Parental Attributions of Children's Behavior

Date of Award

1990

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Program/Concentration

Virginia Consortium Program in Clinical Psychology

Committee Director

Peter J. Mikulka

Call Number for Print

Special Collections; LD4331.P69W54

Abstract

The relationship of parental attributions and child behavior was investigated. The subjects were 179 parents, 82 of whom presented themselves to a community psychological clinic for treatment of child behavior problems, and 97 more were recruited from the community and served as controls. Child behavior was assessed using parental reports (i.e., behavioral checklist). Parental attributions were assessed using a standardized questionnaire (PATQ) developed for this study and modeled after the Attributional Style Questionnaire (Peterson, Semmel, Von Baeyer, Abramson, Metalsky, & Seligman, 1982). The results showed significant differences between the kinds of attributions made by parents who rated their children as having serious behavioral problems and those who did not. Clinic parents attributed significantly more intentionality, control, and knowledge, to their children for misbehavior than the control parents. Clinic parents also rated their children's misbehavior as significantly more stable and global than control parents. In addition, clinic parents dated their children's positive behaviors as significantly less internal, stable, and global than the control parents. The reliability and factor structure of the PATQ are described. Clinical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Comments

A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculties of Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk State University, and Old Dominion University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology through the Virginia Consortium Program in Clinical Psychology.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

ISBN

979820751854-1

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS