Parental Inhibitory Control Predicts Observed Parenting Quality: The Role of Household Chaos

• In Event: Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Topic - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Abstract

High-quality parenting during early childhood supports positive child social-emotional adjustment in the elementary years and beyond (Meuwissen & Carlson, 2018). Inhibitory control is an aspect of executive functioning (EF) that reflects the extent to which an individual can suppress a dominant response to perform a sub-dominant response (Macdonald et al., 2014). Parents must exhibit inhibitory control to appropriately manage their reactions to children’s behaviors (Calkins, 2011). Greater maternal EF is associated with caregiving quality (Berrett & Fleming, 2011). However, few studies have considered EF as a predictor of fathers’ parenting quality. Further, aspects of the daily home environment may strengthen or undermine parents’ ability to draw on EF and exhibit high-quality parenting. Household chaos, including clutter, confusion, and ambient noise, has been linked to EF difficulties (Brieant et al., 2017) and lower parenting quality (Coldwell et al., 2006). Thus, household chaos may impair parents’ ability to successfully activate inhibitory control and engage in high-quality parenting.

This study examined associations between mothers’ and fathers’ inhibitory control and their observed parenting quality when children were 7.5-years-old. Additional analyses examined whether associations were moderated by parents’ perceptions of household chaos. We expected greater parental inhibitory control to be associated with greater parenting quality, and that this association would be strengthened in contexts of low household chaos.

Data were drawn from a sample of 156 different-sex parents of 7.5-year-old children who participated in a larger study of family development. To assess parents’ inhibitory control, a computerized flanker task from the NIH Toolbox (Zelazo et al., 2013) was administered. Observed parenting quality was measured in separate 10-minute father-child and mother-child interactions (Burchinal et al., 2008). Interactions were coded for sensitivity, positive regard, and detachment using the Parent-Child Coding System (Cox & Crnic, 2002). The absolute value of intercorrelations among aspects of parenting quality was high, ranging from .58 to .87, supporting the construction of a composite parenting quality variable separately for mothers and fathers. Parents individually reported the level of household chaos on the short version of the Confusion, Hubbub, and Order Scale (Matheny et al., 1995).

Inhibitory control (r = .23, p < .05) was significantly associated with fathers’ parenting quality, but not mothers’ parenting quality (r = .12, p > .05). Regression analyses conducted separately for mothers and fathers revealed a statistically significant interaction between inhibitory control and perceptions of household chaos as a predictor of fathers’ parenting quality (β = -.14, p < .05) (Figure 1) and mothers’ parenting quality (β = -.25, p < .01) (Figure 2).

Inhibitory control was associated with fathers’ parenting quality, but not mothers’ parenting quality. For both parents, household chaos interacted with inhibitory control. Under contexts of low household chaos and high inhibitory control, both parents exhibited elevated parenting quality. In contexts of average or high household chaos, associations between inhibitory control and parenting quality were not significant. These findings highlight the importance of considering household chaos and inhibitory control together as factors associated with parenting quality for fathers as well as for mothers.

Authors

• Lauren Altenburger, Pennsylvania State University
  Presenting Author

• Bharathi Jayanthi Zvara, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Non-Presenting Author

• Reed Wilson Donithen, Ohio State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sarah Jane Schoppe-Sullivan, Ohio State University
  Non-Presenting Author