Social reasoning about ‘second‐shift’ parenting

The present study investigated children's and adolescents’ social reasoning about parenting roles in the home, specifically ‘second‐shift parenting’ by a mother or father. Surveys were administered to children (age 10) and adolescents (age 13), nearly evenly divided by gender (N= 200) in which two hypothetical scenarios were evaluated. Participants were asked to evaluate and justify second‐shift parenting arrangements for the family overall, for the parent in the role, and for the child in the family. Results showed that participants expected mothers rather than fathers to take on the second‐shift role, and second‐shift parenting was evaluated as more unfair for fathers than for mothers. Personal choice reasoning was used for justifying arrangements for the second‐shift parent and moral reasoning was used for justifying arrangements for the child. Social reasoning about the context of parental caretaking roles was multifaceted and varied by age and gender of participant more so than by self‐reported personal family arrangements.     

Mothers' and Fathers' Parenting Quality and Toddlers' Interactive Behaviours in Dyadic and Triadic Family Contexts

Based on a family systems perspective, this research examined the role of parental gender and family play context in parent–toddler interactions and how behaviours of family members influence each other. Sixty‐seven mostly White, middle‐class families consisting of a mother, father and toddler were videotaped in three separate sessions: mother–child, father–child and both parents–child at a university laboratory setting. The results indicated that there were significant main effects of both parent gender (mother versus father) and context (dyadic versus triadic) on parents' positive and negative parenting and children's engagement and negativity toward parents. Higher levels of mutual engagement between mothers and toddlers were associated with lower levels of fathers' positive parenting and children's engagement with fathers, when moving from the dyadic to the triadic play context. However, fathers' mutual engagement with toddlers was not associated with mothers' parenting quality and child interactive behaviours with mothers. There were also interaction effects of parent gender and context on parents' negative parenting and children's engagement and negativity toward parents. This study adds unique insights to the differences and similarities of parent–child dyadic and triadic interactions during toddlerhood. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Perceived Parental Protectiveness Promotes Positive Friend Influence

Friend influence over prosocial behaviour and delinquent behaviour was examined as a function of relative parental protectiveness in a community sample of Lithuanian high school students (M = 16.5 years old). Participants completed self‐reports describing commitment to personal values, delinquent behaviours, prosocial behaviours, and perceived parental protectiveness. Mutual friends (158 male dyads, 241 female dyads) were identified from peer nominations. Distinguishable dyad Actor–Partner Interdependence Model analyses illustrate how parenting promotes positive peer influence. The results indicate that friend influence is greatest in the context of protective parenting: Adolescents who perceived more parental protectiveness were positively influenced by the strength of their friend's personal values, whereas adolescents who perceived less parental protectiveness were not. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Parenting practices and their relevance to child behaviors in Canada and China

Liu, M. & Guo, F. (2010). Parenting practices and their relevance to child behaviors in Canada and China. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 51, 109–114. Recent studies have revealed that parents in different cultures endorse different child‐rearing practices. Studies in the West suggest that there is a cluster of behavioral characteristics in children that are linked with each type of parenting styles. Mixed results, however, were found in non‐Western countries. This study examined (1) parenting practices in Canadian and Chinese mothers, and (2) the relevance between parenting practices and child behaviors in Canada and China. Forty Canadian children (average age = 5.40) and 39 Chinese children (average age = 4.84) and their mothers participated in the study. Information on maternal authoritative and authoritarian behaviors and children’s behaviors, including coercive request, polite request, and assertiveness, was obtained from observations of mother‐child interactions in a laboratory situation. The results indicated that Chinese mothers were less authoritative and more authoritarian than Canadian mothers. Both cross‐cultural differences and similarities were found on the associations between maternal parenting practices and child behaviors.     

Maternal depression and its relationship to life stress,perceptions of child behavior problems,parenting behaviors,and child conduct problems

This study examined the relationship of reported maternal depression to prior and current life stressors, and to mother perceptions of child adjustment, parenting behaviors, and child conduct problems. Forty-six depressed mothers and 49 nondepressed mothers and their clinic-referred children (aged 3-8 years) participated. Depressed mothers were more critical than nondepressed mothers, but the behavior of children of depressed and nondepressed mothers showed no significant differences. Depressed mothers were more likely to have experience child abuse, spouse abuse, or more negative life events than nondepressed mothers. Maternal reports of stress related to mother characteristics and to negative life events were the most potent variables discriminating depressed from nondepressed mother families.     

Exposure to child care,parenting style and attachment security

The present study addressed whether security of attachment is differentiated by quality of parenting and quantity of exposure to child care. Sixty mothers participated with their 14‐month‐old infants, who by the age of 12‐months had received either exclusive maternal care, or varying degrees of exposure to child care. Levels of attachment security were assessed through maternal completion of the Attachment Q‐Set(AQS); parenting quality was assessed through observations of mother–infant interactions during structured tasks. The scores that less sensitive mothers assign their toddlers is higher when their children are in child care for more hours per week; whereas the scores that more sensitive mothers assign their toddlers is lower when their children are in child care for more hours per week. These contrasting patterns suggest that the effects of parenting style on attachment security are moderated by quantity of exposure to child care. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Parenting contributors to early emerging problem behaviour in children of mothers in methadone maintenance treatment

This study explored whether variations in parenting provided by mothers with substance‐abuse disorders are related to behaviour problems in their young children and whether specific parenting practices are associated with specific types of behaviour problems. Mother‐reported and observational assessments were used to examine contributions of parenting behaviour and home environment to internalizing and externalizing behaviour problems in 150 preschool children of mothers receiving methadone‐maintenance treatment for heroin addiction. In multivariate analyses, mother‐reported child externalizing behaviour was related to greater maternal harshness and to mother history of illicit drug use during pregnancy but not other features of substance use and treatment history. Observer‐coded child internalizing behaviour was related to less maternal sensitivity and less provision of learning activities in the home. Additionally, mother report of her own psychopathology symptoms was related to mother‐reported, but not observer‐coded, child internalizing and externalizing problems. Findings suggest that women in substance abuse treatment should receive parenting interventions and that interventions should focus on increasing maternal sensitivity, reducing harshness, and providing children with cognitively stimulating environments. Findings also suggest that the need for attention to ongoing mental health problems of women in substance abuse treatment—both for their own well‐being and the well‐being of their children.

Highlights

• This study explored whether variations in parenting provided by mothers with substance‐abuse disorders are related to behavior problems in their young children.
• Maternal harshness was related to child externalizing behavior, low sensitivity, and low provision of learning opportunities to child internalizing problems.
• Findings suggest that women in substance abuse treatment should be provided access to parenting interventions.

     

A Pilot Randomized Trial of Community-Based Parent Training for Immigrant Latina Mothers

This paper reports on the development and piloting of the Madres a Madres (Mothers to Mothers) program, a new, community-based parent training program designed for immigrant Latina mothers and their children. Promotoras, or female community health workers of Latina background, delivered the program in a home visitation format. A total of 194 mothers and 194 focal children (87 male, 107 female) ages 7–12 were randomized to the intervention (113 mother–child dyads) or wait-list control condition (81 mother–child dyads) over the study period. Outcomes of interest were mother-reported parenting skills, broad family functioning, and child externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Data collection occurred at pretest, 3-month posttest, and 9-month follow-up periods. Multilevel growth models revealed increases in intervention mothers’ reported parenting skills, family support, and family organization, and reductions in child internalizing behavior from pretest to follow-up, relative to the control condition. Outcomes did not vary by focal child age, gender, nativity status, or mother acculturative status (years in the United States). Findings are discussed in the context of future directions for research on the Madres a Madres program and on the implementation and dissemination of empirically-supported parent training practices to culturally diverse families.     

A Person‐oriented Approach to Identifying Parenting Styles in Mothers of Early School‐age Children

A substantial body of work has been dedicated to understanding the behaviours that characterize mothers' interactions with their children. Most research on parenting has used a variable‐oriented approach, limiting analysis to one or a few parenting behaviours and failing to identify higher‐order interactions or patterns among variables. Thus, little is known about how different behaviours co‐occur in individual mothers to form styles of parenting. In this study, a person‐oriented approach was used to develop a typology of maternal parenting styles based on a broad range of observed and self‐reported parenting behaviours. The study sample consisted of 408 socio‐demographically diverse mother–child pairs. Cluster analysis revealed six parenting groups—(1) balanced parenting; (2) warm/involved parenting; (3) task‐focused parenting; (4) detached/inconsistent parenting; (5) intrusive parenting; and (6) self‐critical parenting—two of which (task‐focused and self‐critical parenting) have not been previously represented in the parenting literature. The maternal parenting typology developed through this study provides useful information on the profiles of parenting behaviour that are associated with the highest levels of demographic and psychological risk in mothers who exhibit these profiles. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Empathy,Perspective Taking and Prosocial Behaviour: The Importance of Parenting Practices

The current study analyzed the relationships among maternal empathy (emotional and cognitive), parenting that encourages the child to take the perspective of others, child cognitive empathy and child prosocial behaviour. Participants were 72 typically developing children (66 Caucasian, six Asian) aged between 47 and 76 months (M = 61.5 months, SD = 8.3 months). Results support the facilitative effect of parenting that encourages the child to take the perspective of others. Thus, the role played by parents in the development of prosocial behaviour extends beyond warm/sensitive/responsive parenting in infancy. Together these forms of parenting are key factors that facilitate the development of prosocial behaviour. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Relationships between parenting practices and perceptions of child behaviour among Korean immigrant mothers and fathers

This study examined parenting styles and culturally‐specific parenting practices of Korean immigrant mothers (N = 128) and fathers (N = 79) of children (ages 6–10) in New Zealand and the parenting predictors of child behaviour. Participants completed questionnaires on parenting styles and practices, and parental perceptions of child behaviour. Both parents indicated a high degree of devotion (Mo jeong) and involvement in care and education of their child with fathers were more likely than mothers to utilise shaming/love withdrawal and modesty encouragement. Results of regression analyses showed that there were some differences between mothers and fathers in the parenting predictors of child internalising and externalising behaviour problems and prosocial behaviour. Across the whole sample, there were contrasting relationships for authoritative parenting styles, devoted/involved parenting and modesty encouragement/shaming/non‐reasoning parenting practices with child behaviour problems. Results indicated a blend of Western and Korean parenting practices were being utilised after settling in New Zealand.     

Maternal Employment and Family Socioeconomic Status: Unique Relations to Maternal Stress,Parenting Beliefs,and Preschoolers’ Adjustment in Taiwanese Families

With the rapid increase in women’s labor force participation in Asia, a greater understanding of the impact of maternal employment on parenting and child development in Asia is much needed. The present study examined the concurrent relations between maternal employment status and family characteristics (e.g., socioeconomic status/SES, family structure) in Taiwanese families, and the unique relations of maternal employment and family SES to maternal stress, parenting beliefs, and preschoolers’ socioemotional adjustment. In a school-based sample of 511 preschoolers (age range?=?4–6 years, 52.9% girls), their mothers, and teachers in Taipei and Taitung, mothers reported their employment status, family characteristics, perceived stress and parenting beliefs. Mothers and teachers rated preschoolers’ adjustment. Results showed that compared to unemployed mothers in Taiwan, employed mothers were more likely to come from families with higher SES and fewer children, and nuclear (vs. extended) families. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized model. Mothers from lower-SES families reported higher stress and higher endorsement of coercive parenting, and lower endorsement of authoritative parenting than mothers from higher-SES families. Controlling for SES, employed mothers endorsed higher coercive parenting than unemployed mothers. Mothers’ endorsement of authoritative parenting was associated with better child adjustment by mothers’ (but not teachers’) reports, whereas maternal stress and coercive parenting were associated with poorer child adjustment (by mothers’ reports only). In sum, maternal employment was intricately associated with family SES in Taiwanese families, and the two contextual factors shape parenting and child adjustment in different processes.     

Learning to sleep through the night: Solution or strain for mothers and young children?

Is the process of helping infants and young children learn to sleep through the night a solution to family sleep problems or does it exacerbate matters for mother and child? Retrospective and current accounts from a nonclinical, convenience sample of 102 mothers of preschool‐aged children provided information on sleep issues from early infancy through preschool age. Child, mother, and parenting characteristics, along with family sleep arrangements, were differentially related to the age at which children learned to sleep through the night and to the extent of difficulty that characterized this experience. Mothers who indicated more difficulty as their children learned to sleep through the night also reported more depressive symptoms and more strain in the mother–child relationship. Later age at sleeping through the night was more common among early bedsharers, but timing of sleeping through the night was not associated with preschool children's reported independence in several nonsleep domains. Sleep arrangements and the importance placed on sleeping through the night were the strongest contributors to variance explained in whether children learned to sleep through the night during infancy or toddlerhood. When advising parents about sleep interventions, practitioners should seek to understand whether families' parenting values fit their nighttime sleep practices.     

Stability and prediction of parenting stress

The study focused on stability and prediction of parenting stress experiences over a 6‐year period. Mothers (N=93) who had received a clinical intervention for feeding or sleeping problems during infancy (Time 1; T 1) were followed‐up when the children were 5–10 years old (Time 2; T 2). An age‐ and sex‐of‐child matched normal group was used for comparison of stress levels at T 2. Parenting stress was measured by the Swedish Parenthood Stress Questionnaire, which consists of a general parenting stress scale and sub‐scales tapping different aspects of parenting stress experiences. T 1 predictors were clinical assessments of child problem load, maternal unresponsiveness, and family psychosocial problems. T 2 predictors were mother‐reported concurrent child problem load and psychosocial problems. The individual stability in stress experiences was moderate. Effect sizes indicated that mothers with early clinical contacts had reduced their stress to levels close to those in the normal sample. Parenting stress at T 2 could be predicted from early and from concurrent child and family problems. The results point to the relevance of early clinical assessments and to the importance of a sub‐area approach in parenting stress research, as there were differences between stress sub‐areas regarding both prediction and stability. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Parental play styles and sibling interaction during a problem‐solving task

Associations between parental play styles and sibling interaction were investigated in 30 same‐sex preschool‐ and school‐aged sibling dyads (first‐borns were 4–9 years, M=6.6 years; second‐borns were 2–7 years, M=4.2 years), divided into older and younger sibling groups. Participants completed puzzles under three conditions: (a) siblings alone, (b) together with mother, and (c) together with father. Prosocial and agonistic sibling‐directed behaviors and positive and negative parent–child behaviors were coded. Siblings engaged in both more prosocial and agonistic interactions when alone than with either parent; there were no differences in sibling interactions in the mother versus father episodes. Paternal negative behavior was associated with sibling agonistic behavior when the children were alone, indicating second‐order effects, however, mother–child and sibling interactions were not significantly associated. Nevertheless, reciprocity in positive and negative behaviors directed by children to parents and vice versa was evident, demonstrating synchrony in patterns of exchanges. The findings underscore the necessity of studying both parents in order to understand more fully the dynamics involved in family relationships. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adoptive versus Mixed Families: Child Adjustment,Parenting Stress and Family Environment

Recent research in adoption has considered the factors and processes that underlie the adjustment of children and families. However, little research has been conducted on certain types of adoptive families, specifically on families with both adoptive and biological children often designated as mixed families. This subject is addressed by the present study which also analyzes the association between the type of adoptive family and children’s outcomes—prosocial and problem behavior—parenting stress and the relational family environment. It also examines whether children’s gender, age at adoption and the number of children in the home moderate these effects. 102 parents of adoptive children (ACF) 33 parents of both adoptive and biological children (ABCF) and 102 parents of biological children (BCF) participated in the study. Target-children were aged from 6 to 12 years. The Portuguese versions of the SDQ-P, PSI-SF and FES (Interpersonal Relationship dimension) were used. Results showed that the type of adoptive family—ACF and ABCF—significantly explained the variance of children’s behavioral problems and parenting stress. The child’s gender was shown to moderate the relationship between ACF parents and their perception of child’s prosocial behavior. The results give relevant clues as to the importance of distinct outcomes in adoptive families—ACF and ABCF—compared to families with only biological children and should, therefore, be a resource for professionals involved in the adopters’ suitability assessment and adoption intervention.     

The Associations between Mothers’ and Grandmothers’ Depressive Symptoms,Parenting Stress,and Relationship with Children: An Actor–Partner Interdependence Mediation Model

Three-generation households that include parents and grandparents raising children together have become increasingly common in China. This study examined the relations among depressive symptoms, parenting stress, and caregiver–child relationships in the mother–grandmother dyadic context. Participants were mothers and grandmothers from 136 three-generation households. Results from Actor–Partner Interdependence Mediation Modeling indicated that mothers’ depressive symptoms were indirectly related to mother–child conflict/closeness through own parenting stress; grandmothers’ depressive symptoms were indirectly related to grandmother–child conflict through own parenting stress. Mothers’ depressive symptoms were indirectly related to grandmothers’ conflict with children through grandmothers’ parenting stress, and grandmothers’ depressive symptoms were indirectly related to mothers’ conflict/closeness with children through mothers’ parenting stress. The relation between mothers’ parenting stress and mother–child closeness was stronger than the relation between grandmothers’ parenting stress and grandmother–child closeness. Findings highlight the implications of using a family system perspective and the dyadic approach in understanding and improving family functioning in Chinese three-generation households.     

Parenting young children with challenging behaviour

Previous research has established the link between harsh parenting and poor outcomes in children, although little attention has been paid to the concurrent protective factors which may exist. The relationship between parenting behaviours and childhood externalizing behaviours was investigated in a sample of 60 parents of young children (ages 2–5 years). Thirty families were selected for participation based on teacher‐reported externalizing behaviour in their young child which exceeded normal limits and matched with a sample of 30 parents of children without externalizing behaviour problems. Results found that parents of young children with externalizing behaviours tended to use more frequent verbal and corporal punishment with their young children, and reported more behaviour problems with their young children when compared with a control group. However, no significant differences were found between groups with respect to positive, nurturing behaviours, or utilizing appropriate developmental expectations. Implications for prevention are discussed. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The child's social network: Sex differences from three to six years

The social networks of 85 young children as they make the transition from a home-centered to a more school-centered existence is examined using longitudinal data. When the children were three and six years of age, their mothers completed a questionnaire of network structure; at six years both the child and mother independently reported the friends that the child would invite to a birthday party. The effects of age and sex of child on the number and daily contact with peers, adults, kin, nonkin, males, and females were found. As expected, as children reached formal school age they had increased contact with peers and decreased contact with kin, while adult contact remained fairly consistent over the three- to six-year age period. Sex differences were also apparent. As predicted, children as early as 3 years, and to an even greater extent at six years, showed more same-sex compared to opposite-sex peer contact. At six years both children and mothers reported more same- as compared to opposite-sex friends who would be invited by the child to a birthday party. The findings suggest how children's social networks, as shaped by their parents and themselves, provide a framework within which experience and interaction is structured to fit cultural norms.