Publication year
2014
Citation Title
Do sensitive parents foster kind children, or vice versa? Bidirectional influences between children’s prosocial behavior and parental sensitivity.
Journal Name
Developmental Psychology
Journal Volume
50
Issue Number
6
Page Numbers
1808-1816
DOI
10.1037/a0036495
Summary
This longitudinal study evaluated the bidirectional relationships between children’s prosocial behavior and parental sensitivity. The findings indicate that parental sensitivity predicted subsequent prosocial behavior in children, which in turn elicited greater parental sensitivity from mothers, but not from fathers.
Key Findings
The relationships between maternal sensitivity and children’s prosocial behaviors were bidirectional. On the contrary, children’s prosocial behavior did not elicit sensitive parenting from fathers.
Higher levels of parental education were associated with greater parental sensitivity and children’s prosocial behavior, particularly for mothers.
Among the sample, girls were rated as more prosocial than boys, and parents of girls were rated as more sensitive than parents of boys (but only during third grade).
Implications for Military Professionals
Collaborate with organizations connected with military parents to emphasize the importance of building strong parent-child relationships
Participate in regular trainings on positive youth development to better assist military parents foster prosocial youth behaviors
Implications for Program Leaders
Offer modules on positive parenting for military parents that teach skills about how to respond empathically to children
Develop activities that provide opportunities for and model prosocial behavior for children (e.g., volunteer or youth program activities)
Implications for Policy Makers
Promote the development of structured leisure activities to encourage youth's prosocial behaviors for military families at installations
Encourage the development and continuation of programs that can promote resilience in Service members, their partners, and children
Methods
As part of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care, longitudinal data were gathered from 10 sites across the United States when children were 4.5 years old, and in third, fifth, and sixth grades.
Mothers and teachers completed a questionnaire evaluating children’s prosocial behavior with peers in third, fifth, and sixth grades.
A trained rater coded mothers and fathers' sensitivity during structured observational tasks at 4.5 years old, third grade, and fifth grade.
Participants
The sample included 1,364 children as well as their parents (1,155 mothers, 459 fathers) and teachers.
The sample of children was 52% male and 75% White. There were no data provided about the race/ethnicity or gender of the parents.
Approximately one-third of mothers and 39% of fathers had at least one college degree; 10% of mothers and 8% of fathers had less than a high school education.
Limitations
Relatively few fathers were included analyses which limits conclusions that can be drawn regarding relationships between paternal sensitivity and children’s prosocial behaviors.
Parental sensitivity was assessed during engagement in a limited number of structured tasks; additional tasks or unstructured tasks may have yielded different ratings of parental sensitivity.
Observed gender differences in prosocial behavior may be partly attributable to the nature of the prosocial behaviors assessed (i.e., emotionally responsive behavior), which was not explored by the authors.
Avenues for Future Research
Incorporate interventions and experimental methods to evaluate causal associations between parental sensitivity and children’s prosocial behavior
Evaluate why bidirectional associations were found for children’s prosocial behavior and maternal, but not paternal, sensitivity
Identify other aspects of positive parenting that contribute to prosocial behavior
Focus
Civilian
Target Population
Population Focus
Abstract
Bidirectional theories of social development have been around for over 40 years (Bell, 1968), yet they have been applied primarily to the study of antisocial development. In the present study, the reciprocal relationship between parenting behavior and children’s socially competent behaviors were examined. Using the National Institute of Child Health and Development Study of Early Child Care data set (NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2005), bidirectional relationships between parental sensitivity and children’s prosocial behavior were modeled using latent variables in structural equation modeling for mothers and fathers, separately. Children and their parents engaged in structured interactions when children were 54-month-olds, 3rd graders, and 5th graders, and these interactions were coded for parental sensitivity. At 3rd, 5th, and 6th grades, teachers and parents reported on children’s prosocial behavior. Parental education and child gender were entered as covariates in the models. The results provide support for a bidirectional relationship between children’s prosocial behavior and maternal sensitivity (but not paternal sensitivity) in middle childhood. The importance of using a bidirectional approach to examine the development of social competence is emphasized.
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