The stability of parenting behaviors over the first 6 years of life

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Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the relative and absolute stability of parenting behaviors over the first 6 years of children's lives. In 1991, a diverse sample of 1364 participants was enrolled in the Study of Early Child Care at 10 sites across the United States. Parenting behaviors were rated annually over a 6-year period using lab observations and home visits. Eight hundred and ninety-three participants had complete data from each time point to test the hypotheses of interest. The data show that both sensitive and stimulating parenting behaviors display considerable relative and mean level stability over the first 6 years of life, whereas negative aspects of parenting, like detachment and negative regard, do not. Implications for research and interventions are discussed.

Section snippets

Birth–Age 2

Sensitive and responsive parenting during infancy is associated with the development of trust and a secure attachment (e.g., Ainsworth, Bell, & Stanton, 1971; Bowlby, 1982; Claussen & Crittenden, 2000). To support the development of an infant's secure attachment, sensitive and responsive parenting requires attunement to the infant's non-verbal cues; this type of parenting is responsive, yet non-intrusive (see Jaffe, Beebe, Feldstein, Crown, & Jasnow, 2001). A key aspect of sensitive parenting

The stability of parenting behaviors over time and the present study

In 1993 Darling and Steinberg recommended that parenting researchers examine “… how the influences of parenting style and practices change across the life course” (p. 495). They go on to say that “we know little about such important questions as the stability of parenting style across time, the influence of changes of parenting style on children (i.e., the sudden increase or decrease in parental autonomy granting), or the relative advantages and disadvantages of different aspects of parenting

Overview of the study

Data analyzed in the present study were collected as part of the common protocol during the first two phases (6 years) of the Study of Early Child Care (SECC). The SECC is a longitudinal study initiated by National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) in 1989 to answer questions about the relationship between child care experiences and characteristics and children's developmental outcomes (please see NICHD Early Childcare Research Network, 1994 for more information about the

Overview of analyses

First, the relative stability of ratings of parenting behaviors from 6 months to age 6 (72 months) were examined with Pearson product moment correlations. Absolute stability was assessed by first converting the means of the ratings made at each stage into ratings made on the same scale; next repeated-measure ANOVAs were computed, then a series of post hoc paired t-tests for each rating at each time point were computed. Lastly, structural equation modeling was used to examine the relation of

Discussion

In this investigation the relative and absolute stability of parenting behaviors were examined over the first 6 years of life. Three major findings emerged. First, sensitive and stimulating parenting behaviors display considerable relative stability but not absolute stability. Second, associations over time in the ratings of negative aspects of parenting show less relative and absolute stability than positive aspects of parenting. Third, parenting from a preceding time point robustly predicts

Acknowledgement

This research was supported by grant number U10 HD 25455 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to Temple University and grant numbers R01 MH 64650 from the National Institute on Mental Health and P 30 HD 15052 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to Vanderbilt University. Data were collected as part of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and are available in the public domain.

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