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Preschool child care and parents' use of physical discipline
Abstract
Parenting practices, including the use of physical discipline, are shaped by multiple influences. Although much research focuses on how parent, child, and dyadic characteristics shape parenting practices, extra-familial resources may also play a role. This paper focuses on how children's experiences of child care during the preschool years may affect one aspect of parenting—discipline practices. Using a rich, nationally representative data set, we explore the correlation between children's participation in centre based care, Head Start, or other non-parental care arrangements and parents' use of physical discipline, and related phenomena, parents' experience of domestic violence and parenting stress. We conduct probit regressions of parents' use of physical discipline, and parents' experiences of domestic violence, on preschool child care experiences. For disadvantaged groups of children, who have higher risks of experiencing physical discipline and witnessing family violence, we find that Head Start participation is associated with an increase in the likelihood that parents say they never spank their children and reduction in reports of domestic violence. And, for children in two-parent families, Head Start is associated with an increase in the likelihood that parents say they never spank their children and the likelihood that they do not say they would resort to spanking in a hypothetical situation. However, we find no evidence that non-parental child care is associated with a lasting reduction in parenting stress. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
... Among these 15 studies, five studies included both center-based and homebased Head Start/EHS programs (Berlin et al., 2011;Chazan-Cohen et al., 2007;Green et al., 2014Green et al., , 2020Love et al., 2005), six examined programs with exclusively center-based delivery K. Lee & Rispoli, 2017;Pratt et al., 2015;Sabol & Chase-Lansdale, 2015;Zhai et al., 2013), and four did not distinguish between center-based or home-based service delivery type (Klein et al., 2017;R. Lee et al., 2014;Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005;Scarborough et al., 2021). ...
... Four studies found that Head Start had a positive effect on parental child maltreating behaviors, but only for a select group of families. Specifically, Head Start participation was associated with less reported use of physical punishment in: boys, but not girls (R. Lee et al., 2014); two-parent families and families with income less than twice the poverty line, but not families with low maternal education or single-parent families (Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005); families who were more frequently using corporal punishment on their children than those who were not ; and families with mothers who reported high, but not low, attachment anxiety (Berlin et al., 2011). One study found that EHS participation was related to both positive and negative outcomes related to child maltreatment: while Early Health Start children were less likely to have a substantiated report of physical abuse, they were also more likely to have a substantiated report of neglect (Green et al., 2014). ...
... Most of the identified studies utilized parent-report questions to assess use of physical punishment Berlin et al., 2011;Green et al., 2020;R. Lee et al., 2014;Love et al., 2005;Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005;Pratt et al., 2015). One study examined both abuse and neglect using a validated measure of child maltreatment, the PC-CTS (Zhai et al., 2013). ...
The current study sought to understand existing literature regarding the relationship between early childhood education and care policies in the U.S. (i.e., childcare subsidies, Head Start, and universal pre-k) and family violence (i.e., child maltreatment and IPV). We examined articles that assessed either of these two family violence outcomes or their related risk factors, including food insecurity, employment, poverty, and parental mental health issues. We conducted a rapid review of literature from the following academic databases: Web of Science, Academic Search Complete, and JSTOR. We examined peer-reviewed journal articles that were published in English between the years of 1996 to 2021. Few studies have investigated the associations between early childhood education and care policies and family violence outcomes. However, of those studies that have examined associations between early childhood education and care policies and family violence outcomes, there is promising evidence to support these policies as a violence prevention strategy.
... Parents may be overburdened and stressed caring for their young children, thus serving as a risk factor for physically aggressive child rearing practices. Participation in ECE might serve to support parents by providing respite, as well as opportunities for educators to model appropriate discipline practices for overwhelmed parents (Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005). Research on the federal Head Start preschool program and the Early Head Start program targeting infants and toddlers finds that parent who participate in these center-based ECE programs do not spank or physically discipline their children as often as parents of similar children who do not participate in these programs (Love et al., 2005;Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005;Pratt, Lipscomb, & Schmitt, 2016;Zhai et al., 2013). ...
... Participation in ECE might serve to support parents by providing respite, as well as opportunities for educators to model appropriate discipline practices for overwhelmed parents (Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005). Research on the federal Head Start preschool program and the Early Head Start program targeting infants and toddlers finds that parent who participate in these center-based ECE programs do not spank or physically discipline their children as often as parents of similar children who do not participate in these programs (Love et al., 2005;Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005;Pratt, Lipscomb, & Schmitt, 2016;Zhai et al., 2013). Furthermore, Head Start participation has also been shown to decrease spanking specifically among nonparental caregivers (e.g., relative caregivers and foster parents) (Pratt et al., 2016). ...
... Our research also generated similar results to previous findings, in that we found black children in the CWS more likely to be enrolled in ECE centers than white children (Meloy & Phillips, 2012;Merritt & Klein, 2015). This finding is consistent with racial trends in ECE participation amongst the general population (Early & Burchinal, 2001;Fuller, Holloway, & Liang, 1996;Hofferth, West, & Henke, 1994;Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005). It has been suggested that black families' have a cultural preference for child care with high levels of oversight and ECE that is offered in more school-like settings (Early & Burchinal, 2001;Lowe & Weisner, 2004). ...
Research suggests that early care and education (ECE) services, particularly center-based ECE, may help prevent child maltreatment and also mitigate some of the negative developmental outcomes associated with child maltreatment. There is also preliminary evidence to suggest that ECE could reduce the likelihood that maltreatment allegations will be substantiated by child welfare authorities and/or result in children being placed in out-of-home care. However, little is known about rates of ECE participation among children receiving child welfare services, nor the factors that determine ECE participation for this population. Data from the first wave of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Wellbeing II, a nationally representative sample of children referred to the United States (U.S.) child welfare system (CWS) for suspected maltreatment, were used to measure the frequency with which 0–5 year olds participate in center-based ECE. Additionally, logistic regression analyses explored the effects of maltreatment type, substantiation, and children's living arrangements (i.e., with parents, relatives, or foster parents) on this outcome, controlling for a range of child and family covariates associated with ECE participation in the general population. Results indicate that less than a third of 0–5 year olds receiving child welfare services in the U.S. are participating in center-based ECE. Among the various categories of maltreatment type measured, being reported to the CWS for suspected physical abuse was associated with decreased odds of center-based ECE participation; however, other types of maltreatment, substantiation, and living arrangement were unrelated to center-based ECE participation. These findings suggest that, despite recent efforts by the U.S. federal government to promote ECE participation for CWS-supervised children, the vast majority of young children in the U.S. CWS are not receiving center-based ECE, and physically abused children are particularly disadvantaged when it comes to accessing these services.
... HS provides child care services and such component of HS programs may help parents reduce their parenting stress. Finally, as discussed in prior empirical studies (e.g., Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005;Zhai, Waldfogel, & Brooks-Gunn, 2013), another mechanism is that HS may also reduce parents' use of physical discipline by reducing HS participants' problem behaviors. ...
... We found that HS participation was not associated with maternal spanking. This result is consistent with a study showing no associations (Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005), but inconsistent with studies showing less maternal spanking among HS participants (USDHHS, ACF, 2012;Zhai et al., 2013). One possible explanation for this inconsistency is that, our and Magnuson and Waldfogel (2005)'s studies used nationally representative samples (i.e., urban, suburban, and rural ones), whereas Zhai et al. (2013)'s study employed an urban sample with predominantly low-income families from 20 large U.S. cities, and the HSIS included HS eligible children (USDHHS, ACF, 2012). ...
... This result is consistent with a study showing no associations (Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005), but inconsistent with studies showing less maternal spanking among HS participants (USDHHS, ACF, 2012;Zhai et al., 2013). One possible explanation for this inconsistency is that, our and Magnuson and Waldfogel (2005)'s studies used nationally representative samples (i.e., urban, suburban, and rural ones), whereas Zhai et al. (2013)'s study employed an urban sample with predominantly low-income families from 20 large U.S. cities, and the HSIS included HS eligible children (USDHHS, ACF, 2012). Another possible explanation is that, while our and Magnuson and Waldfogel (2005)'s studies defined the spanking measure as the frequency of spanking in the past week, Zhai et al. (2013)'s study defined it as the frequency of spanking in the past year. ...
Background and Purpose: Head Start (HS) provides parent education emphasizing the skill-based dimensions of parenting practices, such as cognitive stimulation, child discipline, and child safety. However, the effects of HS on family processes are not well understood. To date, three studies have found beneficial effects of HS on parents’ use of spanking. However, these studies paid little attention to gender differences in estimating the effects, although child gender is an important factor predicting parents’ use of spanking. In addition, the studies did not explore the mechanisms by which HS participation reduced parental spanking. Therefore, in this study, we first explore gender differences in the association between HS participation and mothers’ use of spanking. And then we investigate whether the gender differences in the effects of HS on mothers’ use of spanking are explained by levels of children’s behavior problems.
Methods: Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (ECLS‐B), we analyzed a sample of children (n≈7,000) who had valid information on HS participation at the preschool survey and whose mothers had valid information on at least one of parental outcomes at the preschool and kindergarten surveys. HS attendance status was measured at the preschool survey (yes/no). Mothers’ use of spanking was measured using two dichotomous indicators: whether since birth a mother had ever spanked her child until the preschool (or kindergarten) survey and whether a mother spanked her child in the prior week at the preschool (or kindergarten) survey. Two mediation variables were measured both at the preschool and kindergarten surveys standardizing the total scores of parent-reported items that asked about children’s conduct and attention problems. Using propensity-score weighted regressions with an extensive set of covariates, we first confirmed the association between HS and mothers’ use of spanking, separately for girls and boys. We next estimated whether HS is associated with children’s behavior problems, separately for girls and boys. We then finally investigated whether HS is associated with mothers’ use of spanking after controlling for children’s behavior problems, separately for girls and boys. Sobel tests were used to test the significance of found mediation effects.
Results: Overall, we found HS participation was associated with reduced spanking for boys at the preschool survey (odds ratio=0.79, p<.05), but possibly with increased spanking for girls at the kindergarten survey (odds ratio=1.25, p<.10). Furthermore, we found children’s behavior problems mediated the gender-moderated associations between HS and mother’s use of spanking: reduced spanking among boys at the preschool survey was partially explained by their reduced attention problems (Sobel test=-2.14, p<.05, 15% of the total effects), whereas increased spanking among girls at the kindergarten survey was partially explained by their increased conduct problems (Sobel test=2.75, p<.01, 33% of the total effects).
Implications: Our findings suggest enhancing parent and family services would be a step in the right direction to improve HS programs. More importantly, in addition to exploring main effects of HS, examining moderated effects by child characteristics would deepen our understanding of the possible role of HS programs in reducing the risk of child maltreatment.
... HS provides child care services and such component of HS programs may help parents reduce their parenting stress. Finally, as discussed in prior empirical studies (e.g., Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005;Zhai, Waldfogel, & Brooks-Gunn, 2013), another mechanism is that HS may also reduce parents' use of physical discipline by reducing HS participants' problem behaviors. ...
... We found that HS participation was not associated with maternal spanking. This result is consistent with a study showing no associations (Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005), but inconsistent with studies showing less maternal spanking among HS participants (USDHHS, ACF, 2012;Zhai et al., 2013). One possible explanation for this inconsistency is that, our and Magnuson and Waldfogel (2005)'s studies used nationally representative samples (i.e., urban, suburban, and rural ones), whereas Zhai et al. (2013)'s study employed an urban sample with predominantly low-income families from 20 large U.S. cities, and the HSIS included HS eligible children (USDHHS, ACF, 2012). ...
... This result is consistent with a study showing no associations (Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005), but inconsistent with studies showing less maternal spanking among HS participants (USDHHS, ACF, 2012;Zhai et al., 2013). One possible explanation for this inconsistency is that, our and Magnuson and Waldfogel (2005)'s studies used nationally representative samples (i.e., urban, suburban, and rural ones), whereas Zhai et al. (2013)'s study employed an urban sample with predominantly low-income families from 20 large U.S. cities, and the HSIS included HS eligible children (USDHHS, ACF, 2012). Another possible explanation is that, while our and Magnuson and Waldfogel (2005)'s studies defined the spanking measure as the frequency of spanking in the past week, Zhai et al. (2013)'s study defined it as the frequency of spanking in the past year. ...
Head Start includes family-oriented services to enhance parent–child relationships, but little is known about the effect of Head Start on parenting practices. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Birth Cohort (n ≈ 7000), we examined whether participation in Head Start was associated with maternal spanking, with particular attention to whether the association differed by child gender. We found that Head Start participation was associated with lower likelihood that mothers spanked their child in the past week at both preschool and kindergarten entry as well as lower likelihood that mothers would use spanking in a hypothetical situation, among boys but not girls. These beneficial effects of Head Start participation on mothers' use of spanking among boys were not reduced by additionally including maternal depression and child behavior problems.
... For example, one randomized investigation found that parents whose children attended Head Start, the well-known school readiness program that serves lowincome families, were less likely than control parents to report spanking their children (Puma et al., 2005). Other studies have produced similar findings, suggesting that participation in programs like Head Start and Early Head Start may reduce the incidence and frequency of parents' self-reported spanking (Love et al., 2005;Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005). These results reinforce prior findings from Reynolds and Robertson (2003) who evaluated the impacts of participation in the Chicago Child-Parent Center preschool program, an early childhood intervention that shares many features with Head Start. ...
... The field of maltreatment prevention has primarily focused on interventions delivered during early childhood, especially home visitation programs and other approaches that target pregnant women and families with infants and toddlers. Our investigation adds to emerging evidence indicating that center-based interventions with preschool-aged children also have the potential to prevent maltreatment and associated risks among lower-income families (Love et al., 2005;Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005). Nation et al. (2003) also surmised that the success of a prevention program partly hinges on its sociocultural relevance, or the extent to which the program reflects community norms and practices. ...
... Paired with prior research (Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005;Puma et al., 2005), findings from the CLS suggest that center-based preschool programs are also worthy of increased attention with respect to their impacts on maltreatment. Consistent with prevailing ecological perspectives on maltreatment (Belsky, 1993;Chaffin, 1995), comprehensive early childhood interventions like the CPCs may impact abuse and neglect through a range of micro-, meso-, and exosystemic processes. ...
Increased recognition of the consequences associated with child maltreatment has led to greater emphasis on its prevention. Promising maltreatment prevention strategies have been identified, but research continues to suffer from methodological limitations and a narrow focus on select prevention models. This investigation uses data from the Chicago Longitudinal Study to examine mediating mechanisms that link the Chicago Child-Parent Center preschool program to a reduction in overall child maltreatment and, more specifically, child neglect. We use structural equation modeling to test child, family, and school measures hypothesized to mediate the effects of CPC participation on maltreatment and neglect. Results indicate that a substantial proportion of the program's impacts can be accounted for by family support processes, including increased parent involvement in school and maternal educational attainment as well as decreased family problems. The CPC program's association with reduced school mobility and increased attendance in higher-quality schools also significantly mediated its effects on maltreatment and neglect. Further, a decrease in troublemaking behavior contributed modestly to mediating the program's association with maltreatment but not neglect. We discuss the implications of these results for the field of maltreatment prevention.
... The utilization of non-parental child care can relieve parents of their caregiving responsibility for a significant amount of time, which has the potential to reduce parents' parenting stress. However, some studies suggested that the utilization of nonparental child care in the year prior to school has not been accompanied by a decrease in parenting stress (e.g., Magnuson and Waldfogel, 2005). Based on the data from the Household, Income and Labor Dynamics in Australia survey, Craig and Churchill (2018) found that longer non-parental child care was related to greater levels of parenting stress of dual-earner couples with young children. ...
... Results also indicated that parents of children who participated in non-parental child care arrangements were slightly less stressed in interacting with their children than parents who did not use non-parental child care. On the one hand, these findings support prior research, indicating that young children's participation in non-parental child care was not linked to a reduction in parenting stress due to the associated demands and concerns on child care (e.g., Magnuson and Waldfogel, 2005;Craig and Churchill, 2018). On the other hand, these results should be interpreted with caution, given the intensity of non-parental child care (e.g., the average length of child care per week) was not assessed in this study, and the types of non-parental child care arrangements were not distinguished. ...
This study examined the patterns and characteristics of non-parental child care arrangements for Chinese very young children before they enter preschool and the extent to which families’ utilization of non-parental child care influenced parenting stress. A total of 3,842 Chinese parents of infants and toddlers were selected from 10 provinces to participate in this study. The results indicated that (1) Chinese families relied heavily on grandparents to care for their children; (2) a set of family demographics predicted the utilization of non-parental child care arrangements, including parents’ educational level, household income, labor force participation, and maternal age; (3) there existed a clear parental preference for publicly funded, affordable, and high-quality child care services; and (4) families’ use of non-parental child care was generally not linked to parenting stress. These findings shed light on the development of the infant-toddler non-parental child care system in the Chinese sociocultural context.
... Research on racial and ethnic participation in ECE indicates that black families are more likely than white families to select center-based care (Fuller, Holloway, & Liang, 1996;Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005), whereas Latino (and especially immigrant) families are more likely than other population subgroups to utilize relative or familial childcare (Beltrán, 2011;Fram & Kim, 2008;Fuller, Holloway, & Liang, 1996;Hernandez, Denton, & Macartney, 2011;Laughlin, 2013;Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005). Other recent research, however, suggests that if center-based care options are available and accessible, and families know of their existence, Latino and DLL children will attend at the same rates as children of other subgroups (Espinosa et al., 2013;Greenberg & Kahn, 2012;Greenfader & Miller, 2014;Winsler, Robinson, & Thibodeaux, 2013). ...
... Research on racial and ethnic participation in ECE indicates that black families are more likely than white families to select center-based care (Fuller, Holloway, & Liang, 1996;Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005), whereas Latino (and especially immigrant) families are more likely than other population subgroups to utilize relative or familial childcare (Beltrán, 2011;Fram & Kim, 2008;Fuller, Holloway, & Liang, 1996;Hernandez, Denton, & Macartney, 2011;Laughlin, 2013;Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005). Other recent research, however, suggests that if center-based care options are available and accessible, and families know of their existence, Latino and DLL children will attend at the same rates as children of other subgroups (Espinosa et al., 2013;Greenberg & Kahn, 2012;Greenfader & Miller, 2014;Winsler, Robinson, & Thibodeaux, 2013). ...
Data from the Head Start Impact Study (N = 1141) and the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey, 2009 Cohort (N = 825) were used to describe child care enrollment decisions among Spanish-speaking Dual Language Learner (DLL) families. In particular, logistic regression models tested which child, family, and institutional characteristics predicted enrollment in early care and education (ECE) settings that used Spanish for instruction versus enrollment in settings that did not use Spanish. Results showed that whether the child’s first language was exclusively Spanish and whether other DLL families previously attended the ECE arrangement strongly predicted whether that child enrolled. Policy implications for Head Start-eligible Spanish-speaking DLLs are discussed.
... The use and acceptance of corporal punishment or physical discipline vary considerably both within and between context and culture (Gershoff, 2002; and see the section on 'Culture and ethnicity' below). It takes various forms, including hitting with the hand or another object, slapping, smacking or other types of punitive physical contact (Magnuson and Waldfogel, 2005). There is evidence from a variety of sources that corporal punishment is expected and accepted in communities where its use is normative (Gershoff, 2002;Simons et al., 2002) and in communities which are unsafe or disadvantaged by economic or job stresses (Gershoff, 2002;Magnuson and Waldfogel, 2005). ...
... It takes various forms, including hitting with the hand or another object, slapping, smacking or other types of punitive physical contact (Magnuson and Waldfogel, 2005). There is evidence from a variety of sources that corporal punishment is expected and accepted in communities where its use is normative (Gershoff, 2002;Simons et al., 2002) and in communities which are unsafe or disadvantaged by economic or job stresses (Gershoff, 2002;Magnuson and Waldfogel, 2005). In a study of parents of preschool children in the UK, fewer than 25 per cent of parents said they supported the use of smacking as a form of punishment but 63 per cent reported that they had actually smacked their child during the previous week (Thompson and Pearce, 2001). ...
This report is intended to provide support for such decision-making, so as both to reduce the risks to children and avoid inappropriate censuring of parents. It examines parenting in Britain during early and middle childhood within different social and cultural groups. It also looks at how parenting develops and changes over time.
... Table 3 shows that the increase in head teacher praise can greatly enhance adolescents' non-cognitive skills, while the decrease in criticism has little effect. We assume that the gap between rural and urban adolescents' non-cognitive skills will be narrowed if they receive the same amount of praise from head teachers, and the effect of increasing head teacher praise is estimated by referring to the method of Magnuson and Waldfogel (2010). Table 4 shows that if the frequency of praise to rural adolescents is raised to the level as urban adolescents, the gap in non-cognitive skills between them will be narrowed. ...
Introduction
Although the importance of teacher feedback has been confirmed by a great number of studies, the association of head teacher praise and criticism with adolescents’ non-cognitive skills still needs more deeper and more extensive research. Therefore, how to improve the non-cognitive skills of adolescents, especially those with disadvantaged family and economic backgrounds, has become a key concern in the field of educational practice.
Methods
Based on CEPS data, this paper used panel regression and PSM-DID methods to analyze the impact of head teacher feedback on an adolescent’s non-cognitive skills measured by the big-five personality scale.
Results
It found that praise from head teachers favorably influenced adolescents’ extraversion, agreeableness, openness, and conscientiousness, yet significantly mitigates their neuroticism. Meanwhile, the effect of criticism from head teachers is bi-facial: It made a positive effect on adolescents’ extraversion and openness but impaired their conscientiousness and neuroticism. As rural adolescents notably lag in their non-cognitive skills and are much less likely to be praised by head teachers compared to their urban peers, we estimate that when rural adolescents are frequently praised by their head teachers at the same level as urban students, their gap in extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and conscientiousness would be narrowed by 12.51%, 16.58%, 11.35%, 14.25%, and 24.29%. This finding has significant implications for head teacher teaching and adolescent well-being.
Conclusions
The study examined the effects of head teacher praise and criticism on adolescent non-cognitive skills. The results showed that adolescents who were often praised by head teachers developed better non-cognitive skills. While the effect of head teacher criticism was two-sided: it enhances extraversion and openness as well as heightens neuroticism and corrupts conscientiousness. We further analyzed the urban-rural gap in non-cognitive skills and found that rural adolescents significantly lagged, and they have a lower possibility to be often praised by the head teacher, but a higher probability to be criticized. Through the PSM-DID quasi-experimental design, it was suggested that more head teacher praise can improve the non-cognitive skills among adolescents. When rural adolescents are estimated to receive the same amount of praise as urban adolescents, the disparities reduction in their non-cognitive skills can become possible. Our findings are of great significance to promote adolescent non-cognitive skills development and improve educational equity in urban and rural areas.
... Este ítem complementa al anterior y agrega a la situación de transgresión descrita, el hecho de que la acción de faul atiende a un asunto intencional de venganza, de represalia: ¿es justificable realizar la misma acción moral con una persona cuando te lo ha hecho antes?, ¿es permisible retribuir igualitariamente en el mismo sentido ante acciones morales idénticas?, por lo que este escenario se presta para observar si los sujetos solicitan una retribución del daño, a través de un castigo, o bien, mediante el consenso se llega a la decisión de restaurar la transgresión a través de acciones convenidas por la colectividad (para una discusión sobre justicia retributiva y distributiva ver Wenzel, Okimoto, Feather y Platow, 2010, p. 910 (Lansford, Criss, Dodge, Shaw, Pettit y Bates, 2009;López, Lara, Herrera, Wissow, Gutiérrez, Levav y Maddaleno, 2000;Magnuson y Waldfogel, 2005). Este ítem ayuda a conocer que los niños y niñas sean relatores de su propia experiencia en relación al daño, en un contexto familiar con su propios sistemas de reglas (Revisar Dobbs, 2007, para ver cómo se puede elicitar el punto de vista infantil utilizando la técnica del focus group como un punto de vista válido y experto). ...
Esta obra tiene la intención de servir como referencia para investigadores, estudiantes y educadores que tienen interés en temas de desarrollo moral y valores con niñez.
Lo que aquí se presenta procede de investigaciones realizadas por el autor en distintos momentos, que retratan su preocupación metodológica por conocer aspectos de la moralidad, valores y percepción del daño.
De alguna manera se presenta una inquietud por abordar distintas estrategias que sirven como dispositivos metodológicos para el diálogo con niñas y niños. En esta aventura surge la pregunta sobre los medios que usamos para investigar y las funciones en la vida infantil, y tratamos de dilucidar hasta dónde los medios asociados a lo infantil son un medio de expresión, y hasta dónde nosotros lo “reconvertimos” en un medio para investigar. Estas mismas inquietudes se han planteado quienes estudian el dibujo o el juego infantil… (Tomado de la introducción: Plascencia, 2017, p. 1)
... Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study, Zhai and colleagues (2013) documented similar patterns: Spanking was less frequent among families in Head Start. In a separate national sample, Magnuson and Waldfogel (2005) found that parents whose children were in Head Start were less likely to spank than parents whose children were not in Head Start. ...
This study examined whether Head Start, the nation’s main two-generation program for low-income families, benefits children in part through positive changes in parents’ use of spanking and reading to children. Data were drawn from the 3-year-old cohort of the national evaluation of the Head Start program known as the Head Start Impact Study (N = 2,063). Results indicated that Head Start had small, indirect effects on children’s spelling ability at Age 4 and their aggression at Age 4 through an increase in parents’ reading to their children. Taken together, the results suggest that parents play a role in sustaining positive benefits of the Head Start program for children’s behavior and literacy skills, one that could be enhanced with a greater emphasis on parent involvement and education.
... Child care and preschool services are increasingly highlighted as important sources of support for vulnerable families that not only enhance children's school readiness and enable parents to work but also have the potential to promote positive parenting (Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005;USDHHS, 2010USDHHS, , 2011Zhai, Waldfogel, & Brooks-Gunn, 2013). Several early social disorganization studies of child maltreatment lend support to this idea by documenting a clear, inverse link between community rates of preschool participation and child maltreatment (Garbarino, 1976;Garbarino & Crouter, 1978). ...
Using a sample of 438 parents in Los Angeles County, CA, this study examines the role of proximity to social services in child neglect. In an extension of social disorganization theory, it seeks to understand the potential sources of support in neighborhoods for families. It uses ordinary least squares regression to examine driving distance from parents' residences to four types of services (child care, domestic violence, mental health/substance abuse, and poverty). The results show an association between proximity to mental health and substance abuse services and parents' self-reported neglectful behaviors. Additionally, higher levels of socioeconomic disadvantage (poverty, unemployment, and low education), having older children, respondents being male, and respondents being older parents are associated with higher levels of child neglect, while being white is associated with lower levels. Overall, the findings suggest a potentially protective role of geographic access to mental health and substance abuse services in child maltreatment. Additional research on the pathways through which proximity to services influences child neglect is needed.
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... Mediante o exposto anteriormente, compreendemos que as práticas parentais, nas quais se insere o uso do castigo físico, são constituídas por múltiplas influências (Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005 (Straus & Stewart, 1999). ...
... Stress tends to increase a mother's irritability and her attention to acting out behaviors as well as the likelihood that she initiates aversive exchanges with her child (Patterson, 1988;Patterson & Forgatch, 1990). There are also studies to support that higher levels of parenting stress are predictive of parents' negative appraisal of their children and the use of physical discipline (Crnic & Acevedo, 1995;Jackson et al., 1998;Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005;Pinderhughes et al., 2000). Thus, stressed mothers would tend to handle their child's externalizing behaviors without the need of support from relatives, friends, or formal sources of support. ...
... Additional prior research on subgroup participation in ECE suggests that Hispanics are less likely than blacks and whites to enroll their children in ECE programs, as they rely more on grandparents or other relatives for child care (Fuller, Holloway, & Liang, 1996;Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005). Beltrán (2011) reported that less than half (48%) of Latino 4-year-olds attend preschool programs, compared with 70% of white children and 69% of black children in the same age group. ...
Data from the Head Start Impact Study (N = 4442) were used to test for differences between Spanish-speaking Dual Language Learners (DLLs) and monolingual English-speaking children in: (1) Head Start attendance rates when randomly assigned admission; and (2) quality ratings of other early childhood education (ECE) programs attended when not randomly assigned admission to Head Start. Logistic regressions showed that Spanish-speaking DLL children randomly assigned a spot in Head Start were more likely than monolingual-English learners to attend. Further, Spanish-speaking DLLs not randomly assigned a spot in Head Start were more likely to attend higher-quality ECE centers than non-DLL children. Policy implications are discussed, suggesting that, if given access, Spanish-speaking DLL families will take advantage of quality ECE programs.
... Bank, Reid, & Knutson, 1997;Kotchick et al., 2005;Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005;Rodriguez, Davis, Rodriguez, & Bates, 2006). For example, a study comparing highly stressed African American and European American families found similar parenting practices and beliefs across racial groups (Magnus et al., 1999). ...
The present study examined the impact of proximal (maternal depression, family structure) and distal (exposure to violence) risk factors on parenting characteristics (warmth, control), which were in turn hypothesized to affect child social-emotional functioning. Using the Family and Child Experiences Study (FACES) 2000 cohort, findings revealed that study variables were significant predictors of child social-emotional functioning. Despite limited significant pathways in the structural equation models, the cumulative effect of the variables resulted in models accounting for 21%-37% of the outcome. Multigroup analysis revealed that although the amount of variance explained varied, the model held across subgroups. Findings support theories such as the family stress model that suggest that family risk factors negatively influencing children's development through influencing parenting behaviors. Findings also support considering both warmth and control as key parenting dimensions. It may be impractical for practitioners to address the myriad of potential risks encountered by low-income families, but parents can be equipped with mental health services, parent education, and other assistance to help them maintain positive parenting practices in the face of challenges.
... Indeed, given that physical punishment peaks at age 3 and decreases with age (Straus & Stewart, 1999), it may only be in atypical situations that the average parent considers the use of physical punishment. We know of at least one other paper that has successfully used parents' intention to use physical – punishment in the vignette situation from the ECLS – K, finding that use of center-based child care is associated with decreases in parents' hypothetical likelihood of using physical punishment (Magnuson & Waldfogel, 2005). Taken together, we believe that these studies lend support to our use of this vignette as one index of physical punishment. ...
Although research has clearly established that low family income has negative impacts on children's cognitive skills and social-emotional competence, less often is a family's experience of material hardship considered. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 (N=21,255), this study examined dual components of family income and material hardship along with parent mediators of stress, positive parenting, and investment as predictors of 6-year-old children's cognitive skills and social-emotional competence. Support was found for a model that identified unique parent-mediated paths from income to cognitive skills and from income and material hardship to social-emotional competence. The findings have implications for future study of family income and child development and for identification of promising targets for policy intervention.
Head Start (HS) is our nation’s largest two-generation program that provides early education services to children and a variety of family support services that may promote economic wellbeing. Yet, no prior research has documented or described the effects of HS on parental earnings. We explore whether the program promotes parental earnings on average, investigate for whom these effects are greatest, evaluate the extent to which earnings impacts vary across HS sites, and identify which characteristics of centers associate with cross-site variation. We find that HS does not improve earnings overall. However, the program does increase parental earnings in a younger program cohort two and three years after random assignment. These effects are larger for single parents and those who are initially employed or in school. Earnings effects are typically homogenous across sites, although we do observe increasing variation over time that reaches statistical significance four years after random assignment. We are generally unable to explain this variation using measures of what HS sites do or provide apart from the economic wellbeing of the families they serve.
Parent engagement has been a cornerstone of Head Start since its inception in 1965. Prior studies have found evidence for small to moderate impacts of Head Start on parenting behaviors but have not considered the possibility that individual Head Start programs might vary meaningfully in their effectiveness at improving parenting outcomes. The present study uses the Head Start Impact Study to examine the average effect of random assignment to and participation in Head Start on parenting outcomes as well as variation in that effect across Head Start programs. Findings reveal that Head Start is effective on average at promoting parents’ daily reading and overall literacy and math activities with children but that effects vary significantly for parents’ literacy and math activities, with some programs much more and some much less effective than their local alternatives. Findings also demonstrate that Head Start has consistent near-zero impacts across centers on parents’ disciplinary interactions with children.
Rigorous social science evaluations of home-visiting programs designed to improve parenting and reduce child maltreatment convinced President Barack Obama's administration to initiate a multi-billion-dollar federal program to expand a particular model of home visiting. Supporters of other models reacted by lobbying Congress and the administration to fund other program models as well. In the resulting compromise, programs with the strongest evidence of success would receive the most money, and those with modest evidence of success would get some but less money. All programs that are funded would be subject to continuous evaluation using rigorous methods to ensure continuing good results. At least in this case, policy makers are focused on social science evidence and are using it to identify and support the most successful programs.
Early childhood education and care affects millions of young people, their parents, and ultimately society at large. Social workers are employed directly in early childhood education and care programs and also witness the results of inadequate early interventions in various practice settings. Yet social workers do little of the research related to this topic. Numerous issues relate to both social work and to thoughtful discussions of early childhood education and care, including the unequal use of high quality early education programs, which is ultimately a social justice issue. This article elucidates how social workers can and why they should contribute to practice, policy, and research related to early childhood education and care.
Parents may have important effects on their children, but little work in economics explores whether children's schooling opportunities crowd out or encourage parents' investment in children. We analyze data from the Head Start Impact Study, which granted randomly chosen preschool-aged children the opportunity to attend Head Start. We find that Head Start causes a substantial increase in parents' involvement with their children—such as time spent reading to children, math activities, or days spent with children by fathers who do not live with their children—both during and after the period when their children are potentially enrolled in Head Start.
We examine the effects of Head Start participation on parenting and child maltreatment in a large and diverse sample of low-income families in large U.S. cities (N = 2,807), using rich data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS). To address the issue of selection bias, we employ several analytic approaches, including logistic regressions with a rich set of pretreatment controls as well as propensity score matching models, comparing the effects of Head Start to any other arrangements as well as specific types of other arrangements. We find that compared to children who did not attend Head Start, children who did attend Head Start are less likely to have low access to learning materials and less likely to experience spanking by their parents at age five. Moreover, we find that the effects of Head Start vary depending on the specific type of other child care arrangements to which they are compared, with the most consistently beneficial protective effects seen when Head Start is compared to being home in exclusively parental care.
In this literature review concerning early childhood discipline we particularly highlight American children's discipline with respect to historical perspectives, generational theories, gender issues, parental styles, methods of discipline, and corporal punishment. We also address corporal punishment's history, the debate among experts, beliefs and practices among parents, the controversy in public schools, religious influences, and a conflation of the issues.
The current special issue is an interesting collection of theoretical ideas and empirical work from experts in this area of psychological and developmental research. This set of papers spans a diverse array of families and approaches to conceptualizing and measuring parenting stress. The first two papers examine parenting behavior and children's adjustment. The special issue then turns to a consideration of the bridge between the family and the parents' workplace in one of the papers. The author conceptualizes parenting stress and its links to socio-economic resources, family structural characteristics, work and career-related factors, and childcare for mothers and fathers of developmentally disabled children. The most common finding across the papers is that although there is great diversity in the challenges faced by parents, the samples of participants resemble each other in terms of the variability in parenting stress that is seen. In conclusion, the special issue presents alternative and sometimes competing theories regarding parenting stress and its implications for parent-child interactions and children's developmental outcomes.
The nation’s child protection system (CPS) has historically focused on preventing maltreatment in high-risk families, whose children have already been maltreated. But, as Jane Waldfogel explains, it has also begun developing prevention procedures for children at lower risk—those who are referred to CPS but whose cases do not meet the criteria for ongoing services.
Preventive services delivered by CPS to high-risk families, says Waldfogel, typically include case management and supervision. The families may also receive one or more other preventive services, including individual and family counseling, respite care, parenting education, housing assistance, substance abuse treatment, child care, and home visits. Researchers generally find little evidence, however, that these services reduce the risk of subsequent maltreatment, although there is some promising evidence on the role of child care. Many families receive few services beyond periodic visits by usually overburdened caseworkers, and the services they do receive are often poor in quality.
Preventive services for lower-risk families often focus on increasing parents’ understanding of the developmental stages of childhood and on improving their child-rearing competencies. The evidence base on the effectiveness of these services remains thin. Most research focuses on home-visiting and parent education programs. Studies of home visiting have provided some promising evidence. Little is as yet known about the effects of parent education.
Waldfogel concludes that researchers have much more to learn about what services CPS agencies should expand to do a better job of preventing maltreatment. Some families, especially those with mental health, substance abuse, and domestic violence problems, are at especially high risk, which suggests that more effective treatment services for such parents could help. Very young children, too, are at high risk, suggesting a potentially important role for child care—one area where the evidence base is reasonably strong in pointing to a potential preventive role. Although preventive services for the lower-risk cases not open for services with CPS are much more widespread today than in the past, analysts must explore what CPS agencies can do in this area too to ensure that they are delivering effective services. [End Page 195]
This article synthesizes what we know and do not know about the links between family work arrangements and child development, drawing on research from Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The paper reviews the evidence about how parental employment affects children's cognitive development, social and emotional development, and health; summarizes knowledge gaps; and makes recommendations for future Canadian policy-oriented research.
E. T. Gershoff (2002) reviewed processes that might mediate and contexts that might moderate the associations between corporal punishment (CP) and child behaviors and provided an account of the methodological weaknesses of the research reviewed in her meta-analyses. In this examination of Gershoff, the authors argue that the biases and confounds in the meta-analyses further limit any causal inferences that can be drawn concerning the detrimental "effects" of CP on associated child behaviors. The authors suggest that undesirable child outcomes are associated with CP because the construct marks inept harsh parenting and conclude that although the harmful effects of physical abuse and other extreme punishments are clear, a blanket injunction against spanking is not justified by the evidence presented by Gershoff.
Although the merits of parents using corporal punishment to discipline children have been argued for decades, a thorough understanding of whether and how corporal punishment affects children has not been reached. Toward this end, the author first presents the results of meta-analyses of the association between parental corporal punishment and 11 child behaviors and experiences. Parental corporal punishment was associated with all child constructs, including higher levels of immediate compliance and aggression and lower levels of moral internalization and mental health. The author then presents a process-context model to explain how parental corporal punishment might cause particular child outcomes and considers alternative explanations. The article concludes by identifying 7 major remaining issues for future research.
Preschool children (N = 107) were divided into 4 groups on the basis of maternal report; home and shelter groups exposed to verbal and physical conflict, a home group exposed to verbal conflict only, and a home control group. Parental ratings of behavior problems and competencies and children's self-report data were collected. Results show that verbal conflict only was associated with a moderate level of conduct problems: verbal plus physical conflict was associated with clinical levels of conduct problems and moderate levels of emotional problems; and verbal plus physical conflict plus shelter residence was associated with clinical levels of conduct problems, higher level of emotional problems, and lower levels of social functioning and perceived maternal acceptance. Findings suggests a direct relationship between the nature of the conflict and residence and type and extent of adjustment problems.
In this article, we attempt to distinguish between the properties of moderator and mediator variables at a number of levels. First, we seek to make theorists and researchers aware of the importance of not using the terms moderator and mediator interchangeably by carefully elaborating, both conceptually and strategically, the many ways in which moderators and mediators differ. We then go beyond this largely pedagogical function and delineate the conceptual and strategic implications of making use of such distinctions with regard to a wide range of phenomena, including control and stress, attitudes, and personality traits. We also provide a specific compendium of analytic procedures appropriate for making the most effective use of the moderator and mediator distinction, both separately and in terms of a broader causal system that includes both moderators and mediators. (46 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Societal responses to child maltreatment and to woman battering have developed in separate and sometimes conflicting ways. It is only in recent years that greater attention has been devoted to the possible overlap between child maltreatment and woman battering in the same families. Thirty-five studies conducted over the past 2½ decades that mentioned an overlap between child maltreatment and adult domestic violence in the same families were identified. These studies are reviewed and their strengths and weaknesses identified. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications these findings have for practice, policy, and research.
The extent to which early childhood programs produce long-term benefits in chil- dren's cognitive development, socialization, and school success is a matter of some controversy. This article reviews 36 studies of both model demonstration projects and large-scale public programs to examine the long-term effects of these programs on children from low-income families. The review carefully considers issues related to research design. It includes studies of preschool education, Head Start, child care, and home visiting programs, and focuses primarily on the effects of program participation on children's cognitive development. Results indicate that early childhood programs can produce large short-term benefits for children on intelligence quotient (IQ) and sizable long-term effects on school achievement, grade retention, placement in special education, and social adjustment. Not all programs produce these benefits, perhaps because of differences in quality and funding across programs. The article concludes with recommendations for future action.
Effects of early child care on children's functioning at the age of 41/2 years wee a examined in the NICHD (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development) Study of Early Child Care, a prospective longitudinal study of more than 1,000 children. Even after controlling for multiple child and family characteristics, children's development was predicted by early child-care experience. Higher-quality child care, improvements in the quality of child care, and experience in center-type arrangements predicted better pre-academic skills and language performance at 41/2 years. More hours of care predicted higher levels of behavior problems according to caregivers. Effect sizes associated with early child-care experiences were evaluated in relation to effect sizes obtained for two other well-recognized influences on early development: parenting and poverty. The findings indicated the importance (and relative independence) of quantity, quality, and type of child care for children's development just prior to the time that children initiate formal schooling.
Structural equation modeling was used with a sample of 451 2-parent families to test an elaboration of J. Belsky's (1984) model of the determinants of parental behavior. Results largely support the model. Economic pressure disrupted parenting by increasing depression and undermining access to spouse support. Spouse support had both a direct effect on parenting and an indirect influence through depression. For mothers, spouse support moderated the impact of economic strain on parenting by reducing the disruptive impact of depression on parental behavior. Social network support only influenced parenting indirectly through depression. There was no support for the idea that social network support serves to buffer parental behavior against the adverse consequences of economic strain, nor was there evidence that it can compensate for low spouse support. The findings indicated, however, that spouse support is a more powerful determinant of quality of parenting when social network support is low. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Two studies examined whether physical marital violence and other forms of marital aggression (e.g., threats, throwing objects) correlate with children's behavior problems in families marked by recent spousal violence. Study 1 included 55 families seeking marital therapy. Study 2 included 199 families at battered women's shelters. In the marital therapy sample, both physical marital violence and other forms of marital aggression correlated positively with children's externalizing problems. In the women's shelter sample, physical violence and other forms of marital aggression correlated positively with children's externalizing and internalizing problems. After accounting for the frequency of physical marital violence, forms of marital aggression other than physical violence still related to children's externalizing problems in the marital therapy sample and to children's internalizing problems in the women's shelter sample. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Recent criticisms of Head Start have arisen as a result of unrealistic expectations, loosely generalized evidence, and misunderstood, incomplete research. But these criticisms have forced advocates to focus on administrative problems that make Head Start less effective than it could be. This healthy climate of critical discussion has led to plans to improve program services and to proceed with expansion in a more thoughtful manner. The debate has sparked further ideas to optimize the Head Start approach and make the program more responsive to the needs of children and families in poverty. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
addresses issues central to an understanding of everyday stresses associated with parenthood / to provide a basis for the current state of research and theory, a discussion of the historical development of stress research is presented / the theoretical base for the importance of everyday stresses associated with parenting is provided in which the major issues related to such stress processes are set forth / these major issues include both the determinants of everyday stresses of parenting and the consequences ultimately associated with them / for both the determinants and the consequences, parent, child, and family factors are considered / the effectiveness of various parental coping mechanisms is discussed / concludes with an emphasis on the developmental salience of children's challenging behavior and the resilience that parents often demonstrate in the face of repetitive stresses (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
For more than 20 years, there have been periodic reports in the research literature about the co-occurrence of spouse abuse and physical child abuse. This review compiles and evaluates those reports. Forty-two studies were found that provided some data concerning co-occurrence; 31 of the studies included sufficient detail to be used in this review. The different types of studies are classified and methodological issues are discussed. The base rate of co-occurrence found in representative community samples was about 6%. In clinical samples of either battered women or physically abused children, the percentage of overlap ranged from 20% to 100%. When a conservative definition of child abuse was used, a median co-occurrence rate of 40% was found. Five models depicting the directionality of abuse in violent families are proposed and discussed in relation to the data and theories of violence. Recommendations for methodological improvements and theory-driven studies are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Relations between marital discord, parental behavior, and child behavior were investigated in a sample of 37 battered women and 37 comparison mothers and their children, aged 2-8 years. It was hypothesized that violent fathers would be more irritable but less involved, battered women more stressed and inconsistent in discipline, and both parents would reportedly use fewer positive and more negative child-rearing responses than comparison families. Based on maternal self-reports and mother-child observations, the only robust self-report difference between the groups of mothers were the level of stress and reports of inconsistency in parenting; in contrast, all of the expected differences were found between the mothers' reports of the 2 groups of fathers. Group effects on child behavior problems were also found. Children from violent families were reported to have more internalizing behavior problems, more difficult temperaments, and to be more aggressive than the comparison children. In the violent families, maternal stress and paternal irritability were the 2 significant predictors of child behavior problems, whereas in the comparison families only maternal stress was a reliable predictor.
This study assesses the role of child gender in moderating the association between husbands' aggression toward wives and parental aggression toward children. Participants were 73 mothers who experienced at least one incident of marital aggression during the past 12 months. Each mother had a child between 5 and 16 years of age. Hierarchical regression analyses indicate that the Husbands' Aggression Toward Wives x Child Gender interaction contributed unique variance to the prediction of both mothers' and fathers' aggression toward children after husbands' aggression toward wives, child gender, and child age were controlled. Pearson correlations indicate that husbands' aggression toward wives correlated positively with mothers' and fathers' aggression toward boys but not toward girls.
Relations between marital discord, parental behavior, and child behavior were investigated in a sample of 37 battered women and 37 comparison mothers and their children, aged 2-8 years. It was hypothesized that violent fathers would be more irritable but less involved, battered women more stressed and inconsistent in discipline, and both parents would reportedly use fewer positive and more negative child-rearing responses than comparison families. Based on maternal self-reports and mother-child observations, the only robust self-report difference between the groups of mothers were the level of stress and reports of inconsistency in parenting; in contrast, all of the expected differences were found between the mothers' reports of the 2 groups of fathers. Group effects on child behavior problems were also found. Children from violent families were reported to have more internalizing behavior problems, more difficult temperaments, and to be more aggressive than the comparison children. In the violent families, maternal stress and paternal irritability were the 2 significant predictors of child behavior problems, whereas in the comparison families only maternal stress was a reliable predictor.
This important new volume provides a comprehensive account of the causes and consequences of child maltreatment from a developmental perspective. The chapters in the volume offer an historical and definitional context for future studies: What constitutes physical, sexual, and emotional abuse? What is child neglect and how has its definition changed over time? Why has the theory of the intergenerational transmission of maltreatment been overstated for so long? The heart of the volume lies in its careful description of well controlled research on the impact of maltreatment on the developmental process. Specific chapters address the effects of maltreatment on congitive, linguistic, social, and emotional development. Special attention is paid to age-specific deficits in social interaction, to parent-child interaction and attachment in the early years, and to peer relationships during later childhood and adolescence. The psychology of abusive and neglecting parents is also addressed. Who are the maltreating parents and how are they different from comparison parents? What are the conditions under which maltreatment recurs in subsequent generations? The volume concludes with a chapter on the processes at work in maltreatment can be applied to reducing the problem. Child Maltreatment will appeal to both researchers and clinicians in a range of disciplines including developmental and clinical psychology, psychiatry, social work, pediatrics, sociology, and law, as well as to policymakers and students in all of these areas.
Interparental Conflict and Child Development is a 2001 text that provides an in-depth analysis of the rapidly expanding body of research on the impact of interparental conflict on children. Emphasizing developmental and family systems perspectives, it investigates a range of important issues, including the processes by which exposure to conflict may lead to child maladjustment, the role of gender and ethnicity in understanding the effects of conflict, the influence of conflict on parent–child, sibling, and peer relations, family violence, and interparental conflict in divorced and step-families. It also addresses the implications of this research for prevention, clinical intervention, and public policy. Each chapter examines relevant conceptual and methodological questions, reviews on pertinent data, and identifies pathways for future research. Thus, the book serves to chart the course for continued investigation into the links between marital and child functioning.
Our goal was to identify different types of parenting based on self‐report measures of fathers' involvement and parental attitudes. The present investigation studied 468 two‐parent, French Canadian families with at least one child between 0 and 6 years of age, living in a disadvantaged environment. The study, conducted on a sample of fathers, revealed the presence of the three basic types of parenting identified by Baumrind (authoritarian, authoritative and permissive), and also of a new type of parenting (stimulative parenting). The fathers in this latter group provide more emotional support to children and are more stimulating, as is evidenced by the greater psychological presence of children in the father's cognitions and by the fact that they more frequently introduce their children to new activities. These fathers are characterized by more secure social relationships. The father's parental stress level was found to be the most important variable discriminating between different types of fathering. Authoritarian and authoritative fathers are more at risk of maltreating their children because their more favourable attitude towards the use of physical punishment is combined with greater parental stress, less parental involvement of mothers, and a larger number of children in the home. Authoritarian fathers are even more at risk of maltreating their children because of more difficult family socioeconomic conditions, particularly lower levels of maternal education and income. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The statistical literature and folklore contain many methods for handling missing explanatory variable data in multiple linear regression. One such approach is to incorporate into the regression model an indicator variable for whether an explanatory variable is observed. Another approach is to stratify the model based on the range of values for an explanatory variable, with a separate stratum for those individuals in which the explanatory variable is missing. For a least squares regression analysis using either of these two missing-data approaches, the exact biases of the estimators for the regression coefficients and the residual variance are derived and reported. The complete-case analysis, in which individuals with any missing data are omitted, is also investigated theoretically and is found to be free of bias in many situations, though often wasteful of information. A numerical evaluation of the bias of two missing-indicator methods and the complete-case analysis is reported. The missing-indicator methods show unacceptably large biases in practical situations and are not advisable in general.
We investigated the effects of depressive symptomatology, parental stress, and instrumental support on maternal spanking. Although we found no associations between employment status, per se, and the frequency of spanking, our results show that employment seems to matter for its moderating effects on the relationship between mothers' psychological functioning and their decisions to use spanking. Significant interaction effects of employment × depression and employment × parental stress indicate that employment reduced the frequency of spanking by mothers with more symptoms of depression and parental stress. The availability of instrumental support increased the frequency of spanking. This may reflect the possibility that mothers in this study found the help they receive psychologically costly.
To examine relations between time in nonmaternal care through the first 4.5 years of life and children's socioemotional adjustment, data on social competence and problem behavior were examined when children participating in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care were 4.5 years of age and when in kindergarten. The more time children spent in any of a variety of nonmaternal care arrangements across the first 4.5 years of life, the more externalizing problems and conflict with adults they manifested at 54 months of age and in kindergarten, as reported by mothers, caregivers, and teachers. These effects remained, for the most part, even when quality, type, and instability of child care were controlled, and when maternal sensitivity and other family background factors were taken into account. The magnitude of quantity of care effects were modest and smaller than those of maternal sensitivity and indicators of family socioeconomic status, though typically greater than those of other features of child care, maternal depression, and infant temperament. There was no apparent threshold for quantity effects. More time in care not only predicted problem behavior measured on a continuous scale in a dose-response pattern but also predicted at-risk (though not clinical) levels of problem behavior, as well as assertiveness, disobedience, and aggression.
Our goal was to identify different types of parenting based on self-report measures of fathers' involvement and parental attitudes. The present investigation studied 468 two-parent, French Canadian families with at least one child between 0 and 6 years of age, living in a disadvantaged environment. The study, conducted on a sample of fathers, revealed the presence of the three basic types of parenting identified by Baumrind (authoritarian, authoritative and permissive), and also of a new type of parenting (stimulative parenting). The fathers in this latter group provide more emotional support to children and are more stimulating, as is evidenced by the greater psychological presence of children in the father's cognitions and by the fact that they more frequently introduce their children to new activities. These fathers are characterized by more secure social relationships. The father's parental stress level was found to be the most important variable discriminating between different types of fathering. Authoritarian and authoritative fathers are more at risk of maltreating their children because their more favourable attitude towards the use of physical punishment is combined with greater parental stress, less parental involvement of mothers, and a larger number of children in the home. Authoritarian fathers are even more at risk of maltreating their children because of more difficult family socioeconomic conditions, particularly lower levels of maternal education and income. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
This article presents a review of the empirical literature examining the initial effects of witnessing domestic violence on children's functioning. Previous reviews of the literature suggested that witnessing was harmful to children, but they also indicated that the state of knowledge was quite limited due to an emphasis on exploratory methodologies, reliance on untested theories, and inconsistent findings. Nearly a decade of research has been conducted since the most recent review. Although results are still somewhat inconclusive regarding children's social, cognitive, and physical development, the findings of recently conducted investigations, when combined and compared with the previously reviewed literature, suggest much less equivocation concerning the negative effects of witnessing domestic violence on children's emotional and behavioral development. Theoretical developments and methodological refinements appear related to the recent findings.
Although research has suggested high levels of comorbidity between spouse abuse and child abuse (Carlson, 1984), there has been little attention directed toward identifying factors that may distinguish spouse-abusive and spouse- and child-abusive families. The present study examined what familial and child factors differentiate between nonabusive, spouse-abusive, and spouse- and child-abusive families. Findings indicated a constellation of factors that discriminated between groups, although the discrimination was most effective between nonviolent and violent groups. Of particular interest was the observation that spouse-abusive and spouse- and child-abusive families differed primarily in severity and not qualitative pattern (Trickett, 1998). Conceptual implications of findings will be discussed.
Debate continues regarding the magnitude and importance of parenting effects on the development of children's externalizing behavior problems, in, spite of the evidence that environments (as well as genes) contribute to individual differences in these behaviors. Research has demonstrated an association between harsh physical discipline and child aggression and conduct problems, a likely causal mechanism that probably operates as a shared environmental factor. We offer four hypotheses about the relation between discipline practices and child externalizing problems that may resolve same debate and help lead toward a more comprehensive understanding of how and when discipline practices will make a substantial difference: 1. The association between discipline and child aggression includes a nonlinear component. 2. The parent behavior-child behavior link varies across cultural groups. 3. Parental discipline effects on children vary according to the context of the broader parent-child relationship. 4. The discipline effect is maximized in same-gender parent-child dyads. Discussion focuses on the role of children's mental representations of discipline experiences as a mediator of discipline effects, and research implications with respect to sampling, measurement, and analytic strategies are noted.
This study assesses the role of child gender in moderating the association between husbands' aggression toward wives and parental aggression toward children. Participants were 73 mothers who experienced at least 1 incident of marital aggression during the past 12 months. Each mother had a child between 5 and 16 years of age. Hierarchical regression analyses indicate that the Husbands' Aggression Toward Wives by Child Gender interaction contributed unique variance to the prediction of both mothers' and fathers' aggression toward children after husbands' aggression toward wives, child gender, and child age were controlled. Pearson correlations indicate that husbands' aggression toward wives correlated positively with mothers' and fathers' aggression toward boys but not toward girls. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Objective. This study assessed the direct and indirect relations between 2 types of social support - parenting support and general social support - and optimal parenting. Design. Self-report data were gathered from 165 married mothers of firstborn 4th-graders between the ages of 9 and 11 years. Widely accepted measures of warmth, monitoring, general psychological distress, parenting stress, and general social support were used. A measure of parenting support from family and friends was developed for this study. Results. Path analysis indicated that the relation between specific parenting support and optimal parenting was completely mediated by parenting stress and not by general psychological distress. The relation between general social support and optimal parenting was not completely mediated by either parenting stress or general psychological distress. Conclusions. This study integrated essential components from the social support, stress and coping, and parenting research. The authors identify parenting stress as a mediator of the relation between parenting support and optimal parenting by focusing on the specificity of social support and stress in the domain of parenting.
This is a review of:
Violence in Families: Assessing Prevention and Treatment Programs
Rosemary Chalk and Patricia King (Eds.); National Academy Press, Washington, DC,
1998
Currently available information makes a compelling case for investing in efforts to help families overcome child care, early education, and school-age care challenges and obtain the quality early learning and after-school experiences needed for children to succeed. This book presents a series of fact sheets concerning child care, early education, and school-age care, and information on major programs and policies in these areas. The book is designed to provide information in a format that can be easily adapted to various individual and organizational needs, and is organized in five parts. Part 1 discusses the importance of child care, early education, and school-age programs to all families. Part 2 examines barriers families encounter in locating affordable, quality child care, early education, and school-age care, including information on availability and cost of quality care, and groups facing particular hardship in locating good quality care. Part 3 discusses programs and policies that support child care and early education, including an overview of the roles of government, community organizations, and the private sector. Part 4 focuses on the broad support for quality child care, early education, and school-age programs among parents, public officials, and others, including findings from multiple polls demonstrating strong support for investments in these areas. Each section contains references. The book's appendices include tables of state-by-state data on maternal labor force participation, number of regulated child care settings, percent of schools offering extended-day programs, and other relevant information. Also appended is a list of relevant organizations and data sources. (KB)
Noting that families need access to high quality care so that their children can start school ready to learn and so that parents can work, this report examines state child care subsidy policy choices. Following an executive summary, chapter 1 of the report discusses state policy regarding eligibility criteria related to families receiving welfare, low-income families, low-income families transitioning off welfare, and special populations. Chapter 2 considers access to child care assistance for eligible families, including information on the numbers of families on waiting lists, how families find out about care, and barriers to remaining eligible for assistance. Chapter 3 examines co-payments by parents, discussing designing a fee scale, fees for families at different income levels, fees for multiple children, and fee exemptions. Chapter 4 discusses policies related to payment rates, including setting the basic reimbursement amount, issues in determining reimbursement rates, and differential rates for special care. Chapter 5 considers states' methods for paying providers, focusing on certificates, contracts, and the child care disregard. Chapter 6 examines state variations in the types of care used by families receiving assistance, restrictions of type of care, and trends in type of care used. Chapter 7 discusses states' administration of subsidy programs. Appended are summaries describing for each state and the District of Columbia the eligibility criteria, access to assistance for eligible families, parent co-payments, payment rates, types of care used by families receiving assistance, and a state contact. (KB)
Examined in two studies the relation between multiple dimensions of parental support and stress for mothers and fathers of preschool children. Parenting stress included parenting hassles and perceived difficulties in helping the child acquire developmentally appropriate skills. Findings included that for mothers, kin support predicted fewer parenting hassles, while for fathers a greater number of supporters predicted more hassles. (JPB)
Recently, there has been considerable interest in providing social support to abuse-prone families as a means of preventing child abuse and neglect. Partly due to both reports that social support programs can indeed help parents and the theoretical underpinnings of these programs, social support has become the cause célèbre among those who are seeking more effective new avenues to abuse prevention. However, many important issues must be considered in translating this general idea into effective public policy initiatives related to abuse prevention.
"Preventing Child Maltreatment Through Social Support" . . . considers the various factors affecting the success of social support programs and provides the path to designing effective—and enduring—interventions. Offering the reader a critical analysis of current research concerning social networks and functions of social support, this . . . book fosters an understanding of maltreatment, socially isolated families, and the dynamics of help giving and receiving. Ross A. Thompson moves . . . from theory to practice, including detailed lessons from applications such as home visitation and other intensive family strategies. The volume [examines] social support within the larger context of child welfare reform. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Because parents and families are integral to any early childhood education, child care, or other child-focused investment strategy, this chapter highlights both the ways in which families are critical to program access and the ways in which programs influence parent well-being. The chapter is divided into 4 sections. In the 1st, effects of 4 general types of programs are reviewed, with respect to parental and family outcomes. The programs are (1) parent-focused home-based, (2) parent-focused combination center- and home-based, (3) intergenerational family literacy, and (4) parent-focused literacy programs. The 2nd section examines more deeply the premise that parents are engines of change in early intervention programs. Three issues are considered. The 1st concerns family outcomes that may be the most likely candidates to be mediators of change. The 2nd focuses on actual empirical tests of these outcomes as mediators of the intervention-to-child-outcome link. The 3rd examines parental involvement or engagement as a prerequisite for program efficacy. The next section focuses on policy and practice implications of early intervention program effects on parents, and the concluding section provides recommendations for the next wave of programs and their evaluations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
it is the basic premise of this chapter that research on and interest in child abuse—a concern of applied science—has much to contribute toward an empirical synthesis with regard to the determinants of individual differences in parenting—a concern of basic science
in the course of this chapter we shall (1) consider those sources of influence that have been implicated by research on dysfunctional parenting (i.e. child abuse) as playing a causal role in the maltreatment process; (2) summarizes data gathered on nonabusive samples consistent with general hypotheses raised by child abuse researchers regarding the determinants of parenting; and, (3) on the basis of these analyses, provide support for a multicausal model of the determinants of parental functioning emphasizing the role played by social factors both within and beyond individual parents and the families in which they function (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Research methods and inferential techniques must acknowledge the complexity and heterogeneity of child maltreatment. Empirical investigation of child maltreatment must be guided by sophisticated concepts of development, personality, psychopathology, and family and social systems theory.
This prospective study applies family stress theory to the influence of personal, child, and familial factors on a mother's parenting stress during the first 3 years of her infant's life. Participants included 134 mothers and their infants at ages 1, 6, 15, 24, and 36 months from one site of a multisite, longitudinal study. Mother's personality was most predictive of parenting stress cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Intimacy with partner reduced parenting stress early in the infant's life and at 36 months, whereas general social support was more important in the second year. Child temperament was influential at 1 and 36 months. Counterintuitively, mothers who were more satisfied with work or school choices were more likely to be chronically stressed. Implications are discussed.
Using census and administrative agency data for 177 urban census tracts, variation in rates of officially reported child maltreatment is found to be related to structural determinants of community social organization: economic and family resources, residential instability, household and age structure, and geographic proximity of neighborhoods to concentrated poverty. Furthermore, child maltreatment rates are found to be intercorrelated with other indicators of the breakdown of community social control and organization. These other indicators are similarly affected by the structural dimensions of neighborhood context. Children who live in neighborhoods that are characterized by poverty, excessive numbers of children per adult resident, population turnover, and the concentration of female-headed families are at highest risk of maltreatment. This analysis suggests that child maltreatment is but one manifestation of community social organization and that its occurrence is related to some of the same underlying macro-social conditions that foster other urban problems.
Using data collected over a 6-year period on a sample of 1,039 European American children, 550 African American children, and 401 Hispanic children from the children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this study assessed whether maternal emotional support of the child moderates the relation between spanking and behavior problems. Children were 4–5 years of age in the first of 4 waves of data used (1988, 1990, 1992, 1994). At each wave, mothers reported their use of spanking and rated their children's behavior problems. Maternal emotional support of the child was based on interviewer observations conducted as part of the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment. For each of the 3 racial-ethnic groups, spanking predicted an increase in the level of problem behavior over time, controlling for income-needs ratio and maternal emotional support. Maternal emotional support moderated the link between spanking and problem behavior. Spanking was associated with an increase in behavior problems over time in the context of low levels of emotional support, but not in the context of high levels of emotional support. This pattern held for all 3 racial-ethnic groups.
This review specifically addresses the effects on children of observing conjugal violence. A research of six major computer databases revealed 1764 references on family violence of which 29 articles dealt directly with the effects on children. These articles were judged by independent raters using a 56-item rating system designed to analyze methodological and assessment issues of empirical investigations. This analysis summarized these research efforts and indicated the need for more careful consideration of definitional, subject variable, familial stress, and reactive vs long-term effect issues. Additionally, specific proposals for future research were outlined; suggestions related to these issues, and some new directions for investigation were provided.
The present study examined the extent to which parental belief in the value of corporal punishment moderates the association between level of parenting stress and physical child abuse potential. Based on existing theory, it was expected that levels of parenting stress would be positively associated with physical child abuse potential among parents who reported high levels of belief in the value of corporal punishment.
Forty-one parents (25 general population and 16 at-risk parents) were assessed for belief in the value of corporal punishment, level of parenting stress, and physical child abuse potential using self-report measures. After removal of respondents due to response distortion or missing data, the final sample consisted of 31 parents with valid and complete protocols. Based on their responses on the study measures, respondents were categorized as either high or low on belief in corporal punishment and parenting stress.
Level of parenting stress was positively associated with physical child abuse potential. As expected, the interaction of parenting stress and belief in the value of corporal punishment was significant. Level of parenting stress was positively associated with physical child abuse potential among parents who reported high levels of belief in the value of corporal punishment. In contrast, level of parenting stress was not associated with physical child abuse potential among parents who reported low belief in the value of corporal punishment.
The present findings are consistent social information processing and stress and coping models of the etiology of physical child abuse, and underscore the importance of considering both parental cognitions and levels of parenting stress in assessing potential for physical child abuse.
The purpose of this study was to assess how stress specific to the parenting role (i.e., parenting stress) and multiple role-related stress affect parenting behavior. A non-random sampling strategy was used, and 85 mothers of young children consented to participate in this study. The results showed that parenting stress both directly and indirectly affected parenting behavior, while multiple role-related stress indirectly affected parenting behavior. Both parenting stress and multiple role-related stress directly affected parental symptomatology. Furthermore, social support buffered the relationship between parenting stress and parenting behavior, and between parenting symptomatology and parenting behavior. Implications of these findings for professionals working with mothers of young children are discussed.
The statistical literature and folklore contain many methods for handling missing explanatory variable data in multiple linear regression. One such approach is to incorporate into the regression model an indicator variable for whether an explanatory variable is observed. Another approach is to stratify the model based on the range of values for an explanatory variable, with a separate stratum for those individuals in which the explanatory variable is missing. For a least squares regression analysis using either of these two missing-data approaches, the exact biases of the estimators for the regression coefficients and the residual variance are derived and reported. The complete-case analysis, in which individuals with any missing data are omitted, is also investigated theoretically and is found to be free of bias in many situations, though often wasteful of information. A numerical evaluation of the bias of two missing-indicator methods and the complete-case analysis is reported. The missing-indicator methods show unacceptably large biases in practical situations and are not advisable in general.
This study explored the experiences of five children who witnessed domestic violence and the resultant psychological distress experiences by these children. The study was conducted within a phenomenological framework and used in-depth interviews with the children and caregivers. The data gleaned from the interviews with the children was substantiated by projective drawing tasks. Analysis of the interviews and drawings showed that children who witnessed domestic violence experienced significant psychological distress. The significant findings of the study were as follows: • Child witnesses exhibited behavioural, affective and cognitive responses to the traumatic event. • Themes of guilt, shame and role confusion emerged from the interview data as a result of having witnessed the abusive episodes • Fear was a result of having witnessed the abusive episodes, and was pervasive in all relationships - with significant others, peers and the researcher. • Social support from peers and family members acted as a buffer by providing an escape to dealing with witnessing the trauma. • There was a significant difference in the coping styles in relation to developmental status - the older children exhibited a multitude of coping styles as compared to the younger children. • Gender pattern differences emerged — boys were more likely to exhibit externalising behaviour in response to witnessing the abusive episodes, whilst the girls exhibited more internalising behaviour patterns. The results of this study were discussed within the ecological-transactional framework. Further research in the area of domestic violence is recommended. Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree Educational Psychology at the University of Zululand, 2006.
Preschool children (N = 107) were divided into 4 groups on the basis of maternal report; home and shelter groups exposed to verbal and physical conflict, a home group exposed to verbal conflict only, and a home control group. Parental ratings of behavior problems and competencies and children's self-report data were collected. Results show that verbal conflict only was associated with a moderate level of conduct problems: verbal plus physical conflict was associated with clinical levels of conduct problems and moderate levels of emotional problems; and verbal plus physical conflict plus shelter residence was associated with clinical levels of conduct problems, higher level of emotional problems, and lower levels of social functioning and perceived maternal acceptance. Findings suggests a direct relationship between the nature of the conflict and residence and type and extent of adjustment problems.
This study examines the role of several components of parental stress in physically abusive and nonabusive families with conduct-disordered children. The 123 families studied were seen in a parenting clinic aimed at improving parent-child interactions in families with a highly oppositional child. Data were collected over a several-week period and included both mother and father self-report measures and independent observations by trained researchers. Parental stress was found to play an important role in abusive families. Physically abusive families were significantly more often low income, had younger mothers with less education, more frequently reported a family history of child abuse, and were more likely to be abusing alcohol or drugs. Abusive mothers reported more stress due to frequent life events, and had a more negative perception of these events. Further, these mothers had higher rates of both depression and state anxiety. Abusive fathers spanked their children significantly more often than the nonabusive fathers, and abusive mothers had the highest frequency of critical statements directed at their children. Children from abusive households had significantly more behavior problems. Finally, abusive mothers reported more marital dissatisfaction and social isolation than their nonabusive counterparts.