The specificity of maternal parenting behavior and child adjustment difficulties: a study of inner-city African American families. |
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Authors: | Deborah J Jones Rex Forehand Aaron Rakow Christina J M Colletti Laura McKee Alecia Zalot |
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Affiliation: | Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3270, USA. djjones@email.unc.edu |
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Abstract: | The specificity of the association between 2 parenting behaviors (warmth and supervision) and 2 indicators, aggressive behavior and depressive symptoms, of major child outcomes (externalizing problems and internalizing problems) was examined among 196 inner-city African American mothers and their school age children. Given the growing number of African American families affected by HIV/AIDS and demonstrated compromises in parenting associated with maternal infection, the moderating role of maternal HIV/AIDS was also examined. Findings from longitudinal analyses supported the specificity of maternal warmth but not of maternal supervision. Maternal warmth was a stronger predictor of decreases in child aggressive behavior than of decreases in depressive symptoms. In addition, maternal warmth was a stronger predictor of decreases in aggressive behavior than was maternal supervision. Parenting specificity was not moderated by maternal HIV/AIDS. Clinical implications and future research directions are discussed. |
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