Inconsistent parenting: is there evidence for a link with children's conduct problems?
Traditional interview studies of inconsistent parental discipline show a strong link with young children's conduct problems. Observational studies of inconsistency show weaker links with problem behavior and suffer from methodological problems. This study proposed a new observational definition of parental inconsistency, which analyzed whether mothers follow through their demands during sequences of mother-child conflict. A home observational study showed that mothers of conduct-problem preschoolers acted inconsistently during a greater proportion of conflict episodes than did their normal counterparts. There was a strong correlation between inconsistency and amount of family conflict. Inconsistency varied as a function of the context from which conflict arose. Results are discussed in terms of both coercion (Patterson, 1979) and predictability theories of problem behavior (Wahler & Dumas, 1986).
Gardner
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Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, London, England.
D000786:Anger; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D002668:Child Rearing; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D012307:Risk Factors