A dual-process approach to the role of mother’s implicit and explicit attitudes toward their child in parenting models.

Abstract

Extending dual process frameworks of cognition to a novel domain, the present study examined how mothers' explicit and implicit attitudes about her child may operate in models of parenting. To assess implicit attitudes, two separate studies were conducted using the same child-focused Go/No-go Association Task (GNAT-Child). In Study 1, model analyses revealed that maternal implicit attitudes about her child were associated with maternal sensitive/responsive caregiving behaviors concurrently and predicted changes in caregiving over time In Study 2, challenging child behaviors were uniquely linked to maternal implicit and explicit attitudes. In turn, maternal implicit attitudes were associated with observational assessments of maternal sensitivity. Results underscore the potential for a dual-process approach to inform models of parenting and child behavior.