Developmental psychopathology in children of depressed mothers.

It is suggested that the tripartite model by R. D. Parke et al (1988) of the ways that parents influence their child's social development might be used to organize the study of abnormal development in children of depressed mothers. Parents influence their child through dyadic interaction, coaching and teaching practices, and managing their child's social environment. Disruption in each of these areas has been associated with parental psychopathology and has been implicated in the development of deviant child outcomes. The components of a theoretical model of developmental psychopathology are outlined, as well as theoretical and methodological problems that have yet to be resolved. Issues of concern include the heterogeneity of maternal diagnoses; distinguishing among genetic, parenting, and environmental effects; matching the level of behavioral analysis with the question being answered; the heterogeneity of child outcomes; age-related effects; bidirectional influences; and the role of paternal psychopathology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Treatment adherence difficulties among children with cancer: the role of parenting style

Investigated the prevalence of treatment adherence problems among children undergoing cancer treatment and explored the relationship of sociodemographic factors, child functional status, and parenting style to these difficulties. Nurse ratings of adherence difficulties encountered during the cancer treatment regimen were completed on 77 children and their caregivers. A subset of caregivers also completed a measure of parenting attitudes and practices. Results indicated that certain adherence difficulties were related to the child's age and functional status, the family's socioeconomic status (SES), and parenting style. The child's age was related to adherence to procedure-related tasks; younger children had more frequent problems with completing these tasks. More functional children had a greater number of adherence problems. Families with a lower SES had more difficulties with timeliness and cancellations/delays of clinic appointments and promptness of reporting of the child's reactions to treatment. Children of caregivers who had a more "supportive" parenting style (were more sensitive to children's input, had a less restrictive attitude towards parenting, and were more nurturant) canceled and delayed fewer appointments, were on time more frequently for appointments, and reported reactions to treatment with less delay. Implications of these findings for future research on treatment adherence and for clinical interventions are discussed.     

The developmental origins of cognitive vulnerability to depression: Temperament, parenting, and negative life events in childhood as contributors to negative cognitive style.

Cognitive models of depression have been well supported with adults, but the developmental origins of cognitive vulnerability are not well understood. The authors hypothesized that temperament, parenting, and negative life events in childhood would contribute to the development of cognitive style, with withdrawal negativity and negative parental feedback moderating the effects of negative life events to predict more depressogenic cognitive styles. These constructs were assessed in 289 children and their parents followed longitudinally from infancy to 5th grade; a subsample (n = 120) also participated in a behavioral task in which maternal feedback to child failure was observed. Results indicated that greater withdrawal negativity in interaction with negative life events was associated with more negative cognitive styles. Self-reported maternal anger expression and observed negative maternal feedback to child's failure significantly interacted with child's negative events to predict greater cognitive vulnerability. There was little evidence of paternal parenting predicting child negative cognitive style. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parenting and child development in families with a child conceived through embryo donation.

Concerns have been raised regarding the potentially negative effects of conception using donated embryos on parenting and child development. Findings are presented of an exploratory study of families with a child conceived through embryo donation. Twenty-one embryo donation families were compared with 28 adoptive families and 30 in vitro fertilization families on standardized interview and questionnaire measures of the parents' marital and psychological state, the quality of parent-child relationships, and the child's development. In all 3 groups, the children were aged 2-5 years. The differences indicated higher emotional overinvolvement and defensive responding in the embryo donation families, along with greater secrecy about the child's origins. The children were not at increased risk of psychological problems. The study provides interesting but preliminary findings on parent-child relationships and child development in a new family form. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Child Maltreatment, Parent Alcohol- and Drug-Related Problems, Polydrug Problems, and Parenting Practices: A Test of Gender Differences and Four Theoretical Perspectives.

The authors tested how adverse childhood experiences (child maltreatment and parent alcohol- and drug-related problems) and adult polydrug use (as a mediator) predict poor parenting in a community sample (237 mothers and 81 fathers). These relationships were framed within several theoretical perspectives, including observational learning, impaired functioning, self-medication, and parentification-pseudomaturity. Structural models revealed that child maltreatment predicted poor parenting practices among mothers. Parent alcohol- and drug-related problems had an indirect detrimental influence on mothers' parenting and practices through self-drug problems. Among fathers, emotional neglect experienced as a child predicted lack of parental warmth more parental neglect, and sexual abuse experienced as a child predicted a rejecting style of parenting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parenting, peers, and the stability of antisocial behavior in preadolescent boys.

This study examined the linkages between parental discipline practices, peer relationships, and antisocial behavior in a 2-yr longitudinal study (N?=?206) of preadolescent boys (aged 9–10 yrs at 1st assessment). Structural equation models were used to estimate the stability of parenting, peer relations, and antisocial constructs, and their effects on each other. The results showed that preadolescent antisocial behavior had substantial concurrent negative effects on the quality of parental discipline and peer relationships. Evidence for a reciprocal relationship between parental discipline and child antisocial behavior was found. The study specifies how parental discipline practices are involved in maintaining the stability of antisocial behavior in preadolescents. Low popularity with peers did not directly influence the child's antisocial behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of the Oregon model of Parent Management Training (PMTO) on marital adjustment in new stepfamilies: A randomized trial.

Effects of intervention with the Oregon model of Parent Management Training (PMTO?) on marital relationship processes and marital satisfaction in recently married biological mother and stepfather couples were examined. Sixty-seven of the 110 participating families were randomly assigned to PMTO, and 43 families to a non-intervention condition. Intervention had reliable positive indirect effects on marital relationship processes 24 months after baseline which in turn were associated with higher marital satisfaction. These indirect effects were mediated by the impact of PMTO on parenting practices 6 months after baseline. Enhanced parenting practices resulting from PMTO prevented escalation of subsequent child behavior problems at school. Consistent with a family systems perspective and research on challenges to marital quality in stepfamilies, improved co-parenting practices were associated with enhanced marital relationship skills and marital satisfaction as well as with prevention of child behavior problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parents' attitudes about children: Associations with parental life histories and child-rearing quality.

This study examined relations among parents' perceptions of their childhood, attitudes about life, expectations for child behavior, attitudes about their child's behavior, and the child-rearing environment parents provide. Eighty mothers of 1–5 yr olds were interviewed about perceptions of receiving harsh parenting as children, current attitudes about life, developmental expectations, and views of intentionality and severity of their child's misbehavior. The home environment was measured using the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (R. H. Bradley & B. Caldwell, 1979) scale. Mothers who reported harsh parenting as children, negative attitudes about life, and unrealistic developmental expectations had negative attitudes about their own child. These attitudes were related to provision of lower quality home environments. Results support a constructivist approach to understanding parental social cognitions and behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Schizophrenic and depressed mothers: Relational deficits in parenting.

Schizophrenic (n?=?53), depressed (n?=?25), and well women (n?=?23) were studied to determine the quality of their parenting and its affect on their 3-month to 5-year-old child's social and intellectual development. Most of the women were single parents; all were poor and Black. Parenting behavior was studied with observations in the lab and the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment inventory. Children's behavior was measured with an IQ test and social competence observation. Quality of parenting was lowest in schizophrenic women, and more variable in depressed women. Certain parenting practices significantly predicted children's IQ scores and social behavior. The mother's parenting practices, and not her diagnostic status per se, accounted for much of children's intellectual and social competence, supporting an interactional model for transmission of psychopathology from mother to child. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive readiness to parent and intellectual-emotional development in children of adolescent mothers.

Seventy adolescent mother-child dyads were assessed longitudinally to determine relationships among prenatal maternal knowledge and attitudes about parenting, evaluated in the 3rd trimester; postnatal maternal perceptions of parenting stress and child temperament as well as maternal interactional style, evaluated when children were 6 months of age; and intellectual, linguistic, and behavioral development at 3 years of age. Mothers who were more cognitively prepared for parenting had children who displayed better intellectual development and fewer internalizing and externalizing behavioral difficulties. Mothers who were less cognitively prepared for parenting prenatally perceived their parenting role as more stressful and their children as more difficult. Although maternal interactional style did not act as a mediator, perceptions at 6 months were found to mediate the relationship between prenatal cognitive readiness and child intelligence and internalizing behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Maternal personality, parenting cognitions, and parenting practices.

A community sample of 262 European American mothers of firstborn 20-month-olds completed a personality inventory and measures of parenting cognitions (knowledge, self-perceptions, and reports about behavior) and was observed in interaction with their children from which measures of parenting practices (language, sensitivity, affection, and play) were independently coded. Factor analyses of the personality inventory replicated extraction of the 5-factor model of personality (Openness, Neuroticism, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness). When controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, the 5 personality factors qua variables and in patterns qua clusters related differently to diverse parenting cognitions and practices, supporting the multidimensional, modular, and specific nature of parenting. Maternal personality in the normal range, a theoretically important but empirically neglected factor in everyday parenting, has meaning in studies of parenting, child development, and family process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bi-directional relations between anti-smoking parenting practices and adolescent smoking in a Dutch sample.

Objective: Parenting is generally regarded a determinant of adolescent behavior, whereas the reverse is seldom considered. Reported effects of anti-smoking parenting practices on adolescent smoking are inconsistent. Cross-sectional results may have been misinterpreted and child effects have been overlooked. The main goal of this study was to explain previous inconsistent effects of anti-smoking parenting practices, by examining bi-directional relations between parenting and adolescent smoking. Design and Main Outcome Measures: Bi-directional relations were studied using a cross-lagged model where anti-smoking house rules, communication about smoking, and adolescent smoking were assessed at three subsequent years. Results: The most prominent finding was that adolescent smoking behavior was a stronger predictor of parenting than vice versa. Anti-smoking house rules decreased as a result of adolescent smoking behavior, while communication increased. The reduction in house rules was more pronounced if parents smoked, while the increase in communication was greater for non-smoking parents. Results were independent of adolescent sex. Conclusion: Further research is needed to establish which aspects of parenting can be effective in deterring adolescent smoking. This study emphasizes the need for caution in interpreting cross-sectional research findings relating parenting to adolescent smoking. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Correction to Beaulieu and Sylvie Normandeau (2011).

Reports an error in "Prédicteurs des pratiques parentales: Cognitions sociales parentales et comportement des enfants TDAH" by Marie-Christine Beaulieu and Sylvie Normandeau (Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science/Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement, Advanced Online Publication, Jul 25, 2011, np). There was an error in the English abstract. This error is corrected in the correction. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2011-15455-001.) The purpose of this study was to examine the association between parental social cognitions (parental causal attributions, parental self-efficacy) and the behavioural characteristics of their child (ADHD subtypes, comorbidity, oppositional and anxiety/shy symptoms). Participants were 110 families with a child with ADHD (ADHD-I : n = 31, ADHD-H : n = 11, ADHD-C : n = 68). Multiple regressions show that parental self-efficacy is associated with more use of appropriate discipline, praise and incentives, positive verbal discipline, and less use of harsh and inconsistent discipline and physical punishment. Results also show that parental causal attributions for the child's misbehaviour to their own efforts are a predictor of positive verbal discipline whereas parents' causal attributions for the child's misbehaviour to the child's lack of efforts are a predictor of harsh and inconsistent discipline. Parents' perception of their child's oppositional symptom is a predictor of appropriate discipline and positive verbal discipline. Finally, children's comorbidity is a predictor of harsh and inconsistent discipline. The findings of this study highlight the importance of parental self-efficacy, because from all the variables studied, it shows the strongest association with positive and negative parenting practices. No association between ADHD subtype and parenting practices were observed. Implications of these results are explored in the discussion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family interaction, parenting style, and the development of planning: A longitudinal analysis using archival data.

Data from 68 families that participated at 3 times in the Family Socialization and Developmental Competence Project (D. Baumrind, 1973) were used to study children's participation in planning-related discussions during family interactions in relation to parenting style. Results indicate that such discussions occur from early in the child's life and that with age children initiate more of them. Children's initiations at adolescence were predicted by the frequency of initiations when the child was 9 years old and by parenting style. Children with authoritative, permissive, and uninvolved parents initiated more planning discussions in adolescence than children with directive parents. The benefits and limitations of analyzing archival family data in such research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predictors of self-esteem for Mexican Anmerican and European American youths: A reexamination of the influence of parenting.

Decades of research with European American middle-class families have found significant relations between parenting behavior and child self-esteem. Similar research with minority and low-income families is rare. The present study examined the relation between parenting practices and child self-esteem among 70 Mexican American and 161 European American youths. The analyses consisted of regressing child self-esteem on parenting practices (acceptance, rejection, inconsistent discipline, and hostile control), ethnicity, SES, and the interactions between ethnicity, SES, and parenting practices. Several main effects and interactions were significant; for each interaction, behavior of low-income or Mexican American parents had less influence on children's self-esteem than did similar behavior by middle-class or European American parents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adolescent mothers' cognitions and behaviors as at-risk indicators.

Examined how qualities of adolescent mothers (AMs) are related to their child's socioemotional development and the relationship between maternal characteristics and the AM's ratings of her child's behavior. Ss included 39 AMs (mean age 17.9 yrs) and their children (aged 4–22 mo). Multiple measures of parental characteristics were used, including self-report measures of parenting expectations and mood orientation, and a qualitative behavioral measure of involvement. Analyses compared these measures with ratings of the child's coping behavior by trained observers and mothers' ratings of their child using the Parenting Stress Index (PSI). Findings indicate that parenting expectations had a unique and differential power in explaining both objective child observation ratings and the mothers' PSI ratings of their children. Interactions involving maternal positive behavior were related significantly to mothers' PSI ratings of the child's acceptability or reinforcement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parenting through change: An effective prevention program for single mothers.

This randomized experimental prevention study (a) evaluated the effectiveness of a parent-training program in a sample of 238 divorcing mothers with sons in Grades 1–3 and (b) provided an experimental test of coercion theory. The intervention produced reductions in observed coercive parenting, prevented decay in positive parenting, and generally improved effective parenting practices in comparisons of mothers in experimental and control groups. Moreover, coercion theory was supported. Improved parenting practices correlated significantly with improvements in teacher-reported school adjustment, child-reported maladjustment, and mother-reported maladjustment. The intervention indirectly benefitted child outcomes through improved parenting practices for a model based on child report and, to a lesser extent, on teacher report. The intervention did not produce direct effects on child outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differential susceptibility to parenting and quality child care.

Research on differential susceptibility to rearing suggests that infants with difficult temperaments are disproportionately affected by parenting and child care quality, but a major U.S. child care study raises questions as to whether quality of care influences social adjustment. One thousand three hundred sixty-four American children from reasonably diverse backgrounds were followed from 1 month to 11 years with repeated observational assessments of parenting and child care quality, as well as teacher report and standardized assessments of children’s cognitive-academic and social functioning, to determine whether those with histories of difficult temperament proved more susceptible to early rearing effects at ages 10 and 11. Evidence for such differential susceptibility emerges in the case of both parenting and child care quality and with respect to both cognitive-academic and social functioning. Differential susceptibility to parenting and child care quality extends to late middle childhood. J. Belsky, D. L. Vandell, et al.’s (2007) failure to consider such temperament-moderated rearing effects in their evaluation of long-term child care effects misestimates effects of child care quality on social adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Externalizing in preschoolers and early adolescents: A cross-study replication of a family model.

With families of 3.5-yr-olds, the direct and indirect links among parents' depression, marital quality, parenting style, and their children's externalizing behavior were examined using partial least squares analysis. No direct paths were found between parents' depression and their child's behavior. Instead, parents' depression was mediated by the quality of their relationship as a couple or by their parenting style, or by both. A replication with families of 9–13 yr olds supported these findings in the form of the interconnections among family variables and children's outcomes, although the magnitude of the family–child linkage was much lower than it was in the younger sample. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship of parental warm responsiveness and negativity to emerging behavior problems following traumatic brain injury in young children.

Parenting behaviors play a critical role in the child's behavioral development, particularly for children with neurological deficits. This study examined the relationship of parental warm responsiveness and negativity to changes in behavior following traumatic brain injury (TBI) in young children relative to an age-matched cohort of children with orthopedic injuries (OI). It was hypothesized that responsive parenting would buffer the adverse effects of TBI on child behavior, whereas parental negativity would exacerbate these effects. Children, ages 3–7 years, hospitalized for TBI (n = 80) or OI (n = 113), were seen acutely and again 6 months later. Parent–child dyads were videotaped during free play. Parents completed behavior ratings (Child Behavior Checklist; T. M. Achenbach & L. A. Rescorla, 2001) at both visits, with baseline ratings reflecting preinjury behavior. Hypotheses were tested using multiple regression, with preinjury behavior ratings, race, income, child IQ, family functioning, and acute parental distress serving as covariates. Parental responsiveness and negativity had stronger associations with emerging externalizing behaviors and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms among children with severe TBI. Findings suggest that parenting quality may facilitate or impede behavioral recovery following early TBI. Interventions that increase positive parenting may partially ameliorate emerging behavior problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)