Parent Heritability Beliefs Interact With Endorsed, not Observed, Authoritarian Parenting Behaviors to Predict Child Dishonesty

• In Event: Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Topic - Moral Development

Abstract

Individual traits are more likely to be viewed innate and inflexible if they are depicted as heritable (Dar-Nimrod & Heine, 2011). As such, parents’ heritability beliefs may affect the ways they interact with their children in an effort to alter child behavior. Previous research indicates that parents’ heritability beliefs about their child’s characteristics influence the parenting strategies that they believe will be most efficacious for eliciting a desired behavior. Specifically, beliefs that children’s virtuous or problem characteristics are heritable predict the endorsement of authoritarian parenting practices and exposure to genetic accounts of child virtue lead to greater endorsement of authoritarian parenting practices through changes in parent heritability beliefs (Rivera, et al., 2020). These findings offer insight into the importance of parent beliefs about heritability and understanding of why parents might select certain parenting strategies. Yet, it remains unclear how, or whether, such beliefs are ultimately associated with child behaviors. In the current study, we tested whether parents’ beliefs about the heritability of children’s characteristics and parents’ endorsement of different parenting practices predicted children’s virtuous behaviors. We hypothesized that when both authoritarian parenting behaviors and heritability beliefs were high, children would be more dishonest (i.e., less virtuous).

One hundred and thirty-eight (N = 138) parents (83.6% mothers; Mage = 42.98, SD = 6.10) and their children (50.7% female; Mage = 13.40, SD = 1.15) completed three conversation tasks designed to elicit parent-child conflict (Hetherington & Clingempeel, 1992; Yap, et al., 2011); parents’ authoritarian and authoritative behaviors were coded. Parents also endorsed their own authoritarian and authoritative parenting practices and heritability beliefs. Children completed a computer task that included a subset of unsolvable problems. They had the opportunity to lie about their performance in order to receive a monetary reward for each “solved” problem.

Heritability beliefs were not correlated with observed (authoritarian, r = .04, p = .65; authoritative, r = -.02, p = .81) or endorsed (authoritarian, r = -.09, p = .32; authoritative, r = .01, p = .93) parenting behaviors.

Parent heritability beliefs did not interact with observed authoritarian (Β = .002, SE(B) = .03, p = .95) or authoritative (Β = .02, SE(B) = .03, p = .52) parenting behaviors to predict child dishonesty. However, heritability beliefs did interact with endorsed authoritarian parenting behaviors to predict child dishonesty (Β = .06, SE(B) = .02, p = .01). Probing this interaction at low (-1 SD) and high (+1 SD) levels of authoritarian parenting behaviors revealed that at low levels of authoritarian parenting (Β = -.01, SE(B) = .04, p = .73), heritability beliefs did not predict child dishonesty. However, when parents endorsed more authoritarian behaviors (Β = .11, SE(B) = .03, p < .001), greater heritability beliefs predicted greater child dishonesty. Heritability beliefs and endorsed authoritative behaviors did not interact to predict child dishonesty (Β = -.00, SE(B) = .02, p = .99). Consistent with hypotheses, results suggest that when parents believe that child characteristics are highly heritable and endorse authoritarian parenting practices, children display less virtuous behavior.

Authors

• Tristin Nyman, Texas A&M University - College Station
  Presenting Author

• Rebecca J Brooker, Texas A&M University - College Station
  Non-Presenting Author

• Grace Rivera, The University of Mississippi
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jenae M Neiderhiser, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Matthew Stichter, Washington State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Matthew Vess, Texas A&M University
  Non-Presenting Author