Parental Attributions—Mothers’ Voices in Economically and Socially Disadvantaged Contexts

Isabel Narciso, Sara Albuquerque, Maria Francisca Ribeiro, Luana Cunha Ferreira and Mariana Fernandes
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Isabel Narciso: CICPSI, Faculty of Psychology, University of Lisbon, Alameda da Universidade, 1649-013 Lisboa, Portugal
Sara Albuquerque: HEI-Lab, Lusófona University, 1749-024 Lisboa, Portugal
Maria Francisca Ribeiro: Ponto de Apoio à Vida, Clinical and Health Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Lisbon, 1649-004 Lisboa, Portugal
Luana Cunha Ferreira: CICPSI, Faculty of Psychology, University of Lisbon, Alameda da Universidade, 1649-013 Lisboa, Portugal
Mariana Fernandes: ProChild CoLAB, Campus de Azurém, 4804-533 Guimarães, Portugal

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 15, 1-13

Abstract: In the present study, the attributions of socially and economically disadvantaged mothers for their own negative parenting behavior and for their children’s undesirable behaviors as perceived by parents—understood as misbehavior—were analyzed. To this end, an exploratory study with a qualitative design was developed, in which 24 socially and economically disadvantaged mothers were individually interviewed. The data were analyzed following a thematic analysis approach, using software suited to qualitative analysis, namely NVIVO 12. The children’s undesirable behaviors as perceived by parents and some characteristics associated with parental performance (particularly the appraisal of the effectiveness of their negative practices) emerged respectively as external and internal factors, explaining mothers’ inadaptive behaviors—difficulties in behavior regulation, physical coercion, psychological control and paraverbal hostility. The parental subsystem and school emerged as the main external factors, and the psychological characteristics as the most relevant internal factors, explaining the children’s undesirable behaviors—challenge, immaturity, hostility, emotionally-based, school behavior/absenteeism and danger. The results also indicate weak self-critical reflexivity regarding some of the inadaptive behaviors. The comprehensive analysis of the results, based on the literature review, gave rise to an explanatory hypothesis on the dysfunctional circular process regarding the maintenance of inadaptive practices and children’s undesirable behaviors, considering the role played by parental attributions and by insufficient parental reflexivity.

Keywords: parental attributions; inadaptive parenting behaviors; children’s undesirable behaviors; parental reflexivity; socially and economically disadvantaged parenting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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