Mother and father attributions for child misbehavior : relations to child internalizing and externalizing problems

UBC Faculty Research and Publications

Mother and father attributions for child misbehavior : relations to child internalizing and externalizing problems Colalillo, Sara; Miller, Natalie Viola; Johnston, Charlotte

Abstract

Knowledge of how parents think about their children’s misbehavior is important in understanding the behavioral and emotional problems of children. Relations between parent attributions for child misbehavior and child functioning were examined in a community sample of 163 two-parent families of 9-12 year-old boys and girls. Mother and father attributions were assessed along child-responsible and parent-causal dimensions. Both parent- and child-reported internalizing and externalizing problems were measured. Both mother and father child-responsible attributions predicted parent reports of both child internalizing and externalizing problems. For child self-reported functioning, mother parent-causal attributions negatively predicted child internalizing and externalizing problems, and father child-responsible attributions positively predicted child externalizing problems. The results highlight the importance of measuring different kinds of attributions by mothers and fathers, and of considering both parent and child views of child problems.

Item Metadata

Title	Mother and father attributions for child misbehavior : relations to child internalizing and externalizing problems
Creator	Colalillo, Sara; Miller, Natalie Viola; Johnston, Charlotte
Date Issued	2015
Description	Knowledge of how parents think about their children’s misbehavior is important in understanding the behavioral and emotional problems of children. Relations between parent attributions for child misbehavior and child functioning were examined in a community sample of 163 two-parent families of 9-12 year-old boys and girls. Mother and father attributions were assessed along child-responsible and parent-causal dimensions. Both parent- and child-reported internalizing and externalizing problems were measured. Both mother and father child-responsible attributions predicted parent reports of both child internalizing and externalizing problems. For child self-reported functioning, mother parent-causal attributions negatively predicted child internalizing and externalizing problems, and father child-responsible attributions positively predicted child externalizing problems. The results highlight the importance of measuring different kinds of attributions by mothers and fathers, and of considering both parent and child views of child problems.
Subject	mother attributions; father attributions; internalizing; externalizing; parent report; child report
Genre	Postprint; Article
Type	Text
Language	eng
Date Available	2016-02-02
Provider	Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights	Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada
DOI	10.14288/1.0223845
URI	http://hdl.handle.net/2429/56768
Affiliation	Arts, Faculty of; Psychology, Department of
Citation	Colalillo, S., Miller, N. V., & Johnston, C. (2015). Mother and father attributions for child misbehavior: Relations to child internalizing and externalizing problems. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 34(9), 788-808.
Publisher DOI	10.1521/jscp.2015.34.9.788
Peer Review Status	Reviewed
Scholarly Level	Faculty
Copyright Holder	2015 Guilford Publications, Inc.
Rights URI	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/
Aggregated Source Repository	DSpace

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