Predicting inept discipline: The role of parental depressive symptoms, anger, and attributions.

Relations among parents' psychological difficulties (i.e., depressive symptoms, overt anger), dysfunctional attributions for child misbehavior, and inept discipline were investigated in a representative community sample of 451 mothers and 449 fathers. Depressive symptoms and anger were hypothesized to relate to discipline via their link with parents' attributions. Path analyses revealed that depressive symptoms predicted parent-centered causal attributions (i.e., stable, global, and dispositional), which, in turn, related to laxness. Depressive symptoms also predicted child-centered responsibility attributions (i.e., controllable, intentional, and negative), which, in turn, related to overreactivity. Anger predicted overreactivity directly. The patterns of relations were similar for fathers and mothers. The importance of addressing parents' psychological difficulties and dysfunctional attributions in interventions for families with disruptive children is discussed.

[1]  R. Heyman,et al.  Using random telephone sampling to recruit generalizable samples for family violence studies. , 2006, Journal of family psychology : JFP : journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association.

[2]  J. Ohan,et al.  The Importance of Parental Attributions in Families of Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity and Disruptive Behavior Disorders , 2005, Clinical child and family psychology review.

[3]  Keith Sanford.  Attributions and anger in early marriage: wives are event-dependent and husbands are schematic. , 2005, Journal of family psychology : JFP : journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association.

[4]  A. Slep,et al.  Parent and partner violence in families with young children: rates, patterns, and connections. , 2005, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[5]  J. Durrant,et al.  Maternal use of physical punishment in response to child misbehavior: implications for child abuse prevention. , 2005, Child abuse & neglect.

[6]  Frederick G. Lopez,et al.  A cognitive-behavioral investigation of anger among college students , 1986, Cognitive Therapy and Research.

[7]  M. Sanders,et al.  Does parental attributional retraining and anger management enhance the effects of the triple P-Positive Parenting Program with parents at risk of child maltreatment? , 2004 .

[8]  A. W. Siegman,et al.  The Outward Expression of Anger, the Inward Experience of Anger and CVR: The Role of Vocal Expression , 1997, Journal of Behavioral Medicine.

[9]  C. Hammen,et al.  Intergenerational transmission of depression: test of an interpersonal stress model in a community sample. , 2004, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[10]  C. Webster-Stratton,et al.  The role of mental health factors and program engagement in the effectiveness of a preventive parenting program for Head Start mothers. , 2003, Child development.

[11]  D. Nagin,et al.  Trajectories leading to school-age conduct problems. , 2003, Developmental psychology.

[12]  Julie Morris,et al.  Expressed emotion, attributions and depression in mothers of children with problem behaviour. , 2003, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[13]  C. Spielberger,et al.  The nature and measurement of depression , 2003 .

[14]  P. C. Ellerson,et al.  A cognitive approach to child abuse prevention. , 2002, Journal of family psychology : JFP : journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association.

[15]  J. G. Querido,et al.  Parenting styles and child behavior in African American families of preschool children. , 2002 .

[16]  A. Day,et al.  Cognitive appraisals associated with high trait anger , 2001 .

[17]  R. Lazarus.  Relational meaning and discrete emotions. , 2001 .

[18]  K. Scherer,et al.  Appraisal processes in emotion: Theory, methods, research. , 2001 .

[19]  M. Lovejoy,et al.  Maternal depression and parenting behavior: a meta-analytic review. , 2000, Clinical psychology review.

[20]  C. Zahn-Waxler,et al.  Prediction of externalizing behavior problems from early to middle childhood: The role of parental socialization and emotion expression , 2000, Development and Psychopathology.

[21]  Nancy L. Kocovski,et al.  Depression: The Complexity of Self‐Report Measures , 2000 .

[22]  R. Prinz,et al.  Engagement in Child and Adolescent Treatment: The Role of Parental Cognitions and Attributions , 1999, Clinical child and family psychology review.

[23]  K. Renk,et al.  The relationship between parental anger and behavior problems in children and adolescents. , 1999 .

[24]  A. Slep,et al.  A Longitudinal Study of Mothers' Overreactive Discipline and Toddlers' Externalizing Behavior , 1999, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[25]  C. Johnston,et al.  Measuring parental attributions: Conceptual and methodological issues. , 1998 .

[26]  C. Barrowclough,et al.  Depressed and non-depressed mothers with problematic preschoolers: attributions for child behaviours. , 1998, The British journal of clinical psychology.

[27]  A. Slep,et al.  The effects of maternal attributions on parenting : An experimental analysis , 1998 .

[28]  Julie H. Goldberg,et al.  Sober Second Thought: The Effects of Accountability, Anger, and Authoritarianism on Attributions of Responsibility , 1998 .

[29]  P. Bentler,et al.  Fit indices in covariance structure modeling : Sensitivity to underparameterized model misspecification , 1998 .

[30]  A. Kazdin.  Parent management training: evidence, outcomes, and issues. , 1997, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

[31]  C. Rodriguez,et al.  Parenting stress and anger expression as predictors of child abuse potential. , 1997, Child abuse & neglect.

[32]  S. O'leary,et al.  Father involvement and self-reported parenting of children with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder. , 1997, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[33]  J. Dumas,et al.  The effectiveness of behavioral parent training to modify antisocial behavior in children: A meta-analysis , 1996 .

[34]  B. Weiner.  Judgments of Responsibility: A Foundation for a Theory of Social Conduct , 1995 .

[35]  J. Forgas.  Sad and guilty? Affective influences on the explanation of conflict in close relationships. , 1994 .

[36]  Lisa S. Wolff,et al.  The Parenting Scale: A measure of dysfunctional parenting in discipline situations. , 1993 .

[37]  P. Ellsworth,et al.  Beyond simple pessimism: effects of sadness and anger on social perception. , 1993, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[38]  K. Kendziora,et al.  Dysfunctional parenting as a focus for prevention and treatment of child behavior problems. , 1993 .

[39]  K. Dodge,et al.  Social information processing in aggressive and depressed children. , 1992, Child development.

[40]  T. Dix,et al.  The affective organization of parenting: adaptive and maladaptive processes. , 1991, Psychological bulletin.

[41]  T. Dix.  Mothers' Judgment in Moments of Anger. , 1990 .

[42]  L. Ewing,et al.  Follow-up of hard-to-manage preschoolers: adjustment at age 9 and predictors of continuing symptoms. , 1990, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[43]  Moshe Guthertz,et al.  Behavior-State Matching and Synchrony in Mother-Infant Interactions of Nondepressed versus Depressed Dyads. , 1990 .

[44]  S. Goodman,et al.  Schizophrenic and Depressed Mothers: Relational Deficits in Parenting. , 1990 .

[45]  F D Fincham,et al.  Attributions in marriage: review and critique. , 1990, Psychological bulletin.

[46]  P. Lachenbruch.  Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences (2nd ed.) , 1989 .

[47]  Peter M. Bentler,et al.  EQS : structural equations program manual , 1989 .

[48]  G. Metalsky,et al.  The hopelessness theory of depression: Does the research test the theory? , 1988 .

[49]  L. Abramson.  Social cognition and clinical psychology: A synthesis. , 1988 .

[50]  A. Cox,et al.  THE IMPACT OF MATERNAL DEPRESSION IN YOUNG CHILDREN , 1987 .

[51]  J. D. Welsh,et al.  Resolutions of control episodes between well and affectively ill mothers and their young children , 1987, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[52]  D. Ruble,et al.  Social cognition in parents: inferential and affective reactions to children of three age levels. , 1986, Child development.

[53]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[54]  C. Zahn-Waxler,et al.  Early child-rearing practices in families with a manic-depressive parent. , 1984, The American journal of psychiatry.

[55]  Benjamin B. Lahey,et al.  Advances in Clinical Child Psychology , 1980, Advances in Clinical Child Psychology.