Does Parenting Influence Children’s Behaviour For Better And For Worse? Experimental Research On Temperament-Based Differential Susceptibility.

Abstract

This experimental study examined, in line with a differential susceptibility hypothesis, which children are more affected by parenting, depending on temperament. Specifically, it examined whether temperament (negative emotionality/surgency) has a moderating effect on the relationship between parenting (warm and harsh) and children’s behaviour (prosocial and antisocial). 160 children (46% girls, mean age: 6.58 years) first were primed with warm or harsh parenting using audio stories, and next prosocial and antisocial behaviour were measured. Parents filled in questionnaires about their child’s temperament and prosocial and problem behaviour. Analyses of covariances showed that neither negative emotionality nor surgency functioned as moderators between parenting and children’s prosocial and antisocial behaviour. Overall, no evidence for the differential susceptibility hypothesis was found.