Exploring the Associations of Momentary Parenting Goals with Micro and Macro Levels of Parenting: Emotions, Attributions, Actions, and Styles

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore how momentary parenting goals vary by episode-related factors: type of child noncompliance, parents� attributions, parental negative affect, the duration of an episode, and parents� discipline practices, and by macro level of parenting styles. A refined mid-range theory of an Extension of Integrative Parenting style Model was developed for present study. This is part of a longitudinal study that 105 mothers with children between 17.2 and 30.8 months old participated. Mothers were interviewed at the university laboratory and interviewed by phone, both with audiotaping. Mothers reported details of four turn-by-turn discipline episodes interacting with their toddlers and then described their momentary parenting goals, attributions and negative affect during each episode. Mothers also completed the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire (PSDQ) which was used to measure parenting styles. The present study found that all episode-related factors were associated with whether mothers changed their parenting goals during an episode. Changes in goal were more likely to happen when the child was whining or having a tantrum, during long episodes, when mothers had more negative affect, and when they reported both dispositional and situational attributions. It also was found that parenting styles, child�s passive non-compliance, simple refusal, hitting others, and mother�s attributions predicted specific momentary parenting goals (long- vs. short-term goals or/and parent- vs. child-centered goals). Specific momentary parenting goals predicted different mothers� discipline practices. The results in this exploratory study provide evidence for establishing a path model to examine the association of momentary parenting goals with multiple factors in future research.