Development and preliminary validation of the Parenting around SNAcking Questionnaire (P-SNAQ).

Snacking makes significant contributions to children's dietary intake but is poorly understood from a parenting perspective. This research was designed to develop and evaluate the psychometrics of a theoretically grounded, empirically-informed measure of snack parenting. The Parenting around SNAcking Questionnaire (P-SNAQ) was developed using a conceptual model derived from current theory and mixed-methods research to include 20 hypothesized snack parenting practices along 4 parenting dimensions (autonomy support, structure, coercive control and permissiveness). Expert panel evaluation and cognitive interviews were used to refine items and construct definitions. The initial instrument of 105 items was administered to an ethnically diverse, low-income sample of 305 parents (92% mothers) of children aged 1-6 y participating in three existing cohort studies. The sample was randomly split into two equal samples. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted with the first sample to identify snack parenting practices within each parenting dimension, followed by confirmatory factor analysis with the second sample to test the hypothesized factor structure. Internal consistency of sub-scales and associations with existing measures of food parenting practices and styles and child weight status were evaluated. The final P-SNAQ scale included 51 items reflecting 14 snack parenting practices across four parenting dimensions. The factor structure of the P-SNAQ was consistent with prior theoretical frameworks. Internal consistency coefficients were good to very good for 12 out of 14 scales and subscale scores were moderately correlated with previously validated measures. In conclusion, initial evidence suggests that P-SNAQ is a psychometrically sound measure for evaluating a wide range of snack parenting practices in young children.

Observed maternal strategies and children's health locus of control in low-income Mexican American families.

This study examined the relationship among mothers' health locus of control (HLOC) beliefs, their socialization strategies, and their children's HLOC beliefs in 80 low-income Mexican American families. Maternal socialization strategies were assessed from videotaped interactions of mothers and children engaged in a structured task. Factor analysis of the coded strategies yielded 4 factors: Tell Answer, Teaching, Clarify, and Reinforce. Findings indicated that maternal-health-internally scores negatively predicted mothers' use of the Tell Answer strategies and positively predicted their use of Teaching strategies. Mothers who believed that Powerful Others (e.g., health professionals) controlled their health were more likely to use the Tell Answer strategy. In contrast, mothers who believed that health was due to chance were less likely to use Teaching. Maternal use of Teaching strategies predicted children's internal HLOC, whereas maternal Tell Answer strategies predicted children's external HLOC. Findings suggest that mothers' HLOC beliefs influence the socialization strategies they use and that these strategies are associated with children's HLOC beliefs.

Preschoolers' emotional control in the disappointment paradigm and its relation to temperament, emotional knowledge, and family expressiveness.

The present research evaluated a conceptual model that links temperament, emotional knowledge, and family expressiveness to preschoolers' emotion regulation ability. The emotional understanding of 82 preschoolers was assessed with 2 separate tasks. After the second emotional knowledge task, the children were presented a "disappointing" prize, and their facial displays of positive and negative affect were recorded. The children and their mothers also participated in a game designed to elicit maternal expressive behavior. Mothers provided information about the preschoolers' temperament and about the frequency of positive and negative affect expressed within their families. Results indicated that children's positive displays when presented the "disappointing" prize were inversely related to the temperamental dimension of emotional intensity and positively associated with children's understanding of emotion. Maternal reports of sadness within the family were inversely related to children's positive affective displays. Children's negative emotional displays in the disappointment situation were inversely related to observed maternal positive emotion. The findings from this study give greater specification to the unique and joint contributions of temperament, emotional knowledge, and family expressiveness in predicting preschoolers' expressive control of emotion.

Physician and parent behavior during invasive pediatric cancer procedures: relationships to child behavioral distress.

Observed 51 children with cancer, their parents, and their physicians during routine bone marrow aspirations and lumbar punctures. Child distress was measured via the Observational Scale of Behavioral Distress (OSBD); adult behaviors were coded via the Child Adult Medical Procedure Interaction Scale (CAMPIS). In general, physicians were less verbally interactive than parents both before and during the procedure. As expected, several parent behaviors were positively related to child distress. However, physician behaviors were uniformly negatively related to child distress. Findings are discussed in terms of the physician-patient relationship and the possible role of physicians as change agents in reducing child distress during invasive procedures.

The development of health knowledge in low-income Mexican-American children.

Children growing up in poverty are at risk for various health problems. For low-income, Mexican-American children, these risks include obesity, diabetes, and accidental injuries, 3 conditions that can largely be prevented by healthy life-styles. Despite the potential for prevention through education leading to health-promoting behaviors, very little is known about the development of health knowledge in this population. The present study examined low-income, Mexican-American children's understanding of the relation between health behavior and health status in 3 areas: nutrition, hygiene, and safety. 79 children (41 boys, 38 girls) ages 4 to 8 years participated. Children's knowledge was assessed in a structured play situation conducted in a laboratory setting. Results revealed that children knew the least about the relation between food consumption and their health, and knew the most about beneficial and harmful practices in the areas of safety and hygiene. Age and gender differences were also significant, with girls and older children more likely to provide elaborate and complex rationales for their responses. Implications of the findings for understanding the role of cognitive development and experience in the development of health knowledge are considered.

Parenting practices and age-group swimming: a correlational study.

To examine the parenting correlates of children's experiences in age-group swimming, 44 families of 6- to 14-year-old competitive swimmers were studied. Mothers and fathers completed questionnaires on their childrearing practices; children, coaches, fathers, and mothers completed questionnaires on the child's enjoyment, effort, competitiveness, commitment, and ability. For both mothers and fathers, parental support was positively associated with child enthusiasm, whereas parental performance outcome goals and directiveness showed curvilinear effects. Specifically, parents reporting moderate levels of directiveness and performance outcome goals had children reporting the greatest enthusiasm for swimming. The major mother-father difference concerned modeling: Although mother modeling was positively associated with child enthusiasm for both boys and girls, father modeling showed a negative association with child enthusiasm, but only for boys.

Parenting and child distress during cancer procedures: a multidimensional assessment.

We examined the relationship between children's distress during invasive cancer procedures and parent anxiety, parent disciplinary attitudes, and parent behavior during the medical procedure. Sixty-six children with cancer and their parents were evaluated during a routine bone marrow aspiration. Significantly higher levels of distress were obtained for young (under age 8) versus older children. Patterns of relationships with parent variables also varied by age. Anxious parents of young children reported relying on less effective discipline strategies. They also were less reassuring prior to to medical procedure. Age differences in the correlations between child distress and parenting are discussed in terms of developmental differences in children's dependence on caregivers for emotional regulation and control. Implications for clinical distress reduction programs are also discussed.

Examining the relation of parenting to children's coping with everyday stress.

The relation between parenting and the coping styles of children in response to everyday stress was investigated. 60 children, 9-10 years old, and their mothers participated. Children and mothers described how they responded to stressful episodes the child had experienced within the past 2 months. Mothers completed questionnaires that assessed a variety of parenting dimensions (e.g., nurturance, directiveness, organization). Results indicated that (a) the aspects of child coping studied (e.g., perceived effectiveness, variety of coping strategies) were relatively independent, (b) children from families with high levels of maternal support and relatively low levels of family structure used the greatest variety of coping strategies, (c) children of supportive mothers used the greatest number of avoidant strategies (but only in uncontrollable situations), and (d) children from families with high levels of parental structure used fewer aggressive coping strategies.

Creating satisfaction: a psychological perspective on stress and coping in families of handicapped children.

This paper briefly reviews the literature on stress and coping in families of developmentally handicapped children and proposes an alternative way for conceptualizing some of the psychological processes involved. The approach specifies how threats to certain human needs lead to predictable patterns of appraisal and coping. The usefulness of this alternative is demonstrated for families of autistic children and the theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.

Mexican-American mothers' socialization strategies: effects of education, acculturation, and health locus of control.

The present study examined maternal education, acculturation, and health locus of control beliefs in relation to parenting strategies that promote the internalization of healthy eating habits in Mexican-American children. Eighty low-income Mexican-American mothers and their 4- to 8-year-old children participated in the study. Mother-child interactions during dinner were observed, and mothers were interviewed about the socialization strategies they used to influence their children's food consumption. Results indicated that mothers with more external health locus of control beliefs were less likely to use socialization techniques associated with internalization. Acculturation was negatively related to the use of internalization techniques, with less traditional mothers using more directive strategies. Education did not predict maternal behavior after controlling for health locus of control beliefs.

Determinants of disciplinary practices in low-income black mothers.

Disciplinary attitudes and practices of low-income black mothers were examined. Mothers were interviewed about their parenting attitudes and control practices, and their responses were coded in terms of the degree to which they took a parent-versus a child-oriented approach to discipline. Mothers in the sample varied widely in their attitudes toward physical punishment, and mothers who used power-assertive techniques were as likely to take the child's perspective and give input into the socialization process as those who did not. Factors associated with maternal disciplinary styles included: maternal education, father absence, maternal age, and self-reported religious beliefs. Findings are discussed in terms of the variability in disciplinary practices in this population, as well as the factors contributing to these individual differences.

Defining patterns of drinking in adolescence: a cluster analytic approach.

Most empirical approaches to defining patterns of adolescent alcohol consumption focus on frequency of drunkenness. In an attempt to define patterns of drinking in a more comprehensive way, the present study used measures of social context in addition to frequency and quantity of alcohol use. Subjects' scores on frequency, quantity and five social context variables were cluster analyzed separately for males and females. Results yielded four socially appropriate drinking patterns and three problem drinking patterns (two for males and one for females). Socially appropriate patterns for both sexes were light drinkers, light party drinkers, family drinkers and dating drinkers. Problem drinking patterns included school drinkers and solitary/stranger drinkers for males, and solitary/school drinkers for females. These groups of subjects showed significant differences on reasons for drinking and on drinking consequences even after differences due to frequency and quantity were statistically controlled. Effects of drinking primarily attributable to frequency and quantity appeared to be limited to differences concerning the physiological effects of alcohol.

Parenting difficulties among adult survivors of father-daughter incest.

Women with a history of father-daughter incest as children often report difficulty in parenting their own children. This study examined the self-reported parenting experience and practices of women who were incest victims as children. Since many incest victims are also children of alcoholics, we compared their reports of parenting with those of women whose fathers were alcoholic but not sexually abusive, and to women who had no known risk during their childhood. The findigns were that incest survivors reported significantly less confidence and less sense of control as parents than nonrisk mothers. In addition, they reported significantly less support in the parental partnership with their spouses, and reported being less consistent and organized, and making fewer maturity demands on their children. The findings are discussed in terms of the incest survivor's sense of inefficacy and loss of control, the potential of the marital relationship to buffer the adverse effects of growing up in the dysfunctional, incestuous family, and future research directions.

Self-concept and perceptions of attractiveness and body size among Mexican-American mothers and daughters.

The socialization of physical attractiveness stereotypes and its relationship to self-concept among parent/child dyads has not been previously examined. This study examined the relationship between mothers' and daughters' judgements of body size and the impact of size on subjects' judgements of attractiveness. Mexican-American mothers and their 7-12-year-old daughters completed attractiveness ratings of five figures of girls varying in body size and indicated which of these figures were closest to the perceived and ideal sizes of the daughter. One-half of the mothers were obese and had participated in a behavioral weight loss program, while the other half served as normal weight controls. Self-concept measures were also completed by all subjects. Daughters tended to prefer a thinner figure than did mothers. The control mothers indicated almost no preference for body size, with nearly uniform rankings for obese, normal and thin figures. The daughters ranked their own ideal figures as thinner than their perceived figures, but mothers' rankings of their daughters' ideal and actual sizes were congruent. Daughter's overall self-concept was predicted by age, their own size and their mother's size. Control but not intervention mothers' self-concept was negatively correlated with their size.

Maternal socialization of children's eating habits: strategies used by obese Mexican-American mothers.

Mexican-Americans are more likely to be obese than the general population, yet little research has been conducted on the socialization of eating habits in Mexican-American children. 38 obese mothers enrolled in a weight-loss program and their 4-8-year-old children were observed during mealtime and the mothers interviewed about their socialization practices. Mothers relied primarily on nondirective verbal control strategies during the observation. Child compliance was more likely to follow a maternal serving or command than a nondirective behavior. Mothers encouraged sons to eat more than did mothers of girls. Child age was negatively correlated with mother's use of commands, reasoning, threats, and bribes, and positively correlated with maternal nondirectives, servings, and child compliance. Mothers with more years of formal education served healthier foods and were more likely to report using reasoning strategies, prohibiting consumption of unhealthy food, monitoring child food consumption away from home, and allowing child input into the eating situation than were less educated mothers.

Parents as socializers: Maternal and paternal views.

To provide data on middle-class mothers' and fathers' conceptions of their child-rearing roles during adolescence, parents of 5th, 8th, and 11th graders were interviewed in their homes. Forty-two families (an equal number of boys and girls at each grade level) participated. Parents described the behaviors that they were currently encouraging or discouraging in their child, as well as the techniques they used to elicit or influence these behaviors. Fathers saw themselves as more actively involved in encouraging instrumental behaviors such as independence and assertiveness, whereas mothers saw themselves as more involved in the training of interpersonal behaviors such as manners and politeness. Fathers reported using more forceful childrearing techniques than did mothers, although parents reported being more punishing and less rewarding with same-sexed children. Parents of girls were more likely to emphasize prosocial behaviors and politeness; parents of boys emphasized selfcare behaviors.

Quantifying family process: issues in the analysis of interaction sequences.

The analysis of behavior sequences can be a useful technique for understanding family process and has been increasingly employed as a result of developments in family theory. Some of the most popular sequential analytic methods are reviewed, and problems of applying these methodologies to investigations of family interaction are discussed. Independence-of-observations, nonstationarity, and autocontingency are differentiated as three distinct types of serial dependence. In addition, issues concerning the choice of data type, analysis of low base rate behaviors, and the decision as to whether to correct for base rates are considered. Guidelines are presented for dealing with each of these issues in the context of the research or clinical question being addressed.