Two studies of parenting efficacy

Today, I am presenting two studies of parenting. The first a positive approach and the second focused on predictors of harsh parenting and recommended interventions. First, Resnik, Garbacz, Stormshak & McIntyre (2023) published “Family-centered Prevention to Enhance Proactive Parenting and Parental Self-Efficacy During Early Elementary School” in Journal of Family Psychology.  Here’s the abstract:

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a family-centered intervention delivered during early elementary school, the Family Check-Up (FCU), in supporting parents’ use of proactive parenting skills and the role that parental self-efficacy (PSE) has in promoting proactive parenting. We predicted both direct and mediated effects of the FCU on changes in proactive parenting. Participants were the primary caregivers of 321 kindergarten children and were randomly assigned to either the FCU or to a school-as-usual control group (n = 164 assigned to intervention). Results indicated that the FCU initiated during kindergarten enhanced proactive parenting skills directly and was mediated by PSE. These results highlight the FCU as an efficacious intervention in early elementary school in promoting proactive parenting skills and PSE and underscore the role of PSE as a primary pathway toward improved proactive parenting. 

I love this intervention and its outcomes, with the emphasis on parenting self-efficacy. The second article takes a different approach. Bertrand, Bell & Deater-Deckard (2023) published “Maternal Executive Function, Authoritarian Attitudes, and Hostile Attribution Bias as Interacting Predictors of Harsh Parenting” in Journal of Family Psychology. Here’s their abstract:

Executive function (EF) plays a key role in healthy development and human functioning across multiple domains, including socially, behaviorally, and in the self-regulation of cognition and emotion. Prior research has associated lower levels of maternal EF with harsher and more reactive parenting, and mothers’ social cognitive attributes like authoritarian child-rearing attitudes and hostile attribution biases also contribute to harsh parenting practices. There have been few studies that explore the intersection of maternal EF and social cognitions. The present study addresses this gap by testing whether the relationship between individual differences in maternal EF and harsh parenting behaviors is statistically moderated separately by maternal authoritarian attitudes and hostile attribution bias. Participants were 156 mothers in a socioeconomically diverse sample. Multi-informant and multimethod assessments of harsh parenting and EF were utilized, and mothers self-reported on their child-rearing attitudes and attribution bias. Harsh parenting was negatively associated with maternal EF and hostile attribution bias. Authoritarian attitudes significantly interacted with EF (and the attribution bias interaction was marginally significant) in prediction of variance in harsh parenting behaviors. Commensurate with social information processing theory, EF and social cognitive attributes play critical and distinct roles in the causes of harsh caregiving practices. Findings elucidate that reforming parental social cognitions, in addition to targeting EF, may be effective prevention and intervention methods for yielding more positive parenting behaviors. 

Here again, I applaud the approach with its recommendation that both executive functioning and social cognitive attributes are important in understanding harsh parenting.