Cultural consonance as a mediator between maternal adversity and parenting practices across family contexts in the Dominican Republic

Abstract

Highlights: • Cultural consonance mediates adversity's effects on parenting practices. • Family dynamics consonance reduces violent discipline across structures. • Material-social consonance increases violent discipline in low-resource settings. • Paternal role consonance predicts cognitive stimulation, even in single-mother homes. • Mediation pathways vary by family structure and age at first childbirth.

Background: Adversity is linked to compromised parenting, but the mechanisms remain unclear. This study examines cultural consonance—the extent to which individuals’ lives align with shared cultural models—as a mediator between maternal adversity and three parenting practices: violent discipline, positive discipline, and cognitive stimulation. Methods: We collected and analyzed data from 1019 mothers living in poverty in 2024-25 in the Dominican Republic. Maternal adversity was modeled as a latent construct including adverse childhood experiences, intimate partner violence, and depression symptoms. Cultural consonance was assessed across material-social and family dynamics domains. Structural equation models tested mediation; regressions explored predictors by family structure and maternity onset age. Results: Adversity lowered material-social (β = −.56, p < .001) and family dynamics consonance (β = −.87, p < .001). For violent discipline, family dynamics consonance was protective (β = −.37, p = .013), while material-social consonance increased its use (β = .22, p < .001); adversity's effect was fully mediated. For positive discipline, adversity had a positive direct effect (β = 39, p = .014) but negative indirect effects (β = −.31, p = .025), suggesting suppression. For stimulation, adversity's positive direct effects (β = .44, p = .018) were offset by stronger negative indirect effects (β = −.61, p < .001), yielding a negative total effect. Family structure and age at first childbirth shaped these pathways. Households with both parents and other adults had better outcomes; single mothers with multiple children faced the greatest challenges. Paternal consonance consistently predicted cognitive stimulation; consonance in all family domains were protective against violent discipline. Conclusions: Interventions that enhance cultural consonance may complement traditional parenting programs, but they should be tailored to the family composition and the mother's age.