Semester

Spring

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

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relation between general parenting practices (e.g., authoritative and authoritarian) and emotion-specific parenting practices (supportive and non-supportive). In addition, a second goal of this study was to examine the manner which general parenting practices and emotion-specific parenting practices collectively contribute to children's displays of fear/anxiety and hostility/aggression. Data were gathered from 27 mothers (mean age = 34 years) and their preschool-aged children (14 boys, 13 girls; mean age = 3.5 years) in Morgantown, West Virginia. The majority (92%) of mothers were White (4% Black, 4% Bi-racial). Mothers completed a series of questionnaires. In order to assess general parenting typologies and emotion-specific parenting practices, mothers completed the Parenting Practices Questionnaire (PPQ; Robinson, Mandleco, Frost, Olsen, & Hart, 1995) and the Coping with Children's Negative Emotions Scale (CCNES; Fabes, Poulin, Eisenberg, Madden-Derdich, 2002). Mothers also rated their children's hostility/aggression and fear/anxiety via the Preschool Behavior Questionnaire (Behar & Stringfield, 1974). Bivariate correlation analyses were conducted and it was determined that authoritative parenting was significantly and positively related to supportive emotion socialization strategies in response to children's anger and fear. In addition, authoritarian parenting was significantly and positively related to non-supportive fear. A series of multiple regressions were also conducted and indicated that authoritarian parenting was a significant (negative) main effect predictor of fear/anxiety. Finally, the interaction between authoritarian parenting and non-supportive-anger was predictive of fear/anxiety at the trend level. The implications of examining general and emotion specific parenting practices as contributors to children's social and emotional development are discussed.

Share

COinS