Middle Childhood Feelings Toward Mothers: Predictions From Maternal Directiveness at the Age of Two and Respect for Autonomy Currently

The goals of this study were to examine (1) stability of maternal directiveness during interactions with their children from toddlerhood to late middle childhood, (2) direct and mediated relations between mothers' directiveness when children were two years old, mothers' respect for autonomy and children's positivity and negativity toward their mothers when children were in late middle childhood, and (3) differences in these paths by ethnoracial group. Participants included 876 European‐American, 789 African‐American, and 411 Mexican‐American mothers and their children from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project. Maternal respect for autonomy at Time 2 partially mediated an association between Time 1 directiveness and observed child positivity toward mothers at Time 2. There was also a direct inverse link between Time 1 maternal directiveness and children's observed positivity toward mothers at Time 2. Relations were similar across ethnoracial groups and for boys and girls. The discussion focuses on heterotypic stability in directive parenting and its implications for children's feelings toward their mothers.     

Between‐ and within‐person predictors of children’s information management following rule violations

The purpose of this study was to better understand both why some children disclose more about their misbehavior to their parents than do other children, as well as why a child discloses to parents about misbehavior in some situations but not in others. Analyses test parental warmth, children's beliefs regarding the legitimacy of parental authority and their own obligation to disclose misbehavior, and parent's responses to children's disclosure of disagreement with parents’ rules and children's misbehavior as predictors of both between‐person and within‐person variations in disclosing and revealing forms of information management. Parent‐child dyads (n = 218) were interviewed during the summers following the child's 5th (M age = 11.9 years) and 6th grade school years. Feeling obligated to disclose rule violations and believing that parents have legitimate authority to impose rules across more topics explained why some children reveal more and conceal less from parents than do other children. Children were more likely to conceal information about the specific topics for which they felt less obligated to disclose rule violations and following rule violations in areas in which their parents previously punished rule violations.     

Maternal narration about parenting pride and regret is related to youth emotion regulation

As they respond to children's emotions, mothers socialize children's emerging emotion regulation. Mothers' own autobiographical narratives likely reflect in part habitual ways of expressing and managing emotions—ways that may in turn influence the way mothers respond to their children's emotions. We examined features of mothers' narratives about parental pride and regret experiences, and assessed whether these were associated with parental socialization of emotion and the emotion regulation repertoire of their children. Two hundred thirty‐seven mothers with children ranging from 8 to 17 years of age provided two narratives about parental pride and parental regret experiences. Parental emotion socialization and children's emotion regulation were assessed via self‐ and informant‐report using a multi‐measure, multi‐observer approach. We found that features of the way mothers narrated their experiences with a particular child related to their parenting of that child, and that child's emotion regulation. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for emotion‐related parenting, and the potential importance of parent narratives.     

Maternal and paternal reactions to child sadness predict children's psychosocial outcomes: A family‐centered approach

Parents' reactions to children's emotions shape their psychosocial outcomes. Extant research on emotion socialization primarily uses variable‐centered approaches. This study explores family patterns of maternal and paternal responses to children's sadness in relation to psychosocial outcomes in middle childhood. Fifty‐one families with 8‐ to 12‐year‐old children participated. Mothers and fathers reported their reactions to children's sadness and children's social competence and psychological adjustment. Cluster analyses revealed three family patterns: Supportive (high supportive and low non‐supportive reactions from both parents), Not Supportive (low supportive reactions from both parents), and Father Dominant (high paternal supportive and non‐supportive reactions, low maternal supportive and non‐supportive reactions). Supportive families had children with higher social competence and more internalizing symptoms whereas Father Dominant families had children with lower social competence and fewer internalizing symptoms. Not Supportive families had children with average social competence and fewer internalizing symptoms. Findings are discussed in relation to the “divergence model” which proposes that a diverse range of parental responses to children's sadness, rather than a uniformly supportive approach, may facilitate children's psychosocial adjustment.     

Preschoolers' Mind‐related Comments During Collaborative Problem‐solving: Parental Contributions and Developmental Outcomes

Preschool children's mind‐related comments were analyzed during collaborative problem‐solving interactions with mothers and fathers, and in relation to parental mind‐mindedness (MM) and children's concurrent theory of mind (ToM). Seventy‐two parents (36 fathers, 36 mothers) and their four‐year‐olds participated. Parents' comments to encourage independent thinking and children's own mind‐related comments were expected to mediate, in serial, the relationship between parental MM and children's ToM. The proposed model of mediation received empirical confirmation. In addition, mothers and fathers were found to perform similarly on two measures of MM and in their usage of autonomy promoting and control comments. Finally, no differences were found in the frequency of children's mind‐related comments during interactions with fathers and mothers.     

Longitudinal dyadic analyses of emotion dysregulation and mother–child relationship quality in Chinese children with teacher‐reported oppositional defiant disorder

This study examined whether and how mothers' and children's perceptions of mother–child relationship quality mediated associations between mothers' and children's initial emotion dysregulation and children's emotion dysregulation and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) symptoms 2 years later. The participants were 155 Chinese children with teacher‐reported ODD and their mothers derived from a three‐wave (2 years apart) longitudinal study. A multiple‐informant approach and a dyadic analysis approach (i.e., actor–partner interdependent modeling) were used. The results revealed that (a) mothers' and children's emotion dysregulation was significantly related to their own and their partners’ concurrent perceptions of relationship quality; (b) mothers' and children's perceptions of relationship quality from Wave 1 to Wave 2 were stable but were also interdependent, such that one's own perception of relationship quality at Wave 1 related to the partner's perception at Wave 2; and (c) relationship quality at the two waves interdependently mediated the associations between mothers' and children's emotion dysregulation at Wave 1 and children's emotion dysregulation and ODD symptoms at Wave 3. Implications for family intervention programs targeting maternal and child emotion dysregulation and strengthening mother–child relationship quality for children with ODD were discussed.     

Preschoolers' Attachment to Mother and Risk for Adjustment Problems in Kindergarten: Can Teachers Make a Difference?

Based on attachment theory, two aims were addressed. Firstly, we tested whether close teacher–child relationships may buffer children who are less securely attached to their mothers against negative outcomes, such as aggressive behavior. Secondly, our study evaluated whether teacher sensitivity may protect less securely attached children against forming less close relationships with their teachers. In a sample of 127 children, mother–child attachment was observed in preschool. In kindergarten, teacher sensitivity was observed, and teacher–child closeness and child aggressive behavior were rated by the teacher. Results of multilevel hierarchical regression analyses first showed that with high teacher–child closeness, less securely attached children are no longer at risk for more aggressive behavior. Secondly, it was found that with high teacher sensitivity, less securely attached children are no longer at risk for developing less close relationships with their teachers.     

The role of antenatal and postnatal maternal bonding in infant development: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

The purpose of this study was to systematically review the empirical literature on maternal bonding and associations with infant physical, psychological, and social development. Nineteen articles met inclusion criteria and were included in a qualitative synthesis (79 effect sizes); 15 articles were suitable for aggregation in a series of 14 meta‐analyses (51 effect sizes). All mean effects were in the expected direction, with higher maternal bonding contributing to infant developmental outcomes, including higher attachment quality (r = .35) and parent‐reported lower colic rating (r = .22), easier temperament (r = .19), and positive infant mood (r = .27). Consistent with theoretical explanatory models, the review provides support for the hypothesis that maternal bonding plays a role in fostering more optimal infant development. The review also identifies a paucity of empirical work on this topic and provides directions for future research.     

The development of interindividual differences in sympathy: The role of child personality and adults’ responsiveness to distress

In a three‐wave longitudinal study of 85 children (43 girls) at 5, 6, and 7 years of age, the role played by child personality (inhibition, aggressiveness) and adults’ responsiveness to distress in children's sympathy was examined. At all three times, sympathy was measured via standardized observations as well as children's self‐reports. Child inhibition and aggressiveness were assessed with reports by teachers at T1 and T2. Parents’ and teachers’ responsiveness to distress were inferred from interviews with the children at T1 and T2. Longitudinal analyses via latent regression using structural equation models showed that earlier sympathy explained most of the variance in later sympathy. Additionally, higher inhibition at T1 predicted less sympathy at T2. Higher sympathy at T1 predicted more adult responsiveness at T2. Higher aggressiveness at T2 predicted less sympathy at T3. Within time, at T1, sympathy was positively related to adults’ responsiveness. At T2, inhibition and sympathy were negatively related. The discussion focuses on the question of how child personality as well as parental and non‐parental socialization experiences work in concert to explain interindividual differences in sympathy.     

The effects of children’s proximity‐seeking to maternal attachment figures during mild stress exposure on mood and physiological responses: An experimental study

In this study we investigated the effects of seeking versus avoiding proximity to mother on children’s emotional recovery from a stressor. Sixty children 9–12 years underwent a moodinduction procedure and were randomly assigned to seek proximity from or avoid an image of their mothers. The effect of this manipulation on children’s self‐reported negative emotions, skin conductance and heart rate variability (respiratory sinus arhythmia) was assessed. Higher levels of attachment anxiety were linked to more self‐reported sadness when children had to avoid mother, but no evidence for such an effect was found on a physiological level. For avoidant attachment, a similar pattern of results emerged, but both for self‐reported sadness and skin conductance.     

The effect of mothers’ emotion‐related responses to adolescent disclosures and adolescent perspective taking on the timing of future disclosures

Adolescent disclosure to parents is an important feature of high‐quality parent–adolescent relationships and is associated with positive adolescent adjustment. However, no studies have examined parental emotion‐related responses (ERRs) to disclosures and adolescent dispositional characteristics that may facilitate or inhibit adolescent disclosures during real‐time conversations. The present study tested (a) which maternal ERRs to adolescent disclosures predicted quicker subsequent disclosures during mother–adolescent conversations, and (b) whether adolescent perspective taking moderated these associations. Adolescent disclosures and maternal ERRs were coded moment‐to‐moment during a problem‐solving discussion and adolescents reported on their perspective taking. Multilevel Generalized Linear Mixed‐Effects Models revealed that maternal interest and validation predicted the shortest lag times compared with other maternal ERRs, controlling for adolescent age, gender, total durations of maternal ERRs, and total frequency and duration of adolescent disclosures. Adolescent perspective taking moderated associations between maternal ERRs to adolescent disclosures and lag times. Specifically, adolescents high in perspective taking were most likely to make quicker subsequent disclosures when mothers responded to disclosures with interest. This is the first study to examine how contingent parental responses to adolescent disclosures in real time affect the timing of subsequent disclosures during parent–adolescent conversations.     

Parental self‐esteem,parent–child relationships,and authoritative parenting of Chinese migrant parents of left‐behind children: Implications for social policy and services

In this study, we aimed to examine whether and how parental self‐esteem and parent–child relationships interact and associate with the authoritative parenting of Chinese rural‐to‐urban migrant mothers and fathers of left‐behind children. Results from a cross‐sectional survey of 295 Chinese migrant parents living in Shenzhen revealed no statistically significant differences between migrant mothers and fathers in parental self‐esteem, parent–child relationships, and authoritative parenting. Both parental self‐esteem and parent‐child relationships had positive associations with authoritative parenting among two groups of respondents; however, the perceived parent–child relationship quality was a more important predictor than parental self‐esteem. There was also an interaction effect between parental self‐esteem and parent–child relationships on migrant mothers’ authoritative parenting. The findings indicate that migrant parents’ perception of their encounters with their children has a profound influence on their parenting behaviors. Social services should, thus, be provided to strengthen both virtual and face‐to‐face parent–child interactions via mobile phone parenting and periodic visits. New policies should be developed to provide migrant parents with more options regarding family reunion.