Modern academic and popular literature contains an abundance of parenting advice. One of the most controversial issues is child discipline. This paper presents a historical overview of the trends...Show moreModern academic and popular literature contains an abundance of parenting advice. One of the most controversial issues is child discipline. This paper presents a historical overview of the trends in experts’ discipline recommendations between the 1940s and 2010. It focuses on three delineated directions which emerged post-World War II: the permissive revolution, attachment research, and the politicization of parenting. The paper sought to establish their development throughout the years, considering the changes in reasoning which underpinned the advice. Six secondary sources were identified through searching scientific and popular platforms (i.e. Scopus, Google Scholar, Google Books and Archive). These were used to identify 46 suitable primary childrearing publications which were selected based on publication date, format, addressee, and purpose. The results revealed that each of the examined trends underwent notable evolution. Permissiveness was initially acclaimed as a respite from the behaviourist idealisation of obedience but quickly began being seen as unsustainable and potentially provoking maladjustment. Nevertheless, it was not fully rejected and presently informs the more balanced discipline approaches such as positive parenting. Attachment-based advice evolved from concerns engendered by wartime evacuation to a fascination with primal bonding and tribal cultures, and towards the modern forms of attachment parenting. The post-war popularity of democratic methods of parenting faded with the impending threat of the Cold War as overly liberal rearing was seen as politically dangerous. By the end of the 20th century, references to such aspects of parenting were no longer present in most manuals. The findings of the current study findings have implications for both academic and popular understanding of many of the discipline practices researched and recommended today.Show less
Background. Parenting plays an important role in the development of adolescent’s emotion regulation (ER). Parental psychological control (PC) is negatively and parental autonomy support (AS) is...Show moreBackground. Parenting plays an important role in the development of adolescent’s emotion regulation (ER). Parental psychological control (PC) is negatively and parental autonomy support (AS) is positively linked to adolescent ER. Impaired ER has been linked to internalizing- and externalizing problems. Parenting is usually examined trough observation or trough self-report methods, but these methods are not interchangeable. Research question. Is adolescent-perceived or observed parenting more important for ER in adolescents, while controlling for depression? Method. In this cross-sectional and multi-method study, 35 depressed and 80 control adolescents (11-17 years) reported on perceived parental PC and AS using the Parental Bonding Inventory and their own behavioral ER using the Children's Emotion Management Scale. Parental PC and AS was observed and scored on the Problem-solving Interaction task. A multiple regression analysis was used. Results. Depressed adolescents showed significantly lower adaptive ER. There were no significant results for adolescent-perceived and observed PC and AS in relation to ER. For the interaction effect of group status with autonomy support, parental support, and ER, no significant results were found. A trend effect was found for the moderating effect between depression and adolescent-perceived PC. Conclusions. Depressed adolescents showed significantly lower adaptive ER, demonstrating the need for ER focused interventions. For teens in middle adolescence, PC and AS parenting did not have a significant effect on their ER. Lastly, when depressed adolescents experienced their parents as more psychologically controlling, they had more difficulty with their ER, highlighting the potential benefit of cognitive behavioral therapy.Show less
Child abuse is a big problem in the Netherlands. A big group of children is structurally exposed to (severe) child abuse. Several risk factors can contribute to the development of child abuse...Show moreChild abuse is a big problem in the Netherlands. A big group of children is structurally exposed to (severe) child abuse. Several risk factors can contribute to the development of child abuse within families. This study aims to investigate whether several aspects of parenting are able to predict the severity of child abuse within families. The sample consisted of 627 Dutch parents that have recently experienced child abuse within their family. The parents filled in self-report questionnaires about themselves, their children and their experiences with child abuse under the supervision of student-researchers. Topics covered in the questionnaire were, among others, the experience of child abuse within the family, the way situations were handled, the level of experienced parenting stress, the level of warmth and involvement shown to the child(ren) and the professional help that the family received. Results showed that the level of parenting stress that parents experience is a positive significant predictor of the severity of child abuse within families. The level of warmth and involvement that parents show towards their children appeared to be a negative significant predictor of the severity of child abuse. However, the level of parental warmth and involvement did not seem to play a significant role in the relationship between parenting stress and severity of child abuse. Gender of the parent was a nonsignificant predictor of the severity of child abuse and did not seem to play a significant role in the relationship between parenting stress and severity of child abuse. The results of the study show that parenting stress can be an important risk factor for severe child abuse, while parental warmth and involvement may be an important protective factor. It is important to take these aspects into account when offering professional help and in future research.Show less
The way children are raised, and particularly a negative parenting environment, is suggested to be a key factor in the development of alcohol abuse in adolescence. With alcohol abuse being a danger...Show moreThe way children are raised, and particularly a negative parenting environment, is suggested to be a key factor in the development of alcohol abuse in adolescence. With alcohol abuse being a danger to adolescents’ health, social, and professional life, it is of the highest importance to find ways to prevent adolescent alcohol abuse before it’s onset. The current study focusses on adolescents with a past of negative family environments. The study measures parenting environment and alcohol use with a combination of the Measure of Parenting Style (MOPS) questionnaire, the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (APQ) and the Drugs, Alcohol and Self-Injury Inventory (DASI), and researches with regression if having experienced more overall negative parenting is a predictor for more alcohol use in adolescence. Secondly, gender was taken into account as a dummy variable, which made it possible to research possible differences in relationships between parenting and alcohol use in female and male adolescents. For both research questions, no significant results were found. In the current study, experienced negative family environments had no influence on the drinking habits of adolescents with a past of child abuse or other youth trauma. While this seems to contradict earlier research, it may also provide us with the new idea that not overall parenting but only specific guidelines concerning alcohol use in parenting help regulate the alcohol use of children later in life.Show less
Child abuse is a big problem in the Netherlands. A big group of children is structurally exposed to (severe) child abuse. Several risk factors can contribute to the development of child abuse...Show moreChild abuse is a big problem in the Netherlands. A big group of children is structurally exposed to (severe) child abuse. Several risk factors can contribute to the development of child abuse within families. This study aims to investigate whether several aspects of parenting are able to predict the severity of child abuse within families. The sample consisted of 627 Dutch parents that have recently experienced child abuse within their family. The parents filled in self-report questionnaires about themselves, their children and their experiences with child abuse under the supervision of student-researchers. Topics covered in the questionnaire were, among others, the experience of child abuse within the family, the way situations were handled, the level of experienced parenting stress, the level of warmth and involvement shown to the child(ren) and the professional help that the family received. Results showed that the level of parenting stress that parents experience is a positive significant predictor of the severity of child abuse within families. The level of warmth and involvement that parents show towards their children appeared to be a negative significant predictor of the severity of child abuse. However, the level of parental warmth and involvement did not seem to play a significant role in the relationship between parenting stress and severity of child abuse. Gender of the parent was a nonsignificant predictor of the severity of child abuse and did not seem to play a significant role in the relationship between parenting stress and severity of child abuse. The results of the study show that parenting stress can be an important risk factor for severe child abuse, while parental warmth and involvement may be an important protective factor. It is important to take these aspects into account when offering professional help and in future research.Show less
It is not fully understood how effortful control is influenced by environmental factors. Effortful control is an important underpinning of self-regulation and plays influences developmental...Show moreIt is not fully understood how effortful control is influenced by environmental factors. Effortful control is an important underpinning of self-regulation and plays influences developmental outcomes such as conscious development and externalizing behavior. We investigated if internalized conduct mediated the relation between parental sensitivity and effortful control in children aged 5-8. To do so, questionnaires were used to measure internalized conduct and effortful control and a parent-child drawing task was used to measure sensitive parenting. In the questionnaire for effortful, questions about the levels of effortful control of the child were answered by the primary parent. In the questionnaire for internalized conduct, questions about the levels of internalized conduct of the child were answered by the other parent. The drawing task for parental sensitivity was done by the child and the primary parent. Significant effects were found in parental sensitivity as a predictor of both internalized conduct and effortful control. In addition a significant effect was found in internalized conduct as a predictor of effortful control. However, internalized conduct was not found to be a mediator in the relation between parental sensitivity and effortful control in this study.Show less
This study used hierarchical linear modelling to examine parental behaviors such as autonomy support and psychological control and their relation to adolescent attachment. Another goal was to find...Show moreThis study used hierarchical linear modelling to examine parental behaviors such as autonomy support and psychological control and their relation to adolescent attachment. Another goal was to find whether there were differences between mothers and fathers on their display of the investigated behaviors. The present sample consisted of adolescents (N=80) participating with their mothers (N=78) and fathers (N=65) from the Netherlands. Observational ratings of parental autonomy support and psychological control were obtained in mother/father-adolescent dyads performing a problem-solving task. Adolescent attachment was measured by adolescent report, using the parent scale of the revised inventory of parent and peer attachment (IPPA-R) by Raja et al (1992). Analyses indicated that parental autonomy support positively relates to adolescent attachment, while psychological control was not found to relate to adolescent attachment in this sample. Furthermore, results of parental gender differences were inconlusive. This study emphasizes the need to take into account parental behaviors when working with teenagers and the impact parents might have on their children. Further, this study poses important implications for family therapy or social workers, while raising questions for future research.Show less
Empirical evidence shows that maternal sensitivity and child attachment are universal phenomena and cross-cultural differences in its quality have been examined extensively. However, less is known...Show moreEmpirical evidence shows that maternal sensitivity and child attachment are universal phenomena and cross-cultural differences in its quality have been examined extensively. However, less is known about cultural differences or similarities in maternal beliefs about sensitive parenting. The current study tested the hypothesis that mothers from Zambia, Moroccan immigrant mothers in the Netherlands and Dutch mothers generally have similar beliefs about sensitive parenting. The total sample consisted of 75 mothers with at least one child between 6 months and 6 years old. Maternal views about an ideal mother assessed with the Maternal Behavior Q-Sort (Pederson, Moran, & Bento, 1999) showed high agreement between the groups of mothers. In addition, in all groups of mothers the sensitivity beliefs showed strong overlap with the notion of a highly sensitive mother as described by experts in the field of child and family studies. These findings suggest that sensitive parenting is seen as ideal across cultural and ethnic groups, which implies that it might be possible to use the same interventions and measurements for maternal sensitivity in different ethnic and cultural contexts.Show less
The neuropeptide oxytocin has been implicated in prosocial behavior and social cognition. However, little is known on the influence of oxytocin on the perception of infant positive and negative...Show moreThe neuropeptide oxytocin has been implicated in prosocial behavior and social cognition. However, little is known on the influence of oxytocin on the perception of infant positive and negative characteristics. In a double-blind placebo-controlled study, 40 females (Mage = 20.11) were asked to rate characteristics of infants with high, medium and low infantile physical features before and after receiving nasal spray containing either 16 IU of oxytocin or placebo. We found an increase of adults` perception of infant positive characteristics over time. In both conditions females perceived infants with less infantile physical features as displaying significantly more positive characteristics at posttreatment compared to pretreatment. We also found that participants perceived positive characteristics of infants in the high infantile physical features category as even more positive at posttreatment compared to pretreatment, but depending on treatment. Participants who received placebo perceived infants with more infantile physical features as more positive at posttreatment than at pretreatment, but oxytocin prevented increase on positive perception. Females who received oxytocin perceived infants with high infantile physical features almost equally positive both at pretreatment and at posttreatment. We conclude that when young adults are already highly prosocial to infants with infantile physical features, oxytocin may prevent an even more positive perception of infants. Our findings indicate that the effects of oxytocin are nuanced, and its effects contingent on personal and contextual factors.Show less
