ATTRIBUTIONS AND AROUSAL AS PREDICTORS OF MATERNAL DISCIPLINE

A model of the development and maintenance of overreactive and lax parental discipline styles was tested in a sample of 40 mothers of toddlers by assessing mothers' arousal to and attributions for videotaped scenes of children expressing negative affect and by examining these data in relation to self-reported parenting style. The dysfunctionality of mothers' child-centered attributions for the child negative affect accounted for a significant portion of the variance in mothers' emotional arousal and their overreactive/harsh parenting. However, the dysfunctionality of mothers' mother-centered attributions did not account for a significant portion of the variance in mothers' lax parenting. These findings suggest that emotions and cognitions play important roles in maintaining overreactive or harsh parenting. Interventions aimed at altering parenting behavior may be more effective if they address emotional arousal and attributions as well as teach appropriate parenting strategies.