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Full text release has been delayed at the author's request until August 04, 2029

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Infant Temperament, Parent Dispositional Empathy, and Mothers’ and Fathers’ Parenting Quality

Oduloye, Atinuke
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8441-9850
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1721309890234354

Abstract Details

2024, Master of Science, Ohio State University, Psychology.
Parenting in the child’s early years is a critical influence on children’s development (Frosch et al., 2021). One key component of high-quality parenting in infancy is sensitive, warm, and engaged parent behavior. A parent’s ability to exhibit high-quality parenting is influenced by many factors, including their developmental history and personality, their marital relations, and work experiences (Belsky, 1984). Temperament is a biologically based component of a child’s characteristics that can influence parenting behavior (Belsky, 1984). When a parent has a child with greater negative emotionality or poorer regulatory capacity, it may be harder to maintain high-quality parenting (Crockenberg & Leerkes, 2003). This then can impact a child’s development. However, some parents may be better able to maintain high parenting quality regardless of the child’s temperament. Parental empathy is characterized as a parent’s ability to recognize, take the perspective of, and appropriately react to children's emotions (Boorman et al. 2019). Mothers with greater dispositional empathy are more sensitive and responsive to their infants, although relatively little research has considered the role of dispositional empathy in fathers’ parenting quality. Therefore, this study examined the associations of infant negative emotionality and regulatory capacity with the parenting quality of new mothers and fathers, and whether these associations were moderated by parent empathy. Participants were drawn from a longitudinal study of 182 dual-earner U.S. couples, primarily White and of moderate to high SES, who had their first child in 2008-2009. During pregnancy, expectant mothers and fathers each completed the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1980) to assess their empathic concern, perspective-taking, and personal distress. At 3 months postpartum, mothers and fathers each reported their infant’s negative affectivity and regulatory capacity on the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-VSF (Putnam et al., 2014). Also, at 3 months postpartum, mothers’ and fathers’ positive parenting quality (sensitivity, positive regard, and non-detachment) and negative parenting quality (intrusiveness and negative regard) were coded from separate 5-min observational assessments (Cox & Crnic, 2002). Correlation analyses indicated no direct significant associations between infant temperament and mothers’ and fathers’ parenting quality. Regression analyses showed that mothers high on personal distress and with an infant low on regulatory capacity displayed the lowest levels of positive parenting. On the other hand, mothers high on personal distress and with an infant high on regulatory capacity displayed high levels of positive parenting. Lastly, fathers with greater empathic concern displayed less observed negative parenting behavior, and this did not depend on the infant’s temperamental characteristics. These findings underscore the importance of enhancing parental empathy to support high-quality parenting, which is crucial for child development.
Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan (Advisor)
Xin Feng (Committee Member)
Laura Wagner (Committee Member)
44 p.
Developmental Psychology; Families and Family Life; Psychology
parenting, parenting quality, fathers, transition to parenthood, parental empathy, infant temperament

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Oduloye, A. (2024). Infant Temperament, Parent Dispositional Empathy, and Mothers’ and Fathers’ Parenting Quality [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1721309890234354

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Oduloye, Atinuke. Infant Temperament, Parent Dispositional Empathy, and Mothers’ and Fathers’ Parenting Quality. 2024. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1721309890234354.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Oduloye, Atinuke. "Infant Temperament, Parent Dispositional Empathy, and Mothers’ and Fathers’ Parenting Quality." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2024. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1721309890234354

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.