Developmental Psychology Commons^™

Mothers’ Childhood Maltreatment And Developmentally Appropriate Attributions Of 12-Month-Old Infants, Katelyn M. Lamberton

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

This study examined associations between developmentally appropriate attributions (DAAs), an understudied construct, with maternal history of childhood maltreatment and maternal reflective functioning (RF) with their 12-month-old infants. The study examined if 1) DAAs at 12 months were concurrently associated with parental RF at 12 months for construct validity, and 2) higher levels of maternal childhood maltreatment were associated with lower DAAs for predictive validity. Participants were 156 mothers (40.0% White, 25.5% Latinx, 14.9% Black, 5.5% Asian, 2.1% Native-American, 12.0% biracial/multiracial) and their 12- to 15-month infants. Childhood maltreatment and RF were assessed by parental self-report at three-months and 12-months postpartum …

Examining Bidirectional Associations Between Mothers’ Beliefs About Emotions And Child Social-Emotional Outcomes, Sydney Sumrall

Theses and Dissertations

Social-emotional (SE) skills encompass the ability to recognize and regulate emotions, manage behavior to act on goals, and maintain social relationships (Abrahams et al., 2019). Parents play a crucial role in child SE skill development. According to theories of emotion socialization (ES), the beliefs parents hold about emotions shape parents’ ES behaviors, including teaching children how to understand and express feelings (Eisenberg et al., 1998; Gottman, 1996). Because emotion socialization practices are influenced by cultural values (Raval & Walker, 2019), the parent beliefs and ES strategies that best support children’s SE skill development may vary across families’ racial backgrounds. Although …

Observed Parenting, Parent-Child Aggression, And Intimate Partner Violence As Predictive Of Family Dysfunction, Paige Munshell

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Family systems theories contextualize violence as occurring across multiple levels of the family, yet much of the existing literature focuses on a single family member’s outcome (i.e., the child) and neglects to include data collected from fathers. This study examined the associations between indicators of functioning at the dyadic-level in the family system—observed parenting, Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) perpetration, and Parent-Child Aggression (PCA) risk—and later overall family dysfunction. Participants were 180 mothers and 144 of their male partners evaluated when their child was 18 months old and re-evaluated at 4 years old. Measures of observed parenting, IPV perpetration, and PCA …

Parenting Among Mothers With High Psychosocial Stress In South-Central Appalachia: Aspirations, Actions, And Intervention, Kelly Daniel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Conceptualizations of adaptive parenting within Appalachia have been historically limited by the scarcity of research with the region as well as stereotyped depictions of Appalachian parents. As such, this project aimed to examine Appalachian parenting through a culturally sensitive lens by centering lived experiences through the ecological systems theory. The sample included mothers (n = 41) who attended Mom Power, an attachment-based, trauma-informed parenting skills intervention in the Appalachian Highlands. Reflective Thematic Analysis was used to analyze qualitative interview data by exploring and conceptualizing current parenting challenges and associated maternal feelings and reactions. Results include the development of a metaphor …

Pilot Implementation Of Mom Power In The Appalachian Highlands: Acceptability And Effectiveness Of A Parenting Group For Mothers With High Psychosocial Need, Megan Wolff

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Children need safe, stable, and nurturing relationships with a caregiver for optimal development. Maternal childhood adversity, traumatic life experiences, and mental health challenges can adversely impact parenting beliefs and behaviors in ways that compromise a caregiver’s ability to create and sustain a healthy caregiving environment for their child(ren). In the professional world of infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH), policies, providers, and programs work together to promote optimal child and family wellbeing to reduce the intergenerational transmission of risk and to empower resilience in families and communities. The present study investigated the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of the pilot …

"Treat Others Based On How Your Parents Treated You": A Longitudinal Study On Parenting Style Experienced In Adolescence And Prosocial Attitudes Later In Life, Chelsea Ward

Honors Projects

The parenting style one grows up with has been found to influence a variety of outcomes later in a person’s life, including prosocial behaviors. However, the attitudes behind these behaviors remained understudied, especially for permissive and uninvolved parenting styles. The present study uses The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), a nationally representative longitudinal dataset conducted in the United States from 1997 to the present year, to clarify the relationship between parenting style experienced in adolescence and prosocial attitudes in early adulthood. Results indicate that being parented with an authoritative parenting style in adolescence leads to higher levels of …

The Relationship Between Adverse Childhood Experiences, Parenting Behavior, And Parenting Self-Efficacy In African American Families With Low-Income, Maleek Holmes

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Early trauma is linked to adverse adult outcomes, including parenting deficits. While prior research has emphasized specific trauma types and severe parenting deficits, less is known about how cumulative trauma shapes normative parenting behaviors. Parenting self-efficacy (PSE) has been proposed as a potential mechanism linking early adversity to later parenting practices, though under-researched. This study examined the relationships between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), PSE, and positive parenting behaviors in a sample of 56 caregivers of preschool-aged children enrolled in Head Start. PSE was significantly associated with greater use of limit-setting, positive behavior support, and proactive parenting strategies, reinforcing its role …

Examining The Impacts Of A Relational Savoring Intervention On Parental Reflective Functioning And Children’S Emotion Regulation Across Time, Megan Blackard

CGU Theses & Dissertations

The ability to regulate emotions is an important competency that enables goal attainment and maintenance of satisfying interpersonal relationships throughout life. Key to the development of healthy emotion regulation is the sensitivity of the caregiver. One internal mechanism underlying parents’ ability to be sensitive is parental reflective functioning, the ability to understand a child as having a complex inner world of thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that serve as the basis for the child’s behaviors. Strong parental reflective functioning allows parents to understand the needs behind children’s behavior and respond sensitively to meet those needs. The sensitive parenting that depends on …

Parental Socialization Of General And Domain-Specific Self-Control In Adolescents, Matty Johnston

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Adolescent self-control appears to be an important competency to develop. It has pervasive links with various outcomes (e.g., educational, financial, and interpersonal) both during adolescence and into adulthood (Allemand et al., 2019, Moffitt et al., 2011). Adolescents often report lower self-control compared to adults, although individual levels of self-control vary widely between adolescents (Allemand et al., 2019, Romer et al., 2010). Despite its importance, very little is known about how self-control develops. Thus, the current study aims to examine the relationship between parents’ self-control and that of their teen children. To further understand how adolescents' self-control may be socialized by …

The Effect Of The Degree Of Authoritative Parenting On Adolescents' Adjustment To College, Elizabeth Smith

Senior Theses

This research aimed to explore how parenting style relates to college students’ adjustment in the first month of college. Authoritative parenting is marked by a standard of maintaining some control, while also promoting children’s autonomy. Previous research has found that authoritative parenting is positively associated with adolescent behavior that is more socially responsible, self-reliant, cheerful, and cooperative. Furthermore, the more support and independence that parents encourage, will in turn breed confidence and academic persistence in adolescent years. I will expand on this research by evaluating whether parenting style also relates to adjustment and mental health outcomes among first year college …

The Mediating Roles Of Maternal Psychological Distress And Parenting On The Association Between Intimate Partner Violence And Adolescent Delinquent Behavior, Sophie K. Zolinski

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Intimate partner violence (IPV) impacts one in four women in their lifetime, with the reported violence most commonly occurring around childbearing age. Unfortunately, children and adolescents are often unintended victims of IPV, and years of evidence suggest a strong link between maternal IPV and a host of negative adolescent outcomes, including a greater likelihood of engaging in delinquent behavior. Given the negative outcomes linked to adolescent delinquency, the field has been interested in identifying factors that contribute to the association between maternal experiences of IPV and adolescent delinquent behavior, such as the influence of maternal psychological distress and parenting. Many …

Ethnic-Racial Socialization Practices Of Dominican Mothers With Their Young Children: Understanding Practices With A Sociohistorical Context Framework, Sabrina Altagracia Mendez-Escobar

Dissertations

Parents who self-identify as members of a community of color engage in practices aimed at teaching their children what it means to be a member of their ethnic-racial group which are called ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) practices. Promoting a positive sense of ethnic-racial identity through ERS contributes to balancing the negative effects of discrimination which can be helpful to children who are part of a marginalized group in the US including Latinx children. However, when the family practices of Latinx families are explored in the literature, various Latinx groups are lumped together. When studying ERS, research should aim to consider Latinx …

Examining The Impact Of Attachment And Parent Socialization Of Emotion In Childhood On Emotion Regulation In Maltreated Adults, Nikki Major

USC Aiken Psychology Theses

Objectives: The aim of the current study was to examine the relationship between child maltreatment and adult emotion regulation by examining parenting processes of emotion socialization and attachment security as possible mechanisms accounting for this relationship. It was hypothesized that maltreated adults would retrospectively report more unsupportive responses from parents/caregivers, greater attachment insecurity, more difficulty with emotion regulation, and using expressive suppression more than cognitive reappraisal. It was also hypothesized that unsupportive responses to emotions and attachment security would both indirectly effect the relationship between child maltreatment and adult emotion dysregulation.

Method: A sample of 226 participants from Amazon Mechanical …

Coparenting Quality In Separated American Parents Of Children Ages 1½ To 5: Anxiety, Social Support, Self-Efficacy, And The Associations With Coparenting And Child Outcomes, Greg Kovacs

Dissertations - ALL

The purpose of this research was to examine the mechanisms determining coparenting processes in parents following divorce or separation and the implications for the emotional and behavioral outcomes for their young children. The complex associations between parental anxiety, parental self-efficacy, social support, coparent relationship quality, and child problem behaviors were examined. Participants were recruited using Amazon Mechanical Turk and completed a survey regarding their coparenting dynamics. The sample consisted of 322 residents of the United States who had a child between 18 months and 5 years of age and who were no longer living with the child's other parent. Results …

Does Breastfeeding Account For The Association Between Maternal Sensitivity And Infant Cognitive Development In A Large, Nationally Representative Cohort?, P. Nina Banerjee, Karen E. Mcfadden, Jacqueline D. Shannon, Leslie L. Davidson

Publications and Research

Background: Previous research has established that exposure to high maternal sensitivity is positively associated with advances in infant cognitive development. However, there are many fixed and modifiable factors that influence this association. This study investigates whether the association between maternal sensitivity and infant cognitive development in the first year of life is accounted for by other factors, such as breastfeeding, maternal depressive symptoms, maternal alcohol use, infant birth weight or demographic covariates.

Methods: Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth (ECLS-B) Cohort, a nationally representative sample of U.S. born children, multi-variable regression analyses was used to examine whether breastfeeding, …

Let Go And Let Grow: An Assessment Of A School And Community-Based Intervention Encouraging Independence In Children, Mary Elsharouny

Selected Full Text Dissertations, 2011-

Overinvolved parenting is on the rise, despite its association with negative outcomes for children (Twenge, 2017; American Psychological Association (APA), 2019; Segrin et al., 2013). Its emerging counterpart, free-range parenting, urges parents to offer their children more independence and less supervision (Skenazy, 2009). However, no quantitative, peer-reviewed research has been conducted on the effects of independent task engagement on children’s independence and resilience. The present study evaluated the effects of The Let Grow Project (Skenazy, 2018), a school-based intervention aimed at increasing resilience and independence in children by assigning homework to engage in tasks independently. Children completed measures of independence, …

Longitudinal Dynamics Between Parenting And Adolescent Deviance: Direct Links And Underlying Mechanisms, Dan Liu

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

The current dissertation, based on three separate and yet closely related studies, tested the longitudinal dynamic relationships of maternal and paternal parenting factors with adolescent deviance, the direct links as well as underlying mechanisms. Study 1, based on longitudinal data collected from 570 early adolescents, part of the Brno Longitudinal Study of Youth (BLSY), used latent growth modeling and tested the development of three parenting measures, including parental solicitation, knowledge, and peer approval, and deviance during early adolescence, as well as the developmental (i.e., growth to growth) links of these three parenting measures with adolescent deviance over time. Results indicated …

Indirect Effects Of Parental Psychological Control On Emerging Adult Psychological Problems Via Emotion Regulation, Alyssa R. Williams, Cliff Mckinney

CAS Publications

No abstract provided.

Caregivers’ Self-Compassion And Bereaved Children’S Adjustment: Testing Caregivers’ Mental Health And Parenting As Mediators, Na Zhang, Irwin Sandler, Jenn‑Yun Tein, Sharlene Wolchik, Erin Donohue

Psychology Faculty Publications

Objectives: Self-compassion, which involves mindfulness, self-kindness, and common humanity, has been found to be related to individuals’ mental health. Few studies have examined caregivers’ self-compassion in relation to parenting behaviors and child adjustment in addition to its relation to their own mental health. In the current study we examined caregivers’ self-compassion as a protective factor related to parentally bereaved children’s internalizing and externalizing problems and further tested whether these relations were mediated by caregivers’ mental health (complicated grief and psychological distress) and parenting.

Methods: The sample consisted of 74 caregivers (female = 78.4%) who participated in a larger study designed …

Parenting And Children's Academic Coping As A Dynamic System: Feedforward, Feedback, And Mediators Of Changes Across The School Year, Kristen Elizabeth Raine

Dissertations and Theses

Using a motivational framework based in self-determination theory, the present study investigated the dynamic system between parenting and children's coping, defined as the ways they handle the everyday difficulties they encounter in school, using a sample of 1,020 students in grades three through six drawn from a larger cohort-sequential study. Three overarching research questions were examined using multiple regression that concerned 1) feedforward effects from parents' initial provision of motivational support (i.e., involvement, structure, and autonomy support) to changes in children's academic coping across the school year, 2) feedback effects from children's initial coping to changes in the same parenting …

Associations Between Adolescent Aggressive Behavior Problems With Distinct Parental Monitoring And Parental Knowledge : Mothering Versus Fathering, Panpan Yang

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Research with a focus on adolescent aggression often measures parental monitoring and parental knowledge interchangeably. However, parental monitoring refers to parent-driven behaviors that are related but distinct from parental knowledge. Mixed measures of parental monitoring and parental knowledge may lead to misunderstanding about how these parenting behaviors are related to adolescent aggression. This study aims to uncover the possible unique associations between adolescent aggression and parental monitoring as well as parental knowledge by 1) distinguishing the measure of parental monitoring from the measure of parental knowledge and 2) simultaneously controlling for these two dimensions of parenting with each other. Five-wave …

Achieving The Sustainable Development Goals: Evidence From The Longitudinal Parenting Across Cultures Project, Jennifer E. Lansford, W. Andrew Rothenberg, Sombat Tapanya, Liliana Maria Uribe Tirado, Saengduean Yotanyamaneewong, Liane Peña Alampay, Suha M. Al-Hassan, Dario Bacchini, Marc H. Bornstein, Lei Chang, Kirby Deater-Deckard, Laura Di Giunta, Kenneth A. Dodge, Sevtap Gurdal, Qin Liu, Qian Long, Patrick S. Malone, Paul Oburu, Concetta Pastorelli, Ann T. Skinner, Emma Sorbring, Laurence Steinberg

Psychology Department Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Longitudinal And Concurrent Contributions Of Verbal And Physical Scaffolding To Toddlers’ Inhibitory Control, Anton Petrenko

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Executive function (EF) is crucial to lifespan development and environmental factors have been found to impact its development. Previous research has shown that parenting can make meaningful impacts on children’s EF, with scaffolding receiving broad support. Scaffolding refers to an adult’s ability to guide a child through a challenging task without providing too much or too little support. However, many of the studies which have examined scaffolding have been done in preschool- and school-aged samples, with limited research conducted in younger samples. Very few studies have separately examined verbal and physical components of scaffolding, which may differentially contribute to children’s …

Oppositional Behavior Parallels In Toddlers And Teens And Parent’S Response, Michele Dimmett

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Parents seem to manage oppositional conduct of toddlers but struggle emotionally and physically with oppositional conduct of teenagers, despite similarities in the behaviors. Self-efficacy theory, psychological theory of development, and theory of mind guided the conceptualization of how parents perceive and respond to these two sensitive periods of development. This contrasted group quantitative study pursued measurable similarities in the experience of first-time parents of children aged 18-36 months and 14-15 years of age. Establishing parents’ confidence level in their parenting skills and how they perceive and respond to their child's oppositional behavior was also a factor. One hundred and seventy-five …

Investigating The Use Of Mental-State Talk In Parent-Child Joint Reminiscing And Storytelling On Children’S Source Monitoring, Holly Autumn Nelson

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Source monitoring is the process of identifying and analyzing sources of information (Johnson et al., 1993). The ability to monitor source improves with age which places children at a greater risk for blending and misattributing information from different sources. Experiencing source confusions has academic, legal, and social implications, and thus understanding how source monitoring develops is important. Research exploring factors that impact source monitoring have predominantly focused on maturational aspects such as at which ages children learn to monitor source and neurological factors such as executive functioning. However, the impact of age and executive functioning may vary across the type …

Predictors Of Courage In Adolescents, Yea Won Park

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Adolescence can be a difficult phase of life. Adolescents may experience drastic physical, psychological, social changes, which can lead to uncertainty and anxiety. Courage is an important construct to study because it could help adolescents carry out tasks, work more effectively, and pursue goals (Koerner, 2014). Few studies have investigated predictors of general courage (e.g., personality; Muris et al., 2009), and moral courage (i.e., parenting, gender; Bronstein et al., 2009). The present study examined intrapersonal and interpersonal predictors (Time 1) of courage (Time 3) among adolescents, as well as potential mediating and moderating mechanisms. Data were collected from a larger …

"The Candy Problem, Solved!": White Children And White Parents Grappling With Dysconscious Whiteness, Lindsay E. Olson

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

During an amplification of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, white children and parents have faced multiple interruptions to their protective territory of dysconscious whiteness—an uncritical approach to a structural status quo that favors white lives. Through semi-structured activities and interviews with ten children ages 3 to 9 and nine of their parents who observed these activities, I discovered a parent–child subsystem of dysconscious whiteness. White children and parents revealed aspects of this subsystem by grappling with dysconscious whiteness (grappling) as they struggled to avoid implicating skin color in resource inequality. Through grounded theory analysis of the process of grappling, …

Analysis Of Mothers’ Parenting Consistency: Associations With Children’S Adjustment, David R L Brabham

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

While robust literature exists on the association between positive and negative parenting with child outcomes, less is known about the nature of parenting’s consistency in this relationship. This study sought to examine the relationship between valence and consistency of parenting, and to determine whether consistency is associated with child adjustment independent of valence. Data were collected from 167 mothers and their toddler-aged child. Participation involved two time points, 1 year apart. At each time point, mothers’ observational data were obtained via videotape of designed interactions between mother and toddler, as well as survey data from mothers. Bivariate correlations and multiple …

Families In Poverty: Additive And Qualitative Influence Of Risk On Parenting, Lauren Aaron

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Co-occurrence of risk for impoverished families is common, but less is known about how compounded risk influences parenting behavior. Mothers (n = 167) and their two-year-old children were visited at home and engaged in a game aimed to elicit everyday parenting behavior. Mothers endorsed experience of sociodemographic and psychosocial risks. Two unique cumulative risk indices were created from these variables. Regression analyses assessed the relation between the risk indices and positive and negative parenting behavior. Latent class analysis examines classes of risk experience on the same indicators. Results show psychosocial risk experience is associated with both parenting factors, while …

Latina Mothers Awareness Of Their Childrens Exposure To Community Violence, Rosanne M. Jocson, Francheska Alers-Rojas, James Cranford, Rosario Ceballo

Psychology Department Faculty Publications

This study examines (a) the degree of agreement between mother-reported child community violence exposure and children's self-reports and whether agreement changes over time; (b) whether child gender is associated with mother-child agreement; and (c) whether greater mother-child agreement is concurrently and longitudinally associated with children's psychological well-being. We conducted secondary data analyses using longitudinal data with a socioeconomically diverse sample of 287 Latino adolescents (MageW2 = 11.2, 47% girls) and their mothers (MageW1 = 35.3) from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. Mother-child agreement about non-exposure to violence was high. However, for violence-exposed children, mothers overestimated exposure in …