Historically, many studies have documented the effects of parenting practices upon child development. Recently, research studies have focused upon analyzing the determining factors in parental behavior. Among the factors that impact parenting practices are: depression, marital satisfaction, perceptions of the child as difficult, life stress, such as low income or employment instability, education levels, and perceived impact of parental behavior.
Some limitations of these past studies include the absence of a unifying framework to tie the body of research together, and a narrow focus on specific determinants in individual studies that possibly ignores the modifying impact of other present variables.
Using social exchange theory along with social learning concepts, the present study attempts to build a model that identifies the relationship of parenting behavior determinants to each other and also to identify other potentially important concepts that have not been identified in prior research.
In creating this model, parenting practices have been categorized as either constructive or destructive. Warmth, inductive reasoning, clear communication, and appropriate monitoring characterize constructive practices, while destructive parenting practices are consistent with hostility, rejection, and coercion.
Social exchange and learning theory also suggests that external factors will also be important in accounting for the variances in parenting behaviors. Six external factors are included in this study: perceptions of impact of parental behavior in child development, comparison level for alternatives, depressed in relation to responsiveness to others, social norms relating to parenting roles, parenting skills and education, and financial stress. .
Methods.
The total sample used for this study consisted of 63 families selected from a predominately rural midwestern county of approximately 26,000 residents.
