Anxious cognitions in children: An exploration of associations and mediators

To investigate sources of influences connecting mothers' and their children's anxious cognitions, 65 children (aged 10 to 11 years) completed self‐report measures of anxiety. Children and mothers responded to an ambiguous scenario questionnaire and measures of parenting style and life events. Mothers also reported expectations about their child's reaction to ambiguous situations. Mothers' and children's threat cognitions were significantly correlated (r = .31), and partially mediated by mothers' expectations about their child. Mothers' anticipated distress was associated with expectations for their child's distress, which was associated with the child's own anticipated distress. Parenting and life events were significantly associated with children's interpretative bias, but did not mediate the intergenerational association in interpretative bias. The results suggest influences on children's ‘anxious cognitive style’ and potential targets for preventing and reducing maladaptive cognitions in children.     

Perceptions of Suicide Risk and the Helpfulness of Intervention Strategies: A Comparison of Students and Mothers

College students (n = 132) and mothers (n = 64) listened to simulated hotline calls and rated level of suicide risk and the helpfulness of interventions. Students also rated their intent to take action in a similar situation; mothers rated their child's intent to take action. Students, more than mothers, perceived emotional problems to be associated with risk; mothers, more than students, perceived changes in behavior to be associated with risk. Students and mothers generally agreed regarding the helpfulness of different interventions, rating talking as most helpful. However, students, more than mothers, perceived social distraction as helpful. Mothers were generally accurate in their perceptions of their children's intended actions. Results suggest the need for additional research on the skills adolescents bring to crisis situations.     

Possible Environmental Causes of Stages in Moral Reasoning

Both children (6-, 10-, and 14-year-olds) and their mothers were interviewed. The children's responses to moral dilemmas were classified into Kohlberg's three main categories—preconventional, conventional, and postconventional. The mothers were presented with a variety of hypothetical situations—e.g., they had just found out that their child had stolen something, and were asked to tell what they would say or do to their child in each situation. The mothers' hypothetical responses to such situations were divided into either the preconventional, conventional, or postconventional category depending on the level or moral reasoning such responses would imply to their children. The results indicated that as the age of the children increased, both the level of moral reasoning used by the children and the level of moral reasoning implied by the mothers' treatment of the children increased. Even with age partialed out, there was a significant positive relationship between the mothers' implied level of moral reasoning and the children's level of moral reasoning. Thus, although causality cannot be established, the results indicate that there is at least the possibility that environmental changes—i.e., changes in the way the mother treats the child—may be responsible for the appearance of stages in the child's development of moral reasoning.     

Let's kōrero (talk): The practice and functions of reminiscing among mothers and children in Māori families

Māori adults recall earlier memories than New Zealand European or Chinese adults, highlighting the importance of memory in Māori culture. In this study, Māori preschool children and their mothers (N = 41) reminisced about a diverse range of past events, including everyday events, the child's birth, cultural rituals and the child's misbehaviour. Mothers also reported how frequently they discussed past events with their children, as well as their level of affiliation with Māori culture. Mothers who reported higher levels of cultural affiliation also reported reminiscing more frequently about a diverse range of past events. Mothers reminisced in more elaborative ways about everyday events with their children compared to birth stories, cultural rituals and misbehaviours. Maternal reminiscing about cultural rituals and misbehaviours, however, along with maternal reminiscing about everyday events and birth stories, were significantly correlated with children's memory across conversations. These results underscore the continued importance of reminiscing about culturally relevant events in Māori culture, and the newfound importance for Māori families of reminiscing about everyday events.     

MATERNAL EXPECTATIONS FOR MASTERY OF DEVELOPMENTAL TASKS IN JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES*

Maternal expectations about development help organize parental behavior by providing internal referents against which a child's growth and behavior are evaluated, thus identifying occasions for intervention by the adult. Fifty-eight mothers from Japan and 67 mothers from the United States were interviewed about the ages at which they expected their four-year-old children to acquire a number of specific developmental skills. There were no differences between the two groups of mothers in mean age of mastery expectation across all 38 items but Japanese mothers expected early mastery on skills that indicated emotional maturity, self-control, and social courtesy. Mothers in the U.S. expected mastery at an earlier age on items indicating verbal assertiveness and social skills with peers. Maternal expectations were found to correlate with children's performance on tests of school aptitude when the children were six years of age.     

Elementary schoolchildren's perceived competence and physical activity involvement: the influence of parents' role modelling behaviours and perceptions of their child's competence

ObjectivesTo study the influence of fathers' and mothers' physical activity involvement and perceptions of their children's physical competence upon children's perceptions of competence and children's time spent in physical activity. Two forms of parental socialization influence were assessed: the direct influence of parents' actual physical activity (PA) behaviour (role modelling) on children's physical activity and the indirect influence of parents' beliefs systems about their children's PA competence on children's physical activity through children's self perceptions.MethodsLongitudinal, with data from 152 French children (M=9.5 yrs, SD=0.8 yrs) and their parents collected at two times over a 12-month period and examined through structural equation modelling (SEM).ResultsSEM indicated that mothers' role modelling behaviour had a direct effect on children's time spent in PA and that mothers' beliefs about their child's competence had an indirect effect on children's PA by influencing children's perceived competence which, in turn, contributed to children's level of physical activity involvement. Fathers' beliefs directly influenced their child's PA as did the children's own self-perceptions of competence.ConclusionsParents can affect their children's PA involvement in direct and indirect manners through their role modelling of physical activity and through their beliefs about their child's competence. Furthermore, the influence of fathers and mothers may be manifested in different ways. Father and mother could influence their child's PA by different processes.     

“Honey, you’re jumping about”—Mothers’ scaffolding of their children's and adolescents’ life narration

Research on mother–child reminiscing as a socializing practice for autobiographical memory is extended from early childhood and the narrating of single events to adolescence and the narrating of an entire life story. To explore whether the development of the life story in adolescence depends on qualities of the narrator or on the brevity of the narrated life, and whether mothers adapt their scaffolding strategies in co-narrations of the child's life to the child's zone of proximal development, 16 mother–child pairs (child's ages 8, 12, 16, and 20 years) both co-narrated and individually narrated the child's life. As expected, only the coherence of the children's, but not the mothers’, narratives varied with the child's age. Also, mothers supported temporal structuring more in younger children and arguments about personality and its development more in adolescents.     

Bidirectional influences in mother–toddler dyads: an examination of the relative influence of mothers' and children's behaviours

This study examined bidirectional relationship between mothers' lax and overreactive discipline and children's misbehaviour and negative effect. We examined the moment‐to‐moment stability of mothers' and children's behaviours (actor effects) and mothers' and children's influence on their partners' subsequent behaviours (partner effects). Participants were 71 mothers and their 24‐ to 48‐month‐old children observed during a 30‐min interaction. Both children and mothers exhibited stability in their own behaviours and influenced the subsequent behaviours of their partners. Additionally, a comparison of partner effects indicated that overreactive discipline more strongly predicted child's negative effect than child's negative effect predicted overreactive discipline. In contrast, although a child's negative effect predicted lax discipline, lax discipline did not predict subsequent child's negative effect. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mothers', fathers' and children's perceptions of parents' expectations about children's family obligations in nine countries

Children's family obligations involve assistance and respect that children are expected to provide to immediate and extended family members and reflect beliefs related to family life that may differ across cultural groups. Mothers, fathers and children (N = 1432 families) in 13 cultural groups in 9 countries (China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Philippines, Sweden, Thailand and United States) reported on their expectations regarding children's family obligations and parenting attitudes and behaviours. Within families, mothers and fathers had more concordant expectations regarding children's family obligations than did parents and children. Parenting behaviours that were warmer, less neglectful and more controlling as well as parenting attitudes that were more authoritarian were related to higher expectations regarding children's family obligations between families within cultures as well as between cultures. These international findings advance understanding of children's family obligations by contextualising them both within families and across a number of diverse cultural groups in 9 countries.     

Predictors of Preschoolers' Self-Knowledge: Reference to Emotion and Mental States in Mother-Child Conversation about Past Events

Reference to emotion and mental states were expected to predict the organization of children's self-knowledge. Thirty-three 3.5- to 4.5-year-olds (17 females and 15 males) discussed 4 past events with their mothers. Conversations were coded for emotional content and reference to mental states. Children completed the Children's Self-View Questionnaire (CSVQ; Eder, 1990). Organization of self-knowledge was defined as the consistency with which children rated themselves as either high or low with respect to the dispositions indexed by the CSVQ. Hierarchical multiple regression showed that reference to emotion was a significant predictor of organization scores after controlling for linguistic skill, but that mental state reference was not. Mothers initiated talk about emotion more often than their children did. The results are consistent with theories of the early social construction of the self-concept and have implications for developing models of autobiographical memory.     

Parent and child personality characteristics as predictors of negative discipline and externalizing problem behaviour in children

Negative discipline has been linked to childhood externalizing behaviour. However, relatively little attention has been given to the potential effect of individual personality characteristics of children and parents. Using the Five Factor Model, we examined the extent to which parents' and children's personality characteristics were related to parenting and children's externalizing behaviour in a proportional stratified general population sample (N=599) of elementary‐school‐aged children. Based on Patterson's macromodel of parenting, an initial model was built, hypothesizing that the impact of parents' and child's personality dimensions on externalizing problems was fully mediated by negative discipline. Results supported a modified model that added direct pathways between parent and child personality characteristics and externalizing problem behaviour. For the mother data, as well as for the father data, children's Extraversion and Imagination were positively related to children's externalizing problem behaviours. Children's Benevolence and Conscientiousness and parents' Emotional Stability were negatively related to externalizing problem behaviours. For the mother data, maternal Agreeableness was positively related to externalizing problem behaviours too. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Parenting empathy: Associations with dimensions of parent and child psychopathology

Background. Parenting empathy, the understanding by parents, and the sharing in their child's perspective, represents an important element of competent parenting. The present study tested the hypotheses that maternal empathy might be lower where mothers or their children display symptoms of psychopathology. Method. Mothers (N = 268) of school‐aged children completed questionnaires on child‐directed empathy and egoistic personal distress and their own and their child's symptoms of psychopathology across a number of broadly defined domains. Results. Child conduct problems were associated with decreased child‐directed empathy and increased maternal egoistic distress. Maternal aggressive characteristics and maternal ADHD symptoms were each associated with increased egoistic personal distress. Conclusion. The findings indicate that symptoms of psychopathology in children and adults are associated with deficits in empathy and increased maternal egoistic personal distress. The implications of the findings for responsive parenting and child social behaviour are discussed.     

Mothers' resolution of their children's diagnosis: Organized patterns of caregiving representations

In this paper we examine mothers' representations of one form of trauma to the caregiving system: the experience of receiving a diagnosis of a chronic illness or disability in their child. An interview and classification system was used with 91 mothers of children ages 15–50 months with cerebral palsy or epilepsy. Mothers were classified as Resolved or Unresolved with respect to their child's diagnosis and grouped into subcategories within these major groups. Roughly half of these mothers were classified as Unresolved with respect to their child's diagnosis. Diagnosis type, severity of condition, developmental age, and time since receiving diagnosis were all unrelated to the distribution of Resolved/Unresolved classifications. Patterns of resolution in which cognitive strategies predominated were the most frequent form within the Resolved classification. Findings provide support for the organizational nature of caregiving representations as well as a number of implications for clinical practice.     

BEGINNING READERS' MOTIVATION FOR READING IN RELATION TO PARENTAL BELIEFS AND HOME READING EXPERIENCES

Sixty-five 6-year-olds (first graders) from different sociocultural backgrounds and their mothers participated in a study examining children's motivation for reading in relation to parental beliefs and home literacy experiences. Each child completed an individually administered Motivations for Reading Scale that assessed several theoretical dimensions of reading motivation, including enjoyment/interest in reading, perceived competence as a reader, and sense of the value of reading. Parents were interviewed regarding their beliefs about reasons for reading, their beliefs about their child's interest in learning to read, and their ratings of the frequency of their child's experiences with printed materials. Results revealed that the beginning readers had generally positive views about reading and that no differences in motivation were associated with income level, ethnicity, or gender. Empirical support was provided for the distinctness of the dimensions of value, enjoyment, and perceived competence. Parental identification of pleasure as a reason for reading predicted children's motivation for reading, as did parents' reports that their child took an active interest in learning to read. Children's motivation for reading was not associated with frequency of storybook reading or library visits, but frequent use of basic skills books (ABC books) was negatively associated with motivation. The study demonstrated the importance of looking beyond quantitative indices of home literacy experiences in accounting for the development of motivation for reading; parents who believe that reading is pleasurable convey a perspective that is appropriated by their children, either directly through their words or indirectly through the nature of the literacy experiences they provide.     

“Did you have fun?”: American and Chinese mother–child conversations about shared emotional experiences

Twenty-two American and 25 Chinese mothers and their 3-year-old children participated in this study. Mothers were instructed to discuss with their children at home four specific one-point-in-time events in which they both participated and during which the child experienced happiness, sadness, fear, or anger. American mother–child conversations showed an “emotion-explaining style” in which mothers and children provided rich causal explanations for antecedents of emotions. Chinese mother–child conversations employed an “emotion-criticizing style” that focused on installing proper behavior in the child and gave few explanations for the emotion itself. American mother–child conversations were also more likely to center on personal themes, were more elaborative, and were more focused on the child's roles and predilections than the conversations of Chinese. Findings are discussed in light of the impact of early family narrative practices on children's acquisition of emotion situation knowledge, which may in turn affect the development of autobiographical memory.     

Differing Perceptions of Mothers,Fathers, and children Concerning Children's Academic Performance

This study examined the hypothesis that mothers' views of their child's performance on an academic task are more synchronous with those of their child than are fathers' views. Parents of 30 sixth-grade children were asked to predict their child's memory spans on a recall and a recognition task given to each child. Parents and children were also asked to judge the importance for the child's performance on 10 attribution factors created for use with memory tests. In line with the hypothesis, mothers predicted the child's memory span more accurately than fathers, and the mothers' attributions were more congruent with those of their children. Mothers were also more aware than fathers of the different demands of the two memory tasks. These findings suggest that mothers may be more aware than fathers of their child's academic progress and that mothers' attitudes and expectations may be more influential in determining the child's path of development.