Bidirectional Associations Between Positive and Negative Child Emotionality and Positive Parenting in Early Childhood

• In Event: The Kids will be alright: The roles of parents and children in promoting positive development

Abstract

Previous research has shown that parenting behaviors and children’s temperament influence each another over time, in a reciprocal fashion. This suggests that not only do parenting behaviors affect child temperament, but child temperament also affects parenting behaviors. Most research in this area, however, has focused on negative parenting. Few studies have examined reciprocal associations between child temperament and positive parenting (i.e., warmth, acceptance, and responsiveness). Given the long-lasting benefits of positive parenting on children’s wellbeing, it is valuable to understand the longitudinal relationships between child temperament and positive parenting. The current study aimed to determine whether there are bidirectional links between positive parenting, and child temperament characteristics (anger proneness, smiling/laughter), from ages 3 through 5 years.
Methods: The sample consisted of 310 same sex twin pairs and their primary caregivers. The majority of the parents in the sample were female (94.5%), White (94%), married (97%), and college graduates (87%). Children’s temperament (smiling/laughter; anger proneness) and positive parenting were assessed using parent-report measures when the children were 3, 4, and 5 years old. Longitudinal effects of 1) positive parenting to smiling/laughter, and 2) positive parenting to anger proneness were each modeled using Autoregressive Latent Trajectory with Structured Residuals (ALT-SR) models. This model estimates group-level changes in temperament and parenting over time, as well as associations between temperament and parenting growth parameters (between person effects). In addition, it estimates within-person cross-lagged associations between temperament and parenting across different ages. Significant within-person effects would provide evidence of causal relationships between temperament and parenting over time. Separate analyses were conducted for smiling/laughter and anger.
Results: Results are depicted in Figures 1 and 2. Anger proneness decreased from 3 to 5 years (β =-.13; 95% CI [-.16, -.09]), smiling/laughter increased (β =.08; 95% CI [.06, .11]), and levels of positive parenting remained stable. At the between-person level, positive parenting was associated with smiling/laughter (β = .13, CI [.09,.17) and anger (β = -.14, CI [-.06, -.20]). Within-person results indicated that smiling/laughter at ages 3 and 4 predicted more positive parenting at ages 4 and 5, respectively (β =0.13; 95% CI, 0.04 to 0.23). Anger proneness at ages 3 and 4 predicted less positive parenting at ages 4 and 5, respectively (β = -0.11; 95% CI [-0.18, -0.02]). However, positive parenting did not predict changes in smiling/or anger/frustration. Additionally, at each age, higher levels of child smiling/laughter were associated with higher levels of positive parenting and higher levels of child anger/frustration were associated with lower levels of positive parenting.
Discussion: Results suggest that child temperament influences later positive parenting, but positive parenting does not predict later child emotionality. This pattern of findings support evocative child-effects models of development. Due to the importance of positive parenting for child development, these findings have valuable implications for parent-child interventions during the preschool years, when a child’s sense of security and well-being are established.

Authors

• Melissa Julian, George Washington University
  Presenting Author

• Seon K. Lee, George Washington University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Chang Liu, George Washington University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jody M. Ganiban, George Washington University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kimberly J Saudino, Boston University
  Non-Presenting Author