Parenting Practices

The hypothesis of this study is twofold and states that parental socioeconomic status has an effect on the soft drink consumption of the child, and that this effect is mediated by the soft drink related parenting practices. One thousand six hundred and thirty-nine parents of 2.5-7 year old children from 34 Flemish pre-primary and primary schools, completed a self-administered questionnaire on sociodemographic characteristics, soft drink consumption and soft drink related parenting practices. Causal mediation analyses showed an effect of socioeconomic status on soft drink consumption of the child: children from high socioeconomic status consume 0.42 times the amount of soft drinks of children from lower socioeconomic status. Interestingly, this effect is almost entirely mediated by three soft drink parenting practices: soft drinks served at meals, the child can take soft drink whenever he or she wants and having soft drinks at home.

Background: Raising children who belong to homes of low resources is an area of low priority for parents due to lack of time and resources; frequently the mother is in charge of this and the father’s image is often lacking. This subject has not been explored in the region.
Objectives: Describing the attitudes, beliefs and practices about raising children in a group of low resource heading of the household mothers in Popayan.
Methods: A qualitative study was conducted at Fundacion Infancia Colombiana, a teaching and home substitute institution for young children of heading of household mothers. Ten mothers, selected by convenience, participated in depth interviews which lasted between 45 and 60 minutes. Audio records were transcribed and the information analyzed using one qualitative software package (Winmax98).
Results: Three areas were determined which allowed: 1) to determine the women’s attitudes before becoming mothers and family influences on raising of their own children; 2) to establish the beliefs and practices of the mothers for their children’s behaviour; and 3) to know the mothers’ expectations on this subject.
Conclusions: The study allowed identifying the weaknesses present in a group of families of head of household mothers regarding the raising of their children. The attitudes and practices originating on their own homes are not supportive of their role as mothers. The harsh social environment in which mothers were raised represent a limiting factor on their own role as mothers. Nevertheless, their expectations about increasing their knowledge about providing care for children open a field for a possible intervention.

Key words: child rearing, qualitative studies, deep surveys, Colombia."

The main purpose of this paper-based thesis (180 ECTS) is to examine school dropout among Icelandic youth longitudinally, from two perspect-ives: theories on school dropout that conceptualize students’ disengage-ment as the central concept in understanding the process of leaving school prematurely; and the literature on the influence that the family has on youth adjustment from the perspective of parenting practices. Icelandic youth were followed over an eight-year period, from age 14 to 22. This study is part of a larger ongoing, longitudinal study: the Reykjavik Adolescent Risk-Taking Longitudinal Study (RAR-LS; Adalbjarnardottir, 1994). The findings have been presented in three papers (Blondal & Adalbjarnardottir, 2009, 2012, 2014 in press).
More precisely, the aim of this thesis is to further expand the existing literature on school dropout by following adolescents over an eight-year period through three approaches. First, it looks at multidimensional aspects of student engagement at age 14 and its development from age 14 to 15 in relation to school dropout. The diversity of the student group is taken into account, particularly those who appear to be at risk of dropping out but still beat the odds, and those who appear to be on promising educational pathways but fail to do well. Second, it explores general aspects of parent¬ing in relation to school dropout, examining the longitudinal relationship of both parental involvement and parenting style with school dropout. Third, it further expands the combined findings of the study on student engagement and parenting practices in relation to educational status at age 22, by exploring how the context of authoritative parenting influences school dropout and graduation through students’ engagement in adolescence.
The thesis contributes to the literature in several ways. First, it uses a longitudinal design that covers a long period—over eight years—unusual in studies of socialization and school dropout.  This design makes it possible to conclude quite confidently about the predictive power of family factors on school dropout. Second, the thesis contributes to the literature by exploring students’ different educational pathways in relation to multidimensional constructs of disengagement during adolescence. It places a special focus on students who are the exceptions to predictions about the expected pathways, an approach that is rare in research on school dropout but provides valuable insights into possible reasons for academic resilience among at-risk students and vulnerabilities for academically strong students. Third, it explores the behavioral and emotional components of engagement, as they change over time in relation to different educational pathways, unlike most research on dropouts, which includes only behavioral components and at one point in time.
Fourth, the ability to explore the relationship between multidimensional character¬istics of parenting practices and school dropout revealed import¬ant pathways to consider for adolescent development. Previous research on the relationship between family characteristics has been criticized for being focused too narrowly, looking mainly at parental involvement in the child’s education. In general, the findings from studies with this focus have been inconsistent and weaker than expected. Thus, to better understand the influence that parents have on their child’s education it is important to look at a broader conceptualization of child upbringing that characterizes the parents’ actions in their communications with their child. Fifth, the thesis explores longitudinally how multifaceted parenting practices during adolescence (age 14) influence educational status at age 22 (gradu¬ation/ dropout) through student engagement at age 15. Even though student engagement is a central concept in most theories of school dropout and dropout often seems to result from a long-term process of withdrawal from school, little research has focused on how parenting practices may relate to school dropout through the process of student disengagement.
The main results of the thesis indicate that adolescents’ behavioral and emotional disengagement differs according to their educational pathways. Based on their achievement at age 15 and educational attainment at age 22, they were classified into groups that took expected versus unexpected paths. Those who were “at risk” academically at age 14, but graduated contrary to expectations, showed less behavioral disengagement than the expected dropouts. Moreover, high achievers who dropped out unexpectedly showed more behavioral and emotional disengagement compared to expected graduates. In general, during the following year (age 15), disengagement increased among the unexpected dropouts but decreased among the expected graduates.
A second major finding is that adolescents who at age 14 characterized their parents as authoritative (showing acceptance and supervision) were more likely to have completed upper secondary education by age 22, compared to those who perceived their parents as authoritarian, indulgent, or neglectful. It is worth noting that this finding remained pronounced even after controlling for parents’ SES, adolescents’ gender, parents’ involve¬ment in their education, and adolescents’ temperament. In addition, even when controlling for the strong influence that previous academic achieve¬ment had on standardized test scores at age 15, adolescents with autho¬ritative parents were more likely to complete upper secondary education by age 22 than were those from authoritarian and neglectful families.
A third major finding is that a broader conceptualization of parenting was a considerably stronger predictor of school dropout than were the specific behaviors depicted in parental involvement in their child’s education. In the fourth major finding, the students’ level of engagement at age 15 mediated the association between multidimensional parenting practices as perceived by adolescents at age 14 and their educational status at age 22. Adolescents who perceived their parents as more authoritative (i.e., providing high levels of acceptance and supervision, and granting psychological autonomy) were more likely to have completed upper secondary school at age 22, compared to their counterparts who perceived their parents as less authoritative. Student engagement seems to play a critical role in this relationship between parenting practices and school dropout/graduation. Importantly, those adolescents who had more authoritative parents were not only less likely to feel disengaged at school, but also more likely to complete upper secondary school.
The main conclusions of these combined findings are that the context of authoritative parenting seems to protect adolescents from the general decline in engagement at an age that places them at risk of dropping out, even when they are doing well academically. During this challenging period of adolescence characterized by psychosocial and biological changes, young persons have to make critical decisions about their education. In addition they have to adjust to increased academic challenges as well as more complicated, less structured, and often more impersonal school environ¬ments than they experience in the lower grades (Eccles, et al., 1993; Wang & Holcombe, 2010). The findings suggest that a parent-child relationship characterized by emotional support and mutual respect, in which the parents impart clear standards for their child’s behavior but at the same time grant autonomy, may buffer against the edu¬cational challenges in adolescence by fostering their child’s positive school behavior, along with positive feelings towards their studies and bonding with school. At this critical point students’ feelings towards their academic tasks and school, as well as their school behaviors and the way their disengagement develops the following year, can have an impact: some students who are at risk academically become more resilient and some who seem to be on a promising educational track become more vulnerable.
By using a broad conceptualization of parenting this thesis sheds light on the family processes that lie behind the strong relationship between family background and educational attainment. Furthermore it suggests that the effects that specific practices such as parental involvement have on youth’s educational attainment depend on the characteristics of the parent-child relationship. These findings should give parents encouragement and guide¬lines in their important role of supporting their children’s educational success during adolescence. Moreover, they should enhance the understanding of teachers, school counselors, principals, and educational policy makers about the importance of working with students who are not in supportive relationships with their family.

Resumo: Tem-se por objetivo: (a) caracterizar comportamentos de 47 cuidadores primários e de seus filhos que buscaram atendimento; (b) comparar grupos: abandono x participantes; menino x menina. Os participantes responderam à entrevista (RE-HSE-P), inventário (IHS-Del Prette) e escalas (Escala de Assertividade Rathus e CBCL). Nos resultados 60% das crianças apresentam problemas de comportamento em nível clínico. Há correlação entre práticas parentais negativas e problemas de comportamento e entre habilidades sociais de cuidadores (HSE-P) e filhos. As pessoas que desistem do atendimento apresentam menor frequência e qualidade de HSE-P e mais problemas de comportamento. Não há diferenças nas comparações entre meninos e meninas. Os resultados realçam a importância de avaliar, no contexto clínico, os comportamentos de pais e de filhos de maneira contingente, por meio de diferentes instrumentos, de forma a apreender as relações entre os comportamentos problema e as potencialidades de ambos os interlocutores da interação social. Palavras-chave: Práticas Parentais, Problemas de Comportamento, Habilidades Sociais.

La ponencia presenta las investigaciones que evidencian diferencias en las prácticas de crianza utilizadas por las madres y los padres de niños en edad preescolar, en torno a la dimensión apoyo parental. Se resalta el papel que juega el apoyo como respuesta a las demandas de los niños para afrontar diferentes retos cognitivos y socioemocionales en el transcurrir de su vida cotidiana.

This article explores Finnish different-sex couples’ (n = 12) negotiations on their parental division  of labour. Theoretically, the article is based on the literature on gendered parenting practices and  relational negotiations. Our discourse analysis reveals how the couples produced ‘togetherness’ and  ‘our family’ by representing their care practices as agreements, irrespective of whether the care was  described as equally shared or distinctly gendered. Disagreements reflecting more individualistic  tones, and mainly resulting from the mothers’ sense of unfairness, were especially foregrounded  when the distribution of household duties was discussed. The analysis also revealed how men cited  involved fatherhood as a justification for their lesser responsibility for housework, while women  sought to reconcile the contradictory discourses of equal parenting and mother’s primacy. Our  results show how personal wishes and preferences, work life, family policies and cultural discourses  are reflected in couples’ negotiations on parenting practices and moral identities pertaining to  ‘good’ motherhood and fatherhood.

The article presents the results of research with mothers of preschool children and in which social representations associated with the promotion of prosocial behavior of girls and boys were investigated. The sample was 245 mothers (M = 38.03 years, SD = 5.57) and their preschool children (M = 5.64 years, SD = .48). The Parenting Practices of Involvement Questionnaire (PPIQ) was used, with an alpha of .67. The results show that social representations are structured in a central nucleus, with two shared ideas: respect and collaboration; and a peripheral system, with three ideas: rejection of selfishness, support and sharing.

Abstract. The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between personal values, parenting practices and adolescents ’ institutionalization. We investigated differences between two groups of parents: 235 parents of adolescents attending regular schools and 92 parents of adolescents attending reformatory schools. The results indicate that benevolence was positively associated with parenting practices, but self-enhancement and hedonism had negative correlations with parenting practices. Parents of institutionalized adolescents rated benevolence and conservatism higher and broadmindedness lower than parents of non-institutionalized adolescents. Differences in parenting practices also emerged in connection with social norms, setting limits, and physical safety. We also established the effect of parents ` socio-economic status on adolescents ’ institutionalization.

Resumo: Práticas educativas parentais têm sido investigadas há várias décadas e são consideradas como importantes preditores para o desenvolvimento infantil e vêm servindo de modelo para os pais interagirem com a sua prole. Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo investigar a transmissão intergeracional dos estilos parentais. Foram entrevistadas 21 mulheres, de sete famílias distintas, respeitando a linearidade trigeracional, utilizandose a Entrevista de Apego Adulto, desenvolvida por George, Kaplan e Main e as Escalas de Qualidade de Interação Familiar -EQIF de Weber e colaboradores. Para análise dos dados utilizou-se o teste não-paramétrico de Mann-Whitney U. Os resultados mostram que em 91,7% dos casos ficou demonstrada a transmissão intergeracional. Da primeira para a terceira geração os dados revelaram pais sensivelmente mais autoritários do que as mães e estas mais submissas. Esses resultados levam à conclusão de que é necessária a divulgação de práticas educativas parentais adequadas como estratégias de prevenção.

This study examined the predictive effect of Parenting Practices on Social Interaction of Pupils with a view to suggesting ways of improving students ’ social interaction and performance in school. For the purpose of this research work, descriptive research design of ex-post facto type was adopted. The sample for this study comprised of two hundred and fifty (250) respondents that were randomly selected from five primary schools. Fifty respondents (50) respondents were randomly selected from each of the five primary schools. Alabama Parenting questionnaire and social Interaction scale were used in gathering the needed information. Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) and Multiple Regression Analysis were used to analyse the data collected. The results of the findings were as follows: There was a significant contribution of Parenting Practices on students' Social Interaction and there was a relative effect of Positive Parenting on Social Interaction of Pupils. Based on the ...

In order to explain the worst levels of adaptation showed by children with disabilities in relation to non disabled children, this paper aims to carry out a review of the most important advances achieved in recent decades in the study of parenting styles and parenting practices in relation to academic competence and behavior problems of children with and without disabilities. For this, we have carried out an analysis of the main works that show this relationship in the population, and then, we did the same including disability as a differentiating factor. In this sense, the authoritative style and specific parenting practices such as setting limits, communication, autonomy or monitoring are described as good predictors of adaptive behavior in children. However, we miss studies to confirm this relationship in children with disabilities. In this population, most of the papers refer, on the one hand, to expectations and, on the other hand, the stress in parenting and its effect on the ...

Little is known about how fathers’ food parenting practices (FPPs) are linked with children’s eating behaviors and whether these associations differ from mothers. This study examined associations between paternal and maternal FPPs and eating behaviors among children aged 5-12 years. A sample of 565 parents (53% fathers) completed: 1) the FPP item bank, which measured 11 FPP constructs from the three domains of parenting (control, autonomy promotion, and structure) and 2) the Children’s Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ), to assess four constructs (emotional overeating, food responsiveness, satiety responsiveness and food fussiness). Multivariable linear regressions evaluated associations between FPP and CEBQ constructs, and models were run separately for fathers and mothers. Similarities emerged between fathers and mothers: 1) restriction for weight practices were associated with greater emotional overeating and food responsiveness; 2) greater parenting practices around food to accommodate the child and lower practices to involve the child were associated with greater food fussiness; and 3) using practices to accommodate the child, or using coercive controlling practices, was associated with greater children’s emotional overeating. Differences emerged between fathers and mothers in terms of FPPs associated with children’s food and satiety responsiveness, with a greater number of fathers’ FPPs predictive of these behaviors. Our results suggest that fathers likely exert a unique influence on their children’s eating behaviors and stress the need for interventions to account for the role each parent plays promoting healthy eating habits.

Neste estudo transversal pretendemos averiguar a relação entre Estilos de Autoridade Parental (EAP), Práticas Parentais (PP) e Autoeficácia Parental (AP), numa amostra de 60 casais, pais de crianças de 3-10 anos (M=6.3; DP=1.5).  Os 120 participantes, selecionados de forma não probabilística, entre os 24-56 anos (M=38.4; DP=5.9), maioritariamente com estudos superiores (mães=62.1%; pais=61%), responderam aos questionários, sociodemográfico, Questionário de Estilos Parentais para Pais -PAQ-P, Questionário de Práticas Parentais -QPP e Escala de Autoeficácia Parental -EAP. Encontramos correlações positivas significativas entre a autoritatividade, parentalidade positiva e AP; sucedendo inverso com os EAP permissivo e autoritário. Para as mães, a permissividade e a disciplina rígida predizem significativamente uma menor AP (28%, F (2.58) =12.721, p<001); para os pais mais expectativas claras/monitorização e menor rigidez na educação predizem a autoeficácia (36.1%, F (3. 55)=11.915, p<.001). As mães obtêm valores estatísticos significativamente mais elevados do que os pais na dimensão de autoeficácia positiva. Ter mais filhos exerce um efeito na perceção de AP.  Os pais consideram-se maioritariamente autoritativos, e com práticas parentais positivas (expectativas claras, monotorização e disciplina apropriada).  Os resultados significativos encontrados sugerem a pertinência de estudar a relação entre as variáveis na perspetiva dos elementos do pai e da mãe numa amostra mais alargada. O EAP autoritativo, coerente com práticas parentais positivas, ajuda a estabelecer o clima familiar promotor do desenvolvimento da criança, percecionando-se como mais eficazes na sua função parental.
Palavras-chave: Parentalidade; Estilos de Autoridade Parental; Práticas Parentais; Autoeficácia Parental

The ethnographic research that I am undertaking as part of my doctoral work will demonstrate the formation of media use habits in a digital environment among ten toddlers from their earliest months until they reach the age of two. The study includes numerous filmed observations and in-depth interviews, as well as media and technology use logs. The findings will display the emergence and development of touchscreen-based digital media use in early childhood and explain the contribution of the initial environment (parents and siblings) in the formation of infants and toddlers as media consumers. Moreover, the study will determine how the children’s use of media changes over time in terms of quantity and quality of parental mediation.

This working paper is based on the results of a study of the child-rearing practices of Russian-speaking women in the context of a migration perspective focusing on their migration experience, language, and other features that are perceived as cultural and an integration context as determining many important aspects of child-rearing. The analysis shows that a mother’s choice of structured activities for the child can be caused by structural factors, such as the national peculiarities of the system of school and pre-school education, family policy, the specifics and set of programs offered at schools and available in the area. Regardless of the social segment, in which migrants are incorporated, children begin to prefer speaking Spanish than Russian if there is not any special effort from the adults. This leads to the fact that the study of the Russian language in some families affects all spheres of life, and many aspects of child-rearing. Many women develop and share ideas about the differences in the parenting approach and style of women from the post-Soviet space and from Spain. Women perceive the stylistic features of the behavior of Russian women as highly demanding and share the view of the low demands of Spanish parents, yet differ in how they perceive their level of responsiveness to them.

Introduction: Family is an important socialization environment for children, which has influence on adolescent behaviour, and may constitute a risk and/or protection factor on a child’s development. Objective: To describe the relationships between parenting practices and the occurrence of pregnancy in adolescents. Methods: Semi-estructured interviews were used with 11 adolescents (5 pregnant and 6 non-pregnant) who were 15 to 19 years old. The Inventário de Estilos Parentais (Parenting Styles Inventory; – PSI) was used to measure the maternal and paternal practices with adolescents. Thematic content analysis was used to analyse the interviews. The PSI was administered as proposed by the manual. Results: There were differences and similarities in the relationships of pregnant and non-pregnant adolescents with their parents. The
relationship with the mother seemed to be more positive among young women who did not have a pregnancy experience. There was also more negative maternal child rearing practices among pregnant adolescents as compared to non-pregnant adolescents. However, the relationships with the fathers were similar between the two groups as the fathers’ educational practices were negative among both the young pregnant women and the non-pregnant women. Conclusions: Maternal educational practices, but not paternal, seem to be associated with the occurrence of adolescent pregnancy.

This study examined the predictive effect of Parenting Practices on Social Interaction of Pupils with a view to suggesting ways of improving students ’ social interaction and performance in school. For the purpose of this research work, descriptive research design of ex-post facto type was adopted. The sample for this study comprised of two hundred and fifty (250) respondents that were randomly selected from five primary schools. Fifty respondents (50) respondents were randomly selected from each of the five primary schools. Alabama Parenting questionnaire and social Interaction scale were used in gathering the needed information. Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) and Multiple Regression Analysis were used to analyse the data collected. The results of the findings were as follows: There was a significant contribution of Parenting Practices on students&apos; Social Interaction and there was a relative effect of Positive Parenting on Social Interaction of Pupils. Based on the ...

El presente ensayo tiene como objetivo analizar la creciente diversidad de las estructuras familiares, asi como su efecto en las practicas de crianza de los hijos, desde su relacion con el entorno sociocultural, con particular enfasis en las tendencias que se presentan en Mexico. Se parte de una aproximacion al concepto de cultura que distingue entre sus dimensiones cognitiva y conductual, las cuales se reflejan en las practicas que se generan en los miembros del grupo familiar y en las creencias asociadas con la familia. Se examina la diversificacion en cuanto a la existencia de multiples arreglos y estructuras de las familias contemporaneas, asi como la flexibilizacion de los roles de madres, padres e hijos en la familia nuclear biparental. Posteriormente, se analizan las posturas sobre las consecuencias de la pluralidad familiar para la crianza de los hijos, revisando resultados de estudios recientes sobre este topico. Se concluye que han incrementado la complejidad y la heteroge...

This research studies the child-rearing strategies of Russian-speaking women who live in Madrid by focusing on their children's participation in structured activities. The study answers the following questions: what attitudes to structured activities do the women have, what determined their choice of structured activities, what are the differences in such choices between working-class and middle-class families? The results are based on semi-structured interviews with Russian-speaking women (26 interviews) whose children attend after- or pre- school programs for Russian children, as well as with the teachers or coordinators of these programs (4 interviews). The findings make it possible to formulate conclusions that the class differences in the activities of children are determined by structural factors rather than the cultural logics of parents. All parents reproduce the idea that organized activity has a beneficial effect on a child's development, although they differ in their views on what kind of activities can bring benefits.