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Panel information
Panel 14. Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Abstract

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Parent-child communication is a relational process that has consequences for children’s self-esteem, willingness to self-disclose, and overall well-being (Laible et al., 2014). The quality of parent-child conversations, especially in the context of conflict, predicts the development of social emotional competence in children (Allen et al., 1994; Laursen & Collins, 2004). It is therefore important to understand the factors that predict high quality communication in the mother-child dyad. The goal of this study was to examine how mothers’ parenting beliefs influenced the development of communication in the mother-child dyad. Research examining parenting beliefs has shown that progressive beliefs are precursors to supportive childrearing behaviors and lead to more optimal child outcomes than authoritarian parenting beliefs (LeCuyer & Swanson, 2017; Liew et al., 2018). It seems likely that progressive parenting beliefs lead to parents adopting a more elaborative discourse style that integrates children’s perspectives, whereas authoritarian parenting beliefs lead to mothers being more obedience focused and less likely to incorporate the child’s perspective. We test this idea by examining the role maternal beliefs played in predicting subsequent mother-child discourse quality at both 54-months and fifth grade in a group of diverse, high-risk families.

The Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project data, a randomized control experimental evaluation that followed 3001 high-risk mothers and children (36.1% European Americans, 33.9% African Americans, 18.4% US Mexicans) from 14-months to Grade 5, was used. Families (n = 150) were randomly selected from each ethnic group and their conversations were transcribed. At 24-months, mothers completed a measure of progressive and traditional parenting beliefs (Schaefer and Edgerton, 1985). At pre-k, mothers and children also reminisced about a positive event and these conversations were coded for maternal elaboration and dyadic intersubjectivity. At 5th grade, mothers and children selected three conflict topics and tried to resolve those conflicts in 8-minutes. Conversations were coded for intersubjectivity, collaboration, and problem solving.

An SEM model was built to examine how beliefs predicted discourse quality at grade 5 through pre-k reminiscing qualities. The SEM model demonstrate adequate fit (CFI=.95; RMSEA=.02; SRMR=.03 X2(12)=59.9, p=.01). Traditional parenting beliefs were related to less cognitive elaboration and intersubjectivity during preschool reminiscing and less collaboration, problem solving, and intersubjectivity in conflict discourse at grade 5. Progressive parenting beliefs, in contrast, predicted more dyadic intersubjectivity and higher dyadic discourse quality (e.g., collaboration, intersubjectivity, and problem solving) in conflict discourse at grade 5. Elaborative mothers at pre-k promoted higher quality communication in the dyad by grade 5.

Findings suggest that maternal beliefs about parenting can have important consequences for how mothers promote open communication in the dyad. Less authoritarian belief mothers were more likely to be elaborative in preschool reminiscing and this helped promote high levels of dyadic communication quality at grade 5. These beliefs about parenting also had relatively direct impacts on the quality of communication by grade 5, supporting the idea that these beliefs were maintained by mothers and continued to influence their communication later in childhood. The findings inform parental socialization models of children’s development (Laible et al., 2007).

Author information

Author	Role
Deborah J. Laible, Ph.D., Lehigh University	Presenting author
Widaad Zamen, University of Central Florida	Non-presenting author
Robyn Fivush, Emory University	Non-presenting author
Gustavo Carlo, University of California-Irvine	Non-presenting author
Jean Ispa, University of Missouri	Non-presenting author
Sahitya Maiya, University of New Hampshire	Non-presenting author
Jihee Im, Purdue University	Non-presenting author
Alysia Cruz, University of California-Irvine	Non-presenting author
Jennifer Bohanek, University of Missouri	Non-presenting author
Joy Roos, University of Missouri	Non-presenting author
Alex Main, University of California-Merced	Non-presenting author
Melinda Westfall, Lehigh University	Non-presenting author
Afra Agalar, Lehigh University	Non-presenting author

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