The Lifespan Parenting Project (LPP)

105

Determinants of Parenting

CHAPTER 5

Individuals rear their children in different ways. One father may frequently bellowdemands at his children in contrast to another who patiently and gently makesrequests. One mother is controlling and intrusive while her neighbor is sensitive and child-centered. We are reminded of such differences when we read about some celebrity parents whose poor parenting practices make the evening news. Why do

Categories of Determinants

A Mid-Level Model Bioecological Systems Model

Cultural and Distal Determinants

Culture Socioeconomic Status Religion

Contextual Determinants

Parental Employment Stress Social Support Neighborhood

Stable Characteristics Determinants

Stable Parent Characteristics Stable Child Characteristics Stable Family Characteristics

Situational Determinants

Context Transient Parent Characteristics Transient Child Characteristics

Interrelations Among Determinants

Chapter Preview: True or False?

• More than 30 variables can influence parenting behavior.

• An individual’s personality is the most important determinant of parenting.

• Parenting in the home is affected after a bad day at work.

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parents act the way they do? Where does it come from? What influences their behavior? This chapter addresses those questions.

Categories of Determinants

For more than 50 years, parenting researchers have investigated why parents behave the way they do. The first extensive assessment of the topic was conducted by Lois Stolz (1967), who concluded that parent behavior is influenced by many variables and pressures, only some of which win out and determine child-rearing behavior. To provide some organization to these many variables, Harmon and Brim (1980) used four basic categories of influences on parenting behavior. These influences are called determinants:

1. General cultural factors, such as nationality and socioeconomic status

2. Individual factors, such as characteristics of the parent and unconscious influences

3. Interpersonal factors, such as child behavior and family structure

4. Setting, such as the home or a park

A Mid-Level Model

A short time after Harmon and Brim published their classification scheme, Jay Belsky (1984) proposed a model depicting how some of these determinants work together. The model provided the framework for many subsequent studies. Belsky identified three central categories of influence:

1. Parental psychological resources, such as developmental history and personality

2. Child characteristics, such as gender and behavior

3. Contextual sources of stress and social support, such as marital relations, social networks, and work relationships

These three sets of influences combine to determine how a parent interacts with a child. It begins with a parent’s developmental history. Based on his or her child- rearing experiences and genetic makeup, the parent’s personality emerges. That personality influences three different types of variables: marital relations, work, and social network (or family and friends). In turn, each of those three variables, along with the child’s characteristics, has a role in affecting parenting behavior. Note in Belsky’s original model (reproduced in Illustration 5.1) that some arrows go one way (unidirectional) but others are two way (bidirectional).

Of all the determinants identified, Belsky and his colleagues believed that per- sonality played the most important role in parenting behavior (Belsky & Barends, 2002). A psychologically stable and emotionally strong parent can better withstand the stresses, for instance, of a temperamentally challenging or handicapped child.

106 PART I • UNDERSTANDING PARENTS AND CHILD REARING

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Such individuals can also better deal with contextual pressures—like marital disharmony or financial burdens—than can other individuals. In fact, all the other determinants are mediated through a parent’s personality and individual psycho- logical functioning. For example, picture two parents in a troubled marital rela- tionship, characterized by frequent arguments and considerable hostility. The parents would likely feel distressed, irritable, and even depressed. This could in turn lead to impatience with their children, inconsistency in discipline, harsh parenting, or being emotionally unavailable as a parent (Vondra, Sysko, & Belsky, 2005). However, a parent with a stable emotional and psychological base would be more likely to stay engaged in parenting, control his or her temper, and perhaps even assist the child in coping with the home’s hostile tone.

Social support and resources is another important determinant that can medi- ate the impact of stressors. Social supports include parents, other children, grand- parents and other relatives, friends, and neighbors. Resources can include financial assets, social and emotional support, and material goods. If one parent faced with a challenging child has a spouse who is an actively involved and effective co-parent, then the parent will be less stressed than would similar parents with less spousal support. Hence, “the parenting system is buffered against threats to its integrity that could derive from any single weakness in any single source” (Belsky, 1984, p. 91).

Although one could argue that Belsky’s model fails to take into account all the ways that these determinants mutually influence each other, the model does nicely organize three key determinants of parenting and their interrelations. However, the model ignores a number of other determinants on child rearing. Some of the miss- ing influences are immediate or proximal. For example, there are situational influ- ences: Was the parent at home or in a crowded theater? Was it the middle of the night or outside on a beautiful day? Transient parental qualities—such as mood or illness— can also influence parenting. The model is also missing some more distal or distant determinants, such as the parent’s cultural background or socioeconomic status. Belsky’s model, then, can be described as mid-level one: It effectively captures some of the key influences on parenting somewhere between proximal and distal levels.

Chapter 5 • Determinants of Parenting 107

Illustration 5.1 A Model of the Determinants of Parenting

Source: Belsky, 1984.

Developmental History

Personality

Marital Relations

Work

Parenting

Social Network

Child Characteristics

Child Development

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Bioecological Systems Model

One way to better organize the proximal, mid-level, and distal determinant is to categorize them along the lines of Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Systems Theory (as described in Chapter 2; Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006). After all, this theoretical model was intended to recognize how behav- ior is affected by multiple levels of context. The four contextual levels that Bronfenbrenner identified provide a useful model for organizing the more than two dozen parental determinants that have been studied. For example, the macrosystem consists of overarching cultural institutions and beliefs. With regard to child rearing, cultural differences in parenting can be categorized under this label. The exosystem, the second level, refers to settings that can affect the child even though the child does not directly participate in them. Mothers’ and fathers’ employment and social sup- port network are two prime examples of variables operating at this level that influ- ence parenting. Jumping to the fourth level, the microsystem as a category of influences on parenting nicely captures situational variables, such as the place or the parent’s mood that are transient but influential in determining parenting.

Although the levels from the Bioecological System Theory provide a convenient and theoretical basis for organizing the many determinants on parenting, the ter- minology is foreign to most people and potentially confusing. Consequently, the labels used to categorize the different levels of parenting determinants will be different, even though the underlying conceptualization used here is parallel to the categories of the Bioecological System Theory. The determinants of parenting will be organized around four headings of determinants: Cultural and Distal, Contextual, Stable Characteristics, and Situational.

Cultural and Distal Determinants

Child rearing is influenced by several types of cultural or distal variables. These variables have been investigated primarily under the headings of culture, socioeco- nomic status, religion, and race/ethnicity. These determinants influence child rear- ing through parental goals, values, and behavior. Examples of the first three types of distal determinants will be provided next.

Culture

Culture can be defined as the way of life shared by its members (Ogbu, 1988). It reflects the social, economic, and psychological adaptation of a people. When related to child rearing, culture influences parental values, goals, and beliefs as well as norms and expectations for acceptable behavior in children. It also prescribes general rules of parenting conduct.

Cultural anthropologists were the first to note similarities and differences in parents from various countries. They also realized that differing cultures could pro- vide a type of experiment of nature and help reveal how parental behavior was related to children’s development (Whiting & Child, 1953). Cross-cultural

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child-rearing studies are now widespread, although the majority of studies outside of North America come from Western Europe, Australia, China, and Japan.

Conducting cross-cultural research is difficult and expensive. Obviously, it can require the overcoming of language barriers. And cultural constructs do not always transfer smoothly across cultures. Just try comparing a typical elementary school in Tokyo—with its strict academic structure—to one of the “Waldkindergartens” in Germany, where children spend most of the day in a forest, encouraged to learn about their world mainly through impulsive exploration. Both of these settings are “schools,” but the realities within them are worlds apart. These types of issues must be considered when analyzing and comparing cultures. But despite the challenges, psychologists are increasingly applying cross-cultural research as a way of examin- ing both universals of parenting and how parents differ across cultures (Bornstein & Cheah, 2006).

Usually, researchers define a parent’s culture by the country where the parent dwells (or from which he or she immigrated), but sometimes it is broken down more precisely. For example, two investigators examined parental values in rural Cameroon, by comparing parents who were Muslim, Christian, or adherents to the indigenous African religion (Nsamenang & Lamb, 1995). In most cases, however, when parents are compared in cross-cultural studies, it is usually where one sample from one country is compared with a sample from a second country. Both samples of parents are assumed to be representative of that culture—a big assumption.

Exploring cultural differences in mother-infant relationships is one of the most popular topics of cross-cultural research; it is thought that impressions from a culture are stamped early in a child’s development. One such study searched for cultural dif- ferences in maternal behavior toward 5-month-old infants in three countries: the United States, France, and Japan (Bornstein et al., 1992). Forty naturally occurring 5-minute mother-infant interactions were recorded on video. Researchers then con- ducted a microanalysis of the behavior to compare mothers’ responsiveness to their infants. Overall, they found very few differences in maternal or infant behavior. However, one cultural difference occurred in maternal responses to their infants’ look- ing. Japanese mothers were significantly more responsive when their infants were looking at other people than were either the American or French mothers. Presumably, this maternal involvement and encouragement in social looking is a reflection of the Japanese beliefs about and emphasis on close interpersonal relationships.

Cultural differences in parenting between Japan and North America can be iso- lated more readily after infancy, when differences emerge in the standards for accept- able child behavior and child independence. In Japan, socialization practices are designed to promote interdependence between individuals. In the United States, however, we encourage independence at an early age. Japanese interdependence is fostered by such practices as constant and close physical relationships (also called “skinship”), co-sleeping, co-bathing, and punishment based on separation (such as locking a misbehaving child out of the house) rather than on the use of authority and physical force, a common practice in North America. As illustrated by these child-rearing practices, culture promotes differences in adult values and behavior. See Box 5.1 for a description of what we in the Western world would consider unusual and even abusive feeding practices by parents of girls in an African country.

Chapter 5 • Determinants of Parenting 109

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Socioeconomic Status

Subordinate to culture, but also a potent determinant of behavior, is the socioe- conomic status (SES) of the parent. Formerly called social class, SES is a multifac- eted variable that is intended to capture a family’s relative status or position within a society by measuring occupation, education, and income (Hoff, Laursen & Tardif, 2002; Leyendecker, Harwood, Comparini, & Yalcinkaya, 2005). SES is most often determined by the father’s (or mother’s and father’s) occupation and education. Scales used to measure these factors are then formed and parents are grouped, often arbitrarily, into SES levels. Occupations that received high scores include doctors, lawyers, and business executives. Occupations at the other end of the scale consid- ered “low status” include convenience store attendants and child-care workers.

Typically, studies have contrasted parents of lower and middle SES on a range of behavioral variables, including warmth, breastfeeding habits, toilet training prac- tices, and disciplinary techniques. One of the most common findings is that parents from a lower-SES background (see Illustration 5.2) are more likely to use physical punishment in comparison to middle-class parents, who rely more on noncoercive discipline, such as reasoning or guilt.

What accounts for the relation between SES and parent behavior? One plausible explanation has been around for a long time. Melvin Kohn (1979) theorized that parental occupation and general life situations lead parents to hold particular child- rearing values. Specifically, parents from higher social classes occupy jobs where responsibility, self-direction, initiative, and independence are valued and rewarded. Those parents, in turn, are likely to value and promote similar goals in their children by encouraging, for instance, responsibility, good grades, and an interest in

110 PART I • UNDERSTANDING PARENTS AND CHILD REARING

A Place Where Obesity in Girls Is Prized

In most homes in the United States, parents do not seek to “fatten up” their daughters for marriage. But in the sub-Saharan West African country of Mauritania (as well as some other West African countries), obesity in women is valued as a sign of wealth—and health. In turn, obese young women are more likely to get married. Consequently, some parents force their daughters, begin- ning as young as 5 years old, to drink each day up to 5 gallons of camel’s or cow’s milk. This practice is called gavage (the term also used for force-feeding geese in order to obtain foie gras) (Popenoe, 2004). Girls who resist or get sick are subjected to physical punishment, forced to drink their own vomit, and sometimes even tortured. A 2001 survey found two in five women in Mauritania were overweight—a surprisingly high rate for a poor country, where the annual per capita income is $2,000 (CIA, 2008). The government is currently trying to combat the practice through a health education program to inform the women about the dangers associated with obesity, including Type 2 diabetes, strokes, sleep apnea, and mental health problems.

BOX 5.1

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current events. On the other hand, parents from a lower SES who have relatively little freedom or responsibility in their jobs are more likely to value conformity to external authority. Obedience and the ability to stick to the rules are more likely to pay off in blue-collar (i.e., manual labor) occupations, so such parents more strongly emphasize obedience to parents, self-control, getting along with others, and acting like a boy or girl “should.”

Kohn’s model reflects the way require- ments or demands of one’s life situation affect child-rearing values, which in turn modify child-rearing practices. This can be diagrammed as follows:

socioeconomic status ! values ! child-rearing values ! parenting behavior

Parenting behavior, according to Kohn, is thereby strongly influenced by SES. Support for links between SES and parental values have been found in eight countries (Kohn, Naoi, Shoenbach, Schooler, & Slomczynski, 1990; Luster, Rhoades, & Haas, 1989) and remain the best explanation to account for the relations between SES and certain types of parenting values and behavior.

Religion

Religious beliefs for those who adhere to faith beliefs have a powerful effect on child-rearing practices. Religion influences law, cultural institutions, cultural norms, transmission of moral values, regulation of sexuality, interpersonal orienta- tions, and child-rearing values and beliefs (Browning, Green, & Witte, 2006). Recall from Chapter 1 the Puritan ministers’ admonitions to parents about the need to use strict discipline. Children were perceived as born with a propensity to sin, and parents were instructed by their ministers to break the will of children in order to socialize them into faithful adults (Greven, 1977). In contrast, both Confucianism and Islam espouse the view (also promulgated by the Catholic Jean-Jacques Rousseau in 1762) that children are inherently good (Stewart et al., 1999).

Studies of parenting practices often focus on differences among religious groups. This is not surprising, given the prevalence of religiously based child-rearing articles and manuals. In the United States, bookstores are stocked with dozens of Christian parenting books, including best sellers like James Dobson’s Dare to Discipline books

Chapter 5 • Determinants of Parenting 111

Illustration 5.2 A single mother with her daughters in their home.

Source: © 2009 Jupiterimages Corporation.

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(Dobson, 1992), which have sold more than 3.5 million copies. Hadassah Magazine frequently publishes articles that inform and prescribe practices for Jewish parents. Similarly, child-rearing manuals based on the Qur’an (or Koran) are readily avail- able for Muslims (Husain, 1979; Uddin, 1990; see Illustration 5.3). Child-rearing advice can even be found stemming from Buddhism. In line with the Buddhist ori- entation toward selflessness and living-in-the-present is the concept of mindful parenting. This refers to a moment-to-moment, nonjudgmental awareness by which parents reach beyond their automatic thoughts and feelings to remain inten- tional in their child rearing and grounded in the present moment (Kabat-Zinn & Kabat-Zinn, 1997).

Fundamentally, religion is about what is to be val- ued in life. Several cross-cultural studies have exam- ined relations between religion or religiosity (how faithfully religion is practiced) and adult values. A meta-analytic review of research across cultures and religious groups determined that religious people shared the values of kindness, tradition, and confor- mity, while they disdained hedonism (Saroglu, Delpierre, & Dernelle. 2004). Similarly, Inglehart and Baker (2000), in an analysis of 63 societies, dis- covered that adults, self-described as religious com- pared with other adults, were more likely to value tradition, obedience, respect for authority, and reli- gious faith in their children over independence and self-determination.

One popular topic of inquiry is how religion can influence attitudes about child discipline. In particu- lar, Christian denominations in the United States and Holland that espouse literalist interpretations of the Bible have been studied. Many conservative Protestants accept as God’s literal intention such statements as, “Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die” (Proverbs 23:13, New International Version). These parents report more positive attitudes toward (and more frequent use of ) physical punishment than do

other Christians or adherents of other religions (de Roos, Iedema, & Miedema, 2004; Ellison, 1996; Gershoff, Miller, & Holden, 1999).

All three of the world’s great deistic religions (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) emphasize the family and encourage parents to devote considerable time and atten- tion to their children. It follows then that religious parents, compared to nonreli- gious parents, would hold different values, allocate time differently, and be more likely to involve their children in social networks associated with a religious com- munity (Wilcox, 2002).

In terms of involvement and the quality of social relationships, both religious mothers and fathers in North America have been found to exhibit more supervision

112 PART I • UNDERSTANDING PARENTS AND CHILD REARING

Illustration 5.3 The influence of religion starts early. Here a young boy reads the Qur’an in a mosque in Yemen.

Source: Photograph by J. P. Bell.

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of, be warmer toward, and enjoy more positive relations with their children than do less religious parents (Bartkowski & Wilcox, 2000; King & Furrow, 2004). Religiosity has been observed to be negatively associated with maternal authoritar- ian behavior but unrelated to paternal behavior (Gunnoe, Hetherington, & Reiss, 1999). It should be pointed out that the relation between religion and parenting can be bidirectional; the onset of fatherhood can prompt more religious involvement (Palkovitz & Palm, 1998).

Contextual Determinants

Contextual determinants refer to those features of the environment that influence child rearing. Four variables provide particularly good illustrations of how context can influence parenting: employment, stress, social support, and neighborhoods.

Parental Employment

Outside-the-home parental employment—or unemployment—can have a vari- ety of obvious as well as subtle influences on parenting. But parental employment as a variable is not dichotomous. It in fact represents a complex constellation of variables. The objective features of the job (such as the type of job and the number of hours spent at work) must of course be considered. But so must a host of other, related variables such as financial need and resources, a person’s career orientation versus family orientation, and a person’s subjective feelings about the job (how interesting or stressful he or she finds it). Despite the complexity of this determi- nant, psychologists have documented that the “long arm of the job” influences a parent’s values, psychological well-being, daily moods, and availability for involve- ment in parenting activities (Crouter & McHale, 2005).

Prompting much of the attention to this topic is the dramatic increase in the pro- portion of working women who have young children. In 1960, only 18% of mothers with children under age 6 worked outside the home. By 1987, the proportion had climbed to about 57%. In 2003, the percentage had risen slightly—to 63% and has remained about there through 2006 (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, 2008). This remarkable social change in the way families lead their lives, graphed in Illustration 5.4, has resulted in a number of consequences for child rearing.

One important change has been an increased reliance on day care and other forms of child care. Another effect of maternal employment is the impact on pater- nal involvement. As would be predicted from a Family Systems Theory perspective, husbands are affected by their wives’ employment. In general, husbands of working wives are more involved in child care and household work than are those in families with single-earner fathers (Gottfried, Gottfried, & Bathurst, 2002). However, time spent in child care is not divided equally between parents. Several different studies, including investigations from a variety of industrialized nations, have found major discrepancies between the number of hours worked by mothers and fathers. Research in the late 1980s found that fathers, on average, worked 50 hours a week in combined employment and household tasks, whereas mothers worked 80 to 90

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hours per week at the same tasks (e.g., Scarr, Phillips, & McCartney, 1989). The workload inequity between employed mothers and fathers is especially pronounced when the children are under age 3. Since then the trend is for more role balance, although mothers continue to provide more care (Gottfried et al., 2002).

One variable that plays an important influence in the relation between work and parenting is child-rearing commitment. The amount of time and energy parents commit to their multiple roles (parent, spouse, and worker) has implications for parental behavior, stress, and perceptions of children. A study investigating some of the relations between parenting and working illustrate one aspect of this issue. Ellen Greenberger and her colleagues found mothers to be just as committed to their employment work as fathers were, and they shared a similar level of job satisfaction. However, mothers experienced more stress than fathers did as they attempted to balance the demands of parenting along with work (Greenberger, Goldberg, Hamill, O’Neil, & Payne, 1989).

For good or ill, maternal employment affects a mother’s emotional state. On the positive side, it can impact her general satisfaction and morale by providing men- tal stimulation, building self-esteem, and offering relief from child care and home chores. Also, maternal employment serves as a buffer from the stresses of marital difficulties or of interaction with a difficult or challenged child. For one or more of these reasons, maternal employment can potentially enhance the quality of parent- ing during the time the mother is home, particularly if the woman enjoys her job and exercises some responsibility in it (Gottfried et al., 2002). However, many mothers feel conflicted about their work and being separated from their children. The extent of this conflict depends not only on whether or not the mother is employed but also on her preferences (whether she wants to be employed), the extent of her anxiety over separation from her child, and the degree to which she is invested in her maternal role (e.g., Hock, DeMeis, & McBride, 1988).

114 PART I • UNDERSTANDING PARENTS AND CHILD REARING

Illustration 5.4 Changes in Maternal Employment Levels From 1960 to 2003 Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2008.

Note: Maternal employment is defined as mothers, with children under the age of 6, who were working part- or full-time outside the home.

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In addition to causing guilt and anxiety for some mothers about being away from their young children, employment can add considerable stress to a mother’s life. Indeed, there is evidence that under some circumstances, a mother’s emotional state, child-rearing practices, and perceptions of children may be negatively affected by her employment. However most studies have found that maternal employment may actually have a positive impact on parenting and it is not a risk factor for children (Crouter & McHale, 2005).

Stress

Another general contextual factor that can dramatically influence parenting is stress. Stress on parents comes in a variety of manifestations. Major life stressors include natural disasters, serious illness or injuries, death, separation or divorce, moving, and change in employment. A second group of stressors, those related to everyday occurrences, has also received considerable research attention. There are four main classes of these proximate stressors:

1. Marital or relationship stressors

2. Work or financial stressors

3. Personal characteristics

4. Child-related stressors

Parenting stress refers to the fourth category of stressors and is defined as “a set of processes that lead to aversive psychological and physiological reactions arising from the attempts to adapt to the demands of parenthood” (Deater- Deckard, 2004, p. 6).

Parenting stress is a function of individual child characteristics (e.g., develop- mental disabilities), parent characteristics (e.g., attributions about the child’s behavior), and situations (e.g., premature birth, living in a violent neighborhood) (Crnic & Low, 2002). Some of these stressors reflect acute situations; others are chronic. When two or more stressors team up, they likely have an additive effect on parents (Deater-Deckerd, 2004).

Stress is not benign as it can have a powerful influence on parental function- ing—in a negative way. Stressed parents are less nurturant, supportive, patient, and involved. Instead, they are likely to be irritable, negative, punitive, and withdrawn (Crnic & Low, 2002; Deater-Deckard, 2004). In turn, children’s functioning can be negatively affected.

Social Support

Social support, or assistance from other people, helps to counteract the effects of stress. It leads to the belief that there is someone to turn to when a crisis arises. A socially supported person feels cared for, loved, and valued. Social support can also come from a variety of individuals including relatives, friends, neighbors, and fel- low members of a faith-based organization. Usually, the principal support for

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a parent is the partner or spouse, and this support (an example of positive co-parenting) manifests in emotional comfort and instrumental assistance (McHale et al., 2002). Instrumental assistance can be in form of babysitting, run- ning errands, or providing food or clothing.

A number of studies have indicated that support from a social network can reduce the effects of stress and promote positive parenting. For example, not sur- prisingly, Dutch parents of children diagnosed with cancer reacted with high levels of distress (Hoekstra-Weebers, Jaspers, Kamps, & Klip, 2001). Those fathers (but not mothers in this sample) who received more social support experienced less dis- tress. Support was also found to have a positive effect in a very different sample of poor African American single mothers. Mothers who received more support were found to engage in more nurturant parenting, although this relation weakened in high crime neighborhoods (Ceballo & McLoyd, 2002).

Neighborhood

It is not hard to see how a person’s residence can influence his or her parenting behavior. Look at the photograph of the urban high-rise apartment buildings (see Illustration 5.5). How might child rearing be affected by living in such apartments, in contrast to other environments such as suburbia or rural environments?

116 PART I • UNDERSTANDING PARENTS AND CHILD REARING

Illustration 5.5 Urban high-rise apartments created neighborhoods with high concentrations of low income families.

Source: © 2009 Jupiterimages Corporation.

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Urban poverty is the most problematic neighborhood characteristic. Being raised in a poor, inner-city neighborhood is associated with a wide range of nega- tive outcomes for children: crime, health problems, academic failure, substance abuse, and teen pregnancy. The atmosphere has been described as a “war zone” and a toxic atmosphere for children to grow up in (Garbarino, Kostelny, & Dubrow, 1991; Garbarino, Kostelny, & Barry, 1997). It is not surprising that parenting in high-crime neighborhoods is characterized by a distrust of nonfamilial individuals, an encouragement of children’s early independence and self-reliance, an emphasis on aggressive play, and an early withdrawal of emotional support (Halpern, 1990). Some observers have argued that these patterns result from the behavior of stressed, powerless mothers whose own needs are not being met, which renders them unable to provide consistent, supportive, nonpunitive parenting. An alternative explana- tion, articulated by anthropologist John Ogbu (1988), views the child-rearing behavior as an adaptive response to the dangers of the environment that maximizes the likelihood of survival and the success of the children.

More recent work on the topic of parenting in the inner city has documented some of the difficulties and consequences of living in such dangerous and low- income environments (Ceballo & McLoyd, 2002). Some parents respond to living in such contexts with depression and harsh child punishment, but others are active and strategic in their child-rearing efforts (Burton & Jarrett, 2000). Parents who are successful in helping their children live in low-income environments engage in actions to prevent various problematic child outcomes that they observe around them, such as dropping out from school, getting pregnant, or experimenting with drugs. Thus the inner city represents a unique context that elicits different types of parenting behaviors, depending on the particular parent. It provides a clear example of how the living context can determine child-rearing behavior.

Stable Characteristics Determinants

Yet another group of determinants on child-rearing are variables that reflect stable (relatively unchanging) characteristics of the parent, child, or the family. Examples of these will be briefly reviewed next.

Stable Parent Characteristics

There are several stable attributes of parents. The four central characteristics related to child rearing are gender, prior experiences, social cognitions (attitudes and beliefs), and personality.

Gender. Do mothers and fathers parent differently? This question has been the topic of much speculation and research. The answer is not simple, in part due to the social trends that result in changes in parenting roles and levels of involvement with children (Cabrera, Tamis-LeMonda, Bradley, Hofferth, & Lamb, 2000). For example maternal employment and father absence due to divorce are two social changes that result in modification of mothering and fathering (see Illustration 5.6).

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One reliable difference between mothers and fathers in most families concerns involvement in child care. For example, paternal involvement, despite having increased significantly over the past three decades, still lags well behind maternal involvement. Fathers are estimated to spend 67% as much time as mothers during the weekdays in child-related activities (Cabrera et al., 2000). Involvement changes dramatically, of course, when fathers are single parents. See Box 5.2 for a descrip- tion of single fathers who assume the role of primary caregiver.

Mothers and fathers also differ in certain behaviors and attitudes. Using the microanalytic approach, researchers in several countries have observed fathers inter- acting with their children differently from mothers. Fathers tend to engage in verbal or didactic play less than mothers do; they are more physically stimulating and rough in their play. Mothers, compared to fathers, tend to be more responsive to variations in their children’s play; they are more likely to enforce rules and commu- nicate and play peekaboo-type games (Lamb & Tamis-LeMonda, 2004). Mothers and fathers also differ in their child-rearing attitudes (Holden & Buck, 2002). For example, mothers place greater importance on expressive issues such as emotions, intimacy, and the child’s enjoyment, in contrast to fathers who place greater value in self-control, achievement, and responsibility. However, there are many aspects of child rearing where mothers and fathers do not differ (Lamb, 2004).

118 PART I • UNDERSTANDING PARENTS AND CHILD REARING

Illustration 5.6 A father lovingly gazes at his infant son.

Source: Photograph by J. P. Bell.

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Prior Experiences. At least three types of prior experiences are particularly relevant as parenting determinants: experiences from the parent’s own childhood, nonpar- enting experiences with other children, and previous parenting experiences.

A powerful influence on future parental behavior comes from “ghosts in the nursery” (Fraiberg, 1987), or experiences with one’s own parents. From a Social Learning Theory perspective, a number of studies have found similarities between two generations of individuals in terms of the disciplinary practices they use or prefer (Holden & Zambarano, 1992). Using Bowlby and Ainsworth’s Attachment Theory, a number of investigators are discovering links between a mother’s per- ception of her own early attachment experience and her relationship with her child (Bretherton & Munholland, 2008). For example, as mentioned in the last chapter, mothers’ representations of attachment with their own mothers subse- quently predicted attachment classification when their infants were 12 months old in 75% of the cases (Fonagy et al., 1991). In another study, mothers’ internal work- ing models were associated with the quality of parenting as well as with their tod- dlers’ and preschoolers’ adjustment (Eiden, Teti, & Corns, 1995). Those studies provide strong evidence for the consideration of internal working models as a determinant of parenting.

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Fathers as Single Parents

Census information from 2006 indicates there are 2.5 million single fathers rais- ing one or more children in the U.S. (U.S. Census Bureau News, 2008b). These father-headed homes represent almost 20% of single-parent homes. Men assume this role for various reasons. Many are divorced fathers, some are wid- owed, others were never married, and some of the fathers include gay men. How do these men fare as primary caregiving parents? Despite the increasing attention being devoted to the role of fathers in development (Cabrera et al., 2000; Lamb, 2004), research on fathers as single parents is largely missing (Russell, 1999).

Why is this? In part, single fathers who are the primary caregivers are difficult to study because they are relatively rare and, like all single parents, they are extremely busy. Their schedules do not allow much time to participate in research. When studies are conducted with these men, they often consist of very small samples. In two of the more recent empirical efforts into this topic, only 20 single fathers were included in one study (Hilton & Desrochers, 2000) and 10 in another (Coles, 2002).

Available evidence indicates that men can certainly be competent fathers but to understand their effects, it is necessary to look at the specific features of their caregiving and situation. Information is needed about the nature and extent of their involvement, the quality of their child care and child rearing, the stress and support they receive, and in general, their life situation (such as the reason for being a single parent and their employment status). Indeed, these are the same types of variables needed to understand how single mothers—or any type of parent—may influence their children’s development.

BOX 5.2

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A second type of prior experiences comes from babysitting or otherwise inter- acting with other children. In most cultures, girls are exposed to many more child- care experiences than boys are. This experiential discrepancy may well account for why females, compared to males, are generally considered more adept at child rear- ing. Presumably, extensive babysitting experience contributes to greater compe- tency as a parent (Fogel & Melson, 1986). There is some supporting evidence: Recall from Box 3.4 that individuals with more child-care experience (either through par- enthood or babysitting) solved a child-rearing problem more efficiently and accu- rately than did those without such experiences (Holden, 1988).

A third type of prior experiences consists of learning from the experience of raising the firstborn child in a family. Whiteman, McHale, and Crouter (2003) examined parental reports of behavior and the quality of interactions with first- born teenagers and—several years later—with second-born teenagers at the same age. Parents appeared to have learned from their experiences with their firstborn child and had become more effective parents. They had greater knowledge of the second-born child’s experiences and lower rates of conflict.

Social Cognitions. As described in Chapter 3, parental social cognition has been shown to affect parental behavior. Some types of social cognitions are relatively sta- ble, such as certain attributions and attitudes. If a father has an unrealistic expecta- tion about when children are capable of toilet training, he is likely to become frustrated and angry when his child continues to have “accidents.” Mothers who have positive beliefs and attitudes about breastfeeding or reading to young children are likely to engage in these beneficial behaviors.

Social cognitions are important because they can be closely linked to behavior and emotions. The best predictor of spanking practices, according to a study by Holden, Coleman, and Schmidt (1995), was a positive attitude about spanking. As would be expected, the mothers who viewed spanking as an effective technique for stopping misbehavior were most likely to engage in it. The advertisement repro- duced in Illustration 5.7 exemplifies the idea that some parents believe paddling is a useful educational tool.

Parental mood is also affected by social cognition. Specifically, parents’ beliefs about the degree to which they can control a child’s behavior (parental self-efficacy) affect parental emotion. Mothers who believed they had little power in influencing the behavior of a child were likely to be unassertive and irritable when interact- ing with children. Such parents, when anticipating future interactions with the children, actually showed measurable increases in bodily stress, such as increased sweating and heart rate (e.g., Bugental, 2003; Bugental & Cortez, 1988).

Parental social cognitions are important, not just because they influence behav- ior but because they provide the most readily accessible avenue for changing parental behavior. As proximal influences, they may supersede more distal ones like culture and SES.

Personality. Recall from earlier in this chapter that Belsky placed parental personal- ity at the top of the list in his model of parenting determinants. He argued that parental maturity and psychological well-being were fundamental ingredients for effective parental functioning (Belsky & Barends, 2002).

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A study by Grazyna Kochanska and her colleagues provides recent evidence for the power of personality to affect parenting. In specific, they found that parents who had memories of unhappy and unstable childhoods were likely to engage in power assertive parenting practices (Kochanska, Aksan, Penney, & Boldt, 2007). However that relation was moderated by certain personality characteristics, such as

Chapter 5 • Determinants of Parenting 121

Illustration 5.7 Shingles can also be used for child-rearing purposes, according to this old advertisement.

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optimism and trust. Thus, personality characteristics appear likely to compensate for negative experiences and result in positive parenting practices.

Various other specific personality characteristics, such as patience and calmness, have been proposed to influence parenting. However, the personality attribute that has received the most attention is the capacity for empathy. This refers to a parent’s ability to experience events from the child’s point of view and therefore understand better what an infant or young child might be feeling. Not surprisingly, parents judged to be higher in empathy levels are more involved, nurturant, and positive toward their children than those considered lower in empathy (Dix, 1992). Empathy in parents is described in more detail in Box 5.3.

122 PART I • UNDERSTANDING PARENTS AND CHILD REARING

The Power of Empathy

Empathy, or lack thereof, can greatly influence how parents react to a particular misbehavior or annoying characteristic in a child. Consider children who throw a noisy tantrum when they cannot get a toy to work like they want it to. Parents with empathy will be able to consider the situation from the child’s perspective before deciding on an appropriate action. The parent might consider the child’s physical needs (Is the child tired?); emotional needs (Does the child need help to properly deal with his or her frustration?); or personal desires (Is there something I can help the child achieve?). However, a parent without empathy at the time— whether due to a lack of skill or overwhelming personal needs—will likely have one thought: How do I shut the child up?! As parent researcher Ted Dix (1991) argued, parents’ empathic concerns about their children represent a necessary and key attribute of positive parenting.

BOX 5.3

There are several other types of stable parental characteristics that have received research attention, such as intelligence and parental age. There are no clear consis- tent findings about how intelligence (at least in the normal range) affects child rear- ing. However, studies into the age of parent have received sustained attention. Two separate age-of-parent questions have been investigated. One concerns the quality of child care provided by adolescent parents, a topic further discussed in Chapter 10. The other question is whether older parents (usually those in their 30s and 40s) of young children differ in their parenting from younger parents. The effects of age on parenting are of interest in part due to the increasingly common trend for women to wait longer to bear children. The mean age of women in the United States for having their first child is now 25 years (U.S. Census Bureau, 2008).

Studies in maternal age have had conflicting results. Many of the studies into the topic were conducted in the 1980s. Generally, those studies found mixed results. In one study, older mothers were more involved, they exhibited better parenting behavior, and they were more satisfied than were younger mothers (Ragozin, Basham, Crnic, Greenberg, & Robinson, 1982). However, another study determined

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that older mothers were less positive in their child-rearing interactions (Conger, McCarty, Yang, Lahey, & Burgess, 1984). Still other investigations have found no effects for age on maternal caregiving or child-rearing attitudes (Reis, Barbera- Stein, & Bennett, 1986). The most recent investigation provides an answer to why those earlier studies had mixed results: The answer depends on the particular child- rearing domain (Bornstein, Putnick, Suwalsky, & Gini, 2006). For example, warmth and taking care of the physical needs of the child showed no age of mother effects. However, other parenting behaviors, such as maternal speech and structuring the environment were related to age. Adolescent mothers and those in their mid-20s were less likely to engage in these behaviors than older mothers.

Stable Child Characteristics

Research has shown that the characteristics of children can be prime determi- nants of how their parents behave toward them. The best documented characteris- tics are the child’s age, temperament, gender, and birth order.

Child’s Age. Age of the child is the single most powerful influence on parental behavior. This is likely because with aging comes changes in a child’s physical size, cognitive and linguistic ability, emotional maturity, and social skills. In response to their children’s changing characteristics, parents show affection, communicate, dis- cipline, and provide care in very different ways (see Bornstein, 2002b).

Child’s Temperament. The child’s temperament is the second most important deter- minant of parental behavior. Temperament refers to the biologically rooted behav- ioral style of the child. It helps define how emotionally expressive the child is and how the child responds to changes in his or her environment. Models of tempera- ment are likely to include variables such as the child’s activity level, emotions, ability to self-regulate, and social behavior. However, there is considerable disagree- ment about exactly which traits are the core components of temperament (Rothbart & Bates, 2006).

As many researchers recognize, it is not the child’s temperament itself that is most important for his or her early development but rather how the child’s parents relate to it (Putnam, Sanson, & Rothbart, 2002). One parent might label a quiet, introverted child as “good” because the child does not interrupt. Another may call the same child “rude” because the child will not address strangers. Now imagine describing the same child as “thoughtful and perceptive” or “prefers to listen” or even “courageous” when he or she does speak up. You can see how a particular child can be exposed to very different parenting based on how that parent perceives and reacts to the child’s temperament.

Indeed, a parent’s interpretation of and interaction with a child’s temperament can have a profound effect on the child’s self-perception and development. How well parental actions relate to a children’s temperament has been called matching, congruence, or goodness of fit. Sometimes a child fits like a glove into her family. When this is not the case, significant parental effort may be required in order to relate well to a child with an extremely shy or challenging temperament.

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Children who are perceived by their parents as difficult to manage are likely to elicit less positive and responsive caregiving from mothers than are those perceived as easygoing. Several different studies have shown that parents of challenging children are more likely to be negative and use punitive techniques, whereas parents of easy- going children appear more authoritative and responsive (Putnam et al., 2002).

Child’s Gender. Another stable child variable is gender. A child’s gender influences parental behavior in various ways. First, fertility decisions are often based on gen- der. Mothers may bear more children until the desired son or daughter is born. Also, parents who had wanted children of the opposite sex were more likely to per- ceive problems with their children and to spend less time playing with them com- pared with parents who were pleased with the gender of their children (Stattin & Klackenberg-Larsson, 1991).

Many observational studies have found that certain aspects of parental behavior appear to be influenced by the child’s gender. Recall from Chapter 3 that parental per- ceptions of newborns and young children were dramatically affected simply by the label of “girl” or “boy.” Given the large number of studies in this area, two researchers (Lytton & Romney, 1991) set out to conduct a systematic review. The meta-analytic review of 172 studies, concerning whether parents systematically treat boys and girls differently, arrived at a surprising conclusion: Gender effects are not as pervasive as commonly believed. In fact, there were few significant findings. The strongest gender effects appeared to be in parental expectations or early perceptions about boys and girls, but most differences in parental treatment decreased with children’s age. The authors concluded that when all the evidence is taken together, there are few robust, consistent differences in how boys and girls are treated by their parents.

A more recent review (Leaper, 2002), based on newer studies, was able to iden- tify other parental behaviors that appear to be influenced by the child’s gender. For example, early autonomy is encouraged in boys but not in girls. Boys are more likely to be encouraged to play, explore, and achieve more, whereas girls are encouraged to help their mothers around the house and focus on interpersonal relationships. There is also evidence of parenting differences in such areas as affectionate behav- ior, emotion talk and expressiveness, gender-typed play, and household chores dur- ing the early childhood years.

Child’s Birth Order. Since the 1950s, investigators have explored ways in which par- enting may be affected by birth order. Among the typical findings is that firstborn infants receive more care, attention, and affection than do later-born infants, because first-time parents have more enthusiasm and energy to devote to the child. However, firstborn children also were reported to receive more pressure for achievement, presumably because the parents hold higher expectations for them than for later-born children (Lasko, 1954; Rothbart, 1971).

More recent investigations into the topic have shown that the influence of birth order on parenting is more complicated. At least three other variables also come into play: the child’s gender, the spacing (time between births) of the children, and the family size. In perhaps the most careful observational study conducted to date on this topic, 193 mothers were observed interacting with their 3-month-old babies

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(Lewis & Kreitzberg, 1979). As predicted, the firstborn children generally received more maternal attention than did the later-born children. The spacing between the children also had a significant effect: Both closely and widely spaced children received more attention than did moderately spaced (1.5 to 3.5 years) children. The authors concluded that the spacing of their children modified mothers’ perceptions and thus the attention devoted to the children.

Of course there are other child characteristics, besides age, temperament, gender, and birth order that can be determinants of parenting behavior. Premature babies or children with developmental disabilities (such as autism) are two examples. Parents of children with disabilities are more likely to experience distress, disruptions in nor- mal family functioning (mealtimes, sleep schedules, social life), marital difficulties, and even psychiatric problems than are parents of children without disabilities (Weiss, 2002; Yirmiya & Shaked, 2005). In sum, stable child characteristics and other differences among children represent a basic determinant of parental behavior.

Stable Family Characteristics

Two stable family characteristics have frequently been found to influence parenting: family structure and marital relations.

Family Structure. The primary variable of family structure is whether it is a single- or two-parent family. More than one third (35%) of births in the United States are to women who are separated, widowed, divorced, or never married (U. S. Census Bureau, 2008). Of those unmarried women, about 13% were living with an unmar- ried partner. Not all parents who raise children alone are unmarried, of course. Some are married to a spouse who is away from some reason—such as military deployment or even incarceration. But it is the unmarried single parent who has been the most studied. These 12.9 million single parents—81% of them women (U.S. Census Bureau, 2008b)—differ in their parenting behavior from married parents in various areas. In part as a result of the increased stress and pressure of limited time, unmarried single parents, compared to married parents, tend to spend less time with their children and engage in less supervision and monitoring. Because single parents must deal with all aspects of parenting by themselves, they are at risk for high stress, exhaustion, and depression. There is some evidence that they exhibit a diminished level of parenting, with regard to the time and attention they are able to devote to their offspring (McLanahan, 1989; Weinraub, Horvath, & Gringlas, 2002). Single parents will be discussed further in Chapter 10.

A second key family-structure variable is the number of children in the home. Given that there is only so much time and energy parents can devote to children, it comes as no surprise that family size has been associated with differences in parental behavior. Family structure, in terms of number of children, can influence parenting practices. The average number of children that an American mother has is now two (U.S. Census Bureau, 2008a). There is some evidence that family size influences parental disciplinary practices. For example, in larger families (four or more children) it was found that discipline tends to be more punitive and author- itarian than in smaller families (Wagner, Schubert, & Schubert, 1985).

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Marital Relations. How the quality of the marital relationship affects child rearing was one of the major parenting topics of the 1980s. During that time, a number of studies based on Family Systems Theory documented links between marital rela- tions and parenting. The majority of the empirical work on this topic examined the relation between perceived marital quality and parenting. Close, supportive, and thereby satisfying marital relationships were found to be associated with sensitive and positive parenting as well as more positive attitudes and perceptions about children (Cowan & Cowan, 1992; Grych, 2002).

Parents in discordant marriages (compared with those in happy marriages) exhibit less consistent practices and fewer of the child-rearing practices widely con- sidered effective. It is likely that parents in unhappy marriages are less emotionally available and involved with their children (Easterbrooks & Emde, 1988). Marital dis- cord may manifest itself in disagreements over child-rearing practices. Consequently, parents in discordant relationships tend to be more negative in disciplinary practices than nondiscordant parents. In addition, the interspousal conflict may spill over, bringing on parent-child conflict (Erel & Burman, 1995; Grych, 2002).

Such a negative spillover into parenting can be dramatically seen in homes of battered women. Men who physically abuse their wives are frequently irritable. According to one study, almost all of the battered women reported that they argued with their husbands at least every few days. In contrast, only 16% of women in a com- parison group reported a similar rate of arguments. It is likely that at least some of these marital arguments spilled over into the father’s interactions with his children. Violent men reportedly got angry at their children every few days, in contrast to the comparison fathers’ rate of less than once a week (Holden & Ritchie, 1991).

An alternative to the spillover hypothesis is the compensatory hypothesis.Here, a parent who fails to find love and warmth in a marital relationship may seek to meet those needs in her relationship with her child. According to the hypothesis, the child may in this way be buffered from the ill effects of the marital discord. However, to date, there is little research evidence to support this hypothesis (Erel & Burman, 1995; Grych, 2002).

Situational Determinants

Does the immediate situation that parents find themselves in affect their child- rearing behavior? The evidence is that it certainly does. As will be shown, parenting is much more flexible, fluid, and changeable—dynamic is another term for this— than many researchers have recognized. Indeed, effective and competent parents must adapt their behavior to the situation by taking into account a change of set- ting, a swing of mood, or an undesired child behavior. These situational determi- nants can be grouped into context, transient parent characteristics, and transient child characteristics.

Context

Relatively few studies have examined the role of context in parent-child relation- ships. But context is very important in determining child-rearing behavior. Parents

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take the context into account when interacting with their children. Ask parents how they react when their children misbehave, and they are likely to respond, “It depends on the situation.” The central features of a context for parents are the setting (loca- tion) where the interaction takes place, the presence of others, and the time.

The most obvious contextual variable is the setting or environment that a parent is in. Parenting occurs most often in the home but also in the car, at the supermar- ket, on vacation, and in numerous other locales. Observational studies that com- pared parental behavior across two or more settings (such as the home, a laboratory, or a park) arrived at similar conclusions: Parental behavior can show considerable variation across different settings (Bradley, 2002; Holden & Miller, 1999; Miller, Shim, & Holden, 1998). Even within a particular setting, child-rearing behavior is affected by ongoing activity in that setting. If a mother is multitasking, her parent- ing will change considerably. A child’s raucous laughter might delight a mother play- ing hide-and-seek but irritate the same mother trying to make a phone call.

A second contextual variable that can influence dyadic interactions is the pres- ence of additional individuals. The presence of another child or a second parent can modify parental behavior. This type of second-order effect was explained under Family Systems Theory. The presence of many people in a home (i.e., crowding) can also affect child rearing. Parents in crowded homes tend to talk in less complex sentences to their children than parents who live in uncrowded homes (Evans, Maxwell, & Hart, 1999).

A final contextual variable that has received some research attention is the time at which the interaction occurs—both the time of day and the time of year. During the summer months, parental involvement and monitoring can change systematically in relation to a parent’s work status (Crouter & McHale, 1993). The time of day that interactions occur is also likely to influence behaviors. If parents are in a hurry or tired, they are likely to behave differently than they would otherwise. Fatigue on the part of parents and children may account for the finding that mothers are twice as likely to spank their children in the evening as in the morning (Holden et al., 1995).

Transient Parent Characteristics

Two types of parent characteristics that influence parenting can be considered transient because they are likely to change within a short period of time: thoughts and emotions. As described earlier, parental social cognitions can provide stable influences on behavior, as in the case of attitudes and beliefs. Thoughts can also, however, have transient effects, as is the case with short-term goals, which can change minute by minute. The particular goal that a parent has in mind is poten- tially a strong influence on that parent’s behavior. For instance, parents often enter situations with either child-centered, parent-centered, or socialization goals in mind (Dix & Branca, 2003). Child-centered goals are oriented around the child’s needs, rather than the parent’s. Socialization goals focus on long-term development and examples of them were listed in Table 4.3.

Closely linked to goals are emotions. Positive or negative emotions are aroused when parental goals are either met or frustrated, respectively (Dix, 1991). These emotions are essential for effective parenting, because they help to organize the parent’s sensitive and responsive child-rearing behaviors. However, when emotions

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are too strong, too weak, or inappropriately matched to the child’s behavior, they serve to undermine effective parenting.

Several empirical studies have documented how parental emotions are linked to both parental thoughts and behavior. For example, mothers who were feeling irri- table when they watched video recordings of a child interacting with his or her mother had more negative expectations about that child than did mothers who were emotionally neutral as they watched (Dix, Reinhold, & Zambarano, 1990). In another study, mothers who reported they were feeling irritable exhibited more negative parenting than did other mothers (Jouriles, Murphy, & O’Leary, 1989).

Transient Child Characteristics

Parental behavior can also be influenced by a child’s rapidly changing emotions and behavior. We know that children are more susceptible than parents to changes in their physiological or emotional states. This is why we can have compassion for a screaming toddler who has just dropped his or her ice-cream cone. For a 2-year- old, that is as serious as totaling a new car. Effective parents are able to take into account these changes in their children—whether it is toddler frustration or teenage angst—when doling out consequences.

The best way to study how transient child characteristics influence parental behavior is through the Child Effects and Transactions approach. Studies examin- ing parental responses to changes in a child’s behavior have shown that when a child misbehaves, the type of misdeed is a powerful determinant. In fact, the type of misbehavior—whether disobedience, harming other people, destroying property, and so on—has more influence on how the mother responds than does even her child-rearing approach or disciplinary philosophy (Grusec & Kuczynski, 1980).

Interrelations Among Determinants

As must be clear to the reader by now, parental behavior is multiply determined. Characteristics of the parent, the child, and the context all contribute to why parents do what they do. And the more than 30 influences on parenting that have been identified in the research literature cannot be clearly divided like components of a chemical. They simply do not work independently.

For example, as the Bioecological model makes clear, different contexts can affect each other. What happens in the work environment can be brought home and affect the quality of parenting, as Jennifer Matjasko and Amy Feldman (2006) found. They investigated whether there was evidence of how the context of work could “spill over” to child-rearing once the parent was home. They found evidence that both mothers and fathers can bring emotional experiences from the workplace to the home. When mothers reported being happy, angry, or anxious at work, they also reported feeling similar emotions at home. Fathers, on the other hand, reported only bringing feelings of anxiety home with them.

The different determinants of parenting can also influence each other in several ways. Most commonly, the variables can have additive, moderating, or mediating

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effects. In addition, they could work together by interacting or compensating. Each of these interrelations between variables will be explained next.

Additive effects (also called cumulative effects) result from variables combining to form a stronger influence on behavior than any of the variables has on its own. A parent with an explosive temper plus a temperamentally difficult child is a dan- gerous combination. Add to this equation a loss of the parent’s employment, and the risk of abusive parenting is considerably higher than it would be if only one or even two of these variables were present. Sometimes these potentially problematic variables are called risk factors. The more risk factors affecting parental behavior, the greater the likelihood of a poor child-rearing environment. In a study of risk factors, Kristi Hannan and Tom Luster (1991) assessed six potentially detrimental influences on child rearing in 602 families with 1-year-old children: three contex- tual factors (absence of a partner, three or more children, and low income); two maternal characteristics (low IQ score and adolescent mother); and one child char- acteristic (difficult temperament). The risk factors present in each family were then added together to form a risk index. Each family was also assessed on the HOME (Home Observation for the Measurement of the Environment) scale, which rated the quality of the home environment. The results revealed a strong relation between risk index and low HOME score. Only 22% of families with one risk factor had low HOME scores, in contrast to 88% of those families with six risk factors.

Recall from Chapter 3 the discussion of moderating and mediating variables. For par- enting, the most important moderating variable is the marital relationship. Supportive spouses can reduce the effects of stress by providing assistance, advice, and encourage- ment to their mate. A loving marital relationship can moderate the negative parental effects of financial hardship (Simons et al., 1992) and even of a parent’s psychologically painful childhood. For example, supportive spouses provide encouragement, promote healing, and suggest positive child-rearing behaviors rather than allowing their partners to engage in the negative child-rearing behavior that they experienced in childhood.

A mediating variable affects the strength of another variable, sometimes negat- ing it completely. For example, economic hardship can certainly influence a parent’s behavior. But as a determinant, economic problems are mediated by feelings of eco- nomic strain. If a parent fails to recognize his or her financial problems, ignores them, or is surrounded by others content in the same situation, it is unlikely that economic hardship will have much influence on his or her parenting. But when the financial problems are recognized and experienced in the form of strain or worry, parenting will likely be negatively impacted (Simons et al., 1992). Thus in this case, parental awareness, attitude, and even neighborhood mediate the strength of eco- nomic hardship as a determinant of child rearing.

Generally, the single most important mediator of parenting are beliefs. If parents can revise or reframe their thinking, then parental behavior can be changed. For example, mothers with irritable infants provided less supportive care if they believed (true or not) that responsive care would reinforce the “demandingness” of their infants. Thus, maternal beliefs mediated the extent to which infant irritability was predictive of maternal sensitivity (Crockenberg & McCluskey, 1986).

A fourth way that parenting determinants can relate to one another is through an interaction. Interactions occur when the effect of one independent variable

Chapter 5 • Determinants of Parenting 129

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depends on a second independent variable. A common interaction found in parent-child relationships is between the gender of the parent and the gender of the child (both independent variables). Fathers, for example, are sometimes observed to behave differently toward their sons than toward their daughters (Russell & Saebel, 1997).

Last, determinants can relate through compensation. If one positive variable is strong enough, it can compensate for the presence of a negative one. For example, the features that are perceived to make babies cute and adorable to parents help to compensate for the incredible amount of work required to rear a child. A second example concerns stress. As described above, parental stress can be a powerful neg- ative influence on child rearing. However, high levels of social support could com- pensate for the stress so that parenting would not be affected.

Chapter Summary

This chapter addressed the question “What determines how a particular parent behaves?” The simple answer is there are a lot of determinants. More than 30 variables can influence parenting behavior. These variables range from proud cultural tradi- tions to fleeting thoughts and emotions we might not even notice—if a researcher was not observing them. Four categories were used to organize these determinants. The most general type of variable was that of cultural and distal variables such as socioeconomic status and religious beliefs. The second category concerned contextual variables. These influences included parental employment status, stress, and the neighborhood where the family resides. Stable characteristics of the parents, children, and family formed the third category. This group of variables included such consid- erations as parental gender and personality, child age and temperament, and family size and structure. The final category consisted of situational variables that are prone to change rapidly—such as the context of the interaction or the parent’s mood.

When trying to chart out the relations between these variables, the task rapidly gets complex. The determinants of parenting can relate to each other in at least five ways. The simplest relation is when two or more variables have similar and there- fore additive effects. However, other variables may moderate, mediate, interact with, or compensate with or for another variable. Just how particular determinants relate depend on which variables are being examined.

Thought Questions

• What were the major influences on your parents’ child-rearing behavior? • Select two or three determinants. How do they interrelate? Is one more pow-

erful than another? • Parental beliefs about child rearing are susceptible to change. What are some

ways of modifying parental beliefs? • What are some of the implications of knowing the different influences on

parenting?

130 PART I • UNDERSTANDING PARENTS AND CHILD REARING

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