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Project

Parenting Schemas: An Experimental Approach

Parenting behavior is, consciously or not, influenced by a number of covert factors, such as ideas and expectations about child rearing. This research proposal focuses on the covert factors to attain a better understanding of how parents deal with the behavior of their child. According to the theory, parental behavior emerges in four stages. A first stage is noticing the child behavior (e.g., seeing that the child pushes someone). In a second stage, this behavior is interpreted and evaluated (e.g., child pushes on purpose and is naughty). In a third stage, the parent takes into account environmental information (e.g., child pushes to defend himself/herself), whereas in the fourth stage the parent decides how to react to the child behavior (e.g., reprimanding the child). These four stages are influenced by parental ideas on parenting. We will investigate how these ideas influence which child behavior is noticed and how this behavior is evaluated. Furthermore, we will assess whether we can, using a computer task, let parents focus on the positive behavior of their child. We expect this, in turn, will lead to more positive parenting practices, which is a major focus in parenting programs.
Date:1 Oct 2019 →  30 Sep 2020
Keywords:Parenting, Social information processing, Attentional bias, Experimental, Naturalistic
Disciplines:Orthopedagogical assessment and diagnostics