Disentangling Italian mothers' and fathers' psychological control over time: A random-intercept cross-lagged panel model

Bidirectional longitudinal associations between parental self-efficacy and child rule-breaking behaviours: A random-intercept cross-lagged panel study

Parental self-efficacy (PSE) is a pivotal determinant of change in children's adjustment. However, not only has previous research shown that PSE plays a protective role for children's rule-breaking (RB) behaviours (i.e., parent-driven process), but RB also can reduce parents' PSE over-time (i.e., child-driven process). This study examined the bidirectional longitudinal associations between PSE and RB behaviours by disentangling maternal from paternal influences and between- from within-person effects. In the present seven-wave longitudinal study involving 200 Italian children (T1: Mage = 9.80, SD = 0.65; 50.5% girls), their mothers (N = 200) and fathers (N = 190), two random-intercept cross-lagged panel models (one for mothers and one for fathers) were used to explore whether: (a) stable parts of PSE and RB were related to each other, (b) higher levels of PSE were associated with lower levels of RB at a given time point, and (c) higher levels of PSE at a given time point were associated with future lower levels of RB. Results provided evidence both for a parent- and a child-driven process between mothers' PSE and children's RB behaviours. However, these results were not replicated for fathers. Implications are discussed.

Prosocial and externalizing behaviors in children raised by different-and same-gender parent families: new directions in parenting research

Introduction

Limited research focused on the association between parenting practices and children's prosocial and externalizing behaviors comparing same- and different-gender parent families. The present study considered 76 Italian families (73% same-gender and 27% different-gender parent families) with 8-year-old (SD = 2.17; 49% assigned female at birth) children born through assisted reproductive techniques, to explore parenting practices and children's prosocial and externalizing behaviors.

Method

We ran a Multiple-group-by-couple Structural Equation Model in which we estimated the predictive role of parenting on children's behaviors, controlling for age, gender, and family socioeconomic status using the Maximum Likelihood estimation.

Results

Results showed that both same- and different-gender parent families reported high levels of parental warmth and very low levels of hostility and rejection; regarding children's behaviors, both same- and different-gender parent families reported high levels of prosociality and low levels of externalizing behaviors. In addition, same-gender parents reported significantly higher levels of children's prosociality and parental warmth than different-gender parents. Regarding associations between parenting practices and behaviors, we found a positive association between positive parenting practices and increasing children's prosocial behaviors and decreasing children's externalizing behaviors, in both same- and different-gender families, controlling for family background characteristics.

Conclusion

The present study encourages future research to investigate how specific parenting practices can influence behavioral adjustment in children, focusing on same-gender parent families.

Cultural values, parenting and child adjustment in Italy

The present study examined the association of mothers' and fathers' individualism, collectivism and conformity values with parenting behaviours and child adjustment during middle childhood in an Italian sample. Children (n = 194; 95 from Naples and 99 from Rome; 49% girls) were 10.93 years old (SD = .61) at the time of data collection. Their mothers (n = 194) and fathers (n = 152) also participated. Mother and father reports were collected about parental individualism and collectivism, conformity values, warmth, family obligations expectations and their children's internalising and externalising problems. Child reports were collected about their parents' warmth, psychological control, rules/limit-setting, family obligations expectations and their own internalising and externalising behaviours. Multiple regressions predicted each of the parenting and child adjustment variables from the value variables, controlling for child gender and parent education. Results showed that maternal collectivism was associated with high psychological control, parental collectivism was associated with high expectations regarding children's family obligations and fathers' conformity values were associated with more child internalising behaviours. Overall, the present study shed light on how parents' cultural values are related to some parenting practices and children's internalising problems in Italy.

Patterns of caregiver aggressive and nonaggressive discipline toward young children in low- and middle-income countries: A latent class approach

BACKGROUND

Caregivers use a variety of disciplinary methods to respond to undesired child behavior. Many caregivers use nonaggressive forms of discipline, such as verbal reasoning and redirection. Some caregivers use aggressive forms of discipline, such as spanking and yelling. However, most caregivers use a combination of aggressive and nonaggressive discipline. To date, a disproportionately small number of caregiver discipline studies are conducted in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and few studies in low-resource contexts examine aggressive and nonaggressive behaviors simultaneously.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to elucidate caregiver patterns of 11 disciplinary behaviors used in LMICs, and examine how these patterns relate to child outcomes and household characteristics.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

Data came from the fourth and fifth rounds of UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) distributed between 2009 and 2017 (N = 218,824 respondents across 63 countries). Focal children were 3-4 years old.

METHODS

Patterns of disciplinary behaviors were estimated using a multilevel latent class analysis (LCA). Multinomial regression analyses examined associations of disciplinary patterns with caregiver-reported child outcomes and household characteristics.

RESULTS

The LCA suggested caregiver discipline fell into three overall patterns: high behavioral control, moderate behavior control, and lower behavioral control. The lower behavioral control class was associated with the most advantageous child outcomes and household socio-demographic characteristics, whereas the high behavioral control class was associated with the most disadvantageous child outcomes and household characteristics.

CONCLUSIONS

Efforts should be employed to reduce aggressive behaviors and promote positive parenting among caregivers in LMICs.