Date of Award

10-16-2023

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Scott Leon

Abstract

This bundled, three-study dissertation examines how the relationships that children have with adult family members impact mental health outcomes, including internalizing symptoms and externalizing behaviors. The first study examines the moderating effect of relationship satisfaction on the relationship between kin involvement and child psychopathology. The second study uses data from the 2017 National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH), examining the mediating effect of the parent-child relationship on the associations across various systems in which children are embedded and mental health diagnoses. The third paper examined the interactions between both family strengths and caregiver involvement with the parent child relationship and how these uniquely affected mental health outcomes. It also examined how these relationships differ across children living in the homes of their biological parents and those living in non-biological-caregiver homes. Broadly, the dissertation emphasized the importance of the caregiver-child relationship, highlighting its importance as a worthy target of intervention to reduce child mental health problems. Further, this dissertation suggests strong relationships with caregivers are especially important when children are not in the care of their biological parents. This dissertation supports the idea that perceptions of relationships are important both from a caregiver's and a child's perspective. Helping children to perceive positive relationships with the adults in their lives and helping caregivers to be confident and effective in their parenting are two routes by which clinicians and other stakeholders can aid child mental health.

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