Poster #94 - Rejecting Fathering and Child Self-Regulation in 10 Year Olds

• In Event: Poster Session 17

Abstract

Self-regulation includes the capacity to attend to relevant information and make decisions while suppressing impulsive responses (Duell et al., 2016; Steinberg et al., 2019). Stroop and Delay Discounting tasks are widely used measures of cognitive aspects of response inhibition and impulsive decision making. Current theory and initial empirical evidence implicate parenting as a proximal environmental influence on children's self-regulation development (Hyde et al., 2020). According to Parental Acceptance-Rejection Theory, children’s parental-rejection theory, perceptions of lack of affection, and presence of hostility, neglect, and rejection from parents impede obstruct the children's cognitive and social-emotional development and functioning psychological adjustment and lead to child aggressive, indifferent, and impulsive behavior (Rohner et al., 2005). Most relevant prior research has focused on maternal parenting (Bernier et al., 2010; King et al., 2013; Zeytinoglu et al., 2017), but fathers play a key role as well. According to Lamb (2010) and Cabrera (2014), fathers’ parenting also contributes to children's development, but children generally spend less time engaged in positive and enjoyable activities with their fathers than with mothers. It remains unknown whether the amount of positive time spent with the father alters the processes linking accepting versus rejecting parenting behavior and the child’s self-regulation development and functioning.
The current study tested whether levels of high-rejection/low-acceptance in fathering behavior in late childhood (10 years) statistically predicted child self-regulation. We hypothesized that poorer self-regulation would be linked with more rejecting, less accepting fathering. However, we also hypothesized that spending more time together in positive activities would buffer this hypothesized effect.
Methodology: The current study includes 311 fathers and their 10yr old child (48.6% female) living in a small city in the United States (n = 103 Black, 97 Latinx, 111 White) and representing a wide range of socioeconomic statuses. Self-regulation was measured using the Stroop Color-Word Task and a Delay Discounting task (Steinberg et al., 2009). Children and fathers completed the Parental Acceptance-Rejection/Control Questionnaire-Short Forms (PARQ/Control-SF; Rohner, 2005), and father-child positive time together was assessed from two correlated items on the Positive Parenting Questionnaire (Capaldi, 1989).
Results: Results from regression analysis showed that the statistical interaction between positive time together and child perceptions (but not father perceptions) of father rejection predicted child Delay Discounting (β = -.168, p = .044) but not Stroop performance. Preliminary post-hoc probing of the interaction showed that higher rejecting parenting was marginally significantly related to more impulsive decision-making for children that spent low amounts of positive time with their father (r = .203, p = .076). This effect was near zero and not significant, at higher levels of positive time together (r = -.077, p = .510). Future analyses will more rigorously probe the interaction effect using analysis of simple slopes and interaction effect graphing techniques.
Implications and Conclusion: The hypothesized buffering effect of positive time together with the father received mixed support in the current study, with no evidence for the buffering effect for father-reported parenting or for Stroop performance. However, the results for child-reported fathering and Delay Discounting were consistent with the hypothesized effect.

Authors

• Oksana Zapletina, University of Massachusetts Amherst

• Ann T. Skinner, Duke Univeristy

• Jennifer E. Lansford, Duke University

• Kirby Deater-Deckard, University of Massachusetts Amherst
  Presenting Author