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The Determinants of Parenting Behavior

Richard R. Abidin
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To cite this article: Richard R. Abidin (1992): The Determinants of Parenting Behavior, Journal of Clinical Child Psychology,
21:4, 407-412

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 Copyright 1992 by
Journal of Clinical Child Psychology
1992, Vol. 21, No. 4, 407-412
Lawrence Erlbaum Pusociates, Inc.

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

The Determinants of Parenting Behavior

Richard R. Abidin
University of Virginia

Explored factors that influence parenting behavior through examinralion of previ-

ous+ reported and more recently developed modelsfor predicting parenting behav-
ior. Patterson 's behavioral model, Abidin 's initial model of parenting stress, and
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Belsky's process model of determinants of parenting are reviewed. A proposed

model is presented to improve on previous models by integrating sociological,
environmental, and behavioral factors, as well as personality characteristics of the
parent, in predicting parenting behavior. Finally, description is provided on a new
self-report measure (i.e., the Parenting Alliance Inventory) developed to focus on
those aspects of the marital relationship that bear directly on parenting. Implica-
tions for future research are presented.

The role of parent and the acts of parenting have
been of interest to philosophers, religious leaders,
and society in general since ancient tirnes. Empirical
investigation of the role and functioning of parents,
on the other hand, has a history of less than a hun-
dred years, with most studies being of recent vin-
tage. During the past two decades, the interest of
psychologists and society in understanding the fac-
tors that influence parenting behavior has intensified
given the widespread publicity surrounding the phe-
nomenon of child abuse and concerns regarding the
outcome of child development in the face of reduced
mother-care and increased other-care.
In the area of child abuse, researchers (e.g., Elder,
1974; Elder, Capri, & Downey, 1987; Garbarino &
Requests for reprints should be sent to Richard R. Abidin,
Cury Programs in Clinical and School Psychology, U~iversityof
Virginia, 405 Emmett Street, RuRner Hall, Chiurlottesville,
VA 22903-2495.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The Section on Clinioal Child Psychol-
ogy, at its January, 1992 Executive Committee Meeting, decided
to publish Presidential and Distinguished Co~ntributionAward
Addresses presented at the annual American Psychological Asso-
ciation (APA) convention as archival material. Beginning in
1992, current Presidential and Distinguished Contribution
Award addresses will be published. Where available, addresses
presented in the recent past will be published also. The following
is the Presidential Address presented by Richand R. Abidin at the
1988 APA Convention. References have beem updated to the
present, but the manuscript is otherwise published substantially
as presented in 1988. The Presidential Address of Russell A.
Barkley, PhD, presented at the 1989 APA convention, has been
previously published (see Barkley, 1989, in the reference list).
407
Sherman, 1980; Gottfried, Gottfried, & IBathurst,
1988) have demonstrated that negative child out-
comes and dysfunctional parenting are associated
with a large number of sociological and environmen-
tal variables. A number of behaviorally oriented in-
vestigators have documented the relationship of cer-
tain specific parenting behaviors to cognitive
deficiencies in children and child abuse.
More recently, researchers building on the work
of behaviorally oriented psychologists (e.g., Samer-
off, 1987) and those who study parent-child interac-
tions (e.g., Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall,
1978; Bowlby, 1969) have c:leveloped transactional
models which represenit a bridge between the socio-
logical, environmental, and behavioral perspectives.
What appears to be missing at this point is a strong
commitment of researchers to a consideration of pa-
rental belief and motjvatjona~ systems as
equally important to those previously described.
The deficit in our current perspective m,ay be ap-
preciated by considering the following analogy.
Imagine, if you will, that ollr task as psychologists
is to define the determinants of the behZvior of a
in the same sense that psychologists are
to define the determinants of parenting behavior.
Further, assume that you are an alien researcher and
know nothing about these &ips. You begin your
study by observing ships, and you note that a ship
leaves Port A and crosses the ocean and reaches Port
B. Some other ships leave: Part A and arrive at Port
C, whereas others break up or sink in transit. You
 ABIDIN
quickly come to recognize that outcomes are diverse
and you suspect that the determinants of these
behaviors or outcomes are many. As a researcher
you must decide which variables to study.
The environment seems a good choice: You
check the weather, look for icebergs, and assess a
large number of other environmental variables. You
might then proceed to correlate these variables to
the outcome of the ship's voyage. That process
would be similar to the way sociological environ-
mental variables have been linked and demonstrated
to have some utility as predictors of parenting be-
havior.
You may also choose to focus your research on
observations of the ship's behavior while in transit.
From this behavioral perspective you notice that
when a ship faces strong winds blowing from the
north, the bow of the ship turns toward the north-
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at least it does in those ships that make it across the
ocean. You also observe that of those ships that do
not point their bow to the north, many capsize in
rough weather. From these observations, we have a
clear picture of a significant behavior of the ship as
it attempts to cross the ocean. Thus, studying the
relation of the ship's behavior to external stressors
or events reveals a strong relationship between
behaviors and outcomes. Clearly, use of the behav-
ioral approach has demonstrated that it is an in-
formative way to predict the behavior of ships in
certain circumstances.
Despite the utility of these approaches, full un-
derstanding of the determinants of the ship's suc-
cessful ocean crossing cannot be achieved without
examining what goes on inside the ship. An exami-
nation of the internal mechanics, the reasoning, the
beliefs, and the motives of whatever exists inside the
ship is needed.
Psychology, as a science and profession, has de-
veloped some theories and models regarding parent-
ing which have demonstrated heuristic value, but
which need refinement. This refinement is, of course,
taking place. One excellent behavioral model for
predicting sm area of parenting behavior is Patter-
son's model (Patterson, 1990), which suggests some
of the determinants of antisocial and aggressive be-
havior in children (see Figure I), This model clearly
describes relationships between parent and child
behaviors, but does ~ o inform
t us as to why the
behaviors occur. What determines or causes the
behaviors? Qne must ask: Why do some parents
respond inappropriately at various points in Patter-
son's model, whereas others do not? Why do some
disengage from the process of increasing escalation
whereas others do not?
If we return to the ship analogy, it may be that
ships typically turn into the wind in a storm. It is
also observed that if they don't, they usually capsize
or don't reach port. We have an orderly and predict-
able behavioral theory of ships' behavior. Is our be-
havioral theory of ships useful? Certainly, it is.
Theories and models of parenting behavior, how-
ever, need to be developed that go beyond the stimu-
lus-response behavioral perspective and that inte-
grate sociological and cognitive-psychological
approaches with behavioral approaches.
The recent research of Ed Tronick (1989) and
TiffanyField and colleagues (see Field, Adler, Vega-
Lahr, & Scafidi, 1987) illustrates that we can iden-
tify some of the processes by which parent-child
interactions are regulated by the beliefs and expecta-
tions of both parties during the child's infancy.
These studies are providing the information needed
to build better models of the determinants of parent-
ing.
In 1976, while developing the Parenting Stress
Index (Abidin, 1986), Abidin made an initial at-
tempt at developing a model which integrated a
range of variables that were believed to be central to
the role of parenting. The components of that model
can be seen in Figure 2.
This model used stress as the central construct,
with stress leading to dysfunctional parenting. At
that time, A b i d i believed higher levels of parenting
stress led to increased dysfunctional parenting.
Subsequently, both hi$ research (Abidin, 1982) and
that of others demonstrated that a simple linear rela-
tion did not exist between stress level and dysfunc-
tional parenting. Abidin found that very low levels
of parenting strass also were associated with dys-
functional parenting due to the disengagement of the
parent and the subsequent low level of vigilant pa-
rental behaviors,
Recently there have been more elegant attempts
at model building designed to illuminate the paths of
the "dqteminants of parenting." In 1984, Jay
Belsky presented his m ~ d e l(see Figure 3) of the
determinants of parenting in relation to child abuse.
His model attempted to define the major global soci-
ological and personality characteristics which re-
lated to parenting bahaviors. In 1986, Belsky, Hert-
zog, and Rodme rqorted the results of an initial test
of that model using some rather sophisticated statis-
tical analyses, The model, which included personal
historical, sociological, behavioral, and self-report
data, produced ~hdleqgesto some of Belsky's previ-
ously hdd bqlieh and to the conventional wisdom of
the scientific y~mmunityregaeding some of the
glabal family vadabla $hat were thought to have
pr@ctive utility iin ralation to parenting behavior.
Ror example, the aslriwed importance of marital
adjustment to pafentinq and child outcomes was
ch&llei;lged, whie0ieqs the Importance of parental de-
velagxnent~lhis~opywqs @creasedas a direct predic-
tor of parating behavior. Be;lskyYs subsequent work
 Parent's Behavior Child's Behavim

.4 Normal disobedience or
LI u~~socialized
behavior

t2 Inappropriate discipline/response
J
t3 \/ Escalated bel7avior

Escalated coercive behavior

K
t4

t5 Coercive/antrsocial
behaviors

Figure 1. Transactional model of the Determinants of Antisocial Behavior.

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Parent Child
Characteristics Characteristics

characteristics

Figure 2. Parenting stress model with subscales on the Parenting Stress Index identified by shading (see Abidin, 1990a).

Developmental
History
___, Persona,itV Parenting 4
Characteristics

Work

Figure 3. A process model of the determinants of parenting. From "The Determinants of Parenting: A Process Model" Iby J.
Belsky, 1984, Child Development, 55, p. 84. Copyright 1984 by Jay Belsky. Reprinted by permission.

(Belsky, Lerner, & Spanier, 1988) has helped to ex-
pand the variables now considered important in
models of parenting behavior, and his work has
helped focus us on the interior of the parent. Al-
though an improvement, Belsky's model does not
fully capture the parent as a thinking, planning,
goal-oriented individual.
At this time, we need to develop more compre-
hensive and integrative models designed to incorpo-
rate sociological, behavioral, and personality char-
acteristics of the parent. These models should
suggest the measures that need to be developed to
assess the conceptual components of the model. A
model currently being developed by Abidin and his
students is presented next, along with a brief de-
scription of a measure under development that is
designed to assess one of the conceptual components
of the model.
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The proposed model (see Figure 4) is built on the
work of many others and represents a distillation of
many variables either known or suspected to be re-
lated to parenting behaviors. The variables included
in the model are those that are suggested by Abidin's
interpretation of the literature as being the best bets
for predicting parenting behavior. Clearly, the uni-
verse of variables is not present and others may
propose different variables.
The model hypothesizes that parenting behavior
and child adjustment are influenced by a number of
sociological, environmental, behavioral, and devel-
opmental variables. The current model attempts to
capitalize on those relationships, but suggests that
Parenting Appraisal
Relevant Moderator
Stressors
Parent
Characteristics
Environment
I
Characteristics
Figure 4. Theorized paths of influence regarding the determinants of parenting behavior.
ABIDIN
the path of influence of those variables is through
that component of the parent's personality relating
to the parenting role. Further parental cognitions
and beliefs are seen as playing a key role.
The parenting role variable (commitment to pa-
rental role) in the model represents a set of beliefs
and self-expectations serving as a moderator or
buffer of more distal influences. Each parent is seen
as having an internal working model of himself or
herself as a parent. This model of "self-as-parent" is
created out of the individual's attachment history
(Crittenden, 1989) and includes the individual's
goals for himself or herself and his or her internal-
ized expectations of others. Through this working
model of self-as-parent (i.e., parenting role), parents
assess the harm or benefit that confronts them in the
role of parent. The result of that appraisal produces
the level of stress the parent experiences.
Parenting stress is, thus, the result of a series of
appraisals made by each parent in the context of his
or her level of commitment to the parenting role.
Conceptually,parenting stress is viewed as a motiva-
tional variable which energizes and encourages par-
ents to utilize the resources avail~bleto them to
support their parenting. The richness or paucity of
resources available naturally plays a key role in the
ultimate parenting behavior. The dynamics of this
model are quite similar to those suggested by Laza-
rus and Folkman (1984)in their transa~tionalmodel
of stress. The current model represents an explica-
tion of a specific application of Lazrarus and Folk-
man's general theory.
Motivational
Arousal Resources Outcomes
Parenting Parenting
Stress Behavior
A
I
 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
Now this presentation shifts to a brief review of
Abidin's work on developing a self-report measure of
one of the important conceptual variables in his
model. The parenting alliance variable in Abidin's
model replaces the marital satisfaction variable in-
cluded in Belsky's (1984) model. This decision was
based on the research of Belsky et al. (1986), Emery
(1988), and others who have researched the effects of
conflict in marriage on child outcomes, and who
found that marital satisfaction is not predictive of
parenting behavior. The Parenting Alliance Inven-
tory is a self-report measure which was developed to
focus on those aspects of the marital re:lationshipthat
bear directly on parenting. It is Abidiin's belief that a
global measurement of marital satisfaction or adjust-
ment (Belsky, 1984; Belsky et al., 1986, 1988), as is
often used in family and child development research,
introduces considerable error variance in relation to
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the prediction of parenting behavior. It is believed
that this more specific measure (Parenting Alliance
Inventory) will make a significant conttribution to the
prediction of parenting behaviors because it recog-
nizes that both parents can be involved, and function
well, in the parenting role, and yet not be very satis-
fied with their personal relationship with each other.
Brunner (1991), in his dissertation r~esearch,found
that Parenting Alliance Inventory scoires were able to
predict significantly child behaviors as rated by
teachers, whereas marital satisfactialn scores were
unrelated to the child outcome measures.
The research literature in recent years suggests
that an unfortunate mistake was made during the
past 25 years when m,any researchers, nushing to
embrace behavioral methodologies, devalued, gave
up on, or ignored self-report and personality mea-
sures designed to assess parental belief systems.
Mischel's (1968) landmark position that "situa-
tional" rather than personality factors by and large
determine behavior was constructive in redirecting
attention to environmental factors; however, it over-
simplified the case.
Clearly, self-report methodology has had many
problems associated with it, not the least of which
is the use of global measures of personality charac-
teristics to predict specific behaviors. An excellent
review of methodological and conceptual issues re-
lated to self-report measures is presented by Holden
and Edwards (1989). In the old tradition of person-
ality measurement, it was assumed that from a lim-
ited number of global personality traits one could
predict specific behaviors, and attempts were made
to do just that. The failure to demonstrate significant
and substantial correlations between global attrib-
utes and specific (often micro) behaviors was seen in
the 1960s and 1970s as demonstrating the invalidity
of personality assessment, and by implication, self-
report methodology.
More recent research has demonstrated that
narrow-band personality measures consisting of
questions which are directly tied to a specificbelief
system can predict and help define the determi-
nants of parenting behaviors. An excellent explica-
tion of these issues may be found in the book ed-
ited by Irving E. Siege1 (1985) entitled Parental
Belief Systems: The Psychoi'ogical Conseqfitencesfor
Children. Further, the recent work of Kochanska,
Kuczynski, and Radke-Y,arrow (1989), using a
more fine-grained assessment of parenting belief
systems, demonstrates rnajor and significant rela-
tionships of parental belief systems to observed
parenting behavior.
Both the importance of parental belief systems
and their paths of influence need to be emphasized.
Parental belief systems as lrneasured by self-report
have both direct and indirect influences on ]parenting
behavior and child outcomes. The indirect path is
mediated by the dyadic imte~.action-thus the parent
engages in interactions with the child basted on his
or her belief system, and child outcomes follow from
these interactions. The direct path relates to the en-
vironment the parent cire,atesor involves the child in
and to the inferences the child makes about the par-
ent's belief system (expectaltions). This direct influ-
ence cannot be understood by observing a particular
behavior, but can be determined only over a long
history of parent-child interactions in a large vari-
ety of contexts. Thus behavioral observatiolns are an
inefficient and somewhalt ineffective method of as-
sessing some of the direct influences of the impact
of parental belief systems on their children. Direct
assessment of parental belief systems by self-report
appears a more effective and practical methodology.
Many researchers and clinicians educated during
the past 25 years need tlo overcome the plrejudices
against personality assessment in general, and self-
report methodology in particular. Self-report of pa-
rental cognitions is one imlportant data source for
both theory construction and clinical assessment.
Now we need to develop models of the determinants
of parenting that will allow for and support the in-
corporation of various data sources to facilitate the
prediction and understanding of parenting behavior.
The emergence of new rnodels and theories that inte-
grate a wide range of data sources (Abidin, 1990b)
is a hopeful sign for developing a fuller understand-
ing of the determinants of parenting behavior.
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 ABIDIN
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