Challenging Behavior of Toddlers: Parental Self-Efficacy and Attributions in Shaping Maternal Disciplinary Responses

• In Event: Parental Attributions: Why do they matter?

Abstract

Introduction: Toddlers naturally strive for independence and control, and have a declining tendency to comply with parental requests. This results in discipline encounters which form an important context for children to learn social rules and how to adapt their behavior. However, whether such encounters contribute positively to child development depends -at least partially- on parental disciplinary responses. Positive discipline (e.g. induction) promotes child development, while harsh discipline (e.g. scolding, slapping) evokes children’s externalizing behaviors. What determines how parents react to toddlers’ challenging behaviors? Applying Social Information Processing theory, the study examines how parental self-efficacy (PSE) and attributions shape disciplinary responses in moment-to-moment parenting situations.
Method: Presented with a series of 4 consecutive, challenging parenting situations, Dutch mothers of toddlers (N=361; 24-48 months) reported how efficacious they would feel to handle the situation (PSE), who they would hold responsible (child-responsible /parent-causal attributions), and how they would respond (disciplinary behavior).
Results: Results showed that PSE, child-responsible attributions and positive parenting behaviors decreased over all situations, while parent-causal attributions increased. Within-person effects were studied using Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel models. We found that when in a specific situation a mother felt less efficacious (as compared to her own overall mean-level), she was more likely to make both attributions and to respond with a disciplinary action (positive and negative). Mothers were more likely to respond with a disciplinary action when they reported higher levels of child-responsible attributions (as compared to her own overall mean-level). Higher levels of parent-causal attributions were only related to higher levels of8 positive disciplinary responses.
Conclusions: This finding of a cascade in which within-person changes are related to changes in attributions, which are related to changes in disciplinary responses shows that parental cognitions are not static but can fluctuate across situations, are interrelated, and are important in shaping parental discipline.

Authors

• Marjolein Verhoeven, Universiteit Utrecht
  Presenting Author

• Jorg Huijding, Utrecht University
  Non-Presenting Author