This experimental study aimed to advance our understanding of parental negative attributions of children’s misbehavior (parental interpretations of what causes children’s misbehavior) and how they relate to other parental characteristics. Specifically, we examined: (1) How different measures of parental negative attributions relate to cognitive and affective parental characteristics (e.g., stress, temperament, parental self-efficacy); and (2) How reducing negative parental attributions affects parenting. In all steps, we differentiated between two types of negative parental attributions: parent-causal attributions (identifying one’s parenting or parent characteristics as cause for the child’s behavior) and child-responsible attributions (identifying the child as responsible for the behavior). Data were collected from 78 parents and their 3 to 5-year-old children (M = 51.67 months, SD = 8.56) in a lab experiment. Parents were randomly assigned to conditions aimed to reduce negative attributions (parent-causal, child-responsible) or a control condition. Results suggest that different parental characteristics tap into complementary aspects of negative parental attributions. Global parental negative attributions were associated with parent negative affect, laxness and positive discipline, and these associations were stronger for parent-causal than child-responsible attributions. Experimental manipulation of parental negative attributions seemed to reduce situation-specific attributions (both parent-causal and child-responsible), but not global attributions, parental self-efficacy or parenting behavior. Our findings suggest parental negative attributions of child’s misbehavior may be a node in the complex parenting network of parental cognitions, affect, and behavior. Understanding the causal effects and malleability of negative parental attributions may advance parenting process theory and practice.

这项实验研究旨在加深我们对父母对儿童不当行为的负面归因（父母对导致儿童不当行为的原因的解释）的理解，以及它们与其他父母特征的关系。具体来说，我们检查了：（1）父母负面归因的不同测量与认知和情感父母特征（例如，压力、气质、父母自我效能）之间的关系；(2) 减少负面的父母归因如何影响育儿。在所有步骤中，我们区分了两种类型的负面父母归因：父母因果归因（确定一个人的养育或父母特征是孩子行为的原因）和孩子负责的归因（确定孩子对行为负责）。M  = 51.67 个月，标准差 = 8.56）在实验室实验中。父母被随机分配到旨在减少负面归因（父母因果、孩子负责）的条件或控制条件。结果表明，不同的父母特征利用了负面父母归因的互补方面。全球的父母负面归因与父母的负面影响、松懈和正面管教有关，并且这些关联对于父母因果关系比对儿童负责的归因更强。对父母负面归因的实验性操纵似乎减少了特定情况的归因（父母因果和儿童责任），但不会减少全局归因、父母自我效能或养育行为。我们的研究结果表明，父母对孩子不当行为的负面归因可能是父母认知、情感和行为的复杂育儿网络中的一个节点。了解负面父母归因的因果效应和延展性可能会推进养育过程理论和实践。