Sensitive parenting is important for promoting the parent-child relationship and children’s emotional, cognitive, and social development. Parental factors related to sensitive parenting are...Show moreSensitive parenting is important for promoting the parent-child relationship and children’s emotional, cognitive, and social development. Parental factors related to sensitive parenting are depression and parental self-efficacy. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between depression and sensitive parenting, and whether parental self-efficacy mediates this association. Participants were 17 Dutch mothers and 4 Dutch fathers of children aged 3-5 years. Parents played 5-10 minutes with their child during two measurement moments, while the researcher was present through a Microsoft Teams connection. A video of the playing was recorded. In between the two measurement moments, parents completed the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression-questionnaire (CES-D) and the Me as a Parent-questionnaire (MaaP). Afterwards, the video recordings were encoded according to the Ainsworth sensitivity scale. Only the relation between depression and sensitivity was significant, where depression was positively related to sensitivity. There was no indication found for a mediational role of parental self-efficacy in the relation between depression and sensitivity. Explanatory theories, limitations and practical implications were discussed. Future research will have to show which other factors can explain these unexpected findings.Show less
Sibling aggression is a common phenomenon which can lead to negative outcomes on the development of children. Aggression between siblings can possibly be explained by the quality of the sibling...Show moreSibling aggression is a common phenomenon which can lead to negative outcomes on the development of children. Aggression between siblings can possibly be explained by the quality of the sibling relationship and gender. The aim of the current study is to investigate whether anger in response to a sibling, as an indicator of the quality of the sibling relationship, is related to sibling aggression and whether gender plays a moderating role. A sample of 18 sibling pairs (oldest sibling: aged 10 to 18 years, M = 14, SD = 1.9) participated. The aggression between siblings was measured with the sibling version of the Conflict Tactics Scale, CTS2-SP. To measure anger in response to provocative behavior of the sibling a Virtual Reality (VR) task was used. The provocative behavior was believed to be controlled by their sibling but was actually an avatar. The participants were also asked if they believed if their sibling controlled the avatar during the VR task. The scores of the oldest sibling of the pairs were included. The results showed that anger in response to the sibling was not related to sibling aggression and that participants showed equal aggression towards their sibling. Also, no gender differences were found between participants in the link between anger and aggression, so gender did not play a moderating role. It seems that gender differences in siblings play a smaller role than in boys and girls for showing aggression. The results suggest that aggression between siblings might be more normal and accepted than aggression between boys and girls and that siblings may be more used to each other compared to non-family related children. However, further research is needed, to understand the phenomenon of sibling aggression even better in order to prevent it, since the consequences of sibling aggression can be profoundly serious.Show less
Aim: The relationship between siblings is unique for its duration and intensity in one’s life. When this relationship is hostile, it is plausible that siblings experience negative consequences. For...Show moreAim: The relationship between siblings is unique for its duration and intensity in one’s life. When this relationship is hostile, it is plausible that siblings experience negative consequences. For example, siblings may have more externalizing and internalizing behaviour problems like antisocial behaviour or a low self-esteem. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to examine whether the child characteristics birth order, gender composition, and age gap are associated with aggression between siblings in adolescence. Method: Data were collected among 34 sibling pairs. In general, 6 brother-brother pairs, 23 brother-sister/sister-brother pairs, and 5 sister-sister pairs were included. The age of the participants ranged from 10 to 18 years old. The average age of the oldest brother/sister of the sibling pair was 14.65 years old (SD = 1.90) and the average age of the youngest brother/sister of the sibling pair was 11.71 years old (SD = 1.69). Sibling aggression was measured with the Revised Conflict Tactics Scales – sibling version (CTS2-SP). In the current study, merely subscales for physical assault and verbal aggression were used and were combined to compose aggression. Results: The results showed that there was no difference found between older and younger siblings and their mutual aggression. Moreover, no difference was found between gender composition and sibling aggression. Finally, no coherence was found between age gap and aggression nor between gender of both siblings and aggression. Conclusion: In contrast to previous studies, child characteristics were not related to sibling aggression in adolescence. Future research should include a more objective method of measuring sibling aggression in addition to questionnaires. Furthermore, the use of a high-risk sample is recommended for future studies. More research is necessary to get a more complete view of which child characteristics are related to sibling aggression in adolescence.Show less
Maltreated children show sometimes an altered stress response in comparison with children who have not been maltreated. This study investigated a moderated mediation model which firstly examined...Show moreMaltreated children show sometimes an altered stress response in comparison with children who have not been maltreated. This study investigated a moderated mediation model which firstly examined whether attachment security of the child mediated the relation between the parent’s physiological stress reactivity and the child’s physiological stress reactivity. Secondly, it examined the moderating role of the type of child maltreatment, i.e. abuse versus neglect, in the relation between physiological stress reactivity of the parent and the child’s attachment security. Participations included 56 parent- child pairs from residential family clinics in the Netherlands. Participants were visited in the clinic. During the visit the Strange Situation Procedure (SSP) was used to measure the child’s attachment security. Before and after the SSP, saliva samples were taken of both the parent and the child to measure the change in alpha-amylase levels as an indicator for the physiological stress response. The results indicated that the physiological stress reactivity of the parent and the child were not directly, nor indirectly, through the child’s attachment security, related. In addition, there were no differences between neglecting parents and abusing parents in the relation between physiological stress reactivity of the parent and the child’s attachment security. Further research is needed to investigate whether a coherence or a discrepancy is the case between the physiological stress reactivity of the parent and the child in maltreating families. And if so, whether this is related to the appropriateness of the parent’s reactions to the child’s stress signals.Show less
