Unrealistic expectations and problem-solving ability in maltreating and comparison mothers.

Abstract

It has been suggested that maltreating parents display two forms of cognitive deficits that relate to their child's maltreatment. These are unrealistic expectations of their children's behavior and poor problem-solving ability in childrearing situations. This study documents the existence of these two deficits in a sample of maltreating versus comparison mothers. Using two measures of unrealistic expectations and a problem-solving inventory, we explored differences between two types of maltreating mothers (abuse vs. neglect). Results indicated that both groups of maltreating mothers showed significantly greater unrealistic; expectations and poorer problemsolving skills than did the comparison mothers. No differences were found between abusing and neglectful mothers. Implications for treatment, as well as difficulties in operationalizing the concept of "unrealistic expectations," are discussed.

Low‐income adolescent mothers' knowledge about domains of child development

“…At the least, such unrealistic expectations may lead to diminished efficacy in mothers and/or disappointment in children's abilities when children fail to live up to inaccurate expectations. In extreme cases, underestimations may contribute to mothers' impatience and misunderstanding of their children's otherwise appropriate behaviors, potentially, feeding into a cycle of harsh, punitive, and/or prohibitive parenting (Azar et al, 1984;Azar & Siegel, 1990). Conversely, mothers who overestimate the timing of developmental milestones may expect too little from their children and fail to challenge their children's thinking and behaviors in age-appropriate ways (Fry, 1985;Vukelich & Kliman, 1985).…”

“…Adolescent mothers have been characterized as being less responsive (Garcia Coll, Hoffman, Van Houten, & Oh, 1987), less verbal (Culp, Appelbaum, Osofsky, & Levy, 1988;Field et al, 1980;Garcia Coll et al, 1987), less sensitive to their infants' interactions (Barratt & Roach, 1995), and more punitive toward their children (Brooks-Gunn & Furstenberg, 1986;Field et al, 1980), when compared to older mothers. Children of adolescent mothers have also been shown to suffer from higher rates of child abuse than those of adult mothers (Azar et al, 1984;Goerge & Lee, 1997). Although factors such as parenting stress, lack of social support, and psychological and economic distress likely contribute to these parenting differences (Garcia Coll et al, 1987;Ketterlinus, Lamb, & Nitz, 1991), the inaccurate knowledge adolescent mothers have about children's development may also play a role.…”

“…Mothers who are knowledgeable about child development might be more likely to create an environment that is appropriate to their children's emerging abilities (Benasich & Brooks-Gunn, 1996;Miller, 1988;Hunt & Paraskevopoulos, 1980;Sigel, 1986Sigel, , 1992. Empirically, adult mothers who are knowledgeable respond sensitively to their children's initiatives (Damast, Tamis-LeMonda, & Bornstein, 1996), whereas adult and adolescent mothers with inaccurate expectations are more likely to respond harshly or negligently (Abel & Rouleau, 1995;Azar, Robinson, Hekimian, & Twentyman, 1984;Fry, 1985;Twentyman & Plotkin, 1982). Adult and adolescent mothers who have accurate expectations of their children's abilities have children with greater socioemotional and cognitive competencies (McGillicuddy-DeLisi, 1982;Miller, 1988;Stoiber & Houghton, 1993), and adult mothers of preterm infants who are more knowledgeable about development have babies with higher scores on the Bayley Mental Developmental Index and Physical Developmental Index (Dichtelmiller et al, 1992).…”

Linking childhood sexual abuse and abusive parenting: the mediating role of maternal anger

“…Pairwise deletion of invalid CAPI scores reduced the no-CSA group by 38%, and the CSA group by 24%, for any analyses involving the CAPL Beyond this global indicator of the propensity for child maltreatment, we examined more specific indices of parental expectations, maternal punitiveness, and nurturance. The Parent Opinion Questionnaire (POQ; Azar, Robinson, Hekimian, & Twentyman, 1984) is a well-known measure of unrealistic developmental expectations parents hold concerning children. The 80 items ask parents to agree or disagree with statements regarding child behaviors (e.g., "Most of the time a 4-year-old can choose the right clothing for the weather and then get him or herself off to school").…”

Parent, teacher, and peer ratings of physically abused and nonmaltreated Children's behavior

“…Wolle (1985Wolle ( , 1987 has summarized studies reporting differences between abusive parents' characteristics and family interaction patterns and those of demographically similar controls. It has been found, for example, that maltreating mothers are less skilled than other mothers in social problem solving (Azar, Robinson, Hekimian, & Twentyman, 1984) and thus are presumably poorer models and teachers for their children. Punishment of social approach is more common in abusive families (Burgess & Conger, 1978), as are overall levels of conflict and use of punitive discipline (Trickett & Kuczynski, 1986).…”