Parent,child, and contextual predictors of childhood physical punishment

Data gathered over the course of an 18‐year longitudinal study of 1025 New Zealand children were used to: (a) develop a profile of the maternal, child, and contextual factors associated with differing levels of exposure to maternal physical punishment, and (b) identify the key predictors of maternal physical punishment as reported by young people at age 18. Results revealed the presence of clear linear associations between the extent of young people's reported exposure to physical punishment and a wide range of maternal, child, and contextual factors. The key predictors of physical punishment suggested that the psychosocial profile of those mothers at greatest risk of physically punishing or mistreating their child was that of a young woman with a personal history of strict parenting who entered motherhood at an early age, and who was attempting to parent a behaviourally difficult child within a dysfunctional family environment characterized by elevated rates of inter‐parental violence and childhood sexual abuse. These findings were consistent with a cumulative risk factor model in which increasing risk factor exposure is associated with increasing levels of child physical punishment/maltreatment. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Boys' and girls' perceptions of parental discipline in transgression situations

Children's perceptions of parental discipline methods and their perceptions of child gender differences in their parents' choices of discipline methods were assessed. One hundred and seventy 8‐year‐old children (78 boys, 92 girls) in two‐parent families were asked about disciplinary behaviour in five transgression situations. The results pointed to gender differences when the children were talking about themselves. Boys believed that they would receive more physical punishment, milder requests and less induction than girls. Children also indicated that their parents would choose a different response if they (themselves) were of the other sex. Both boys and girls reported that their parents would treat boys more severely than they would girls. The results showed that the responses of those children with a sibling of the other sex did not reveal any gender‐differentiated experience of their parents' discipline strategies. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Possible antecedents and developmental implications of shame in young girls

The objectives of this study were to assess the effects of parenting style and child emotionality on the development of proneness to shame in young girls, and the mediating effect of shame on the development of adjustment problems. Eighty‐eight girls were assessed twice, at 3 and 5 years of age, along with their mothers and fathers. Shame was assessed by observations (reactions to failure and criticism); parenting style and child emotions (fearfulness, sadness, anger) were measured using parent reports; and adjustment problems were assessed by parent and teacher reports. Girls were more likely to show shame at age 5 when both their mothers and fathers had been relatively authoritarian at age 3; their emotional dispositions did not have any direct longitudinal effects on shame. Authoritarian parenting predicted subsequent internalizing problems as assessed by teachers, but there was no evidence for a mediational effect of shame. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

大学生自信发展特点的研究

本研究选取931名大学生为被试,采用自编“大学生自信问卷”?考察了大学生自信的年龄特点、性别差异及学校类型差异。结果表明：大学生自信总水平差异显著,除社交自信外,整体自信、学业自信和身体自信均存在极显著性别差异,男生高于女生;大学生在整体、学业和身体自信及其分维度上存在显著年级差异：一、四年级显著高于二、三年级,其中三年级自信度明显低于其它年级;学业、社交、身体自信及其分维度存在显著学校类型差异,非重点大学学生显著高于重点大学学生;年级和学校类型在身体自信、整体自信、学业自信、社交自信及其某些层面上存在显著交互作用;性别和学校类型在身体自信某分维度的交互作用达显著水平。     

Mothers,Fathers, Gender Role,and Time Parents Spend with Their Children

To examine the relationships among the sex of the parent, gender role, and the time parents spend with their children, 272 parents completed the Bem Sex-Role Inventory, a questionnaire about the time spent with their children, and a demographics questionnaire. Analyses indicated that neither the sex of the parent nor gender role was predictive of the amount of time parents were spending in direct interaction with or being accessible to their children. The sex of the parent, qualified by earning status, was predictive of the level of responsibility parents had for child-related activities. Further, the sex of the parent, qualified by femininity, was predictive of parental satisfaction with level of child-related responsibilities. These results emphasize the importance of examining parental characteristics in relation to the time parents spend with their children and their levels of responsibility for child-related activities.     

The Relation of Social Capital to Child Psychosocial Adjustment Difficulties: The Role of Positive Parenting and Neighborhood Dangerousness

Substantial research attention has focused on the psychosocial adjustment problems of children and adolescents residing in disadvantaged neighborhoods. However, less attention has been directed to neighborhood factors within disadvantaged neighborhoods that may facilitate child psychosocial adjustment. An expanded model, assessing how social capital, neighborhood dangerousness, and positive parenting relate to child psychosocial adjustment difficulties, was estimated using structural equation modeling (Lisrel 8.3). Participants included 130 African American mothers and their children (mean age = 12.9 years) residing in inner city New Orleans, LA. The model examined 3 avenues through which social capital (e.g., support, neighborhood cohesion) may relate to fewer child psychosocial adjustment difficulties: a direct relation; through its relation to positive parenting; and through its relation to neighborhood dangerousness. Results indicate that social capital related to child psychosocial adjustment difficulties through positive parenting and neighborhood dangerousness, but not directly. Overall, the proposed model fit the observed data reasonably well. The results suggest that social capital in disadvantaged neighborhoods is important in indirectly facilitating child psychosocial adjustment and should be incorporated into assessment and intervention practices.     

Intergenerational studies of parenting and the transfer of risk from parent to child

This review describes a recent approach to studying the intergenerational processes that place families and children at risk for a broad variety of social, behavioral, and health problems. Intergenerational studies typically involve two (or more) generations of participants, observed over time. These projects are utilized to study the origins and early determinants of parenting behavior and of other environmental, health, and social conditions that place young offspring at risk for continuing behavioral, cognitive, and health problems. Convergent findings, across a broad range of research populations in several countries, suggest that problematic parenting develops in part through learning the behavior modeled by one's own parents. In addition, problematic parenting seems to be an extension of an individual's early style of aggressive and problematic social behavior. Parents with a history of childhood aggression, in particular, tend to have continuing social, behavioral, and health difficulties, as do their offspring. Conversely, parental involvement, cognitive stimulation, warmth, and nurturance appear to have important protective effects for offspring. Finally, educational achievement appears to be a powerful buffer against problematic parenting and a wide variety of difficult family circumstances, protecting families against the transfer of risk between generations.     

Mothers’ physical interventions in toddler play in a low-income,African American sample

This mixed method study examined 28 low-income African American mothers’ physical interventions in their 14-month-old toddlers’ play. Inductive methods were used to identify six physical intervention behaviors, the affect accompanying physical interventions, and apparent reasons for intervening. Nonparametric statistical analyses determined that toddlers experienced physical intervention largely in the context of positive maternal affect. Mothers of boys expressed highly positive affect while physically intervening more than mothers of girls. Most physically intervening acts seemed to be motivated by maternal intent to show or tell children how to play or to correct play deemed incorrect. Neutral affect was the most common toddler affect type following physical intervention, but boys were more likely than girls to be upset immediately after physical interventions. Physical interventions intended to protect health and safety seemed the least likely to elicit toddler upset.     

Fluctuations of answer and confidence rating in a general-knowledge problem task: Is confidence rating a result of direct memory-relevant output monitoring?

In order to examine whether confidence rating is a result of direct memory-relevant output monitoring, a general-knowledge test was used. A question set was answered in experimental session 1, and the same question set was employed in session 2. Subjects chose one answer from two alternatives. No significant difference in answer accuracy was found between sessions, which suggests that identical information processing was carried out, and that any difference between sessions was based on probabilistic fluctuation. The major results were as follows: (a) In both sessions, answer accuracy was an increasing function of confidence. (b) Answer-change rate (rate of different answers to the same question between sessions) decreased monotonically with confidence. (c) The distributions of confidence rating in session 2, conditional on the rating in session 1, were nearly identical in no-answer-change and answer-change cases. These results suggest that confidence rating is not a result of monitoring memory-relevant output itself but an estimation of possibility of answer fluctuation.     

Behavioral and environmental correlates of infant abuse in group- living pigtail macaques

The present study investigated the context of occurrence of infant abuse and the behavior of abusive mothers and their infants in pigtail macaques (Macaca nemestrina). Subjects were 8 abusive mothers with their infants and 8 control mother-infant pairs living in 3 captive social groups. The most common forms of abuse were infant crushing and dragging and the most common context of occurrence was social stress. Severe and mild abuse differed in the frequency but not in the type of abuse patterns. Abusive mothers had controlling parenting styles relative to nonabusive mothers, and abused infants played at a later age and less frequently than controls. This study replicates previous findings on the parenting styles of abusive macaque mothers and provides new evidence on the context of occurrence of abuse and its consequences for infant health and social development.