Child age, parent and child gender, and domain differences in parents’ attributions and responses to children’s outcomes

The influence of children’s age, and parents’ and children’s gender on parents’ attributions and emotional and behavioral responses to their children’s successful and unsuccessful social and academic outcomes, was investigated. Seventy-six dual-parent families (mothers and fathers) of fifth (n=28), eighth (n=23), and eleventh grade (n=25) children participated. The results of this study suggest that from fifth grade on, at least, the ways parents explain the causes of and respond to their children’s social behavior and academic outcomes involves a complex interaction of children’s age, children’s gender, parents’ gender, domain, and outcome. Results are discussed in terms of children’s socialization. This paper is based in part on a master’s thesis at Clark University by the first author. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Providence, RI, April 1994. The authors would like to thank the parents, teachers, and school administrators of Holden and Auburn, Massachusetts, who participated in this project. We would also like to thank Kristen Rotis and Leslie Edwards for their tireless help in revising and preparing the questionnaires, and for entering data for this project.     

The Effects of Marital Conflict on Korean Children’s Appraisal of Conflict and Psychological Adjustment

This study examined the effects of marital conflict on Korean children’s psychological adjustment and appraisal of hypothetical marital conflict situations. Children between the ages of 10 and 12 were divided into “high-conflict” (n = 58) and “low-conflict” (n = 58) groups based on their self-reported degree of perceived interparental conflict in the home environment. Hypothetical marital conflict situations were provided in cartoon format, and were differentiated based conflict intensity (verbal versus physical aggression) and content (child-related conflict versus non-child-related conflict). In general, children reported greater negative affect and perceived threat to hypothetical conflict situations involving physical aggression compared to situations involving verbal conflict. In child-related conflict situations, children reported more fear of being drawn in and endorsed coping strategies that involved direct intervention. “High-conflict group” children evidenced stronger reactivity in responding to marital conflict situations in general and endorsed indirect intervention strategies—a finding previously not found in similar studies conducted with European-American children—indicating the possibility of cross-cultural difference in coping preferences in interparental conflict situations. Furthermore, “high-conflict group” children manifested more indices of maladjustment as indicated by externalizing and internalizing behavior problems, in addition to more self-reported depressive symptoms. Results highlight the effects of marital conflict on children’s psychological adjustment and indicate the possibility of cross-cultural differences in preferred coping mechanism in interparental conflict situations for Korean children.     

Effects of information type on children’s interrogative suggestibility: is Theory-of-Mind involved?

This research was aimed at learning more about the different psychological mechanisms underlying children’s suggestibility to leading questions, on the one hand, and children’s suggestibility to negative feedback, on the other, by distinguishing between interview questions concerning different types of information. Results showed that, unlike the developmental pattern of children’s suggestibility to leading questions, the developmental pattern of children’s suggestibility to negative feedback differed depending on whether the interview questions concerned external facts (physical states and events) or internal facts (mental states and events). This difference was not manifested in response to questions concerning central versus peripheral facts. Results are interpreted in terms of the hypothesis that children’s suggestibility to negative feedback is differently affected by “Theory-of-Mind” abilities than children’s suggestibility to leading questions. Further research is needed in order to test this hypothesis.     

A consequence of school grade labels: preservice teachers’ interpretations and recall of children’s classroom behavior

This study investigated whether preservice teachers’ attitudes surrounding school grade labels influenced interpretations and recall of children’s classroom behavior using the automatic attitude activation model (Fazio, In R. M. Sorrentino & E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Handbook of motivation and cognition: Foundations of social behavior, 1986) as a theoretical framework. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: The expectation of viewing a video of children in schools labeled as “A,” “F,” or “typical” as a result of the school’s aggregated student performance on standardized tests. Results indicated that participants who believed that they were viewing a video of an “F” classroom recalled more negative and fewer positive behaviors compared to the “typical” classroom. Likewise, there was a trend for participants to recall more negative and fewer positive behaviors when viewing a video of an “F” compared to an “A” school. Therefore, negative attitudes about a school label of “F” biased preservice teachers’ perceptions and memories of children’s classroom behaviors.

Nature and Nurturing: Parenting in the Context of Child Temperament

Accounting for both bidirectional and interactive effects between parenting and child temperament can fine-tune theoretical models of the role of parenting and temperament in children’s development of adjustment problems. Evidence for bidirectional and interactive effects between parenting and children’s characteristics of frustration, fear, self-regulation, and impulsivity was reviewed, and an overall model of children’s individual differences in response to parenting is proposed. In general, children high in frustration, impulsivity and low in effortful control are more vulnerable to the adverse effects of negative parenting, while in turn, many negative parenting behaviors predict increases in these characteristics. Frustration, fearfulness, and effortful control also appear to elicit parenting behaviors that can predict increases in these characteristics. Irritability renders children more susceptible to negative parenting behaviors. Fearfulness operates in a very complex manner, sometimes increasing children’s responses to parenting behaviors and sometimes mitigating them and apparently operating differently across gender. Important directions for future research include the use of study designs and analytic approaches that account for the direction of effects and for developmental changes in parenting and temperament over time.     

The Role of Maternal Depression on Treatment Outcome for Children with Externalizing Behavior Problems

Studies have shown that, on average, Parent Management Training combined with cognitive-behavioral therapy decreases children’s externalizing behavior, but some children do not improve through treatment. The current study aimed to examine the role of maternal depression in understanding this variability in treatment outcome. Children with externalizing behavioral problems and their parents were recruited from combined Parent Management Training and Cognitive-Behavioral programs in “real-world” clinical settings. At pre- and post treatment, maternal depression and children’s externalizing behavior were assessed. Results showed that treatment was less effective for children of depressed mothers compared to non-depressed mothers and that improvements in maternal depression were associated with improvements in children’s externalizing behavior. These findings suggest that treatment programs for children with externalizing problems may be able to improve outcomes if maternal depression is a target of intervention.     

Parental Influence on Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: II. Results of a Pilot Intervention Training Parents as Friendship Coaches for Children

We report findings from a pilot intervention that trained parents to be “friendship coaches” for their children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Parents of 62 children with ADHD (ages 6–10; 68% male) were randomly assigned to receive the parental friendship coaching (PFC) intervention, or to be in a no-treatment control group. Families of 62 children without ADHD were included as normative comparisons. PFC was administered in eight, 90-minute sessions to parents; there was no child treatment component. Parents were taught to arrange a social context in which their children were optimally likely to develop good peer relationships. Receipt of PFC predicted improvements in children’s social skills and friendship quality on playdates as reported by parents, and peer acceptance and rejection as reported by teachers unaware of treatment status. PFC also predicted increases in observed parental facilitation and corrective feedback, and reductions in criticism during the child’s peer interaction, which mediated the improvements in children’s peer relationships. However, no effects for PFC were found on the number of playdates hosted or on teacher report of child social skills. Findings lend initial support to a treatment model that targets parental behaviors to address children’s peer problems.     

Unique Roles of Mothering and Fathering in Child Anxiety; Moderation by Child’s Age and Gender

We examined the associations between the parenting dimensions autonomy granting, over control, and rejection and children’s anxiety, in relation to parent and child gender and child age. Elementary school-aged children (n = 179, M _age = 10.27, SD = 1.30), adolescents (n = 127, M _age = 15.02, SD = 1.54) and both their parents completed questionnaires on parenting and children’s anxiety. Parenting was more strongly related to child anxiety in elementary school children than in adolescents. Maternal over control was uniquely related to elementary school-aged children’s anxiety whereas paternal over control was more important during adolescence. Opposite to our expectations, we found higher levels of parental autonomy granting to be related to higher levels of anxiety for younger elementary school-aged children (age < 10). For adolescents, the association between paternal over control and anxiety was stronger for older adolescents (age > 15), with higher levels of over control related to higher levels of anxiety. For both elementary school-aged children and adolescents, the associations between parenting and child anxiety did not differ as a function of the child’s gender. If we are to understand the associations between parenting and children’s anxiety, it is important to distinguish parental autonomy granting from parental over control and to consider the role of parent gender and the age of the child.     

Parents’ and Children’s Religiosity and Child Behavioral Adjustment Among Maltreated and Nonmaltreated Children

We investigated the role of parents’ and children’s religiosity in behavioral adjustment among maltreated and nonmaltreated children. Data were collected on 170 maltreated and 159 nonmaltreated children from low-income families (mean age = 10 years). We performed dyadic data analyses to examine unique contributions of parents’ and children’s religiosity and their interaction to predicting child internalizing and externalizing symptomatology. A four group structural equation modeling was used to test whether the structural relations among religiosity predictors and child outcomes differed by child maltreatment status and child gender. We found evidence of parent-child religiosity interaction suggesting that (1) parents’ frequent church attendance was related to lower levels of internalizing symptomatology among nonmaltreated children with low church attendance and (2) parents’ importance of faith was associated with lower levels of internalizing and externalizing symptomatology among nonmaltreated children with low faith. The results suggest that independent effects of parents’ religiosity varied depending on children’s religiosity and parent-child relationship.     

How Lesbian and Heterosexual Parents Convey Attitudes about Gender to their Children: The Role of Gendered Environments

We studied associations among parents’ gender role attitudes, gender stereotyping in children’s environments, and children’s gender role attitudes and whether these associations were similar for families with lesbian and heterosexual parents. Fifty-seven 4- to 6-year-olds and 114 parents from the US participated. Parents completed self-report questionnaires and responded to interview questions. Researchers collected data regarding the child’s environment and attitudes about gender. Results revealed that children with lesbian mothers had less stereotyped environments and less traditional attitudes. Parental attitudes were associated with stereotyping in children’s environments and with children’s attitudes about gender. Both for lesbian and heterosexual parents, the impact of parents’ attitudes on children’s attitudes was partially mediated by the nature of children’s environments.     

The internet, cyberporn, and sexual exploitation of children: Media moral panics and urban myths for middle-class parents?

The Internet as a popular media is not even one decade old. From its early days of wide access, concern with the dangers posed to children and teens has been a staple of news media and moral entrepreneurs. Concern with sexual predators, “cyberporn” (or “pornographic” material housed on “nodes” of the World Wide Web) became media-induced moral panics of the mid- and late-1990s. This paper examined the Internet and children in the context of the United States and Australia. Studies of children’s access to the Internet and it’s effects were examined. Particular attention was paid to the aspects of Internet danger as a form of “urban legend” aimed at middle-class parents who are able to provide access to the technology required to access the “dangers” of the Web. The intersection of urban mythology, technological change, and morals campaigns of the 1990s was explored. The role played by concern with the Internet in the on-going history of moral movements and parental responsibility was discussed.     

Individual Differences in Gender Development: Associations with Parental Sexual Orientation, Attitudes, and Division of Labor

Research on children of lesbian parents has suggested that such children are developing well, but questions have been raised about their gender development. In this study, we explored associations among parental sexual orientation, parental gender-related attitudes, parental division of labor, and children’s gender development. Participants were 66 preschool children and their 132 parents from the East Coast of the United States. Thirty-three families were headed by lesbian and 33 by heterosexual couples. Parents who divided paid and unpaid labor more unequally had children whose occupational aspirations were also more traditional. Measures of children’s gender development were generally unrelated to parental sexual orientation. Parents’ attitudes and behaviors were more strongly associated with children’s gender development than was parental sexual orientation.     

Children’s Externalizing and Internalizing Symptoms over Time: The Role of Individual Differences in Patterns of RSA Responding

We examined associations between basal respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) in conjunction with RSA regulation with the hypothesis that their interaction would explain unique variability in children’s prospective adjustment 2 years later. Participants were 176 children (98 girls; 78 boys) in middle childhood. RSA regulation was assessed through social and problem-solving challenges. Parents reported on children’s internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Interactions between RSA baseline and regulation to the social stressor predicted children’s later internalizing symptoms. Interactions between RSA baseline and responding to the problem-solving stressor predicted children’s externalizing symptoms. The highest levels of internalizing symptoms were predicted for children with both lower basal RSA and higher RSA suppression. The highest levels of externalizing symptoms were predicted for children who demonstrated lower basal RSA in conjunction with RSA augmentation. Findings highlight the importance of the contemporaneous consideration of basal RSA and RSA regulation in the prediction of developmental psychopathology symptomology.     

Thoughts on Sydney Shoemaker’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">Physical Realization</Emphasis>

This paper discusses in broad terms the metaphysical projects of Sydney Shoemaker’s Physical Realization. Specifically, I examine the effectiveness of Shoemaker’s novel “subset” account of realization for defusing the problem of mental causation, and compare the “subset” account with the standard “second-order” account. Finally, I discuss the physicalist status of the metaphysical worldview presented in Shoemaker’s important new contribution to philosophy of mind and metaphysics.     

Symptoms of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Social and School Adjustment: The Moderating Roles of Age and Parenting

This study examined the associations between symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and social and school adjustment (academic performance, peer relationships, school social problems) and the moderating roles of children’s age and maternal parenting (affection and overprotection) in these associations. The sample consisted of 2,463 students who were in the first to ninth grade in northern Taiwan. Results from the linear mixed models demonstrated that ADHD symptoms were inversely associated with academic performance and positively associated with social adjustment problems. Further, children’s age and maternal parenting moderated the associations between ADHD symptoms and school and social adjustment. For example, maternal overprotection moderated the relation between hyperactivity and negative peer relationships (i.e., difficulty forming and maintaining friendships), such that this relation was stronger for children who experienced higher levels of overprotection than children who did not. Moreover, children’s age moderated the association between attention problems and decreased academic performance, such that this association was stronger for older children and adolescents than for younger children. Furthermore, children’s age and maternal affection interacted to influence the association between attention problems and school social problems (i.e., bullying, aggression, and peer rejection) with maternal affection acting as a buffer for older children (grades 4–6) only. These findings are discussed from a developmental psychopathology perspective.     

Maternal Relationship Instability Influences on Children’s Emotional and Behavioral Functioning in Low-Income Families

The present study investigated associations between maternal relationship instability patterns and children’s behavioral and emotional functioning in middle childhood in a representative sample of low-income urban families (N = 891). Data from the Three-City Study tracked maternal partnerships through the child’s life, assessing total marital and cohabiting relationship transitions and delineating transitions by developmental timing, and by directionality (i.e., entrances into versus exits from partnerships). Analyses linking instability to child behaviors at age 8 found that a greater total number of maternal relationship transitions predicted higher anxious, somatic, and conduct problems, with recent transitions (in the prior 2 years) driving these results. Consideration of partnership formations versus dissolutions indicated that recent entrances into new partnerships, and entrances into cohabitations, were most consistently associated with problematic functioning across numerous aspects of children’s emotional and behavioral functioning. Policy implications of these findings are discussed.     

Parent–Child Conversations about the Past: Exercises for the Child’s Study of the Present

We outline ideas and research in training parents to help their children to appreciate historical patterns of social contingencies as well as contingencies in the present. Parents’ use of “lessons and dialogue” is presented as a means of guiding the children’s efforts to describe their past experiences in narrative format, along with teaching the children about contingency management in the present. Lessons define this latter type of parent teaching, and dialogue defines the former type. Our focus is on dialogue because it is not well known in the parent training literature. A case study is included to illustrate the potential benefits and problems encountered in training parents to use dialogue.