Fathers’ and mothers’ parenting goals for preschoolers predict distinct features of adjustment at school-age

• In Event: Contextualizing Parental Belief Systems: Informing Traditional Models with Contemporary Questions

Abstract

Parenting goals reflect the specific outcomes that parents seek to accomplish during discrete interactions with their children. Parenting goals vary on immediacy (short-term, specific to the interaction; long-term, enduring beyond the interaction) and focus (parent-centered; child-centered; relationship-centered; Dix, 1992; Hastings & Grusec, 1998). Parenting goals are posited to shape how parents behave during interactions, and through explicit and implicit socialization messages across interactions, to influence children’s psychosocial adjustment. Despite evidence of the links between parenting goals and parenting behaviors, few studies have examined whether parenting goals predict children’s adjustment, either directly or indirectly via parenting behaviors. Further, most studies of parenting goals have only included mothers, despite the evidence that fathers’ parenting makes unique contributions to children’s psychosocial development (Parke & Cookston, 2019). This study aims to address these gaps.

In a prospective study of social development in children, social wariness was assessed through observation with familiar peers at preschool and unfamiliar peers in the lab (r = .37, p < .001) for 101 preschool-aged children (M = 3.50 years, SD = 0.76; 57% female; 76% White/Caucasian). All mothers and 72 fathers read a vignette describing their child behaving shyly with peers, and wrote down their parenting goals and socialization behaviors in response to the vignette. Parents’ reported goals were coded as either short- (ST) or long-term (LT) and as either child- (C), parent- (P), or relationship-centered (R). Goal frequency was also coded (0 = none; 1 = single goal; 2 = 2+ distinct goals). Parents’ reported behaviors were coded as Discussion, Encouraging, Comforting, Permitting, and Directing (0 = not reported; 1 = reported). At elementary school-age (M = 9.07 years, SD = 0.81), all children reported on their social competence (Social Skills Rating Scales, total score) and anxiety symptoms (Revised Child Manifest Anxiety Scale, total score).

Mothers and fathers did not differ in reported goals and behaviors, all |t| < 1.65, ns. In regression models controlling for children’s gender, age and preschool social wariness, fathers’ CST goals (b = .417, p = .001) and Permitting behaviors (b = .362, p = .004) positively predicted child-reported social competence 5.5 years later; mothers’ goals and behaviors did not add significantly to the prediction of social competence. Conversely, children reported fewer anxiety symptoms when mothers had reported more CST (b = -.226, p = .040) and CLT goals (b = -.217, p = .047); fathers’ goals and behaviors did not add significantly to the prediction of anxiety symptoms. There was no evidence that goals predicted adjustment indirectly via parenting behaviors.

Thus, children’s confidence in their social skills are fostered by fathers who respond to young children’s shy behaviors by focusing on their immediate social-emotional needs (CST) and using unobtrusive, accepting behaviors (Permitting), whereas mothers’ concerns for both children’s immediate (CST) and more enduring socialization needs (CLT) protect against children’s likelihood of developing anxiety problems. Reasons for fathers’ and mothers’ distinct contributions to positive psychosocial development, and potential mechanisms for the socializing effects of parenting goals, will be discussed.

Authors

• Paul David Hastings, University of California - Davis
  Presenting Author

• Lindsey Partington, University of California - Davis