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Parents, Parenting And Toddler Adaptation: Evidence From A National Longitudinal Study Of Australian Children, Melanie Zimmer-Gembeck, Rae Thomas

Rae Thomas

Because infants and toddlers are particularly susceptible to parents’ socialization efforts, the purpose of this 2-year longitudinal study (N= 4271 infants) was to forecast toddlers’ competence and problems (adaptational outcomes, ageM= 30 months) from parenting experiences when they were infants (age M= 9 months). Using structural equation modeling and data from a nationally representative sample, parenting during infancy was important to toddlers’ adaptational outcomes, with parenting warmth most strongly connected to toddler competence and parenting hostility most strongly connected to toddler problems. Additionally, toddlers’ outcomes were associated with their parents’ mental health symptoms, life difficulty, coping and self-efficacy when measured …