Mothers' Power Assertion; Children's Negative, Adversarial Orientation; and Future Behavior Problems in Low-Income Families: Early Maternal Responsiveness as a Moderator of the Developmental Cascade

Sanghag Kim; Grazyna Kochanska

doi:10.1037/a0038430

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Mothers' Power Assertion; Children's Negative, Adversarial Orientation; and Future Behavior Problems in Low-Income Families: Early Maternal Responsiveness as a Moderator of the Developmental Cascade

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Mothers' Power Assertion; Children's Negative, Adversarial Orientation; and Future Behavior Problems in Low-Income Families: Early Maternal Responsiveness as a Moderator of the Developmental Cascade

Sanghag Kim and Grazyna Kochanska

Journal of family psychology, Vol.29(1), pp.1-9

02/2015

DOI: 10.1037/a0038430

PMCID: PMC4323888

PMID: 25401483

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/4323888View

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Abstract

Parental power assertion, a key dimension of family environment, generally sets in motion detrimental developmental cascades; however, evidence suggests that other qualities of parenting, such as responsiveness, can significantly moderate those processes. Mechanisms that account for such moderating effects are not fully understood. We propose a conceptual model of processes linking parental power assertion, parental responsiveness, children's negative, adversarial, rejecting orientation toward the parent, and behavior problems. We test that model in a short-term longitudinal design involving 186 low-income, ethnically diverse mothers and their toddlers. When children were 30 months, the dyads were observed in multiple, lengthy, naturalistic laboratory interactions to assess behaviorally mothers' responsiveness and their power-assertive control style. At 33 months, we observed behavioral indicators of children's negative, adversarial, rejecting orientation toward the mothers in several naturalistic and standardized paradigms. At 40 months, mothers rated children's behavior problems. The proposed moderated mediation sequence, tested using a new approach, PROCESS (Hayes, 2013), was supported. The indirect effect from maternal power assertion to children's negative, adversarial orientation to future behavior problems was present when mothers' responsiveness was either low or average but absent when mothers were highly responsive. This study elucidates a potential process that may link parental power assertion with behavior problems and highlights how positive aspects of parenting can moderate this process and defuse maladaptive developmental cascades. It also suggests possible targets for parenting intervention and prevention efforts.

power assertion

behavior problems

mother-child parenting

responsiveness

Details

Title: Subtitle: Mothers' Power Assertion; Children's Negative, Adversarial Orientation; and Future Behavior Problems in Low-Income Families: Early Maternal Responsiveness as a Moderator of the Developmental Cascade
Creators: Sanghag Kim - Department of Sociology, Hanyang University
Grazyna Kochanska - Department of Psychology, University of Iowa
Contributors: Nadine J Kaslow (Editor)
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Journal of family psychology, Vol.29(1), pp.1-9
DOI: 10.1037/a0038430
PMID: 25401483
PMCID: PMC4323888
NLM abbreviation: J Fam Psychol
ISSN: 0893-3200
eISSN: 1939-1293
Publisher: American Psychological Association
Grant note: DOI: 10.13039/100000002, name: National Institutes of Health, award: R01 MH63096, K02 MH01446, R01 HD069171; DOI: 10.13039/501100002380, name: Hanyang University, award: HY-2013
Language: English
Date published: 02/2015
Academic Unit: Psychological and Brain Sciences
Record Identifier: 9984214756602771

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