About parental competence and responsible parenting of modern young families

This research is motivated by the lack of competency in parenting care for MPS Muhammadiyah's children. The purpose of this study is: to reveal data about good parenting planning, the process of implementing good parenting, the results of implementing good parenting. The cornerstone of the theory in this study, researchers refer to several concepts, namely: understanding parenting and understanding good parentin. The approach used in this research is a qualitative approach using a case study method. Data collection techniques used are observation, interviews, documentation studies. This research is divided into three stages, namely long-term, medium-term and short-term planning, the implementation of which involves the caregivers of children in good parenting education and training programs while the results of this study are increased parental competence in parenting. The conclusion of this study is that good parenting education and training can increase the competence of parents in caring for their children so they can instill the love of parents for their children. Keywords: Parenting, Good Parenting, MPS Muhammadiyah

Belsky's (1984) model of the determinants of parenting was examined among 666 pairs of White mothers and adolescents and 510 pairs of White fathers and adolescents. When parents reported higher perceived parenting competence, sons and daughters reported more parental monitoring and responsiveness and less parental psychological control. Moreover, sons and daughters of competent parents reported higher levels of most measures of academic and psychosocial competence. For mothers and fathers, the best correlates of perceived competence in parenting were adolescent openness to socialization and stress in parenting this particular child, followed by parental sensitivity (for mothers) and marital or partner support (for fathers). Implications suggest expanding Belsky's model to include goodness-of-fit between parent and child. Key Words: adolescence, child effects, gender, goodness-of-fit, parenting competence. The long history of research on the parent-child relationship has focused almost exclusively on how parents influence the development of their offspring. Overall, these studies suggest that competent parenting promotes attachment security, cooperation, compliance, and achievement in children, whereas incompetent parenting fosters uncooperative and problematic behavior (see Belsky, 1990; Guidubaldi & Cleminshaw, 1989; Maccoby & Martin, 1983). Even among children as old as adolescents, those with competent parents perform better across a variety of domains, including psychological development, prosocial behavior, and academic competence (Baumrind, 1967, 1989, 1991; Dornbusch, Ritter, Leiderman, Roberts, & Fraleigh, 1987; Lamborn, Mounts, Steinberg, & Dornbusch, 1991; Steinberg, 1990; Steinberg, Elmen, & Mounts,1989). The consistency of these findings over time and across developmental periods has led to claims that further research on the benefits of competent parenting is unwarranted (Steinberg, 1990), that what is needed instead is a systematic attempt to disentangle what contributes to competent parenting-those specific components and processes that explain individual differences in parental functioning (Belsky, 1984, 1990). Yet, few studies of parenting competence are conducted with normative populations (Belsky, 1984), especially parents of adolescents. Knowledge and theorizing about the determinants of competent parenting are extrapolated primarily from studies of young children, with a predominant emphasis on dysfunctional parenting (e.g., child-abusing families). Far more attention is devoted to the parenting role of mothers than of fathers, despite evidence of the importance of the same-sex parent during adolescence (Hetherington, 1989; Steinberg & Silverberg, 1987). Furthermore, the predominant determinants of competent parenting are presumed to be parental characteristics or the social context (Belsky, 1984). There is a lacunae of research that examines children's influences on the quality of parenting they receive. Emerging studies of child characteristics focus primarily on how younger children affect mothers. These studies virtually ignore fathers and older children, despite preliminary evidence that a child's influence becomes more substantial during adolescence (Ambert, 1992; Lerner, 1982). In this article, perceived parenting competence is conceptualized as parents' self-evaluation (Gibaud-Wallston & Wandersman, 1978) of their ability to perform a range of well-accepted and valued behaviors related to optimum adolescent development. Following the lead of Blechman (1984), we do not contend that perceived competence is a stable, enduring trait of parents, but rather reflects their ability to adapt to the changing demands of parenting at a particular point in their adolescent's development. Moreover, if perceived parenting competence is to be a meaningful construct, it should have predictive ability (Blechman, 1984), reflected in adolescents' academic and psychosocial competence. …

‘Good enough’ parenting: Negotiating standards and stigma

HighlightsWhat are the main findings?The findings revealed that mindful parenting was indirectly associated with children’s picky eating behaviors through the full mediation of parental dietary competence.Both components of parental dietary competence—in dietary nutrition and in dietary regulation—serve as full mediators linking mindful parenting to lower picky eating behaviors.What are the implications of the main findings?Strengthening parental dietary competence may be a key mechanism to translate mindful parenting into healthier eating behaviors among young children.Parenting programs that integrate mindfulness-based approaches with nutrition education may more effectively discourage picky eating and promote healthy habits in early childhood.Background: Picky eating behaviors among children challenge nutritional intake and healthy development and place considerable stress on parents. Parenting approaches play a critical role in shaping young children’s dietary behaviors. Mindful parenting, which refers to parents responding to their child’s needs with awareness, acceptance, attention, and mindful discipline, has gained increasing attention. Parental dietary competence may determine whether mindful parenting effectively discourages picky eating behavior in children. Objectives: This study explored whether mindful parenting and parental dietary competence are associated with picky eating behaviors in young children. The mediating role of parental dietary competence in this association was also investigated. Methods: A total of 412 parents of children enrolled in six preschools across six administrative districts in New Taipei City, Taipei City, and Taoyuan City, Taiwan, were invited and recruited. Data were collected using three validated parent-reported instruments, including a mindful parenting scale, parental dietary competence scale, and children’s picky eating behaviors scale. Results: Mindful parenting influenced children’s picky eating behaviors through the full mediation of parental dietary competence. The identification of parental dietary competence as a mediator underscores the need for early preventive interventions and parenting education that integrate parental mindfulness and dietary competence to foster healthy eating habits from the outset of early childhood. Conclusions: Practical recommendations and future research directions are provided regarding mindful parenting, parental dietary competence, and picky eating behaviors in young children.

According to the notion of “parental determinism,” parents are paradoxically imagined as both powerful actors and in need of expert guidance and supervision. Subsequent research in different world regions problematizes the links between parental competence, child development, and societal ills. However, the question of what “good parenting” actually consists of is highly contingent. Based on ethnographic fieldwork among Ivorian parents and in a child welfare center, this paper examines competitive comparisons in baby shows, pregnancy consultations, and infant health reviews as performative parenting encounters in which parents, social welfare officers, and midwives interact as actors and audiences of “good parenting.” The paper analyzes contemporary parental determinism in Côte d'Ivoire as at once rooted in well‐established local imaginaries of self and personhood and opening spaces for the development of aspirational parental selves. It looks at different ways in which parental determinism is enacted and talked about and how “doing good” as a parent and the well‐being of children are grasped as entangled and mutually constitutive. The paper demonstrates that “beautiful babies” are a product of a shared understanding and co‐practice. Making “beautiful babies” requires communal efforts to “be good” and “do good,” invoking the subjectivities of both parents and experts alongside their acts of parenting and counseling.

Background: While several studies have examined ‘what’ families want with regard to the place of a child’s end-of-life care and death, few have explored ‘how’ parents reach a decision. Aims: (1) to develop a model explaining how parents of a child with a life-threatening illness in Greece decide about the place of end-of-life care and death; (2) to identify the factors affecting decision-making; (3) to consider the implications for clinical practice. Design: Grounded theory study of bereaved parents using semi-structured open-ended interviews following Strauss and Corbin’s principles of data collection and analysis. Setting/participants: Semi-structured interviews with 36 bereaved parents of 22 children who died at home (n = 9) or in a paediatric hospital (n = 13) in Athens, Greece. Results: (1) Decisions regarding place of care and death were reached in one of four ways: consensus, accommodation, imposition of professional decisions on parents or imposition of parents’ decisions without including professionals. (2) Six factors were identified as affecting decisions: awareness of dying, perceived parental caregiving competence, perceived professional competence, parents’ view of symptom management, timing of decision-making, and being a ‘good parent’. (3) Decisions were clear-cut or shifting. Few parents did not engage in decisions. Conclusion: Parents’ decisions about place of end-of-life care and death are affected by personal, interpersonal, timing and disease-related factors. Parents are best supported in decision-making when information is presented clearly and honestly with recognition of what acting as ‘good parents’ means to them, and opportunities to enhance their caregiving competence to care for their child at home, if they choose so.

The relationship of parental psychosocial competence to parent interaction behaviors in a joint problem-solving/play session was studied in 23 adult-preschool child pairs. Parents were assessed using self-report questionnaires to determine degrees of self-efficacy, optimistic trust, and an active, competent coping style. Children and parents participated in a semistructured problem-solving/play task with observers rating the parental behaviors in the interactions; child responses were not specifically studied. More competent parents treated the child as being more capable and resourceful, showed generally warm and positive feelings, and were more helpful with problem solving. Thus, these parental competence attributes are confirmed as significant variables relating to parental behavior and to their styles of interaction, which are part of the socialization context of their children. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)

The impact of parenting competences on child well-being is well-established. During the last years, parenting support initiatives have increased in several countries, namely in Spain, offering support to promote parents’ childcare resources and competences, particularly for families at psychosocial risk. Recognizing the specificities of different subgroups of families, such as migrant families, allows the development of more tailored and effective interventions in the field of family support. However, there is a gap in the literature about parenting competences in migrant families. This article explores differences and similarities in parenting competences among 492 migrant and non-migrant parents involved in family preservation services in Spain, as well as examines the impact of these competences on children’s well-being. Our findings revealed that migrant and non-migrant vulnerable families face similar needs in terms of parenting competences in domains covered by the existing family support interventions. However, we found a few differences in parenting competences between both populations, as well as in the impact of several parenting competences in children’s well-being. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

In many avian species, substantial individual variation occurs in parental food‐provisioning levels, which often is assumed to reflect variation in parental quality. Parental quality also has often been invoked as a key element in mate choice among biparental species, and many sexually‐selected traits have been investigated as potential predictors of parental quality. In recent studies of house sparrow (Passer domesticus) parents, we found that individuals behaved remarkably consistently across time, regardless of temporary manipulations of the nestling provisioning of their partners. This suggests that variation in parental competence may be attributable to quality differences among individuals. One prediction of the ‘parental quality differences’ hypothesis is that individuals also should show consistency in their provisioning behavior across broods. To test this, we compared the parental delivery rates of individual house sparrows across broods. Parents of both sexes reduced their per‐chick delivery rates as the season progressed; parents of both sexes were also responsive to changes in their brood sizes. Despite these sources of environmental variation in provisioning rates, the parental care of individual males was highly repeatable across broods. By contrast, female parental care showed extremely low repeatability, and standardized measures of among‐individual variation in parental behavior revealed females to be much less variable than males. These results indicate that females in this multi‐brooded species have much to gain from mate‐choice decisions predicated on male parental quality or accurate indicators of such, whereas males are less likely to profit from being highly selective about the ‘parental quality’ of their partners.

Parents who have serious and persistent mental illness are often overlooked in social work and mental health journals. Furthermore, mentally ill parents typically are viewed from a pathology perspective that fails to address their desire to be competent parents. This article reviews the literature on mentally ill parents and addresses conceptual issues in assessment and services. The author critiques methods of assessment and recommends more appropriate and comprehensive assessment protocols. Model programs are discussed with a focus on the development of competent parenting skills combined with social supports for parents who have a serious and persistent mental illness.

This study set out to determine the relationship between family processes (i.e. parenting behavior, family values and family competency) and antisocial behavior among adolescents (m = 14.42 years) from urban, single-mother families in Malaysia. The sample comprised 240 Malay single mother-adolescent dyads from four states in Peninsula Malaysia. Findings revealed that parenting behavior (r = -0.29, p < .001) and family competency (r = -0.20, p < .01) were significantly and negatively related to adolescent antisocial behavior. None of the family background variables were significantly related to adolescent antisocial behavior. After controlling for family background variables, multiple regression results indicated that both parenting behavior and family competency uniquely predicted antisocial behavior (F = 12.24; p < .001). The results suggest that Malaysian adolescents from urban single-mother families with low functioning and low parenting quality were at higher risk for engaging in antisocial behaviors. Implications on research and practice as well as Malaysian social policies are considered.

“Doing being a good parent” in the pediatric clinic: Parents' knowledge displays in advice requests on infants' everyday care

This paper examines how some Swedish parents constructed meanings of parenthood. The parents had completed a state-sponsored parenting programme and were interviewed about their experiences of the programme, their everyday lives, their need for support, ideas about the societal context, and their understandings of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ parents. The study was grounded in a discourse-analytical tradition and concepts from discursive psychology guided the analysis. When the interviewees described good parents as responsible and engaged, they related to dominant discourses where middle-class values of involvement and ideals of intensive motherhood intersect. The descriptions of bad parenting were also classed and gendered, representing bad parents as irresponsible and uncaring, as not setting limits, and as not spending enough time with their children. The parents represented themselves in various ways as responsible parents, i.e. an untroubled subject position, but also handled troubled parent positions related to notions of gender and social class.

The aim of this chapter is to examine the relationship between contemporary parenting practices, understanding of the child, implicit parenting pedagogy, and the influence of the media on the child which seems an indispensable determinant of child development and upbringing. Given the development of technology, especially the information and communications one, this should not surprise us but make us reflect more on parental roles and responsibilities in this process. Special attention should be directed to understanding implicit parenting pedagogy, where the processes of raising awareness and reflection play the most important role. Parents who are aware of their implicit pedagogy, who cultivate mindful parenting have the advantage over those who do not. When shaping their own parenting practices on these grounds, they can create optimal conditions for child development. The potential adverse effects of modern technologies will be that much smaller if by raising the awareness of their own parenting practices parents develop and progress towards responsible and competent parenting.

This research examined the impact of sexual orientation on heterosexuals’ judgment of parental competence. Using a vignette approach, Study 1 presented participants with a lesbian, gay, or heterosexual couple who desired to have a child, either as adoptive parents or, in an additional heterosexual target condition, as biological parents. Study 2 presented a lesbian, gay, or heterosexual parent couple; heterosexual targets were either adoptive parents, reflecting the LG target conditions, or biological parents. Contradicting Hypothesis 1, neither target sexual orientation nor way to parenthood (with the latter varied in the heterosexual target condition only) had an impact on parental competence attributions. Confirming Hypothesis 2, participants with personal contact with lesbian and gay (LG) people provided higher ratings of LG target parental competence, mediated by positive attitudes toward homosexuality. Importantly, this mediation did not occur in the heterosexual target condition, corroborating the specificity of the intergroup contact effect.