Poster #135 - Continuities and Discontinuities in the Intergenerational Transmission of Parenting: The Role of Dispositional Optimism

• In Event: 1-061 - Poster Session 02
  In Poster Session: PS 02 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

An increasing number of prospective, longitudinal investigations provide compelling support for the long-standing hypothesis that parenting is transmitted across generations (Belsky, Conger, & Capaldi, 2009). Studies have primarily focused on continuities in negative parenting behaviors (e.g., harsh parenting) but also have documented continuities in positive parenting behaviors (Belsky et al., 2005; Chen & Kaplan, 2001). Findings suggest that concordance in parenting behaviors across generations is modest, indicating the potential for moderating factors to disrupt continuities in negative parenting or promote continuities in positive parenting (Conger, Belsky, & Capaldi, 2009). The few existing studies of moderating factors have examined the protective effects of positive romantic partner relationship quality (Conger et al., 2013; Belsky et al 2005) or positive partner parenting style (Conger, Schofield & Neppl, 2012). The current investigation examined whether an internal resilience factor, dispositional optimism, determines continuities in parenting across two generations (G1 and G2). The sample consisted of 114 women (G2) participating in a prospective, longitudinal study of pregnancy and infant development. Women reported on their own parents’ (G1) attitudes and behaviors during the first 16 years of their lives with the Parental Bonding Inventory (PBI; Parker, Tupling, & Brown, 1979). The Care scale of the PBI assesses parental warmth, understanding, and acceptance, while the Overprotection scale measures controlling and intrusive behaviors. Women also completed the revised version of the Life Orientation Test (Scheier, Carver, & Bridges, 1994), a measure of dispositional optimism. At 12 months postpartum, women were videotaped interacting with their infants in a semi-structured play episode. Maternal behavior was coded with a laboratory protocol developed for the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 1999). A composite rating of maternal sensitive behavior was created by summing ratings of sensitivity to non-distress, positive regard, and reverse-coded intrusiveness. Higher levels of reported G1 maternal (r = -.21, p = .03) and paternal (r = -.16, p = .09) overprotection and their standardized average (r = -.23, p = .02) were associated with less sensitive observer-rated G2 maternal behavior. Reports of G1 maternal and paternal care were not associated with G2 sensitive maternal behavior. The association between G1 parental overprotection and G2 maternal sensitivity was dependent on G2 optimism (Figure 1). Specifically, the association was attenuated among G2 women higher (above the mean) in optimism (r = -.10, p ¬= .43) as compared to women lower (below the mean) in optimism (r = -.40, p = .004). These effects persisted after adjusting for relevant sociodemographic factors (G2 maternal age, parity, race-ethnicity, socioeconomic status, cohabitation with child’s father). Results are consistent with previous investigations documenting continuities in negative parenting and highlight the potential for internal resilience factors such as optimism to disrupt these continuities. These findings have implications for future research and intervention aimed at breaking intergenerational cycles of negative parenting.

Authors

• Mariann Howland, Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota
  Presenting Author

• Elysia Poggi Davis, University of Denver, University of California-Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Laura Glynn, Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences; Psychology
  Non-Presenting Author