Children's negative emotionality moderates influence of parenting styles on preschool classroom adjustment

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2015.04.009Get rights and content

Highlights

  • •

    Three profiles of parenting at 36 months: sensitive, harsh, and detached.

  • •

    Parenting profiles influenced child aggression in preschool.

  • •

    Parenting profiles influenced teacher-child relationships in preschool.

  • •

    Detached parenting and child negative emotionality promotes risk.

Abstract

This investigation utilized a subsample from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project (N = 1101) to examine how profiles of maternal behaviors at 36-months were associated with children's classroom aggression and teacher–child relationship quality in pre-kindergarten. Based upon observed behaviors, we identified three distinct profiles of parenting categorized as sensitive, harsh, and detached. Results revealed significant main effects of the detached parenting profile on both dimensions of children's classroom functioning in pre-kindergarten. These main effects were not moderated by child sex. The main effects were moderated by child negative emotionality, suggesting a promotive effect of sensitive parenting for children with low negative emotionality. Children exposed to detached parenting had the poorest teacher–child relationships, regardless of emotionality. These findings demonstrate through use of a person-centered approach how parenting behaviors relate to contextual risks and characteristics, and to children's later relationships with teachers and classmates in pre-kindergarten.

Section snippets

Person-centered approach to examine parental behaviors

Most research on parenting has focused on variable-centered approaches to parenting, such as identifying scores on different specific dimensions of parenting that vary across individuals (e.g., Crossley and Buckner, 2012, Piko and Balazs, 2012). Person-centered analyses identify groups of individuals with similar patterns across a constellation of parenting behaviors. Evidence from person-centered approaches yields a different view of the nature of parenting behaviors, namely the level (or

Method

The present study is a secondary data analysis of the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project (EHSRE). Conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children, Youth, and Families, the EHSRE is an ongoing, longitudinal study providing a comprehensive examination of 17 rural and urban EHS sites (Love et al., 2005). This project assessed 3001 children and their families when the children were 14-, 24- and 36-months of age, as well as during

Results

Bivariate correlations and descriptive statistics are presented in Table 1. Supportive parenting at 36-months was negatively associated with negative regard, intrusiveness and detachment. Negative regard was positively related to intrusiveness and detachment, and intrusiveness was also positively related to detachment. The two outcomes of interest, teacher–child positive relationships and aggression were negatively correlated (r = − .68, p < .01). The means for each of the four dimensions of

Discussion

The two primary goals of this study were to determine if parenting profiles are associated with children's levels of classroom aggression and relationships with teachers in pre-kindergarten, and to examine if these associations are moderated by child sex and child negative emotionality. Collectively, the results of this study describe the negative effect of detached parenting on adjustment outcomes in pre-kindergarten and its associated contextual characteristics. This study utilized a

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Chandni Parikh and Ashley Dixon for their invaluable feedback on this manuscript.

References (122)

  • J. LoCasale-Crouch et al.

    Observed classroom quality profiles in state-funded pre-kindergarten programs and associations with teacher, program, and classroom characteristics

    Early Childhood Research Quarterly

    (2007)
  • E. O'Connor

    Teacher–child relationships as dynamic systems

    Journal of School Psychology

    (2010)
  • R.C. Pianta et al.

    Mother–child relationships, teacher–child relationships, and school outcomes in preschool and kindergarten

    Early Childhood Research Quarterly

    (1997)
  • S.E. Rimm-Kaufman et al.

    An ecological perspective on the transition to kindergarten: A theoretical framework to guide empirical research

    Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology

    (2000)
  • J.L. Aber et al.

    The impact of poverty on the mental health and development of very young children

  • T.M. Achenbach

    Manual for the child behavior checklist/4-18 and 1991 profile

    (1991)
  • Administration for Children and Families
  • D. Arcus

    Inhibited and uninhibited children: Biology in the social context

  • M.A. Barnett et al.

    Mothers' parenting and child sex differences in behavior problems among African American preschoolers: A within-family sibling design

    Journal of Family Psychology

    (2013)
  • J.E. Bates et al.

    Temperament, parenting, and socialization

  • J.E. Bates et al.

    Interaction of temperamental resistance to control and restrictive parenting in the development of externalizing behavior

    Developmental Psychology

    (1998)
  • L.J. Berlin et al.

    Links between childbearing age and observed maternal behaviors with 14-month-olds in the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project

    Infant Mental Health Journal

    (2002)
  • A.Y. Blandon et al.

    Contributions of child's physiology and maternal behavior to children's trajectories of temperamental reactivity

    Developmental Psychology

    (2010)
  • E.L. Bocknek et al.

    Effects of parental supportiveness on toddlers' emotion regulation over the first three years of life in a low-income African American sample

    Infant Mental Health Journal

    (2009)
  • J. Bowlby
    (1969)
  • R.H. Bradley et al.

    Infant temperament, parenting, and externalizing behavior in first grade: A test of the differential susceptibility hypothesis

    Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines

    (2008)
  • C. Brady-Smith et al.

    Mother–infant interactions in Early Head Start: A person-oriented within-ethnic group approach

    Parenting

    (2013)
  • C. Brady-Smith et al.

    Child–parent interaction rating scales for the three-bag assessment

    (2000)
  • U. Bronfenbrenner

    Ecology of the family as a context for human development: Research perspectives

    Developmental Psychology

    (1986)
  • U. Bronfenbrenner et al.

    The bioecological model of human development

  • A.H. Buss et al.

    A temperament theory of personality development

    (1975)
  • A.H. Buss et al.

    Temperament: Early developing personality traits

    (1984)
  • B.M. Caldwell et al.

    Home observation for measurement of the environment

    (1984)
  • T. Calinski et al.

    A dendrite method for cluster analysis

    Communications in Statistics

    (1985)
  • S.D. Calkins

    Does aversive behavior during toddlerhood matter?: The effects of difficult temperament on maternal perceptions and behavior

    Infant Mental Health Journal

    (2002)
  • K.L. Callahan et al.

    Neighborhood disadvantage as a moderator of the association between harsh parenting and toddler-aged children's internalizing and externalizing problems

    Journal of Family Psychology

    (2011)
  • S.B. Campbell et al.

    Early externalizing behavior problems: Toddlers and preschoolers at risk for later maladjustment

    Development and Psychopathology

    (2000)
  • J.L. Carpenter et al.

    Adaptive and challenged parenting among African American mothers: Parenting profiles relate to head start children's aggression and hyperactivity

    Early Education & Development

    (2013)
  • A. Caspi et al.

    Maternal expressed emotion predicts children's antisocial behavior problems: Using monozygotic-twin differences to identify environmental effects on behavioral development

    Developmental Psychology

    (2004)
  • H. Chang et al.

    Child effortful control as a mediator of parenting practices on externalizing behavior: Evidence for a sex-differentiated pathway across the transition from preschool to school

    Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology

    (2011)
  • L. Chang et al.

    Harsh parenting in relation to child emotion regulation and aggression

    Journal of Family Psychology

    (2003)
  • R. Chazan-Cohen et al.

    Low-income children's school readiness: Parent contributions over the first five years

    Early Education and Development

    (2009)
  • D.A. Cohn

    Child–mother attachment of six-year-olds and social competence at school

    Child Development

    (1990)
  • N.A. Conners-Burrow et al.

    Social outcomes associated with media viewing habits of low-income preschool children

    Early Education and Development

    (2011)
  • I.A. Crossley et al.

    Maternal-related predictors of self-regulation among low-income youth

    Journal of Child and Family Studies

    (2012)
  • E. Dearing et al.

    Contemporary advances and classic advice for analyzing mediating and moderating variables

    Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development

    (2006)
  • T. Del Vecchio et al.

    Antecedents of toddler aggression: Dysfunctional parenting in mother–toddler dyads

    Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology

    (2006)
  • D.H. Demo et al.

    Families with young children: A review of research in the 1990s

    Journal of Marriage and Family

    (2000)
  • C.E. Domitrovich et al.

    Parenting practices and child social adjustment: Multiple pathways of influence

    Merrill-Palmer Quarterly

    (2001)
  • S. Doumen et al.

    Reciprocal relations between teacher–child conflict and aggressive behavior in kindergarten: A three-wave longitudinal study

    Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology

    (2008)

    • Cited by (11)

    • Substance use disorder is the outcome of deviant socialization: A prospective investigation spanning childhood to adulthood

      2023, Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior

    • Intrusive parenting, teacher sensitivity, and negative emotionality on the development of emotion regulation in early head start toddlers

      2019, Infant Behavior and Development
      Citation Excerpt :

      Child ethnicity (Caucasian, African American, Hispanic, Other) was indicated by three dummy variables, with Caucasian as the reference group. Supportive parenting at 14 months was included given that intrusive parenting behaviors are not mutually exclusive from more positive parenting behaviors (Brady-Smith et al., 2013; Paschall et al., 2015). Supportive parenting was observed and coded during the 3-Bag Task, with higher scores indicating more frequent and intense instances of sensitivity, stimulation, and positive regard toward the child (ACF, 2004).

    • Emotional eating is related with temperament but not with stress biomarkers in preschool children

      2018, Appetite
      Citation Excerpt :

      Especially during early to middle childhood, family factors such as parental distress, closely related to parenting style impact on the child's behavior. As a consequence, parental factors are assumed to accelerate the associations between biological stress level and temperament and the eating style (emotional eating) of the child (Paschall, Gonzalez, Mortensen, Barnett, & Mastergeorge, 2015). We therefore hypothesize that parenting behavior moderates the relationship between stress biomarkers and between temperament with emotional eating.

    • Parenting Styles, Family Characteristics, and Teacher-Reported Behavioral Outcomes in Kindergarten

      2023, Journal of Child and Family Studies

    • Families, Parenting and Aggressive Preschoolers: A Scoping Review of Studies Examining Family Variables Related to Preschool Aggression

      2022, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

    • Profiles of caregiving behaviors among children and adolescents with perinatally acquired HIV

      2019, AIDS Care - Psychological and Socio-Medical Aspects of AIDS/HIV
    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text
    Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.