Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada.
Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health. 2010 Jan 27;4:5. doi: 10.1186/1753-2000-4-5.
Research has shown strong links between parenting and child psychopathology. The moderating role of child gender is of particular interest, due to gender differences in socialization history and in the prevalence of psychiatric disorders. Currently there is little agreement on how gender moderates the relationship between parenting and child psychopathology. This study attempts to address this lack of consensus by drawing upon two theories (self-salience vs. gender stereotyped misbehaviour) to determine how child gender moderates the role of parenting, if at all.
Using generalized estimating equations (GEE) associations between three parenting dimensions (hostile-ineffective parenting, parental consistency, and positive interaction) were examined in relationship to child externalizing (physical aggression, indirect aggression, and hyperactivity-inattention) and internalizing (emotional disorder-anxiety) dimensions of psychopathology. A sample 4 and 5 year olds from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY) were selected for analysis and followed over 6 years (N = 1214). Two models with main effects (Model 1) and main effects plus interactions (Model 2) were tested.
No child gender-by-parenting interactions were observed for child physical aggression and indirect aggression. The association between hostile-ineffective parenting and child hyperactivity was stronger for girls, though this effect did not reach conventional levels of statistical significance (p = .059). The associations between parenting and child emotional disorder did vary as a function of gender, where influences of parental consistency and positive interaction were stronger for boys.
Despite the presence of a few significant interaction effects, hypotheses were not supported for either theory (i.e. self-salience or gender stereotyped misbehaviour). We believe that the inconsistencies in the literature regarding child gender-by-parenting interactions is due to the reliance on gender as an indicator of a different variable which is intended to explain the interactions. This may be problematic because there is likely within-gender and between-sample variability in such constructs. Future research should consider measuring and modelling variables that are assumed to explain such interactions when conducting gender-by-parenting research.
研究表明，父母教养方式与儿童心理病理学之间存在密切关系。由于性别在社会化历史和精神障碍患病率方面存在差异，因此儿童性别在其中的调节作用尤其引人关注。目前，对于性别如何调节父母教养方式与儿童心理病理学之间的关系，人们尚未达成共识。本研究试图通过参考两种理论（自我突显与性别刻板行为）来解决这一问题，以确定儿童性别是否以及如何调节父母教养方式的作用。
使用广义估计方程（GEE），研究了三种父母教养维度（敌对无效教养、父母一致性和积极互动）与儿童外化（身体攻击、间接攻击和多动注意不集中）和内化（情绪障碍-焦虑）心理病理学维度之间的关联。选择国家儿童纵向调查（NLSCY）的 4 岁和 5 岁儿童进行分析，并在 6 年内进行了随访（N=1214）。测试了具有主效应的两个模型（模型 1）和具有主效应加交互作用的两个模型（模型 2）。
在儿童身体攻击和间接攻击方面，未观察到儿童性别与父母教养方式的交互作用。对于女孩，敌对无效教养与儿童多动之间的关联更强，但这种效应并未达到统计学意义上的显著水平（p=0.059）。父母一致性和积极互动对男孩的影响更大，因此，父母教养与儿童情绪障碍之间的关联因性别而异。
尽管存在一些具有统计学意义的交互作用，但两种理论（即自我突显或性别刻板行为）的假设均未得到支持。我们认为，文献中关于儿童性别与父母教养方式交互作用的不一致性是由于依赖性别作为表示其他变量的指标所致，而该变量旨在解释交互作用。这可能会带来问题，因为在这些变量中，可能存在性别内和样本间的变异性。未来的研究在进行性别与父母教养方式的研究时，应该考虑测量和建模那些被认为可以解释这些交互作用的变量。
