The determinants of parental childrearing behavior trajectories: The effects of parental and child time-varying and time-invariant predictors

Abstract

Why do parents parent the way they do?'' remains an important question since it concerns both scientific issues, such as the stability or change of childrearing behavior, and clinical issues, such as the way to promote positive parenting in evidence-based programs. Using an accelerated design, the aim of this study was to examine several parental and child predictors of childrearing behavior trajectories among 373 mothers and 356 fathers of 2-to 9-year-old children. Hypotheses were drawn from Belsky (1984) and subsequent studies of the determinants of parenting. The parental and child predictors were assessed and analyzed as time-varying (parental self-efficacy beliefs and child externalizing behavior) or time-invariant (parental educational level and personality traits) predictors, according to their conceptual properties. The results show a linear decrease in both supportive and controlling childrearing behavior in mothers and an improvement in supportive but a decrease in controlling childrearing behavior in fathers over time. Moreover, the results support the idea that childrearing behavior is determined by multiple factors, in particular the parents' self-efficacy beliefs and the child's behavior. Finally, the results confirm the hypothesis of a greater influence of child predictors than of parental ones in the case of mothers, while the reverse hypothesis of a greater predictive power of parental variables than of child ones is confirmed for fathers. The results are discussed both for research and clinical purposes.

The development of children’s inhibition: Does parenting matter?

“…Second, empirical research on this topic is mostly cross-sectional or based on prospective longitudinal studies. However, children's EF and parents' behavior are dynamic variables, the development of which need to be studied and related together (Hammond et al, 2012;Roskam & Meunier, 2012). Third, the panel of parenting behaviors that has been studied in relation to EF development is somewhat limited, focusing in particular on child-rearing behaviors similar to scaffolding (Bernier et al, 2012).…”

Gene-Environment Interplay in Interpersonal Relationships across the Lifespan

“…While there are notable examples of discontinuity in these patterns the persistence across extended periods of time of both negative and positive features of family interaction patterns has been noted repeatedly for both parent-child and marital subsystems (e.g., Dunn et al 2005;Else-Quest et al 2011;Gerard et al 2006;Mannering et al 2011;Roskam and Meunier 2012;Stover et al 2012). Because of this persistence researchers have, from many different vantage points, attempted to identify distinct styles or dimensions of parenting with only modest consensus.…”

The transactional process between the relationships with caregivers and children's externalizing behavior

“…Conversely, the high degree of stability found for fathers raises questions about the constancy of the feelings they express to their children over time. It could be that fathers, because they have less exposure to their children than mothers, offer more global and consistent descriptions over time (Roskam & Meunier, 2012). For teachers, the low to moderate stability of QR shows that even when EB is pervasive across the three school years, variations occur in the feelings expressed by the three teachers towards children.…”