A comparison of direct and spontaneous methods for assessing parental attributions.
OBJECTIVE
The study aim was to test whether spontaneous parental attributions were more closely related to parental attributions reported after a third child non-compliance, than to those reported after the first non-compliance.


METHODS
Twenty-six parents completed two attributional measures. Direct attributions were measured using Dopke and Milner's procedure where a vignette describing child non-compliance is presented three times and attributions elicited after the first and third non-compliance. Spontaneous attributions were elicited during interview and coded using the Leeds Attributional Coding System.


RESULTS
Spontaneous attributions were no more associated with parental attributions after the third child non-compliance than with those reported after the first.


CONCLUSIONS
The results suggest that the measures may be assessing different aspects of parental cognition.
Wilson
Charlotte
C
School of Medicine, Health Policy and Practice, Elizabeth Fry Building, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. charlotte.wilson@uea.ac.uk
Calam
Rachel
R
White
Caroline
C
D000328:Adult; D032763:Behavior Control; D015984:Causality; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016487:Parenting; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D011581:Psychological Tests; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric