emotion regulation difficulties, while physiological regulation and cognitive function did not significantly mediate the relationship. The findings suggest that a primary mechanism explaining why early life financial insecurity affects parenting quality is through the mother’s ability to regulate her emotions. While cognitive and physiological systems are often assumed to be affected by early adversity, impacting parenting quality, findings support emotion regulation as the core mediator. These findings highlight the importance of targeting emotion regulation skills in intervention programs for children living in poverty.

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