Semester

Summer

Date of Graduation

2010

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MA

College

College of Education and Human Services

Department

Counseling, Rehabilitation Counseling & Counseling Psychology

Committee Chair

Amy E Root

Abstract

Parenting practices were investigated as mediators between parenting stress and child inhibited, shy behavior. Parenting stress was also examined as a moderator between parenting practices and child inhibited, shy behavior. Twenty-seven preschool-aged children (14 boys, 13 girls; mean age =3.5 years) and their mothers (mean age =34 years) participated in the study. Mothers completed a battery of questionnaires to assess parenting stress, parenting practices, and child inhibited, shy behavior. Regression analyses were conducted and it was found that parenting practices do not mediate the relation between parenting stress and inhibited, shy behavior. However, there appears to be an indirect relation between parenting stress, authoritarian parenting, and inhibited, shy behavior; a similar association was found for the models with authoritative parenting. Moreover, parenting stress appears to exacerbate the relation between overprotective parenting and inhibited, shy behavior. The findings of this study provide an understanding of how parents may develop dysfunctional parenting practices via parenting stress, and the implications of parenting stress on the development of inhibited, shy behavior.

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