Stress pathways to harsh verbal discipline: Understanding parental distress in families of children with disabilities.

Abstract

Parents raising children with disabilities often face substantial challenges, such as systemic barriers, unmet support needs, and social exclusion, that may elevate psychological distress and undermine parenting, yet longitudinal evidence on mechanisms linking disability-related caregiving contexts to harsh verbal discipline remains limited. Using data from the 2019-2021 U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics Child Development Supplement (N = 993 children aged 0-17 years and their primary caregivers), this study examined whether parental psychological distress mediates the association between child disability and subsequent verbal scolding/threats. Inverse probability weighting and temporally ordered generalized structural equation modeling were applied. Child disability was significantly associated with higher parental distress (incidence rate ratio = 1.25, p < .01), which in turn predicted more frequent verbal scolding/threats (incidence rate ratio = 1.04, p < .05). The direct association between disability and scolding was not significant, but the indirect pathway through distress was significant (incidence rate ratio = 1.01, p < .05), with sensitivity analyses indicating this pathway was most pronounced for children with multiple disabilities and for boys. Findings suggest that parental distress is a statistically significant pathway linking disability-related caregiving to harsh verbal discipline and that supporting caregiver mental health may help promote positive parenting in these families. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).