The Transaction between Parents’ Perceptions of their Children’s Shyness and their Parenting Styles

Abstract

In recent years, researchers have examined factors that ''determine'' parenting beliefs, styles, and behaviours. One potential determinant of parenting is the child him/herself. Child characteristics, such as temperament, have been cited as evocative in uences on parenting beliefs and behaviours. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the longitudinal relations between children's social wariness/inhibition and parents' beliefs about how to best socialise their children. Questionnaire data on child temperament and parenting practices were collected from the parents (mothers and fathers) of sixty 2-year-olds; identical data were collected 2 years later. Observations of inhibited behaviour were taken at two years. Results indicated that few differences existed between mothers' and fathers' expressed parenting styles at ages 2 and 4 years. Second, parental perceptions Requests for reprints should be sent to

Temperament, Family Environment and Anxiety in Preschool Children

“…The only family environment risk factor assessed that was not associated with BI was paternal anxiety symptoms. These results are also in keeping with previous findings suggesting a relationship between BI and overinvolvement (Rubin et al, 1999), negativity (Hirshfeld-Becker et al, 1997), maternal anxiety (Biederman et al, 1993) and attachment (Shamir-Essakow et al, 2005).…”

“…For example, children classified as high on BI are more likely to have anxious an parent (Biederman et al, 1993;Hirshfeld-Becker et al, 2004;Rosenbaum et al, 1992), more likely to have an insecure-ambivalent attachment style (Shamir-Essakow, Ungerer, & Rapee, 2005), more likely to experience maternal negativity (Hirshfeld-Becker, Biederman, Brody, & Faraone, 1997) and less likely to be encouraged to be independent (Rubin, Nelson, Hastings, & Asendorpf, 1999). It is essential therefore that research examining the developmental psychopathology of child anxiety consider the interplay between temperament and family environment factors.…”

Maternal sensory sensitivity, mother–infant 9-month interaction, infant attachment status: Predictors of mother–toddler interaction at 24 months

“…First, we examined the stability of mother, infant, and dyadic measures during play from 9 to 24 months. Given that maternal behavior (e.g., responsiveness, affect, directiveness) has been reported to be moderately stable in infancy and early childhood (e.g., Ainsworth et al, 1978;Bornstein & Tamis-LeMonda, 1990;Feldman, Greenbaum, Mayes, & Erlich, 1997;Rubin, Nelson, Hastings, & Asendorpf, 1999), it was predicted that maternal behavior and affect would be stable across the two time periods. In contrast, research suggests that for the infant, instability is as likely as stability (e.g., de Weerth & van Geert, 2002;Rutter, 1984) for measures such as the infant's early interactive (social responsivity, interest in toys, positive affect; Masur & Turner, 2001) and play (Tamis-LeMonda & Bornstein, 1991) behaviors.…”

Familial risk factors in social anxiety disorder: calling for a family-oriented approach for targeted prevention and early intervention

“…Also other factors such as offspring temperament likely exert their influence on the transactive parent-offspring-relationship, e.g., shy temperament may elicit overprotective parenting [67,94].…”

“…Notably, parenting practices that promote child social anxiety are particularly likely to occur in anxious parents in the context of child inhibited, anxious or negative behaviour [77,94]. Anxious parents may overestimate their children"s vulnerability, anticipate catastrophic outcomes in potentially threatening situations, and respond by promoting avoidant solutions to challenges [25,116].…”