title: Stimulating parents' self-efficacy beliefs or verbal responsiveness: Which is the best way to decrease children's externalizing behaviors?
abstract: This research aimed at determining which of two types of parenting variable, self-efficacy beliefs and verbal responsiveness, cause significant decreases in preschoolers' externalizing behavior - in particular motor activity, non compliance, irritability, aggressiveness and inattention - and to what extent. Two micro-trials were used to achieve this goal. The 45 parents participating were randomly assigned to an 8-week waiting list followed by an 8-week intervention condition focusing on self-efficacy stimulation, or to an 8-week intervention condition focusing on verbal responsiveness stimulation. It can be concluded from the results that the two manipulations were effective in decreasing aggressive behavior and non compliance. However, the improvement of self-efficacy beliefs has an effect on children's externalizing behavior across a slightly larger spectrum than the enhancement of verbal responsiveness since it was also effective in reducing irritability. Neither of the two manipulations resulted in a decrease of attention problems or motor activity. The results are discussed for their research and clinical implications.
authors.affiliation: Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain, 10 Place du Cardinal Mercier, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. Electronic address: isabelle.roskam@uclouvain.be.
authors.forename: Isabelle
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Roskam
authors.affiliation: Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain, 10 Place du Cardinal Mercier, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. Electronic address: elise.brassart@uclouvain.be.
authors.forename: Elise
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Brassart
authors.affiliation: Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain, 10 Place du Cardinal Mercier, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. Electronic address: laurie.loop@uclouvain.be.
authors.forename: Laurie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Loop
authors.affiliation: Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain, 10 Place du Cardinal Mercier, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. Electronic address: benedicte.mouton@uclouvain.be.
authors.forename: Bénédicte
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mouton
authors.affiliation: Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain, 10 Place du Cardinal Mercier, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. Electronic address: marie-anne.schelstraete@uclouvain.be.
authors.forename: Marie-Anne
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Schelstraete
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D000066553:Problem Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D012057:Reinforcement, Verbal; D020377:Self Efficacy
keywords: Externalizing behavior; Micro-trials; Parenting; Responsiveness; Self-efficacy beliefs