Dutch Mothers’ and Fathers’ Differential Attributions and Parenting Reactions to the Misbehavior of Sons and Daughters

There is ample evidence that fathers and mothers react differently to misbehavior of sons and daughters. Relatively little is known about the mechanisms underlying this differential treatment. This set of quasiexperimental studies examined whether parental attributions about child misbehavior mediate the association between child gender and negative parenting practices, and whether this is different for fathers and mothers. Dutch parents (Study 1: N = 190, 65% mothers, 53% girls; Study 2: N = 287, 56% mothers, 50% girls) of 2-to 4-year-old children were presented with scenarios illustrating ch... Mehr ...