Mothers and fathers of young children: comparison of parenting styles

This study compared the developmental expectations and parenting behaviors of 52 mothers and fathers with children between the ages of 1 and 4 years, using the Parenting Inventory: Young Children. While both mothers and fathers were nurturing parents, mothers obtained significantly higher nurturing scores. Possible reasons for this difference were discussed. Developmental expectations and discipline strategies did not differ between mothers and fathers.     

Narcissistic vulnerability in a group for psychiatrically hospitalized fathers

Three short-lived groups for psychiatrically hospitalized fathers comprise one aspect of a greater effort to study such men. Most of the fathers held a tenuous position within, or had been ejected from, their families. Their symptoms were often self-defeating efforts to regulate interpersonal distance. Many felt themselves to be too defective or unworthy to merit respect or authority. Shame and depression flooded the sessions and were rarely offset by hopefulness. On follow-up the men acknowledged the importance of paternal dysfunction but felt unable to tolerate further exploration. Further group treatment might employ a less focused format.     

Young dads: the effects of a parenting program on urban African-American adolescent fathers

Sixty urban African-American adolescent first-time fathers were randomly assigned to two groups to study intervention strategies that would help them develop better and more consistent relationships with their young children. The fathers were administered a pretest interview schedule to determine their present quality of life as well as their relationships with their children. In addition to biweekly parenting classes, each member of the experimental group was assigned a social worker with whom he met weekly to assist him with his life needs. The control group was offered weekly parenting classes that focused on learning how to meet the infants' needs. At the end of six months, both groups were interviewed again. Findings indicated that the experimental group made significant gains in employment, vocational planning, feeling positive about their current relationships with their children, using birth control, being able to plan for the future, and increasing the number of close friends.     

A parenting group for women dealing with child sexual abuse and substance abuse

This article describes a group developed to address the parenting needs of women dealing with child sexual abuse and substance abuse. A solution-focused 12-week group intervention is described, and the results of an evaluation are presented. Participants included 29 women who attended seven parenting groups. The results suggest that the group was perceived as beneficial by the women, who reported an increase in self-esteem, parenting satisfaction, and parenting self-esteem and an improvement in their attitudes toward their children.     

Young adults' retrospective reports of parenting by mothers and fathers: associations with current relationship quality

The authors examined retrospective reports of both mothers' and fathers' parenting and young adults' (N = 75) relationship quality. Multiple regression analyses showed that, as predicted, young adults' retrospective reports of the positive parenting they experienced as children were significantly related to the extent by which they currently viewed (a) others as accessible and responsive, (b) their relationships with others as meaningful and important, and (c) themselves as able to form healthy relationships. Although both mothers' and fathers' parenting related to the quality of current relationships with parents, only reports of fathers' parenting were related to the quality of current relationships with a romantic partner. Fathers' parenting was also related to views of the self as being able to form secure and close relationships. The authors address both methodological and substantive explanations for these results.     

Adolescent unwed prospective fathers: readiness for fatherhood and behaviors toward the mother and the expected infant

Despite the increased emphasis on assessing and meeting the needs of unmarried pregnant adolescents, less than adequate attention has been directed toward understanding unwed adolescent prospective fathers who frequently are the mates of pregnant teenagers. As part of a prenatal education intervention study, 28 unmarried adolescent fathers responded to a questionnaire containing items about their readiness for fatherhood, antepartal behavioral interactions, and projected postpartal behaviors with their pregnant adolescent partners, as well as their projected behaviors with their infants. The adolescent males reported that initially they either were definitely unready for paternity (75%) or were undecided about readiness for fatherhood (21%). However, as pregnancy advanced beyond the second trimester, only 57% of the respondents did not want to become fathers. To a significant extent, those who did not were least likely to engage in behaviors supportive of their mate's health antepartally, or to indicate a desire to care for and interact with their expected infant. In addition, they tended to project lower levels of postnatal involvement with the adolescent mothers of their children as compared to those males who were more accepting of their pending fatherhood. Moreover, males who had maintained long prepregnancy relationships with their mates tended to be more supportive of them prenatally, and to perceive themselves as maintaining close relationships with both the mothers and infants after delivery. Finally, 86% of the adolescent fathers planned to work to contribute to the support of their infants. The data demonstrate that unreadiness for fatherhood may be associated with responsible as well as irresponsible behaviors. Accordingly, these data are interpreted as having implications for the establishment of programs and policies which focus on the adolescent male population in order to interdict the high rate of unwed adolescent pregnancy.     

Preschoolers at risk for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and oppositional defiant disorder: family,parenting, and behavioral correlates

This community study assigned 129 4-year-olds to groups at risk for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), both ADHD and ODD, or no problems. Mothers of children at risk for ODD reported more family dysfunction, felt less competent as parents, suggested fewer solutions to child behavior problems, demonstrated a less assertive approach to child management, and reported more child internalizing problems than did mothers of children not elevated on ODD symptoms. Mothers of children at risk for ADHD reported higher personal depression scores than did those of the non-ADHD subgroup. Children at risk for ADHD evidenced the most difficulties in school where teachers reported more social behavior, classroom management, and internalizing problems relative to other children not at risk for ADHD. When solving child management problems, mothers of children in all groups suggested twice as many controlling/negative management strategies as positive/preventive strategies. In addition, faced with oppositional and conduct problems, mothers of children in all groups increased controlling/negative suggestions and decreased positive/preventive suggestions. Mothers of girls at risk for ADHD, ODD, and ADHD/ODD gave more rewards per positive behavior than did mothers of boys.     

Adolescent suicide risk: four psychosocial factors

Suicide is a leading cause of death among adolescents. This study examined the suicidal ideation, behavior, and attempt history of 100 adolescents ages seventeen to nineteen. Four psychosocial factors were found to be important for overall suicide risk: hopelessness, hostility, negative self-concept, and isolation. It is suggested that focusing on these four psychosocial factors would enhance suicide assessment and prevention efforts with adolescents.     

Adolescent perception of mothers' parenting strengths and needs: a cross-cultural approach to curriculum development for parent education

Black, Hispanic, and White American early adolescents (N = 573) were administered the Parent Success Indicator. The performance of their mothers was rated for 60 items, included within six subscales, that consider Communication, Use of Time, Teaching, Frustration, Satisfaction, and Information Needs. Each racial group described favorable attributes of mothers and noted realms of learning where further growth seemed warranted. Statistically significant main effects for race, time spent together, and presence of an adult at home when the adolescent returned from school were reported. No significant main effects for child gender were reported. Based on perceptions of the participants, topics were identified for a common parent curriculum that can serve mothers of each racial group. Additional topics, based on the ratings within each race, were recommended to meet the distinctive learning needs of Black, Hispanic, and White mothers of early adolescents.     

Parents' depressive symptoms and children's adjustment over time are mediated by parenting,but differentially for fathers and mothers

Parenting has been found to act as a mediator of the relation between parents' depressive symptoms and children's adjustment. The present study replicated this result, and also found specific effects of gender for both parents and children. A total of 319 parents provided reports of their depressive symptoms (BDI) and two parenting styles (APQ; inconsistent discipline and positive parenting) as well as of their elementary schoolchildren's adjustment (VBV-EL; oppositional-defiant behaviour, hyperactivity, internalizing, social-emotional competence). The first and second measurement occasions were six months apart. Bivariate correlations showed the expected pattern of positive associations between parental depression, child maladjustment and problematic parenting. However, the results differed for mothers and fathers, and the mediation was moderated by the children's gender. Inconsistent discipline was a mediator for both fathers and mothers. The path from fathers' depression was additionally negatively mediated by positive parenting. Boys were more vulnerable than girls.     

Adolescent Pregnancy: A Model for Intervention

This article reviews current demographic data regarding adolescent pregnancy in conjunction with current approaches to family planning and presents an interdisciplinary (counselor-physician) intervention model.     

Child and parental outcomes of a group parenting intervention for Latino families: A pilot study of the CANNE program

Criando a Nuestros Ni?os hacia el éxito (CANNE) is the Spanish adaptation of Parenting Our Children to Excellence (PACE). A pilot study conducted with 124 parents of preschoolers (mostly recent Mexican immigrants) provides preliminary evidence for the community acceptability and efficacy of CANNE. Eighty-eight of the 124 parents who enrolled in the program attended one or more of the 8 sessions (17% attended 1 session, 11% attended 2-4 sessions, and 72% attended 5 or more sessions), participated actively in sessions, and expressed high degrees of program satisfaction. Over time, parents improved on measures of harsh-inconsistent discipline, and children improved on social competence and social-communication skills. When high-versus-low attenders were compared, high attenders (parents who attended 4 sessions or more) reported greater increases than low attenders in their appropriate-positive parenting practices and clear expectations, and in their children's social competence and communication skills, and they reported greater decreases in their harsh-inconsistent discipline and in their children's aggressiveness and hyperactivity. Some of these changes were evident by the end of the program, whereas others became apparent (or stronger) over a 3-month follow-up period. These encouraging results point to the need for an efficacy study that assesses how well CANNE can help larger numbers of Latino parents in the important task of bringing up their young children in the United States.     

A group size effect on personal risk judgments: implications for unrealistic optimism

In Experiments 1 and 2, college students (N = 32 and N = 18, respectively) read heart attack risk profiles (i.e., lists of risk factors) for each of several employees at a series of fictional companies and judged the heart attack risk of the typical employee at each company. In both experiments, subjects' risk judgments increased as a function of the number of employees at the companies. In Experiments 3A and 3B, college students (N = 56 and N = 33, respectively) judged the heart attack risk of the typical employee at a company and also judged the risk of each individual employee. In these experiments, the typical employee was generally judged to be at higher risk than the individual employees. This group size effect might help to explain unrealistic optimism--people's tendency to judge themselves to be at lower risk than their peers for negative life events. Furthermore, it can be modeled successfully within Fiedler's (1996) BIAS framework.     

The group as a resource: reducing biased attributions for group success and failure via group affirmation

Self-affirmation theory proposes that people can respond to threats to the self by affirming alternative sources of self-integrity, resulting in greater openness to self-threatening information. The present research examines this at a group level by investigating whether a group affirmation (affirming an important group value) increases acceptance of threatening group information among sports teams and fans. In Study 1, athletes exhibited a group-serving attributional bias, which was eliminated by the group affirmation. In Study 2, the most highly identified fans exhibited the most bias in terms of their attributions, and this bias was eliminated by the group affirmation. These studies suggest that groups can serve as resources from which people can draw in response to threatening group events.     

Parental practices of Italian mothers and fathers during early infancy: The role of knowledge about parenting and child development

Our contribution aims to verify whether parental knowledge about child development and parenting constitutes a protective factor in the application of dysfunctional educational practices. Numerous studies have found that parental knowledge has a great influence on parenting, however it remains unclear whether both are casually linked in a direct and linear way. Data currently available on parental knowledge almost exclusively refers to mothers and subjects at risk. Furthermore, there are almost no studies which take into consideration subjects who are Italian citizens.In contrast our work takes into consideration a normative sample of 157 Italian couples who are the parents of children aged between 16 and 36 months and who completed the Knowledge of Infant Development Inventory (KIDI; MacPhee, 1981) and the Parenting Scale (Arnold, O’Leary, Wolff, & Acker, 1993). The results highlight differences between mothers and fathers, both in terms of knowledge levels (higher for mothers) and educational practices (maternal practices are more frequently dysfunctional); knowledge influences educational practices above all in the case of fathers, although said effect is slight, which supports the idea that interaction between knowledge and parental practices is not linear but rather mediated by other factors.     

Democracy begins at home: Democratic parenting and adolescents' support for democratic values

Although it is generally assumed that support for democratic values and beliefs develops as a result of social learning, the concrete socializing circumstances through which this occurs are less obvious. This study investigated the relationship between democratic family functioning and democratic values of adolescents. Adolescents' (N = 1,341, 16- to 17-year-olds) reports on their parents' psychological control, autonomy granting, warmth, and behavioural control were considered predictors of adolescents' democratic orientation. The results demonstrated that the democratic functioning of families was positively related to adolescents' support for democratic values when controlling for the effects of gender, political experience, authoritarianism, empathy, and political activism. Additionally, this study examined the possible role of empathy as a mediator in the relation between democratic family functioning and adolescent's democratic values. The results show that empathy was a partial mediator of a family's contribution to adolescents' democratic orientation.     

Relation of perinatal risk and early parenting to executive control at the transition to school

Executive control (EC) develops rapidly during the preschool years and is central to academic achievement and functional outcome. Although children with perinatal adversity are at known risk for EC impairments, little is known about the underlying nature of these impairments or the mechanisms that contribute to their development over time. Drawing on a cohort of 110 high‐risk children born very preterm (VPT; < 33 weeks / < 1500 g) and 113 healthy full‐term children, this study examined the implications of perinatal adversity and early parenting for children's EC as they transitioned to formal schooling. Parent supportive presence, intrusiveness, and parent–child synchrony were observed during a series of problem‐solving tasks at ages 2 and 4 years. At age 6, children completed a comprehensive battery of EC tasks. Academic outcomes were assessed at age 9. The VPT group showed global EC impairments at age 6, although the unitary factor that best characterized the structure of EC was the same in both groups. High‐risk dyads were characterized by more intrusive and less synchronous parent–child interactions in early childhood, which in turn predicted poorer child EC at age 6. EC partially mediated the relation of risk status to poorer academic achievement at age 9. Findings demonstrate the cumulative effects of perinatal adversity on children's EC in the crucial transition to schooling. They also highlight the importance of the parent–child relationship as a target for intervention efforts to help mitigate these effects.