2011 The Palm Beach County Family Study (Full Report)

Negative Parenting PracticesThere is a considerable amount of evidence suggesting that maternal depression and harsh parenting canhave harmful effects on children’s social and emotional development (e.g., Bradley & Corwyn, 2007;Chang et al., 2004). 29 Thus, we also asked mothers about their so-called negative parenting practicesduring the previous 3 months. Just over half (60%) of all mothers reported that they had lost their temperwith their children; as shown in Table C- 14, foreign-born mothers were significantly more likely thanU.S.-born mothers to report that they’d lost their temper. A quarter of mothers said they had found hittingor spanking is a good way to get their children to listen; and another quarter (26%) said they got angrierwith their children than they had intended during the previous 3 months. Smaller percentages said that inthe past 3 months they had punished their children for not finishing the food on their plate (9%) or blamedtheir children for something that was not their fault (18%). U.S.-born mothers were significantly morelikely than foreign-born mothers to report the latter practice (see Table C- 14).Table 26. Year 5 Negative Parenting Practices during Previous 3 Months a% Husbands/% MothersMeanActivityPartnersFrequency b (SD)(N=310) (n=225)Lost temper with children 60 44 2.3 (.71)Found hitting/spanking a good way to get children to listen 25 22 2.5 (.64)Got more angry than meant to with children 26 14 2.4 (.68)Punished children for not finishing food on plate 9 7 2.1 (.79)Blamed children for something not their fault 18 12 2.7 (.58)Mean (SD) Negative Parenting Score (range: 0–1) c 0.19 (.23) 0.14 (.21)a Data were weighted to adjust for the oversampling of mothers in the Glades and mothers screened “at risk.”bLower number indicates higher frequency. Mean frequency calculated only for mothers who said either they or theirhusbands/partners had done each activity during the previous 3 months, using a 3-point scale: 3=“once or twice a month,” 2=“atleast once a week,” and 1=“daily or most days.”cThe mean score uses only items included in all surveys; the item “lost temper with child(ren)” was excluded in calculating themean.*Paired sample t-tests indicate that the following year-to-year differences are statistically significant at p < .05 or lower:temper(mother) vs. temper(partner); hitting(mother) vs. hitting(partner); angry(mother) vs. angry(partner); blamed(mother) vs.blamed(partner).Interestingly, mothers whose husbands/partners had had contact with their children in the previous 3months reported lower percentages of some negative parenting practices for their husband or partner thanthey reported for themselves (see Table 26). Specifically, mothers reported significantly lowerpercentages of husbands/partners losing their temper with the children and getting angrier than intended29 It is also important to note that the literature on parenting suggests that the relationships between positive and negativeparenting and children’s outcomes are complex and mediated by a number of factors, including children’s own personalities andtemperament and the other contexts, e.g., school, in which they develop.Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago 47