Background

Biased parental attributions, or biased thinking about the cause of children’s behavior, are linked to harsh and negative parenting in parents of children with disruptive behavior disorders. However, little is known about moderators of this link.

Objective

The current study explored whether child callous-unemotional (CU) traits may be a moderator of the association between parental attributions and parenting behaviors.

Method

Data were collected from 121 parents of children (M = 10.27; SD = 1.06) clinic-referred for disruptive behavior difficulties. Parents reported on parental attributions (parent-causal, child-responsible), parenting behaviors (positive parenting, inconsistent discipline, poor supervision), and children’s CU traits.

Results

Results of the path analysis demonstrated that parent-causal attributions were associated with less positive and more negative parenting behavior while child-responsible attributions were associated with more positive parenting behaviors. High levels of child-responsible attributions combined with elevated child CU traits were associated with poorer supervision.

Conclusions

Building on existing research on parental attributions, the results provide limited preliminary evidence that the association between child-directed attributions and negative parenting may be moderated by children’s stable trait characteristics.

中文翻译：

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探索儿童冷酷无情特质对父母归因与养育行为之间联系的调节作用

背景

有偏见的父母归因，或对儿童行为原因的偏见思考，与破坏性行为障碍儿童的父母的严厉和消极的养育方式有关。但是，对该链接的主持人知之甚少。

客观的

目前的研究探讨了儿童冷酷无情 (CU) 特征是否可能是父母归因与养育行为之间关联的调节因素。

方法

数据来自 121 名儿童的父母（M  = 10.27；SD  = 1.06），因破坏性行为困难而转诊到诊所。父母报告了父母的归因（父母因果、儿童负责）、养育行为（积极养育、不一致的纪律、监督不力）和儿童的 CU 特征。

结果

路径分析的结果表明，父母因果归因与较少积极和较消极的育儿行为相关，而对儿童负责的归因与更积极的育儿行为相关。高水平的对儿童负责的归因与升高的儿童 CU 特征与较差的监督有关。

结论

基于现有的父母归因研究，结果提供了有限的初步证据，表明儿童导向归因与消极养育之间的关联可能受儿童稳定特质特征的调节。