Most studies on early childhood parenting include only mothers. Fathers are rarely observed in interaction with their young children, although they play an important role in the socialization of their children. In this study, we observed parenting of mothers and fathers toward their sons and daughters in families with two children, using a within-family approach in a sample with systematically varying family constellations. Participants included 389 families with two children (1 and 3 years of age). Parenting practices were coded during free play using the Emotional Availability Scales (Biringen, 2008). Findings revealed that mothers showed higher levels of sensitivity and lower levels of intrusiveness toward their children than fathers. Furthermore, mothers and fathers were more sensitive and less intrusive toward their oldest child than toward their youngest child. Fathers' higher intrusiveness toward the youngest child was only found in the case of a youngest boy. Child gender was not related to parenting in any of the other analyses. Our results suggest that parent gender is more salient than child gender in the prediction of parenting practices in early childhood.

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This longitudinal study examines the association between child gender and child aggression via parents' physical control, moderated by parents' gender-role stereotypes in a sample of 299 two-parent families with a 3-year-old child in the Netherlands. Fathers with strong stereotypical gender-role attitudes and mothers were observed to use more physical control strategies with boys than with girls, whereas fathers with strong counterstereotypical attitudes toward gender roles used more physical control with girls than with boys. Moreover, when fathers had strong attitudes toward gender roles (stereotypical or counterstereotypical), their differential treatment of boys and girls completely accounted for the gender differences in children's aggressive behavior a year later. Mothers' gender-differentiated parenting practices were unrelated to gender differences in child aggression.Higher levels of aggressive behavior in boys than in girls represent one of the most pronounced gender differences found in the literature on child development (Archer, 2004;Hyde, 1984;Loeber, Capaldi, & Costello, 2013). It has been suggested that in addition to potential biological and evolutionary influences (Archer, 2004), these gender differences may arise because of parental differential treatment of boys and girls (Chaplin, Cole, & ZahnWaxler, 2005;Mandara, Murray, Telesford, Varner, & Richman, 2012). Parents' gender-role attitudes might play a role in the differential treatment of their sons and daughters (Bem, 1981;Eagly, Wood, & Diekman, 2000), but this mechanism has rarely been studied. Therefore, the current study examined the longitudinal associations between mothers' and fathers' gender-role attitudes, gender-differentiated use of physical control strategies, and gender differences in child aggression. Social role theory and gender schema theory provide rationales for differential parenting of boys and girls, and for the link between gender-differentiated parenting and differences in aggressive behavior of boys and girls (Bem, 1981;Eagly et al., 2000). Social Role TheoryAccording to social role theory (Eagly et al., 2000), gender differences in social behavior arise from prevailing divisions of gender roles in societies, in which women are viewed as homemakers and men as economic providers. This division is still visible in present-day societies; mothers are more likely to be the primary caregivers of young children (Huerta et al., 2013; The Fatherhood Institute, 2010), women are overrepresented in educational and nurturing occupations, and men are overrepresented in occupations that are associated with power, physical strength, status, and agentic personality characteristics (i.e., management, engineering; U.S. Department of Labor, 2012).It is proposed that these gender roles lead to stereotypical ideas and expectations about the different nature and behavior of men and women (i.e., gender stereotypes), which lead to differential treatment of men and women, and boys and girls, which in turn leads to gender differences in behav...

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This study examined how the combination of sibling victimization and parental child maltreatment is related to mental health problems and delinquency in childhood and adolescence. Co-occurrence, additive associations, and interactive associations of sibling victimization and parental child maltreatment were investigated using a sample of 2,053 children aged 5–17 years from the National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence. The results provide primarily evidence for additive associations and only suggest some co-occurrence and interactive associations of sibling victimization and child maltreatment. Evidence for co-occurrence was weak and, when controlling for the other type of maltreatment, only found for neglect. Sibling victimization was related to more mental health problems and delinquency over and above the effect of child abuse and neglect. Moderation by sibling victimization depended on child age and was only found for the relation between both types of child maltreatment by parents and delinquency. For mental health, no interactive associations were found. These results highlight the unique and combined associations between sibling victimization on child development.

BackgroundThere is a paucity of research on correlates of child maltreatment in limited-resource countries with a relatively high tolerance of harsh discipline. This Vietnamese study aimed to investigate associations between different types of child maltreatment and child emotional, cognitive, and physical health functioning as well as moderation effects of gender and ethnicity.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted with 1851 randomly selected students aged 12–17 years. Both self-report and more objective measures (weight, height, study ranking, and a memory test) were used.ResultsAll types of child maltreatment were associated with emotional dysfunctioning. Life time and past year experiences of physical abuse and life time experiences of sexual abuse and neglect were related to poorer perceived physical health. The study did not find associations between any type of child maltreatment and overweight or underweight status. Regarding cognitive functioning, life time experience of sexual abuse and neglect were related to poorer working memory performance. Noticeably, emotional abuse was related to better academic performance, which might be an indication of “tiger parenting” practice in Vietnam, implying academic performance stimulation at the expense of emotional security. No significant moderation effects by gender and ethnicity were found.ConclusionEven in a culture in which harsh discipline is normative, child maltreatment was related to negative aspects of child wellbeing including emotional, cognitive, and physical health functioning. Efficient and low-cost interventions on child maltreatment should be developed and conducted in Vietnam as well as other countries with similar contexts.