The relationship between perceived parents' childrearing practices,own later rationality,and own later depression

The present study tested Ellis' (1971) hypothesis that maladjusted emotion is caused by irrational beliefs learned during childhood to some extent from the parents. Students enrolled at the University of Orebro (n=180) completed questionnaires assessing parents' child-rearing practices during the respondent's first sixteen years of childhood as perceived and remembered by the respondent, the respondent's own rationality, and the respondent's own depression. A regression analysis indicated that child-rearing practices characterized of enmeshed relationships between parent and child is indicative of irrational beliefs on behalf of the parents. In turn, this leads to an irrational kind of child-rearing that significantly predicted the child's own rationality as an adult. The child's own rationality in turn significantly predicted the child's own depression. Results were interpreted as supportive of Ellis' hypothesis.The author wants to express his thanks to Miss Sofia Bergenbrandt, Miss Cathrin Gustafson, and Miss Katarina Hedlund for doing the data collection.     

Children's evaluation of sources of information about traits

Children's assessment of the value of different sources of information about psychological traits was investigated among 6- to 7-year-olds and 10- to 11-year-olds across 5 studies (N = 330). Older children were more likely than younger children to reject self-report as a source of information about the highly evaluative traits smart and honest, but no such age-related difference was seen for the less evaluative comparison traits outgoing and nervous. A similar pattern of age-related differences was seen when children were asked to identify which of 4 sources of information--self-report, teacher report, peer report, or direct observation--would be most useful for obtaining information about the evaluative and comparison traits. The age-related increase in skepticism about self-report as a source of information for evaluative traits was associated with an increased appreciation of the role that social desirability plays in self-presentational processes.     

The advice of the wise: afterthoughts about reality checking

One of the aims of this special issue on happiness advice was to assess the reality value of recommendations. All papers checked empirical indications for effectiveness, typically by inspecting whether the things advised have been found to be related to happiness in empirical research. Some limitations of this approach are that some advisers used a different definition of happiness than the papers, the papers checked the advice for present day readers, not for the contemporaries of advisers, the data that is used to check the advice is most often correlative in nature, and the papers ignored personality differences. Future research should focus on a wider range of happiness advisers, look at the interaction of the advice and individual readers and address the question of the usefulness of the advice experimentally.     

The search for peer advice in cyberspace: An examination of online teen bulletin boards about health and sexuality

The physical, emotional, and psychological changes that occur in adolescence prompt youths to have serious questions about their bodies, relationships, and health that are often personal, sensitive, or embarrassing. Past research has shown that adolescents are often reluctant to consult physicians, peers, and others for personal health questions due to concerns about confidentiality. One new venue for health information is the Internet, which is a promising resource due to its accessibility, interactivity, and anonymity. This study is a snapshot investigation of a popular health support website, which utilized a peer-generated bulletin board format to facilitate the discussion of adolescent health and social issues. Analyses of two health bulletin boards—one on teen issues and one on sexual health—were conducted on the questions and replies found on 273 topics of mainly anonymous adolescents collected over a 2-month period. Results revealed that the questions most frequently posted and viewed reflected interests and concerns about their changing physical, emotional, and social selves: Romantic relationships were the most frequent topic on the teen issues bulletin board; sexual health was the most frequent topic on the sexuality bulletin board. The bulletin boards proved to be a valuable forum of personal opinions, actionable suggestions, concrete information, and emotional support and allowed teens to candidly discuss sensitive topics, such as sexuality and interpersonal relations.     

Parent attachment, childrearing behavior, and child attachment: Mediated effects predicting preschoolers' externalizing behavior

Attachment theory provides an interesting background for thinking about externalizing behavior (EB) in early childhood and for understanding how parenting influences the child's outcomes. The study examined how attachment and parenting could be combined to explain preschoolers' EB. Data were collected from 117 preschoolers aged from 4 to 6 clinically referred for EB and their parents from a middle-high income population. Child attachment was measured with the Attachment Q-set; parent's remembered attachment in the family of origin with the CaMir. Child attachment played a crucial role in mediating the link between parent attachment and EB as well as the link between parenting and EB. Paternal attachment displayed a direct and an indirect effect through controlling parenting and child attachment on child EB. Maternal attachment was a distal predictor associated with EB through child attachment, and independent of controlling parenting. These results are discussed with their applied and scientific implications.     

Preschool child care and parents' use of physical discipline

Parenting practices, including the use of physical discipline, are shaped by multiple influences. Although much research focuses on how parent, child, and dyadic characteristics shape parenting practices, extra‐familial resources may also play a role. This paper focuses on how children's experiences of child care during the preschool years may affect one aspect of parenting—discipline practices. Using a rich, nationally representative data set, we explore the correlation between children's participation in centre based care, Head Start, or other non‐parental care arrangements and parents' use of physical discipline, and related phenomena, parents' experience of domestic violence and parenting stress. We conduct probit regressions of parents' use of physical discipline, and parents' experiences of domestic violence, on preschool child care experiences. For disadvantaged groups of children, who have higher risks of experiencing physical discipline and witnessing family violence, we find that Head Start participation is associated with an increase in the likelihood that parents say they never spank their children and reduction in reports of domestic violence. And, for children in two‐parent families, Head Start is associated with an increase in the likelihood that parents say they never spank their children and the likelihood that they do not say they would resort to spanking in a hypothetical situation. However, we find no evidence that non‐parental child care is associated with a lasting reduction in parenting stress. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Enduring and different: a meta-analysis of the similarity in parents' child rearing

The assessment of child-rearing beliefs and behavior has predominantly focused on qualities and characteristics believed to reflect consistent, enduring qualities of parenting--the similarity in child rearing. This review evaluates the evidence for similarity and differences among 3 types of child-rearing data and includes comparisons across time, children, and situations. Both relative stability and mean level differences were found in all 3 domains. The most similarity was found in the across-time and across-children domains, although it depended on the child-rearing construct and methodology used. It is argued that attention to the variability and change in child rearing must be incorporated into theoretical models of parenting to better understand the nature of child rearing and, in turn, parental influence on children's development.     

Discrepancies in parents' and children's reports of child emotion regulation

The ability to regulate one’s emotions effectively has been linked with many aspects of well-being. The current study examined discrepancies between mothers’ and children’s reports of child emotion regulation. This investigation examined patterns of discrepancies for key aspects of emotion regulation (i.e., inhibition and dysregulated expression) and for three emotions (anger, sadness, worry). A total of 61 mother-child dyads (mean children’s age = 9.3 years) participated. As hypothesized, discrepancies for inhibition subscales were of a larger magnitude than those for dysregulated expression subscales. Furthermore, age was related to discrepancies in both anger subscales, parent reports of child externalizing symptoms were related to anger dysregulated expression discrepancies, and child reports of internalizing symptoms were related to sadness dysregulated expression discrepancies. Overall, the findings suggest that patterns of discrepant reports are not random but rather may provide meaningful and useful information about the nature of emotion regulation.     

Longitudinal associations between adolescent alcohol use and parents' sources of knowledge

The aim of this study was to test the direction of effect in the relationship between parents' sources of knowledge (parental monitoring and child disclosure) and adolescent alcohol use. The participants were 215 adolescents and their mothers, randomly selected from urban and rural areas in Cyprus. A 3‐month, two‐timepoint longitudinal design was used in which adolescents completed the alcohol use disorders identification test while mothers completed a parental knowledge questionnaire. The results of this study showed that parental monitoring did not predict subsequent adolescent alcohol use. However, child disclosure at Time 1 negatively predicted adolescent alcohol use at Time 2. Moreover, adolescents' alcohol dependence symptoms at Time 1 negatively predicted both sources of parental knowledge at Time 2.     

Differences between Japanese and American college students in giving advice about help seeking to rape victims

In this study, the author investigated differences in Japanese and American college students' tendencies to advise a hypothetical rape victim (their sister) to seek help from police, family members, or mental health professionals. Japanese students tended to encourage the victim to seek help from her family members, whereas American students tended to encourage her to seek help from police and mental health counselors. Cross-cultural discrepancies were marked by the following factors: (a) feelings of shame moderated advice to seek help from police; (b) minimization of rape mediated the likelihood to advise the involvement of police and mental health counselors; (c) attitudes toward mental health counselors mediated advice to seek help from them; and (d) the type of rape (stranger vs. date rape) moderated advice to report the crime to police.     

Abusive parents' perceptions of child problem behaviors: An example of parental bias

The behavior of children in 21 child abusive and 21 nonabusive matched comparison families were compared using home observations performed by professional independent observers and parental report measures (Becker Bipolar Adjective Checklist, Child Behavior Checklist, Parent Daily Report). Parental report measures of child conduct problems differed significantly between the two groups, independent observations showed few significant differences in rates of either child or parental behaviors. Results are discussed in terms of the validity of parental perceptions and reports of child problem behaviors, the informativeness of differing reports for diagnosis and clinical treatment, and the need to gather corroboration across various sources and settings before clinical decisions are made that may irrevocably alter a child's future development.     

Patterns of attachment and parents' adjustment to the death of their child

The impact of adult attachment on psychological adjustment among bereaved parents and the mediating effect of relationship satisfaction were examined among a sample of 219 couples of parents. Data collection took place 6, 13, and 20 months after loss. Use of the actor partner interdependence model in multilevel regression analysis enabled exploration of both individual as well as partner attachment as predictors of grief and depression. Results indicated that the more insecurely attached parents were (on both avoidance and anxiety attachment), the higher the symptoms of grief and depression. Neither the attachment pattern of the partner nor similarity of attachment within the couple had any influence on psychological adjustment of the parent. Marital satisfaction partially mediated the association of anxious attachment with symptomatology. Contrary to previous research findings, avoidant attachment was associated with high grief intensity. These findings challenge the notion that the avoidantly attached are resilient.     

Areas of concern and sources of advice for Israeli adolescents.

This study explored the concerns of Israeli adolescents, who grow up in a socially, politically, and economically highly stressed environment. Ninth- and eleventh-grade students (N = 1,645) completed a questionnaire in which they indicated three important problems they had recently experienced. Content analysis identified six major categories of concerns (listed in descending order of occurrence): studies and career, social "I," personal "I," existential issues, army or national service, and health and drugs. Younger adolescents were found to be more concerned with problems involving studies and career and with issues pertaining to the social "I"; older adolescents were more concerned with existential issues and army or national service. Boys were more concerned with existential issues, army or national service, studies and career, and the social "I." Girls were more concerned with issues pertaining to the personal "I." Three major sources of advice were identified: friends, parents, and brothers/sisters.     

Giving advice or making decisions in someone else's place: the influence of impression, defense, and accuracy motivation on the search for new information

When making decisions, people have been found predominantly to seek information supporting their preferred choice and to neglect conflicting information. In this article, the authors investigate to what extent different types of advisors, who recommend a choice to someone or make a decision on behalf of someone, show the same confirmatory information search. In Experiment 1, the authors presented participants, in the role of advisors, with a client's decision problem and found that when making a recommendation, advisors conducted a more balanced information search than participants who were making a decision for themselves. However, advisors who had to make a decision on behalf of their clients revealed an increased preference for information supporting their position. Experiment 2 suggested that this confirmatory information search was caused by impression motivation: The advisors bolstered their decision to justify it to the client. The results are discussed within the multiple motive framework of the heuristic systematic model.     

Attending to multiple sources of information: I. The integration of information in decision making

Information relevant to a decision is often available from several sources, such as different sensory modalities or different spatial locations. Processing or utilization of such information is often selective in that some sources seem to have more influence on a decision or response than others. Many different theoretical mechanisms have been proposed to account for such selective (i.e., attentional) aspects of human information processing. This paper considers theoretical mechanisms which operate to integrate separate sources of information in order to make a binary decision. In particular, these mechanisms are studied in simple visual and auditory detection tasks as well as a Bayesian decision problem. Data from these experiments reject the idea that one integrates the relevant information from several sources prior to making a decision. Rather, one seems to form separate decisions about the information from each source and then integrate these decisions in order to select a response.     

First-time parents' expectations about the division of childcare and play

The current study examines violated expectations regarding the division of childcare and play in first-time parents during the initial transition to parenthood. The study's goal was threefold: (a) to compare prenatal expectations with the reported postpartum division of childcare and play, (b) to compare the influence of the reported division versus violated expectations on postpartum relationship satisfaction and depression, and (c) to examine the role of persistent violations of expectations on these outcomes. Couples expecting their first child were interviewed during the third trimester of pregnancy and at 1 and 4 months postpartum. Results indicated both mothers and fathers have unrealistic expectations during pregnancy; interestingly, the direction violation was opposite but converging for mothers and fathers. As found in prior research, mothers experienced unmet expectations with fathers doing less than mothers expected. Fathers, on the other hand, experienced overmet expectations with mothers doing more than fathers expected. Violated expectations were also a stronger predictor of depression and relationship satisfaction than the reported division, although again in opposite directions for mothers and fathers. Unmet expectations were negative for mothers, while overmet expectations with regard to childcare tasks were beneficial for fathers. The one caveat was for fathers' overmet expectations with play; in this case, a mother playing with the baby more than a father expected was related to less relationship satisfaction. A similar pattern of results was found for mothers and fathers with persistent violations. This study highlights the importance of understanding violated expectations in both mothers and fathers, as well as examining play separately from childcare.     

The determinants of parents' beliefs about the intelligence their children: A study from Hong Kong

One hundred and ninety‐three Hong Kong parents (mean age 42.2 years) were given a structured interview / questionnaire concerning their own and their children's self‐estimated overall and multiple intelligence. Previous research suggested that males tend to give higher overall “g” estimates to their children and themselves than do females, as well as higher scores on mathematical and spatial intelligence (Furnham, 2001). Further, studies in the West suggest that parents think their children are significantly brighter than they are and that their sons are brighter than their daughters. Estimates were lower than those found in Western populations but, even so, males rated their own mathematical and spatial intelligence higher than did females. Hong Kong Chinese parents did not think their sons were brighter than their daughters. The seven multiple intelligences factored into three clear factors for self and children, and regressions indicated that it was “academic” intelligence (verbal, mathematical, spatial) that was most “g” loaded. The child's age and the self‐rated overall IQ of both the parents were the best predictors of the child's overall estimated IQ. Less than a third of the parents had taken an IQ test or believed they measured IQ very well. Those who were more likely to be better educated, had taken an IQ test, and believed intelligence was inherited were more likely to award themselves higher overall IQ scores. Results are compared with the British studies in the same area.     

Japanese parents' estimates of their own and their children's multiple intelligences: Cultural modesty and moderate differentiation

Abstract:  A total of 198 Japanese parents completed a questionnaire concerning their own and their children's estimated overall general (g), and multiple intelligences. Japanese parents' self-estimates were somewhat lower than those found in the Western populations but males (fathers) rated their own overall "g" score and seven Gardner multiple intelligences, significantly higher than did females (mothers). There were few sex differences, however, when parents rated sons or daughters. Parents' own IQ estimate was the best predictor of the first (eldest) child's estimated IQ. A regression analysis indicated that the best predictors of self-estimated overall "g" intelligence were self-estimated verbal and numeric intelligences. Children's age and sex, and parents' age and sex, were all non-significant predictors of the overall "g" score estimates of the first two children. There were no sex differences in experience of, or attitudes towards, intelligence testing. A number of cultural differences were found compared with other studies in Western cultures.