ERIC Number: EJ1145539
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017-Jul
Pages: 12
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0012-1649
EISSN: N/A
Mothers' Implicit Appraisals of Their Adolescents as Unlovable: Explanatory Factor Linking Family Conflict and Harsh Parenting
Martin, Meredith J.; Sturge-Apple, Melissa L.; Davies, Patrick T.; Romero, Christine V.
Developmental Psychology, v53 n7 p1344-1355 Jul 2017
This study examined the consequences of negative change in mothers' implicit appraisals of their adolescents after engaging in a family disagreement. Participants included 194 mothers and their early adolescents (M[subscript age] = 12.4 at Wave 1; 50% female) followed over 1 year. Mothers' implicit appraisals of her child as "unlovable" were assessed using the Go/No-Go Association Task--Child (Sturge-Apple, Rogge, Skibo, et al., 2015), an associative word-sorting task, before and after engaging in a family conflict task. Mothers' implicit appraisals, on average, did not become more negative following conflicts with their teen. However, substantial variability was evident, suggesting that important individual differences exist in mothers' cognitive reactivity to conflict. Greater susceptibility to implicit change predicted more harsh and insensitive parenting in response to their adolescents' bids for support 1 year later. This effect held over and above mothers' emotional reactivity to the conflict, their explicit negative attitudes about their adolescent, and maternal harshness at Time 1. Harsh and insensitive parenting, in turn, mediated the link between maternal implicit reactivity and subsequent increases in adolescent internalizing and externalizing problems. The results suggest that individual differences in maternal susceptibility to changes in implicit appraisals following conflictual interactions serve as a unique determinant of parenting in adolescence.
Descriptors: Mothers, Parent Attitudes, Attitude Change, Family Environment, Parent Child Relationship, Emotional Response, Association (Psychology), Conflict, Predictor Variables, Parenting Styles, Early Adolescents, Interviews, Surveys, Socioeconomic Status, Adjustment (to Environment), Adolescent Development
American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) (NIH)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: R01HD060789