Challenging Parenting Behaviors in Diverse Fathers and Mothers: Determinants and Associations with Infants' Social Skills

• In Event: Fathers’ and Mothers’ Play: Foundations for Children’s Social-Emotional Development Across Developmental Periods

Abstract

Parenting theories underscore the importance of parental sensitivity for social development, yet they neglect other parenting behaviors that may contribute to children’s social growth (Cabrera et al., 2018; van IJzendoorn, 2019). One such type of parenting behaviors are challenging parenting behaviors (CPB) during play that encourage children to go beyond their comfort zone to explore and push boundaries (Majdandzic et al., 2016). The CPB construct distinguishes itself from similar parenting constructs by its inclusion of both physical and verbal domains of parents’ behaviors toward their child. Research has shown that CPB are related to lower anxiety in infants (Möller et al., 2015), however, this relation has only been examined in white, middle-class families. Given the lack of research supporting the application of CPB to diverse families, we investigated (1) whether low-income, ethnically diverse parents engage in CPB during play interactions with their infants; (2) how CPB relates to indicators of parenting quality (e.g., responsiveness, warmth) and their determinants (e.g., household income, education); and (3) how CPB relates to dyadic mutuality and to infants’ social-emotional development. The sample is composed of 186 first-time mothers and fathers (66% Latinx, 14% African American) who participated in the ongoing Baby Books 2 project (Cabrera & Reich, 2017). At 9 months, infants participated in a five-minute no-toy free-play interaction with each parent. Independent teams of coders rated these interactions for: (a) physical and verbal CPB (Majdandzic et al., 2016), (b) indicators of parenting quality (Cox & Crnic, 2002), and (c) dyadic mutuality (Cox & Crnic, 2003). Parents reported on socio-demographic information, levels of parental engagement, and their depressive symptoms when infants were 9 months old (Kohout et al., 1993), as well as their child’s social-emotional development at 12 months (Briggs-Gowan et al., 2002). Results show that mothers and fathers engaged in physical and verbal CPB during no-toy play interactions, although fathers engaged in more physical CPB than mothers (Table 1). Correlation analyses revealed different associations between CPB and indicators of and determinants of parenting quality based on the domain (physical and verbal) and parents’ genders (Table 1). Multiple regressions supported the distinction between parent and domain in relation to indicators and determinants of parenting quality. Correlations also revealed associations between both domains of CPB and dyadic for fathers and mothers, however, regressions showed that when both CPB domains were entered into one model, only verbal CPB predicted more dyadic mutuality (e.g., father model: physical CPB: ß=0.12, p=0.11; verbal CPB: ß=0.29, p<0.001; F[2,178]=21.4, p<0.001, R2=0.19). Lastly, in interaction models where mothers’ CPB, fathers’ CPB, and their interaction were predictors of infants’ social-emotional development, the only significant association was between the interaction of mothers’ and fathers’ physical CPB and behavior problems. We probed the interaction, which showed that physical CPB only predicted lower behavior problems when both parents used high levels of physical CPB (Figure 1). This study supports the application of CPB to diverse families, while, at a broader level, expanding our knowledge of CPB and highlighting the unique role of play in socializing infants.

Authors

• Audrey-Ann Deneault, University of Calgary (U of C)
  Presenting Author

• Rachel Alina Ghosh, University of Maryland - College Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Natasha J Cabrera, University of Maryland - College Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ann-Sophie Tölle, University of Maryland, College Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jenny Seethaler, Ruhr-Universität Bochum
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mirjana Majdandzic, Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA)
  Non-Presenting Author