Parental competence and styles of problem solving/play behavior with children.

Abstract

The relationship of parental psychosocial competence to parent interaction behaviors in a joint problem-solving/play session with children was studied in 23 adult-preschool child pairs. Parents were assessed using self-report questionnaires to determine degrees of self-efficacy, optimistic trust, and an active, planful coping style (i.e., competence). Children and parents participated in a semistructured problem-solving/play task with observers rating the parental behaviors in the interactions; child responses were not specifically studied. More competent parents interacted with a different, consistent set of behaviors. They treated the child as being more capable and resourceful, showed generally warm and positive feelings, and were more helpful with problem solving. Thus, these parental competence attributes are confirmed as significant variables relating to parental behavior and to their styles of interaction, which are part of the socialization context of their children.

Parenting and Development of One‐Year‐Olds: Links with Parental, Contextual, and Child Characteristics

“…Ego-resiliency has been found to be strongly related to effective functioning in diverse areas of life (Klohnen, 1996), but, to our knowledge, it has not been investigated in relation to quality of parenting. There is only indirect empirical evidence that egoresilient individuals might be better parents; that is, quality of parenting has been found to be empirically related to such parental characteristics as "internal locus of control," "self-esteem," and "ego-strength" (Biringen, 1990;Cox, Owen, Lewis, & Henderson, 1989;Mondell & Tyler, 1981;Stevens, 1988), which are conceptually closely related to the construct of ego-resiliency.…”

Explorations in Parent-School Relations

“…Dornbusch, Ritter, Leiderman, Roberts, and Fraleigh (1987) recently demonstrated another specific outcome of an authoritative parenting style; they found that adolescents raised by authoritative parents, when compared with adolescents raised by authoritarian parents, have higher levels of academic performance in high school. In a related line of inquiry, Mondell and Tyler (1981) reported significant positive relationships between elements of parental competence and characteristics of parents' teaching interactions with their children, for example, more competent parents treat the child as an "origin," offer more approval and acceptance, and offer more helpful problem-solving questions and strategies.…”

Correlates of parents’ involvement with their adolescent children in restructured and biological two-parent families: The role of child characteristics

“…In accordance with Belsky's (1984) ecological model of the determinants of parenting, parental personality is also one of the most influential predictors of parenting because it affects parental behaviour both directly and indirectly. Although most studies relating personality to quality of parenting have focused on the associations between disturbed psychological functioning and nonoptimal parenting (G. Downey & Coyne, 1990), those few studies that have looked at the role of self-esteem and related concepts such as ego-resiliency in parenting behaviour have also shown strong relationships (e.g., Mondell & Tyler, 1981). It was expected, therefore, that both parental mental health and parental selfesteem would be related to fathers' and mothers' parenting.…”