Sense of Parenting Competence and Number of Severe Temper Tantrums in Toddlers: The Mediating Role of Inconsistent Parenting Behavior
Masterthesis Youth at Risk Graduate School of Child Development and Education Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences University of Amsterdam L. D. Schut, 12798452 Supervisor: Mw. Dr. A. L. van den Akker Second reviewer: Mw. Dr. D. van der Giessen Amsterdam, June 2020
2 Abstract
Research has shown that children who experience severe temper tantrums (i.e. intense and frequent) during childhood, have a higher chance to develop behavioral problems later on in life (Belden, Thomson, & Luby, 2008; Mireault & Trahan, 2007; Needlman, Stevenson, & Zuckerman, 1991; Rutten, 2009). This study looked at whether parents with a lower sense of parenting competence have children with more severe temper tantrums, because these parents are more inconsistent – both positive and negative – in their parenting behavior to their child’s temper tantrums. Participants included 115 mothers (M = 32.67, SD = 4.23) who reported on their toddlers’ temper tantrums and their own parenting behavior (M = 29.99, SD = 8.5, age range: 12-50 months) in a seven-day daily diary study. Information on mothers’ sense of parenting competence was assessed through a general questionnaire. A mediation analysis was performed using model 4 in PROCESS version 3.5 (Hayes, 2018). Results did not indicate that mothers with a lower sense of parenting competence had children who threw more severe temper tantrums. Nevertheless, results indicated that there was a mediation-effect of inconsistent parenting behavior on this relationship. Furthermore, mothers with a lower sense of parenting competence were also more inconsistent. Mothers who were more inconsistent had children who threw more severe temper tantrums. This study shows the importance of decreasing inconsistency in parenting behavior for the management and prevention of toddler’s severe temper tantrums.
Keywords: Severe Temper Tantrums, Sense of Parenting Competence, Inconsistent Parenting Behavior, Mediation
3 Sense of Parenting Competence and Number of Severe Temper Tantrums in Toddlers: The
Mediating Role of Inconsistent Parenting Behavior
Parents not only face one of the most important, but also one of the hardest tasks in childrearing, especially in the first years of a child’s life. That is, socializing their children and to teach them important norms and values about how someone is expected to behave (Acker & O'Leary, 1996). However, this can be tough when a child shows oppositional and
challenging behavior. Many parents might recognize the situation in the supermarket where their child is denied that candy bar or bottle of soda, or a child is playing but has to stop the activity to go to bed. The child causes a scene and starts screaming, crying, or even throwing objects. It is known that 50 to 80 percent of toddlers between 18 and 60 months experience such outbursts of emotions – which are called temper tantrums – once a week or more (Bath, 1994; Daniels, Mandleco, & Luthy, 2012; Goldson & Reynolds, 2011; Needlman et al., 1991; Österman & Björkqvist, 2010; Potegal, Kosorok, & Davidson, 2003). Generally, temper tantrums are brief, intense, and characterized by impulsive and out-of-control emotional manifestations (Giesbrecht, Miller, & Müller, 2010). These most commonly include crying, screaming, banging one’s head, hands, or feet on the floor, falling to the floor, throwing objects, kicking, pushing and pulling, or biting (Daniels et al., 2012; Potegal et al., 2003) Severity of temper tantrums
Although temper tantrums are a common phenomenon in childhood development, for some children they might signal the start of a problematic trajectory. Little empirical research has been done into when temper tantrums are “normal” developmental behavior and when temper tantrums are severe, and therefore may indicate something more serious in child development (Welch, 2008). The present study focuses on children in their toddler
(preschool) years, in which development of self-regulatory skills is central to the development of the child’s social skills and competences (Wakschlag et al., 2005). Therefore, as
4 developmental contexts and demands shift in these years, it can also be expected that
behavioral disruption comes to the fore as stress accumulates (Wakschlag et al., 2005). This toddler phase is characterized by stubbornness, protest, and anger and temper outbursts are common, including temper tantrums (Rutten, 2009). Temper tantrums in this phase function as ways or attempts to engage and communicate with others, to establish interpersonal care-taking, and to obtain a sense of independence (Daniels et al., 2012; Proffer, 1995). Following this line of thought, it could be assumed that when temper tantrums belong to “normal” child development, children grow out of them by maturing. However, it is also known that every child experiences and expresses temper tantrums differently and in some children they manifest more intensely and extremely than in other children, for example in terms of the displayed behavior (Arnold, O’Leary, Wolff, & Acker, 1993; Giesbrecht et al., 2010). From the literature there is strong empirical evidence that children who experience intense and frequent tantrums in their childhood are more prone to developing emotional and behavioral disorders (i.e. conduct disorders) later on in life (Belden et al., 2008; Bhatia et al., 1990; Mireault & Trahan, 2007; Needleman et al., 1991; Rutten, 2009). Conduct problems themselves are a strong predictor of later externalizing behavior (Smith et al., 2014). The present study describes these intense and frequent tantrums as severe temper tantrums. As they may point towards something more problematic in child development, more research should be done into what predicts these severe temper tantrums.
Certain parameters constitute these severe temper tantrums and indicate when oppositional behavior is outside “normal” limits (Beauchamp-Châtel, Courchesne, Forgeot d’Arc, & Mottron, 2019; Belden et al., 2008; Bull, Oliver, Tunnicliffe, & Woodcock, 2015; Daniels et al., 2012; Wakschlag et al., 2012). The present study focuses specifically on behavior during the tantrum (i.e. intensity) and duration of the tantrum, as they give the best indication of a severe temper tantrum within the given data. Firstly, temper tantrums are
5 considered severe when they involve behavior that injures the child oneself or others and involve serious aggression (e.g. hitting, kicking, head banging, breath holding, or running away) (Belden et al., 2008; Daniels et al., 2012; Österman & Björkqvist, 2010; Potegal & Davidson, 2003; Potegal et al., 2003; Wakschlag et al., 2012). Secondly, when temper tantrums last longer than ten minutes, they are considered severe. This is known for a small subset of toddlers whose temper tantrums are more persistent (Belden et al., 2008; Daniels et al., 2012; Österman & Björkqvist, 2010; Potegal et al., 2003; Wakschlag et al., 2012). Sense of parenting competence and inconsistent parenting behavior
The way parents play a key role in preventing problem behavior of children is extensively researched in the literature. There are many guidelines, tips, and protocols for parents on how to deal with children’s challenging and oppositional behavior (Fletcher, Walls, Cook, Madison, & Bridges, 2008; Haggerty, McGlynn-Wright, & Klima, 2014; Hamovitch, Acri, & Bornheimer, 2019). One of the most important and effective strategies according to the literature is providing consistent responses towards the child’s behavior and giving the child clear signals whether the behavior is desirable or not (Thomlison & Craig, 2005). However, little information can be found on what (in)consistent parenting behavior means and in how consistent parenting behavior can be best provided to the child. The fact that there is not one straightforward way to raise a child might have a different effect on a parent who feels confident about ones parenting qualities and a parent who is (more) insecure about ones parenting qualities. Besides this, in general there exist differences between
individuals’ sense of (parenting) competence. This can be due to lots of things, for instance personality can play a role in selecting parenting strategies towards a child’s behavior. Throughout the literature, the perceived effectiveness in parenting behavior is called sense of parenting competence (i.e. parenting self-efficacy) and is indeed theorized to be a meaningful predictor of parenting strategies and qualities (Coleman & Karraker, 1997; Haggerty et al.,
6 2014; Hamovitch et al., 2019). Here, parenting strategies mean all the different ways a parent uses to positively and negatively respond to a child’s behavior and to interact with a child (Haggerty et al., 2014). Positive parenting strategies include positive parental involvement, praising, complimenting, and reward. Negative parenting strategies include harsh parenting, corporal punishment, and poor monitoring and supervision (Coto, Garcia, Hart, & Graziano, 2018; Hamovitch et al., 2019; Patterson, deBaryshe, & Ramsey, 1989). Sense of parenting competence entails the belief that someone is able to fulfill or achieve ones parental role and positively influences the behavior and development of one’s children (Coleman & Karraker, 1997; Hamovitch et al., 2019; Rothman, 2000). According to social-cognitive theory, beliefs about someone’s ability to fulfill and achieve certain objectives “…are a crucial determinant of both the initiation and the maintenance of change in behavior” (Rothman, 2000, p. 65). Sense of competence – in general – thus enables a person to be certain of themselves in feeling able to transform an action into a successful result (Rothman, 2000). With regard to sense of parenting competence that is feeling able to manage a child’s temper tantrum
successfully. A parent with a lower sense of parenting competence, does not – or not always – feel able how to manage a child’s temper tantrums successfully. Not always means that parents might sometimes still use ineffective parenting strategies despite the fact that they have experienced the result of effective parenting strategies to temper tantrums (i.e. strategies that work, both negative and positive). This is because these parents do not believe (enough) in the effectiveness of their own parenting strategies. As a result, parents keep switching in their application of parenting strategies to temper tantrums (i.e. are inconsistent in their parenting behavior), thereby providing an unpredictable interactional context (Gardner, 1989; Wahler & Dumas, 1985). One time, parents might react to a child’s temper tantrum this way, and the other time they react completely different. In this way, low confidence in parent’s
7 own skills is likely to be reflected through inconsistent parenting behavior (Slagt, Dékovic, De Haan, Van den Akker, & Prinzie, 2012).
Inconsistent parenting behavior and more severe temper tantrums
How aversive behavior of children, in this study a temper tantrum, is then triggered through inconsistent parenting behavior, can be explained by Social Learning Theory (Bandura, 1973; 1977). This theory proposes that children learn through the actions of the environment and people around them (Bandura, 1973; 1977). In the toddler years, children mainly learn from their parents. As is the case with all types of learning, people learn through practice and repetition. With regard to children, parents provide them with examples of what is desirable and undesirable behavior by reacting the same way in the same situation.
However, when a parent often reacts differently to the same types of behavior a child displays, the child does not know what is expected from him/her anymore when the same situation occurs again. This can cause frustration and uncertainty in the child, which might express itself through a severe temper tantrum. Inconsistent parenting behavior includes a lack of rules, lack of supervision and monitoring, and using punishment and reward erratically and mixed (Gardner, 1989). The more different parenting strategies parents use, the more
inconsistent the parent’s behavior is. Therefore, the more inconsistency in parenting behavior, possibly the more severe temper tantrums. There have been associations found between child coercion and parent’s maladaptive variability in their response patterns in parent-child interactions (Lunkenheimer, Lichtwarck-Aschoff, Holleinstein, Kemp, & Granic, 2016). Beyond that, different studies support the link between inconsistent parenting behavior and conduct problems (Gardner, 1989; Hamovitch et al., 2019; Lunkenheimer et al., 2016).
According to the literature, this unpredictability might explain why a parenting strategy the one time works for the difficult behavior of the child and the next time does not work anymore. Moreover, this unpredictability can worsen the behavior of the child
8 (Rothman, 2000). This takes back upon the role sense of parenting competence can play in well-being of children (Östberg & Hagekull, 2000). It might be that parents with a lower sense of parenting competence through more inconsistency in their parenting behavior are the ones with children who throw more severe temper tantrums. If this is the case, enhancing self-efficacy beliefs in these parents might be an important tool for intervention in stimulating effective (i.e. consistent and most preferably positive) parenting and parent-child interactions (Coleman & Karraker, 1997; Hamovitch et al., 2019).
This study
As there is empirical evidence to believe that inconsistent parenting behavior potentially leads to more severe temper tantrums in children and therefore to more problem behavior later on in life, more attention should be given to this gap in the research field. In the present study it is researched if and to what extent a lower sense of parenting competence has an effect on the number of severe temper tantrums in toddlers. Within this it is researchedif inconsistent parenting behavior can explain the relationship between a lower sense of parenting competence and more severe temper tantrums. The following question is
formulated: Does a lower sense of parenting competence predict more severe temper tantrums in toddlers, and does inconsistent parenting behavior explain this relationship? Firstly, it is expected that a lower sense of parenting competence is associated with more severe temper tantrums in toddlers. Secondly, it is expected that a lower sense of parenting competence is associated with inconsistent parenting behavior. Thirdly, it is expected that inconsistent parenting behavior is associated with more severe temper tantrums in toddlers. Finally it is expected that inconsistent parenting behavior is a mediator in the relationship between sense of parenting competence and more severe temper tantrums.
The present study uses the data from a seven-day daily diary study to answer the research question. Diary studies are an effective research method to measure experiences and
9 events in a naturalistic setting. In this way, measurements are more objective, specific, and veracious (Bolger, Davis, & Rafaeli, 2003; Breevaart, Bakker, & Demerouti, 2012; Bull et al., 2015). Therefore, a fundamental benefit of diary studies as a research method in comparison to traditional research methods is that it minimizes memory biases, which are frequent in retrospective studies (Bolger et al., 2003; Breevaart et al., 2012; Bull et al., 2015; Eisbach et al., 2014) . Furthermore, as diary studies capture behaviors as they occur over time, they can track even small fluctuations – in frequency, duration or nature – of the behavior, thoughts or feelings to be measured (Breevaart et al., 2012; Bull et al., 2015). This is specifically
beneficial to measure events, experiences, and behaviors that strongly depend on the situation or that fluctuate in frequency over and/or within days, such as temper tantrums (Breevaart et al., 2012; Bull et al., 2015).
Method Procedure
The present study is part of a larger study about toddler’s temper tantrums (‘Oei, ik voel’). The larger study recruited 1170 parents with children from one to five years old between February 2016 and June 2017. For this study, approval was granted by the
Committee of Ethics of the faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Pedagogical Sciences, University of Amsterdam. People were recruited through online parenting fora and Facebook, and face-to-face outside in Amsterdam. They received information about the study and gave informed consent in the online study environment. After this, parents filled out a general questionnaire.
In the general questionnaire parents answered questions regarding background characteristics, temper tantrums – specifically behaviors during and duration of the temper tantrums – and temperament of the child, reactions to temper tantrums, parents’ personality, and parents’ sense of parenting competence. Filling out the general questionnaire took about
10 30 minutes. For each question was indicated how far back the parents had to think to answer the question, for example a day, a week, or a month.
Of the original sample (N = 1170), 544 (46.5%) parents indicated that their child was between 1.5 and 3.5 years old. They were asked to participate in an additional daily diary study for seven consecutive days. From these parents, 382 (32.7%) parents said they would like to receive more information about the diary study and of these, 220 (18.8%) parents gave informed consent to participate. Eventually, 159 (13.6%) parents participated the full seven days. The remaining 61 (5.2%) parents were excluded from the present because they
participated less than the seven full days of the diary study. Data from the full seven days was necessary because the present study used the diary study to measure as much data as possible for the same amount of days. In this way, good comparisons could be made between the participants. From the 159 parents that participated the full seven days, 31 (19.5%) parents did not report any information about their reactions to the temper tantrums of their child per day. These parents were excluded from the present study, because information on these reactions was needed to measure parent’s level of inconsistency and, thus, to answer the research question. From the 128 remaining parents there were 13 (8.2%) missing values for sense of parenting competence. These parents did not report information on the sense of parenting competence scale, and were therefore excluded from the present study.
The diary the parents filled out were short questionnaires about the temper tantrums of their child. For each day the diary was filled out and the questions per day were specifically about the temper tantrums of that day, with a maximum of seven temper tantrums per day. After seven days a parent could have filled out information about their child’s temper
tantrums for a maximum of 49 temper tantrums. Filling out the daily questionnaire took about five minutes per day. The questions in the general questionnaire and the diary study were respectively based on the Questionnaire Tantrums in Children – Parent Version (72 items)
11 and the Diary Tantrums in Children (6 items) (Van Leeuwen, Bourgonion, Huijsman, & Van Meenen, 2007). For the present study, data on sense of parenting competence was used from the general questionnaire. From the diary study, data on the number of temper tantrums per day was used, and for each temper tantrum data was used about the duration of the temper tantrum, behaviors the child displayed during the temper tantrum, and the reaction of the parent to the temper tantrum.
Participants
The sample of the present study consists of 115 children and their mothers. Despite the strategy of recruiting children between specifically 1.5 and 3.5 years old, it turned out that some of the participating mothers still had a child outside this age range. Instead the age range of the children varied from 12 and 50 months (M = 29.99, SD = 8.5). These children included 55.7% boys (n = 64) and 44.3% girls (n = 51). The mothers were between 23 and 45 years (M = 32.67, SD = 4.23). They reported about both themselves and their child. Children scored on average high on general health, 4.41 (SD = .63) on a five-point scale from 1 (bad) to 5 (very good). Five (4.3%) of the 115 children in this sample had a physical disability. The families in the sample consisted on average of 1.77 (SD = .74) children per family. Most of the mothers were married or living together (93.9%). Furthermore, most of the mothers (81.7%) and their partners (63.5%) had at least finished higher education. With regard to employment, 22 mothers (19.1%) did not work and 81 mothers (70.4%) worked between 16 and 40 hours per week. Most of their partners worked at least 32 hours (87.0%). From seven participants (6.1%) data on education and work is missing. Of the total of 625 reported temper tantrums in the diary study, 322 (51.5%) were severe temper tantrums.
Missing data analysis indicated that the final sample of participating parents in the diary study (n = 115) felt moderately more competent in their parenting skills (M = 4.21, SD = .47) than non-participating parents from the original sample (n = 446, M = 3.27, SD = 1.82),
12 t(559) = 5.48, p < .001, d = .57. Furthermore, parents with children who ever had a temper tantrum were slightly more likely to participate in the diary study than parents whose children never had a temper tantrum, χ2(1, N = 543) = 7.93, p < .05, Cramer’s V = .12.
Materials and Measures
Sense of parenting competence. Sense of parenting competence was measured through a sense of parenting competence scale from the Nijmeegse Ouderlijke Stress Index (NOSI), which is the Dutch translation of the Parenting Stress Index (PSI; Abidin, 1990; De Brock, Vermulst, Gerris, & Abidin, 1992). Parents answered thirteen statements (i.e. items) on how a parent feels about taking care of their child. Example items from this instrument are: ‘I cannot make a decision without help’ and ‘I feel I am in control of the care for my child’. Parents answered these statements on a six-point likert-scale (1 = completely disagree to 6 = completely agree). Items that were negatively scaled were recoded into positively scaled items. A reliability analysis showed the internal consistency of the scale in the present sample was high (Cronbach’s α = .84) (Ponterotto & Ruckdeschel, 2007). In the present study, a mean score of the scale was calculated. The higher this mean, the higher a parents’ sense of parenting competence.
Inconsistent parenting behavior. Inconsistent parenting behavior was measured through analyzing – from the data in the diary study – how many different (i.e. unique) reactions (i.e. strategies) a mother gave to all the temper tantrums a child threw in seven days. The present study included the following 11 reactions which a parent could give to a child’s temper tantrum (from the Questionnaire Tantrums in Children – Parent Version; Van
Leeuwen et al., 2007): ‘I let my child cool of’, ‘I sent my child to their room/corner/time-out’, ‘I comforted my child’, ‘I became angry with my child’, ‘I negotiated with my child’, ‘I gave in to my child’, ‘I punished my child’, ‘I grabbed my child’, ‘I spoke sternly to my child’,
13 I distracted my child’, and ‘I ignored my child’. To measure how inconsistent a mother reacted to her child’s temper tantrums during the whole week, a measure of categorical variability (i.e. qualitative variation) (Frankfort-Nachmias & Leon-Guerrero, 2018; Kader & Perry, 2007) was computed for this data as the data on reactions consisted of nominal
variables (1 = Yes, I gave the reaction; 0 = No, I did not give the reaction). The present study used the Index of Qualitative Variation (IQV; Frankfort-Nachmias & Leon-Guerrero, 2018) as a measure for categorical variability. With regard to inconsistency in mothers’ reactions to temper tantrums, the higher the dispersion, the higher the inconsistency was. In other words, the more unique reactions mothers used to their child’s temper tantrums, the more
inconsistent a mother was in her parenting behavior. However, it is also important to look at how frequent every unique reaction was given. The frequency of a unique reaction as a proportion of the total reactions given, says something about inconsistency in reactions to temper tantrums too. If a mother uses a unique reaction very frequent in comparison to other unique reactions, the mother is less inconsistent than when she uses a lot of unique reactions not so frequent.
To compute the IQV within families equation 1 was used, where K is the number of categories (in this study 11 because there were 11 different reactions), and ∑𝑃𝑐𝑡2 is the sum
of all squared proportions in the distribution ((Frankfort-Nachmias & Leon-Guerrero, 2018). IQV = K (1 − (∑ 𝑃𝑐𝑡
2))
(K − 1)
To calculate this sum of squared proportions, firstly was counted how frequent every unique reaction was given and secondly this number was divided through the total number of reactions a mother had given through the whole week. In other words, the IQV is based on “… the ratio of the ratio of the total number of differences in the distribution to the maximum number of possible differences within the same distribution” (Frankfort-Nachmias & Leon-Guerrero, 2018, p. 162). IQV ranges from 0.00 to 1.00. With regard to inconsistent parenting
14 behavior within families, IQV’s closer to 0.00 represented less inconsistency in parenting behavior, where IQV’s closer to 1.00 represented more inconsistency in parenting behavior.
Number of severe temper tantrums. Number of severe temper tantrums was measured by counting the number of severe temper tantrums a child threw for seven days. A temper tantrum was coded as severe either if the child displayed at least one of the following behaviors: kicking, hitting, throwing an object, pushing or pulling, vomiting, biting, pounding head to wall/floor, scratching, holding breath, and running away, and/or if the tantrum lasted longer than 10 minutes (Belden et al., 2008; Daniels et al., 2012; Österman & Björkqvist, 2010; Potegal & Davidson, 2003; Potegal et al., 2003; Wakschlag et al., 2012). The 10 severe behaviors during the temper tantrum were selected from 25 proposed behaviors of the child during the temper tantrum from the Questionnaire Tantrums in Children – Parent Version (Van Leeuwen et al., 2007). Multiple behaviors could be selected for one temper tantrum. The question about displayed behaviors during the temper tantrums always concerned the last temper tantrum per day. Parents answered questions on duration for a tantrum on a 7-point scale (1 = less than one minute, 2 = 1 to 2 minutes, 3 = 2 to 4 minutes, 4 = 5 to 10 minutes, 5 = 10 to 20 minutes, 6 = 20 to 40 minutes, 7 = more than 40 minutes). This always concerned the last temper tantrum per day.
Data Analysis
First, I calculated Pearson correlation coefficients for the key variables sense of parenting competence (independent variable), inconsistent parenting behavior (mediator), and number of severe temper tantrums (dependent variable) to see whether and/or how these were related. Second, to test if there was a mediation-effect of inconsistent parenting behavior on the relationship between sense of parenting competence and the number of severe temper tantrums, model 4 in PROCESS version 3.5 was used (Hayes, 2018). The PROCESS-analysis of Hayes (2018) is based on the method of Baron and Kenny (1986). This method shows how
15 a mediation-effect is showed through multiple regression analyses and uses bootstrapping iterations to generate more precise confidence intervals (95%) for the indirect effect (Hayes, 2018). In other words, this creates an empirical representation of the sampling distribution of the effect of the dependent variable on the independent variable, via the mediator (Hayes, 2018). I used SPSS IBM Statistics 26 to do the analyses.
Results
The descriptive statistics for and the correlations between the key variables in this study are presented in Table 1. Although results showed a weak association, parents who had a higher sense of parenting competence showed less inconsistent parenting behavior. This is in line with the expectations. Furthermore as expected, parents who were more inconsistent in their parenting behavior had children with more severe temper tantrums. This association was also weak. Unexpectedly, a lower sense of parenting competence was not linked to more of severe temper tantrums.
Table 1
Means and Standard Deviations for, and Pearson correlations between Sense of Parenting Competence, Inconsistent Parenting Behavior, and Number of Severe Temper Tantrums
M SD 1 2
1. Sense of parenting competence 4.21 .47
2. Inconsistent parenting behavior .64 .28 -.27**
3. Number of severe temper tantrums 2.80 3.15 -.12 .34*** Note. *p < .05. **p < .01.
The results of the analyses answering the research question are displayed in Figure 1. A linear regression analysis was used to evaluate the first hypothesis about the relationship between a lower sense of parenting competence and more severe temper tantrums (without the mediator). Against expectations, results did not confirm that mothers with a lower sense of
16 parenting competence had children with more severe temper tantrums (path c). The explained variance of the regression was not significant for the number of severe temper tantrums (R2 = .01, F(1, 113) = 1.54, p = .217). Furthermore, mothers with a lower sense of parenting
competence did not have children with more severe temper tantrums while controlling for inconsistent parenting behavior (the mediator) either (i.e. the direct effect; path c’). In other words, a lower sense of parenting competence did not directly predict more severe temper tantrums in toddlers. Therefore, the first hypothesis is not confirmed.
After this, a mediation analysis with PROCESS was conducted to answer the last three hypotheses. The findings were in line with the second hypothesis about the relationship between a lower sense of parenting competence and inconsistent parenting behavior. Mothers with a lower sense of parenting competence were more inconsistent in their parenting
Path ab
Path a
Inconsistent parenting behavior
Number of severe temper tantrums Sense of parenting competence b = -.16(.05)**, β = -.27** Path b Path c Path c’ b = 3.75(1.03)***, β = .34*** b = -.78(.63), β = -.12 b = -.18(.62), β = -.03 b = -.59(.20), [-1.05, -.25] β = -.09(.03), [-.15, -.04]
Figure 1. Mediation model for the relationship between sense of competence and number of severe temper tantrums, mediated by inconsistent parenting behavior. * = p < .05. ** = p <
.01. *** = p < .001. c = total effect, c’ = direct effect, ab = indirect effect; […] = bootstrap
17 behavior (path a). Sense of parenting competence explained a small, but significant portion of the variance in inconsistent parenting behavior (R2 = .07) (Cohen, 1988). The findings were also in line with the third expectation about inconsistent parenting behavior and more severe temper tantrums. Mothers who were more inconsistent in their parenting behavior had children who threw more severe temper tantrums (path b). Inconsistent parenting behavior explained a medium and significant portion of the variance in number of severe temper tantrums (R2 = .12). Finally, the findings were in line with the fourth expectation about inconsistent parenting behavior as a mediator. More inconsistency in parenting behavior explained the relationship between a lower sense of parenting competence and more severe temper tantrums (i.e. the indirect effect; path ab). Although there was no significant total effect of sense of parenting competence on the number of severe temper tantrums, an indirect effect can still occur, which is the case here. Research proposes that the presence of a
significant total and/or direct effect of the independent on the dependent variable (path c or c’) should not be a prerequisite to continue testing and seeking for an indirect effect (Hayes, 2009; MacKinnon, Lockwood, Hoffman, West, & Sheets, 2002; Preacher & Hayes, 2004; Shrout & Bolger, 2002; Zhao, Lynch, & Chen, 2010).
Discussion
The goal of the present study was to gain a better understanding of toddler’s severe temper tantrums. The first aim was to see whether there was a direct relationship between a lower sense of parenting competence and more severe temper tantrums in toddlers. Results did not indicate that mothers with a lower sense of parenting competence had children who threw more severe temper tantrums. The second aim was to see whether inconsistent
parenting behavior mediated the relationship between a lower sense of parenting competence and more of severe temper tantrums. Results indicated that mothers with a lower sense of parenting competence were more inconsistent in their parenting behavior. Moreover, results
18 indicated that mothers who were more inconsistent in their parenting behavior (i.e. providing an unpredictable environment) had children who threw more severe temper tantrums. Finally, although no significant association was found directly between a lower sense of parenting competence and more severe temper tantrums, inconsistent parenting behavior mediated this relationship.
Lower sense of parenting competence and more severe temper tantrums
It was expected that mothers with a lower sense of parenting competence had children with more severe temper tantrums. Parenting behavior would be reflected through how confident a parent feels about one’s skills (Slagt et al., 2012) and therefore would have an effect on the child’s behavior, in this study the child’s temper tantrums (Hamovitch et al., 2019; Lunkenheimer et al., 2016; Thomlison & Craig, 2005). The results of the present study did not confirm this expectation. The link between sense of parenting competence and behavior problems among children has been established in previous research (Hill & Bush, 2001; Sanders & Woolley, 2005). Perhaps a lower sense of parenting competence is directly linked to child behavior problems in general, but not specifically to temper tantrums in toddlers. An explanation for this might be that behavior problems in the present study were not an overall impression of the toddler’s behavior over a general period. The behavior problems in the present study were defined as actual tantrum behavior and specifically tantrum behavior for toddler’s – not for children – was measured over a time-span of seven consecutive days. The specific population and time period in the present study is perhaps too short to say something about general behavior problems of the child. Severe temper tantrums are not the only form of challenging and/or disruptive behavior that results from behavior problems. For this reason the present study did not measure behavioral problems as a concept and did therefore not find an association between sense of parenting competence and behavior problems.
19 Lower sense of parenting competence and more inconsistency in parenting behavior
The present study found a relationship between a lower sense of parenting competence and more inconsistency in parenting behavior. This finding is in line with the expectations. Parents who are less confident about the effectiveness of their parenting strategies possibly vary more in their parenting behavior and reactions towards the temper tantrums of their child. Previous research supports this theory (Asscher, Hermanns, & Deković, 2008; Bandura, 1973; Coleman & Karraker, 1997; Haggerty et al., 2014; Hamovitch et al., 2019; Sanders & Woolley, 2005; Slagt et al., 2012). Not feeling able to provide children with a clear and structured behavioral framework is linked to erratic, overreactive (i.e. inconsistent) parenting behavior (De Haan, Prinzie, & Dékovic, 2009; Coleman & Karraker, 1997; Sanders &
Woolley, 2005). The present study adds to previous research as it does not only say something about variability in parent’s negative behaviors or strategies to temper tantrums, but also about variability in positive ones.
It is important to realize that support from previous research do not allow us to conclude anything yet about the direction of the association that was found between a lower sense of parenting competence and more inconsistency in parenting behavior. It could still be that inconsistent parenting behavior caused the sense of parenting competence to be lower when mothers in the present sample were already very inconsistent in their parenting behavior before the diary study. When parents try many different strategies to a temper tantrum of their child and nothing works, this can result in feeling less competent as a parent. The effect of parent support in parenting skills and strategies has been shown to positively affect sense of parenting competence (Sanders, Turner, & Markie-Dadds, 2002). Nevertheless, the fact that inconsistency in parenting strategies was measured later in time than sense of parenting competence still gives a good indication that a lower sense parenting of competence was causing parents to be more inconsistent in their parenting behavior.
20 If we want draw conclusions on causality of the research findings in the present study – this also accounts for the other findings in this study – other research methods should be used. Longitudinal research and intervention studies with positive effects can possibly give more insights into causal factors. The most effective method for causal research is
experimental research. A quasi-experimental manipulation of mother’s sense of parenting competence showed that sense of parenting competence predicted parenting behavior and that this parenting behavior predicted child behavior (Mouton & Roskam, 2015).
More inconsistency in parenting behavior and more severe temper tantrums
As expected, the results from the present study showed that more inconsistency in parenting behavior was associated with more severe temper tantrums in toddlers. Therefore, it is likely that inconsistent parenting behavior leads to more severe temper tantrums in toddlers. Parents who use many different strategies to their child’s temper tantrums provide their child with an unpredictable environment and this uncertainty might result in displaying more severe temper tantrums. This is in line with previous research (Acker & O’Leary, 1996, Arnold et al., 1993; Fletcher et al., 2008; Hamovitch et al., 2019; Lunkenheimer et al., 2016; Slagt et al., 2012).
The importance of providing children with consistent parenting behavior is so widely recognized that it seems studies do not provide much attention anymore to what constitutes (in)consistent parenting and how it should be measured. Very little empirical research looks at and operationalizes inconsistent parenting behavior the way it was done in the present study, namely by looking at all different reactions – both negative and positive – to children’s challenging behavior (i.e. temper tantrums). Inconsistent parenting behavior in the present study was measured by asking only the reactions themselves to temper tantrums. In this way, parents who filled in the diary were not influenced by the idea that their inconsistency in parenting behavior was measured through answers on these reactions. As a result, the
21 potential influence of self-image of the parents did not influence the answer on the questions about reactions. Only a few studies report on and show the importance of consistency in both positive and negative reinforcement and its positive effect on behavior management of the child (Acker & O’Leary, 1996; Baumrind, 1996; Gardner, 1989; Lunkenheimer et al., 2016; Wahler & Dumas, 1985). If it is indeed the case that it is really the (i.e. switching) in
parenting behavior itself, both negatively and positively, that explains the effect of
inconsistent parenting behavior on the number of severe temper tantrums, this may indicate that parents in general have to be more consistent in their parenting behavior to temper tantrums of their child. Important to note is that previous research generally defines
inconsistency in parenting behavior as the use of negative parenting strategies, such as harsh discipline, lack of monitoring and supervision, parental rejection, or only switching in negative parenting strategies (Asscher et al., 2008; Hamovitch et al., 2019; Shaw & Bell, 1993; Van Aar et al., 2019). There is evidence in these studies for the association between inconsistency in parenting behavior to children’s misbehavior (such as temper tantrums) and behavior problems in children (Asscher et al., 2008; Shaw & Bell, 1993; Van Aar et al., 2019). The present study did not control for negative parenting strategies. Therefore, the finding on more inconsistency in parenting behavior and more severe temper tantrums might also be explained by the fact that parents who are more inconsistent in their parenting
behavior, use more negative reactions to their child’s temper tantrums. This then indicates that parents besides being more consistent in their parenting behavior, also have to be only
positively consistent. The present study is a valuable addition to the current research field as it measures inconsistency in parenting behavior in a way that supports the theory on inconsistent parenting behavior more.
Overall, the present study gives a good indication that inconsistent parenting behavior leads to more severe temper tantrums in toddler’s. However, again this finding is correlational
22 and it does not allow us to conclude anything yet about the direction of this association. It could also be that the tantrum behavior of toddler’s themselves leads to more inconsistency in parenting behavior to these tantrums. Parents might keep using different parenting strategies because there may be one strategy to the tantrum that possibly works. Previous research supports the relationship between child prosocial behavior and more supportive parenting behaviors (Smith, 2010; Thomlison & Craig, 2005).
Indirect-only mediation effect. The results from the present study showed an indirect effect of inconsistent parenting behavior on the number of severe temper tantrums. As
expected, this indicates that inconsistent parenting behavior indeed mediates the relationship between a lower sense of parenting competence and more severe temper tantrums. Mothers with a lower sense of parenting competence are more inconsistent in their parenting behavior to temper tantrums of their children and as a result these children (i.e. toddlers) display more severe temper tantrums. The link between sense of parenting competence and children’s externalizing problems via parenting behaviors was previously established (Slagt et al., 2012). The present finding adds to the research field as it gives a more practical idea about how these parenting behaviors can play a role in the temper tantrums of a child.
To interpret the finding of the indirect effect in the present study, first should be explained that – as reported in the results – although there was no effect of sense of parenting competence on the number of severe temper tantrums, there was an indirect effect of
inconsistent parenting behavior on the number of severe temper tantrums. The Baron & Kenny (1986) method asserts that to establish a mediation-effect the independent and dependent variable in the model should associated. However, this method is criticized as research showed there does not need to be a significant total and/or direct effect of X on Y to establish an indirect effect, and possibly mediation (Hayes, 2009; Preacher & Hayes, 2004; Zhao et al., 2010). Therefore can be said that there was a mediation-effect in the present study
23 which can be referred to as an indirect-only mediation (Zhao et al., 2010). It is not totally clear how this indirect effect did occur. The literature gives several possible explanations. For instance a sample size or failure to meet the assumptions to test the total effect of a model could explain an indirect effect without a total and/or direct effect of X on Y (Hayes, 2009; Shrout & Bolger, 2002). Furthermore, the indirect effect (path ab) is part of the total effect (path c) of a model but their product is not limited to the size of this total effect. There may be many different paths of influence in one model, both direct and indirect. These paths may not all be part of the formal model and therefore the influence of these paths on the formal model is unknown (Hayes, 2009; Zhao et al., 2010). “Thus, a more powerful strategy for testing mediation may be to require only (1) that there exists an effect to be mediated (i.e., c ≠ 0) and (2) that the indirect effect be statistically significant in the direction predicted by the
mediation hypothesis” (Preacher & Hayes, 2004, p. 719).
To get clearer how this mediation effect is established in the present study and if it represents full or partial mediation, future research should focus on the examination of the total effect in the model (Hayes, 2009; Preacher & Hayes, 2004). The direct effect (path c’) in the present study is smaller than the total effect (path c) after controlling for the mediator. In other words, the effect of sense of parenting competence on the number of severe temper tantrums gets smaller after accounting for the effect of inconsistent parenting behavior. This indicates that the data supports the theorized and hypothesized mediation in the present study (Preacher & Hayes, 2004; Zhao et al., 2010).
Limitations
Several limitations of the present study should be noted to interpret the findings correctly. Firstly, it is important to keep in mind that all findings in the present study are based on self-report data of mothers. Research shows that parental self-report data are often sensitive for social desirability with regard to perceptions of parenting behaviors (Morsbach & Prinz, 2006). Moreover, parental self-report in a diary study specifically might lead to less
24 objective data regarding the child’s behavior. In the present study, parents were confronted with and focused on the difficult behavior of their child (i.e. temper tantrums) for seven consecutive days. This might have led to a distorted picture of the child’s behavior and parents could have overreacted and/or interpreted the child’s temper tantrum as more extreme than it really was.
Secondly, the present sample exists of only mothers. Therefore, the findings cannot be generalized to parents in general or to other caregivers. Several studies have found contrasting findings for gender differences in associations between sense of parenting competence and parenting behaviors (De Haan et al., 2009; Slagt et al., 2012). Findings for the present study might also have been different if a more heterogenous sample was used.
Implications and future research
The present study goes beyond previous research as it gives insight in the important role inconsistency in parenting behavior can play in the management of toddler’s temper tantrums. The measurement of inconsistent parenting behavior – in both positive and negative parenting strategies – has provided the present study with better operationalization of
inconsistent parenting behavior than previous research. Future research on inconsistent parenting behavior should assess this construct in the same way as the present study. In this way parents can be given better information on what inconsistent parenting behavior means and how to provide it to their children’ difficult behavior, including temper tantrums. Also specifically more research – preferably longitudinal – should be done to see whether more severe temper tantrums in toddlers indeed predict more serious problem behavior, possibly even externalizing problem behavior, later on in life. This would increase need for prevention studies on severe temper tantrums.
Finally, the present study showed that if parents are more inconsistent in their parenting behavior, their children have more severe temper tantrums. However, the present
25 study also showed that this inconsistency in parenting behavior possibly results from a low sense of parenting competence. Changing how good a parent feels about one’s parenting skills is not so easy. Anticipating on changing what parents do is a more accessible way to prevent and/or reduce severe temper tantrums in toddlers. To effectively change parenting behavior, first parents should be provided with the tools and knowledge to reflect on and understand the consequences of their parenting behavior on the development of their child. This can be done with the aid of video-recording for instance. Parents can also keep a diary in which day report every day how they feel and how they reacted to their child’s behavior. When parents look back on this, they get a better idea which strategies are effective in managing the temper tantrums of their child and which are not. A parent might feel more competent in parenting when they also experience and see that strategies are effective. Eventually this might result in severe temper tantrums to occur more often or to even prevent them.
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