Ecological Predictors of Disciplinary Style and Child Abuse Potential in a Hispanic and Anglo-American Sample

Abstract

Recent attention to multicultural issues has sparked recognition that parenting is also a culturally construed phenomenon. The present study involved a diverse sample of 90 Anglo-American and Hispanic parents examining predictors based on distal/proximal levels as conceptualized in the ecological model. The study examined background characteristics (e.g., minority status, educational level, income), intrapersonal (anger, parenting competence, parenting satisfaction), and extrapersonal (social support) factors in the prediction of child abuse potential and dysfunctional disciplinary style. Parents participated anonymously in an in-home assessment. Neither minority status nor income predicted abuse potential or parenting style beyond what was accounted for by educational level. The pattern of findings for the sample suggests the relative importance of anger expression, parenting self-efficacy, and social support satisfaction in both abuse potential and disciplinary style for both Hispanic and Anglo-American parents. Future research directions with diverse samples are considered, including the need for measures specifically designed to assess parenting issues in diverse cultural groups.Keywords Child abuse potential Á Parenting style Á Ecological theory Á Multiculturalism Á Child maltreatment Mounting interest in the variability of parenting styles has emerged from the literature, with heightened recognition that different cultural groups approach parenting in unique ways (

The Role of Parental Stress, Mother’s Childhood Abuse and Perceived Consequences of Violence in Predicting Attitudes and Attribution in Favor of Corporal Punishment

“…Although not significant in the final model (p = .06), correlation results also indicate that mothers receiving more support have a greater tendency to adopt attitudes less in favor of corporal punishment. Several comparable studies have found that a level of social support considered to be more satisfying diminishes the risk of physical abuse of the child, regardless of the family's ethnic origin (Rodriguez 2008). This is important since it appears that intervention intending to increase support from the partner and the social network has an impact on the mother's attitudes during the first year of the child's life (McCurdy 2005).…”

“…This indicates the absence of several factors such as the father's point of view (Flynn 1998), the form and severity of the violence the mothers experienced as children (Clément and Bouchard 2003;Deater-Deckard et al 2003), religious affiliation (Gershoff et al 1999;Jackson et al 1999) and ethnic origin (Deater-Deckard et al 2003;Flynn 1998;Straus and Stewart 1999). We might also consider the factors of empathy, personality traits, and the parents' psychological characteristics (i.e., symptoms of depression) (Leung and Smith-Slep 2006;Perez-Albeniz and De Paul 2003;Rodriguez 2008). Lastly, the mothers' responses in this kind of survey are inevitably subject to the bias of social desirability in spite of the precautions we took during the study in order to diminish its impact.…”

Mother–Daughter Relationship Quality and Body Image in Preadolescent Girls

“…A sample item is, ''I am delighted with the relationship that I have with my children''. As with the CAIR, we utilized raw scores (e.g., see Rodriguez 2008). The PSS has evidence of convergent validity with other measures of life satisfaction and subscale content consistency (Cleminshaw and Guidibaldi 1985).…”

Adolescent risk factors for child maltreatment

“…Various internalizing problems are linked to later child maltreatment, including low self-esteem (Christensen, Brayden, Dietrich, McLaughlin, & Sherrod, 1994; Whipple & Webster-Stratton, 1991) and depression (Chaffin et al, 1996; Ethier et al, 1995; Whipple & Webster-Stratton, 1991), as well as a history of psychopathology and severe mental illness (Brown et al, 1998; Chaffin et al, 1996; Stith et al, 2009). Externalizing behaviors, including alcohol and drug use (Chaffin et al, 1996; Kelleher, Chaffin, Hollenberg, & Fischer, 1994; MacMillan, 2000); criminal behavior (Altemeier et al, 1982); and anger expression, verbal aggression, and hostility (DiLalla & Crittenden, 1990; Rodriguez, 2008; Schumacher, Feldbau-Kohn, Smith Slep, & Heyman, 2001; Simons & Whitbeck, 1991; Stith et al, 2009) have also been associated with later maltreatment. It should be noted that, although these factors are likely to have emerged in childhood or adolescence, the majority of these studies identified and measured them retrospectively in adulthood.…”