Ouderlijke attributies en disciplinering als reactie op ongehoorzaam gedrag van peuters

Abstract

The goal of this study was to investigate the extent to which the context of a parent-child conflict (parent-demand noncompliance situations; the child refuses a demand from the parent versus child-demand noncompliance situations; the parent refuses a demand from the child and the child doesn’t accept this) leads to other dysfunctional parental attributions and disciplinary strategies. Sixty parents with a child between 24 and 48 months (M = 34.53, SD = 6.36) completed a computerized simulation with vignettes of parent-demand noncompliance episodes and child-demand noncompliance episodes. For every vignette, parents were asked to rate their attributions, both parent-causal as child-responsible, on a 6-point Likert scale. They also had to choose one of eight disciplinary strategies, which was most representative of their own reaction in this particular situation. Results indicate that both maternal attributions and disciplinary strategies are partly context-dependent. Firstly, in a child-demand situation, parents were more likely to have dysfunctional parent-causal attributions than in a parent-demand situation. Secondly, results indicate that in a parent-demand noncompliance situation, parents tend to use other disciplinary strategies than in a child-demand situation. Further research on this topic, with a larger sample size and a more heterogenic sample, is needed to verify the findings. Apart from several limitations, the study contributes to the research on parental attributions and disciplinary strategies, as it is one of the first to show that the context of a parent-child conflict plays a role in dysfunctional attributions and disciplinary strategies.