Keywords

psychology, child, family, child temperament

Abstract

To examine the relationships among children's temperament, parents' attributions, parenting stress, and children's behavior problems, the current study investigates the responses of parents who are raising children between the ages of 3- and 6-years. Each parent completed the Dimensions of Temperament Scale-Revised for Children (Windle & Learner, 1986), the Parenting Locus of Control Scale-Short Form (Rayfield, Eyberg, Boggs, & Roberts, 1995a), the Parent Attribution Test (Bugental, 1998), the Child Trait Rating Scale (Sacco, Johnson, & Tenzer, 1993), the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (Abidin, 1995), and the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000, 2001). Using correlational and regression analyses, results of this study suggest that difficult child temperament is related positively and significantly to an external locus of parental control, less positive child trait attributions, and higher levels of parenting stress, whereas easier child temperament is related to an internal locus of parental control, more positive child trait attributions, and lower levels of parenting stress. Although different patterns of findings occur for mothers and fathers, regression results indicate generally that parents' attributions mediate the relationship between children's temperament and parenting stress. Such findings suggest that interventions would benefit from targeting parents' attributions of their children as well as the relationships among parents' attributions, parenting stress, other parenting characteristics, and children's behavior problems.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2009

Advisor

Renk, Kimberly

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree Program

Psychology

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0002721

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0002721

Language

English

Release Date

July 2010

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

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Psychology Commons

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