Associations Between Parental Apology, Parenting, and Child Psychosocial Outcomes

• In Event: Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Topic - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Abstract

Although there is a robust literature supporting the importance of parenting behaviors in shaping child psychosocial outcomes (Leijten et al., 2019), there is currently very limited understanding of parenting behaviors that occur when the parent makes a mistake. While parenting mistakes are an inevitable aspect of the parent-child relationship, the extent to which parents apologize and the effectiveness of their apologies is a largely unexplored area of the parenting literature. Further, the associations among parental apology, other parenting behaviors, and whether parental apology predicts child psychosocial outcomes over and above other parenting behaviors is unknown. Therefore, the current study aimed to examine the interrelationships between parental apology, parenting behaviors, and child psychosocial outcomes, and determine the extent to which parental apology predicts child outcomes when controlling for general parenting behaviors.

Participants were 186 mothers who were the primary caregiver of a school-aged child (ages 7-12). Parenting behaviors were assessed using the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire. Maternal willingness to apologize to their children was measured using the Proclivity to Apologize Parent Measure. Child internalizing, externalizing, and prosocial behaviors were measured using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Apology effectiveness was measured using mothers’ written responses to a vignette, in which participants were asked to “coach” a fictional mother who erroneously yelled at her child by writing an apology example. Participants’ responses to the apology vignette were coded using five primary components identified in prior apology literature (Blatz et al., 2009; Lazare, 2004): (1) remorse, (2) acknowledgement of unjust events, (3) acknowledgement of suffering, (4) forbearance, and (5) offer of repair. Each category was coded dichotomously, and the presence of these primary apology components were summed to create a score reflecting apology effectiveness used in data analyses.

Correlation analyses showed that maternal proclivity to apologize was positively associated with parenting involvement (r=.31, p<.001), positive parenting (r=.32, p<.001), and child prosocial behaviors (r=.30, p<.001) and negatively associated with parent inconsistent discipline (r=-.36, p<.001), and child internalizing behaviors (r=-.21, p=.004). Apology effectiveness was inversely related to inconsistent discipline (r=-.16, p=.038), positive parenting (r=-.21, p=.006), and child externalizing behaviors (r=-.15, p=.045). Multiple regression models were run to determine whether maternal apology characteristics would predict child behaviors above and beyond parenting behaviors, and results indicated that apology effectiveness (t=-2.38, p=.02) and proclivity to apologize (t=2.35, p=.02) predicted child externalizing behaviors above and beyond the four parenting behaviors included in the model.

These findings suggest that characteristics of maternal apology are distinctly related to both parenting behaviors and child characteristics. Specifically, there were differential associations between maternal willingness to apologize to their child and apology effectiveness to general parenting behaviors and child outcomes, and evidence that maternal apology characteristics may predict child outcomes above and beyond general parenting behaviors. Overall, these results have important implications for parenting interventions. When teaching skills for parent-child conflict situations, extant interventions focus on deploying parenting skills for the purpose of changing children’s behavior. The incorporation of effective apologizing skills may complement the core components of extant interventions, and additionally help improve child outcomes.

Authors

• Angela H. Lee, University of Oregon
  Presenting Author

• Bryan Mantell, University of Oregon
  Non-Presenting Author

• Alexis A. Adams-Clark
  Non-Presenting Author

• Arianna Zarosinski, University of Oregon
  Non-Presenting Author

• Maureen Zalewski, University of Oregon
  Non-Presenting Author