The relationship between parenting and internalizing behaviours of children: a systematic review

It is well-documented that poor parenting practices result in negative emotional outcomes in children. Specifically, this review seeks to explore the relationship between parenting practices and internalization symptomology. This study utilized a systematic review and an appraisal tool was developed in order to ensure that included articles maintained high methodological rigour. Biomed Central, PsychArticles, Academic Search Complete, Eric, Sage and SocIndex databases were searched. After yielding 1002 articles in the initial search strategy, 39 articles were appraised and a total of 21 empirical studies were used for data extraction. In all, 13 articles indicated that some forms of poor parenting practices are related to internalizing behaviours. For example, over-involved parenting, spanking endorsement, over-reactive parenting, insecurely attached children, authoritarian parenting and permissive parenting are all linked to internalizing behaviours in children. Two articles reported a negative relationship between authoritative parenting and internalizing symptoms. This systematic review does indicate a relationship between parent–child relations and internalizing symptoms in children. In several studies, the complexities of this relationship remain unknown, and warrant further attention.     

Home,school partnerships in family child care: providers’ relationships within their communities

Professional family child care providers’ work with children from birth through age five can be exemplary, particularly with regard to building stable and substantive relational ties. Such long‐term engagements with client children and their families offer potential for strong partnership with families and local contexts over time. This paper explores providers’ stories that illustrate such a favourable connection: how continuity between providers, parents and neighbourhood schools becomes a mutually beneficial relationship.     

Predicting preschoolers’ attachment security from parenting behaviours,parents’ attachment relationships and their use of social support

Associations between preschoolers’ attachment security, parenting behaviours (i.e. parent–child involvement, parenting consistency and co‐parenting consistency) and parenting context (i.e. parents’ internal working models (IWMs) and use of social support) were examined in a sample of 235 culturally diverse families. The authors predicted that parenting behaviours would mediate associations between children’s attachment security and less proximal parenting context. Mothers and fathers completed questionnaires regarding their parenting behaviours, IWMs of adult relationships, their use of social support and an attachment Q‐List to assess their children’s attachment security. Parenting behaviours mediated the relationship between parenting context and children’s attachment security. Findings support an ecological view of children’s attachment security within a multilayered system.     

Parental beliefs about the nature of ADHD behaviours and their relationship to referral intentions in preschool children

BACKGROUND: Parental beliefs about child problem behaviour have emerged as closely related to referral intentions to mental health services. METHODS: This study compared beliefs of severity, impact and advice seeking for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) behaviours of parents whose preschool children present ADHD behaviours with those of parents whose children do not display such behaviours. Both parents of 295 preschoolers, aged 4-6 years, enrolled in kindergartens in Athens, filled in: (i) a questionnaire composed by a vignette describing a hypothetical 5-year-old child presenting ADHD symptoms followed by rating scales assessing dimensions of severity, impact and referral intention, and (ii) the 'Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire' for screening ADHD behaviours in their own child. RESULTS: Results showed that almost half of the parents who reported ADHD behaviours in their own child replied that they had never met a child exhibiting such behaviours. These parents also perceived such behaviours as being less severe and with less negative family impact than parents who did not report such behaviours in their own child. CONCLUSIONS: Parents whose preschool child displays ADHD behaviours tend to perceive them as normal developmental patterns and may suspend the referral of the child. Implications of these findings for early identification of ADHD are discussed.     

The determinants of negative maternal parenting behaviours: maternal,child, and paternal characteristics and their interaction

This study tested Belsky's determinants of parenting, namely maternal characteristics, child characteristics, and contextual issues, namely the mother's perception of the husband as a father, husband, and person. Three hundred and seventy-nine mothers first investigated by Sears, Maccoby, and Levin completed a standardised interview to assess their parenting attitudes and behaviours, as well as their five-year-old child's (202 boys, 177 girls) behaviours. Rejecting mothers had lower maternal self-esteem and higher academic expectations of their children, who showed less conscience and less similarity to the mother, and perceived their husbands as being colder towards the child. Furthermore, mothers with low self-esteem were more rejecting of girls with a difficult temperament, but less rejecting of boys with a difficult temperament. Controlling mothers were more educated and had higher academic expectations for their children, while their children were less likely to dominate their relationship, but only in mothers with low maternal self-esteem. Results partially support Belsky's model of the determinants of parenting.     

Promotion of child development and health from the perinatal period: an approach from positive parenting

ABSTRACT

This article makes a review and reflection on parenting practices and child development in the perinatal period; the theoretical foundations and recent data in the field are exposed. Spanish and international research in this emerging area indicates that pregnancy, postpartum and early parenting are opportunities and unique spaces to develop competencies to create family contexts that promote healthy development. An exhaustive positive parenting proposal of early promotion of child development in the perinatal period is presented. This includes the promotion of: prenatal bond, couple's relationship, social support networks, the physical and mental health of the mother alongside with the support to make informed decisions about parenting and the development of parental knowledge of the intergenerational transmission of parenting patterns and of early childhood development. It is expected, that the proposal could be a tool in the future design of public intervention programmes with families.     

Parent–child relationships and child executive functioning at school entry: the importance of fathers

This study aimed to examine the unique and interactive contributions of the quality of mothers’ and fathers’ relationships with their toddlers to the prediction of children’s subsequent executive functioning (EF). The sample included 46 low-risk middle-class families. The quality of mother–child and father–child interactions was assessed independently during separate interactive sequences at 18 months. Child EF problems were reported by teachers in kindergarten. The results indicated that only father–child interactions made a unique contribution to the prediction of children’s EF, and no interaction effect was observed. Kindergarteners who benefited from higher quality interactions with their fathers in toddlerhood were considered by their teachers to present fewer EF problems in everyday school situations. These results appeared to be somewhat more pronounced in father–son than father–daughter dyads. Overall, the results suggest that fathering and father–child relationships may deserve more empirical attention than they have received thus far in the EF literature.     

Stress in mothers of preterm infants in Bangladesh: associations with family, child and maternal factors and children's neuro-development

Background   The aim of this paper was to ascertain stress experienced by mothers of prospectively followed up preterm infants, and associations with family, child and maternal factors and children's neuro-development.
Methods   Within a follow-up study of preterm infants <33 weeks gestational age at a Child Development Center in Dhaka Shishu Hospital, mothers were interviewed with the Self-Report Questionnaire (SRQ) at each visit. Association between SRQ scores and child, family and maternal variables at first and final visit and children's neuro-developmental outcomes was determined.
Results   Low income mothers were more compliant (54%) compared with the defaulters (31%) ( P  = 0.0001) among the 159 mothers enrolled. Of the 88 mothers who were followed up until a mean age of 22 months of their child, 29.3% were at high risk for psychiatric morbidity at first visit compared with 23.9% on their last visit. Use of abortifacients ( P  = 0.026) and higher maternal age ( P  = 0.040) were significantly associated with maternal stress at first visit; while at last follow-up, total number of visits had the most significant association ( P  = 0.041). Twenty-five per cent and 19% of mothers were at risk for psychiatric morbidity in children developing normally and those with neuro-developmental impairments respectively.
Conclusions   Mothers at risk for psychiatric morbidity can be helped through follow-up support within public hospitals close to their homes, which is most availed by low income families. Neuro-developmental monitoring of high-risk infants closer to homes may be more feasible in resource poor countries than reliance on hospital visits, which increase stress. Biological markers of stress and coping strategies need further research.     

Social anxiety and agoraphobia in the eating disorders: associations with eating attitudes and behaviours

BACKGROUND: While eating disorders have a high comorbidity with anxiety disorders, little is presently known about how anxiety links to eating attitudes and behaviours and other related characteristics of eating-disordered individuals. The present study aimed to determine whether social anxiety and agoraphobia in eating-disordered individuals are linked to different eating attitudes and behaviours and levels of ego functioning. METHOD: The participants were 70 women who met DSM-IV criteria for an eating disorder. The Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI) was used as a measure of eating attitudes and ego-functioning characteristics, while the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SPAI) was used as a measure of levels of social anxiety and agoraphobia. RESULTS: High scores on the eating attitude scales of the EDI were associated with higher levels of social anxiety in eating-disordered individuals. High scores on the ego-dysfunction scales of the EDI were associated with higher levels of social anxiety and agoraphobia. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings suggest that eating-related attitudes and behaviours are associated with high levels of social anxiety, while psychological characteristics not specifically related to eating are associated with anxiety more broadly. The results highlight the importance of identifying and addressing comorbid anxiety in eating-disordered individuals, and suggestions are made for the treatment of such cases. Implications for future research are also discussed.     

Recommended Books for Helping Young Children Deal with Social and Development Problems

This article outlines strategies for helping young children deal with social and developmental problems through reading. The technical term for using reading as a tool for assisting children with social and developmental problems is commonly called bibliotherapy. The authors offer recommended books in a number of problem areas that often confront young children.     

Shyness in late childhood: relations with attributional styles and self‐esteem

Background Shyness in late childhood is related to social and psychological problems. The present study examined the relations among shyness, attributional styles and self‐esteem. It was hypothesized that self‐esteem mediated the effects of attributional styles on shyness. Methods Self‐reported data on degree of shyness, attributional styles and self‐esteem were obtained from 326 Chinese children with mean age of 10.85 years. Results It was found that positive attributional styles predicted shyness in the negative direction and the effects were fully mediated by self‐esteem, and negative attributional styles predicted shyness in the positive direction both directly and through self‐esteem. Conclusion The results imply that how children attribute positive and negative outcomes affect both self‐esteem and shyness. It is suggested that practitioners should conduct attribution‐retraining workshops for shy children and help teachers and parents learn how to mitigate negative attributional style and foster positive attributional styles in children.     

Care for Child Development: an intervention in support of responsive caregiving and early child development

Background

An estimated 43% of children younger than 5 years of age are at elevated risk of failing to achieve their human potential. In response, the World Health Organization and UNICEF developed Care for Child Development (CCD), based on the science of child development, to improve sensitive and responsive caregiving and promote the psychosocial development of young children.

Methods

In 2015, the World Health Organization and UNICEF identified sites where CCD has been implemented and sustained. The sites were surveyed, and responses were followed up by phone interviews. Project reports provided information on additional sites, and a review of published studies was undertaken to document the effectiveness of CCD for improving child and family outcomes, as well as its feasibility for implementation in resource‐constrained communities.

Results

The inventory found that CCD had been integrated into existing services in diverse sectors in 19 countries and 23 sites, including child survival, health, nutrition, infant day care, early education, family and child protection and services for children with disabilities. Published and unpublished evaluations have found that CCD interventions can improve child development, growth and health, as well as responsive caregiving. It has also been reported to reduce maternal depression, a known risk factor for poor pregnancy outcomes and poor child health, growth and development. Although CCD has expanded beyond initial implementation sites, only three countries reported having national policy support for integrating CCD into health or other services.

Conclusions

Strong interest exists in many countries to move beyond child survival to protect and support optimal child development. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals depend on children realizing their potential to build healthy and emotionally, cognitively and socially competent future generations. More studies are needed to guide the integration of the CCD approach under different conditions. Nevertheless, the time is right to provide for the scale‐up of CCD as part of services for families and children.