Warmth and contingency and their relationship to maternal attitudes toward parenting.
In this study, the authors addressed the question of whether maternal parenting behaviors in terms of sensitivity, warmth, and contingency with respect to small infants were equally represented in attitudes toward parenting. Sixty mothers from central Germany with middle-class socioeconomic backgrounds were videotaped with their 1st born 3-month-old infant in a free-play and a caregiving episode in their home. The different maternal parenting components were behaviorally analyzed. Maternal attitudes toward parenting were assessed with self-report measures. The results showed that behavioral sensitivity was significantly associated with attitudes related to contingency, whereas behavioral warmth and contingency were not associated with maternal attitudes. The authors interpreted differential associations as a reflection of intuitive and explicit parenting strategies, with only sensitivity being explicitly represented.
Keller
Heidi
H
Department of Psychology, University of Osnabrueck, Germany. hkeller@luce.psycho.uniosnabrueck.de
Lohaus
Arnold
A
Völker
Susanne
S
Elben
Cornelia
C
Ball
Juliane
J
D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008425:Maternal Behavior; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014743:Videotape Recording