Psychology Commons^™

Parenting Preschoolers With Disruptive Behavior Disorders: Does Child Gender Matter?, Antonya M. Gonzalez

Undergraduate Theses—Unrestricted

Parental responses to child behavior can have an important impact on later behavioral outcomes. Children with Disruptive Behavior Disorders often engage in externalizing and disruptive behaviors, which usually elicit negative responses from parents. Boys are more frequently diagnosed with these disorders, resulting in a dearth of literature on parental responses to girls with Disruptive Behavior Disorders. Studies have found that parents react more negatively when girls engage in disruptive behavior, plausibly because it is contrary to societal gender expectations. The current study investigates this dynamic within the population of preschoolers with Disruptive Behavior Disorders. I predicted that parents would show …