Parenting behaviours during child problem solving: The roles of child temperament, mother education and personality, and the problem-solving context

Abstract

Child temperament, parent openness to experience, conscientiousness, and education, and parent a priori assessments of the task were examined in relation to parenting behaviours during child problem solving. Mothers and their children (73 dyads) were visited the summer before kindergarten. Mothers' cognitive, emotional, and autonomy support were coded as they provided assistance during four child problem-solving tasks. Mothers with more education provided more metacognitive information. Before education was considered, it appeared that mothers who perceived their children as difficult and who were less open to experiences were less likely to regulate task difficulty, encourage their children's efforts, and encourage their children's active role in problem solving. However, more educated mothers regulated task difficulty, encouraged their children's efforts, and encouraged their children's active role more when they perceived their children as difficult than when they perceived their children as easy. More educated mothers also were likely to regulate task difficulty and encourage their children's active role regardless of their openness. Children perceived as difficult were most likely to be rejected and also were particularly likely to be rejected if the mother was highly conscientious. Conscientious mothers were likely to be overly controlling. When mothers perceived the task negatively they were less likely to provide metacognitive information, regulate task difficulty, and encourage the child's active role; and were more likely to be overcontrolling and rejecting.

Pathways of Influence: Marital Relationships and Their Association with Parenting Styles and Sibling Relationship Quality

“…Although a child's difficult temperament is likely to elicit irritable and punitive responses from parents, this does not always hold true (Lemery and Goldsmith 2002;Meyers 1999;Neitzel and Stright 2004). Rather, some parents still provide warm and appropriate parenting toward a child who is emotionally irritable and socially inhibited (Rubin et al 1998;Thomas and Chess, 1984).…”

“…Rather, some parents still provide warm and appropriate parenting toward a child who is emotionally irritable and socially inhibited (Rubin et al 1998;Thomas and Chess, 1984). Alternatively, a plausible explanation for the nonsignificant relation between child temperament and parenting styles centers around the potential moderating role of maternal education, as Neitzel and Stright (2004) suggested. Indeed, they showed that mothers with higher levels of education were more likely to be emotionally and cognitively supportive toward their young children if they perceived their children as difficult.…”

“…We do not, however, interpret this lack of significant effect of maternal education on parenting styles as unimportant. Rather we encourage future researchers to examine the role of maternal education as a potential moderator as discussed earlier (Neitzel and Stright 2004).…”

“…For instance, it was reported that there were no correlations between young children's difficult temperaments and parenting styles (Lemery and Goldsmith 2002;Meyers 1999). Similarly, after taking into account maternal education, although child difficult temperament was still significantly and positively related to maternal rejection, it was not significantly associated with maternal encouragement, overcontrol, cognitive assistance, or encouragement of the child's involvement in problem solving (Neitzel and Stright 2004). With this in mind, child temperament was considered as a significant correlate of sibling relationship quality and parenting styles in the present study.…”

Scaffolding preschool children’s problem solving: A comparison between Chinese mothers and teachers across multiple tasks

“…More elaborate and facilitating strategies occurred in the activities that they perceived as learning opportunities for children and where adults' support was thought to be necessary (Gonzalez, 1996;Neitzel and Stright, 2004). Variations of adults' behaviors in different tasks may also be affected by their familiarity with the task (Goodsitt et al, 1988).…”