Assessment of Parenting Practices Related to Conduct Problems: Development and Validation of the Management of Children's Behavior Scale

We report on the development and initial validation of the parent-report scale, Management of Children's Behavior Scale (MCBS), designed to evaluate parenting practices related to conduct problems in children. Children (N=396, ages 2-14) referred for outpatient treatment and their parents served as participants. We evaluated the composition and consistency of the scale and provided evidence pertaining to concurrent, predictive, and incremental validity. Evidence for each type of validity was consistent with the conceptualization of the scale and the pertinence to child conduct problems. The measure also was sensitive to therapeutic changes. Parenting practices targeted in treatment (parent management training) improved as predicted over time. The results suggest the measure may be useful in evaluating parenting practices known to relate to conduct problems and often targeted for intervention in parent- and family-based treatment.     

Paternal Psychiatric Symptoms and Maladaptive Paternal Behavior in the Home During the Child Rearing Years

Data from the Children in the Community Study, a community-based longitudinal study were used to investigate associations between paternal psychiatric disorders and child-rearing behaviors. Paternal psychiatric symptoms and behavior in the home were assessed among 782 families during the childhood and adolescence of the offspring. Paternal anxiety, disruptive, mood, personality, and substance use disorders were independently associated with specific types of maladaptive paternal behavior in the home during the child-rearing years after paternal age, education, income, co-occurring paternal psychiatric symptoms, offspring age, sex, intelligence, temperament, and psychiatric symptoms were controlled statistically. Paternal psychiatric disorders that were present by mean offspring age 14 were associated with elevated risk for maladaptive paternal behavior in the home at mean age offspring 16, after prior maladaptive paternal behavior was controlled statistically. These findings suggest that paternal psychiatric disorder may be an important determinant of maladaptive paternal behavior in the home during the child-rearing years. Improved recognition and treatment of paternal psychiatric disorders may help to reduce the amount of maladaptive parenting behavior that many children and adolescents might otherwise be likely to experience.     

Division of Labor Among Lesbian and Heterosexual Parenting Couples: Correlates of Specialized Versus Shared Patterns

One of the central tasks that couples face in coparenting is the division of labor. In this study, we explored division of family labor among lesbian and heterosexual couples who were parenting 4 to 6 year-old children. Sixty-six families, half headed by lesbian couples and half headed by heterosexual couples, participated in the study. Measures of parental attitudes, resources, demographics, and division of labor were collected. As expected, lesbian couples were more likely to divide paid and unpaid labor evenly, whereas heterosexual couples were more likely to show specialized patterns, with husbands investing more time in paid employment and wives devoting more time to unpaid family work. Structural variables (e.g., husband's hours in paid employment) were the best predictors of division of labor among heterosexual couples. Among lesbian couples, however, ideological variables (e.g., ideas about ideal divisions of labor) were the better predictors. Discrepancies in occupational prestige were greater among heterosexual than among lesbian couples. Discussion centers on the ways in which gender and sexual orientation may relate to couples' decisions about division of labor.     

Community and school choice: Geographies of care and responsibility

This paper draws on elements of critical discursive psychology in order to explore some of the issues and concerns raised by parents' responses to the policy and practice of school choice. Drawing on data from a group of mothers of diverse social class and racial backgrounds, this paper examines the dilemmas some mothers engage with in their role as chooser—reconciling competing rationalities for choosing or trying to manage contradictions. A central argument of this paper is that the policy and political context shaping the emergence of school choice in Britain has provisionally secured the development of certain trends in education—consumerism, individualism and competition. Alongside and coupled with this has been the veneration of a narrow utilitarian conception of parents as consumers of education services, defined as people who share the capacity and willingness to maximize the utility of their decisions in a rationally self‐interested way. This paper questions the value of this approach as a framing for understanding the aspirations, motivations and fantasies informing parents' school choice and highlights instead the ways in which some mothers articulate the importance of community in their decision‐making practices. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The parenting dimensions of British Pakistani and White mothers of primary school children

There is increasing emphasis internationally on the use of parenting programmes to support the development of appropriate social behaviour in children. However, in such programmes diversity is often ignored. Research into the parenting styles and practices (dimensions) of different ethnic groups is needed in order to investigate the applicability of universal programmes, to guide their design and implementation in the future. Thirty‐four British Pakistani and 34 British White mothers of primary aged children, comprising equal numbers of males and females, completed English or Urdu versions of the Parental Dimensions Inventory—Short Version (PDI‐S), (Power, Int. J. Behav. Dev. 67 : 302–313) and a child behavioural screening instrument, the SDQ (Goodman, J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry 38 : 581–586). More similarities than differences between the parenting dimensions of Pakistani and White mothers were found overall. However, compared with White mothers, Pakistani mothers reported more ‘following through on discipline’ as well as ‘reminding’ as a disciplinary action. Further, Pakistani mothers reported following through on discipline more with boys than White mothers did and the more they reported inconsistent parenting, the more their children reportedly had behaviour problems. It is concluded that while these findings provide some support for the cross‐cultural applicability of generic parenting programmes, programme efficacy studies are also needed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mother–child affect and emotion socialization processes across the late preschool period: predictions of emerging behaviour problems

The current study examined concurrent and longitudinal relations between maternal negative affective behaviour and child negative emotional expression in preschool age children with (n=96) or without (n=126) an early developmental risk, as well as the predictions of later behaviour problems. Maternal negative affective behaviour, child externalizing emotional expression, and child internalizing emotional expression were observed during a number of lab tasks at child ages 4 and 5, and child externalizing and internalizing behaviour problems were assessed via maternal questionnaire at age 6. Path analyses using structural equation modeling were utilized to test the relations among the variables at ages 4, 5, and 6. A parent‐driven model of emotion socialization emerged, wherein stronger relations were found among maternal negative affect and child externalizing emotions and behaviours than among maternal negative affect and child internalizing emotions and behaviours. Early child risk did not appear to alter the overall emotion socialization process, although higher levels of maternal and child negativity were observed for the children with a developmental risk. Results underscore the complexity of emotion socialization processes throughout the preschool period. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

父母教养与学业成就：心理因素的中介作用

近十几年来,研究者们致力于探究父母教养与子女学业成就关系的内在机制。认知、大五人格、动机与自我概念作为学习者的心理特质,在父母教养与学业成就间起着重要的中介作用。父母教养能通过影响这些心理因素间接地影响子女的学业成就。尽管研究者们在该领域已经取得较为丰富的研究成果,仍需要在将来加强综合性研究、应用研究和跨文化比较研究,以深化和拓展对这一领域的探索,同时促进已有研究成果的应用。     

Developing the couple perspective in parenting support: evaluation of a service initiative for vulnerable families

The importance of the relationship between parents is frequently underestimated by those designing and developing services to support parents in bringing up their children. Instead, the primary focus of recent family support initiatives in the United Kingdom has been on improving parenting skills. This article describes the outcomes of a project designed to maximize the effectiveness of parenting support to vulnerable families through sensitizing the workforce of a community‐based adult mental health agency to take account of the parental couple in providing postnatal support groups, parenting workshops and relationship counselling. Evaluating outcomes from these services suggests that a couple orientation adds significant value to the effectiveness of parenting support.     

父亲参与教养状况对学前儿童社会技能的作用

作为孩子成长的关键人物之一,父亲对儿童早期的社会性发展具有重要作用。本研究以184名学前中班儿童及其父母为被试,考察父亲参与教养的量(参与教养的时间)和质(积极教养行为)对儿童早期社会技能的作用。结果发现:(1)控制母亲积极教养行为以后,父亲参与教养时间仍显著预测儿童的社会技能,父亲积极教养行为的预测作用不再显著。(2)控制母亲积极教养行为后,父亲参与教养时间显著预测女孩的合作性、责任感、自我控制及总体社会技能,边缘显著预测男孩的主张性;父亲积极教养行为边缘显著预测男孩的主张性,对女孩各项社会技能的预测均不显著。(3)父亲参与教养时间显著预测母亲积极教养水平低组儿童的合作性、主张性、责任感、自我控制及总体社会技能,父亲积极教养行为边缘显著预测母亲积极教养低组儿童的合作性和总体社会技能。表明父亲参与教养对母亲消极教养具有缓冲作用,其中父亲参与教养时间的缓冲效应更明显。     

父母教养方式与双元孝道、普遍尊老的关系

通过对536名大学生的问卷调查和心理测量,探讨了父母教养方式与双元孝道及普遍尊老的关系。结果显示：(1)父母关爱性教养方式对互惠性孝道及父母控制性教养方式对权威性孝道具有正向显著预测作用,(2)权威性孝道在父母控制性教养方式和普遍尊老之间起完全中介作用,父母关爱性教养方式对互惠性孝道和普遍尊老具有直接预测作用;(3)父亲的情感温暖对普遍尊老具有直接作用,母亲的情感温暖通过互惠性孝道间接影响普遍尊老。父母关爱性和控制性教养方式对双元孝道和普遍尊老遵从不同的影响机制。