Associations among distorted cognitions and hypothetical parenting responses prior to parenthood.
Using path analytic methods, the present study used two social-cognitive models of maladaptive parenting to predict endorsements of child punishment in a sample of 101 young adults who had not yet become parents. Participants completed paper-and-pencil measures of expectations, attributions, current aggression, and responses to vignettes about child rearing and social situations. Results suggest that working models of parent-child relationships are related in predictable ways to endorsements of cognitive and behavioral responses toward children in vignettes, even in adults who are not yet parents. An extended model of maladaptive parenting that included beliefs and behaviors regarding current peer relationships was not validated. Gender moderated the influence of past punishment on level of unrealistic expectations about children and the influence of current peer aggression on endorsements of child punishment. Implications of gender differences in predictors and directions forfuture research are discussed.
Division of Child and Family Psychiatry, Rhode Island Hospital/Brown University School of Medicine, Providence 02903, USA. Wendy_Plante@brown.edu
Wendy A
WA
Plante
Anthony M
AM
Graziano
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006791:Hostility; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting; D011678:Punishment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires