An Attributional Analysis of Maternal Beliefs about the Importance of Child-rearing Practices

Abstract

2 principles from attribution theory, covariation and hedonic bias, were employed to examine mothers' attributions for their children's outcomes in the academic, social, and personality domains. Mother of 5–17-year-old gifted, regular, and special education children who were from only-child or multiple-child families made attributions for offspring outcomes to childrearing practices, genetics, and the environment. Based on the covariation principle, it was predicted that mothers of only children would attribute greater importance to child-rearing practices as causes of their children's outcomes than would mothers of multiple children. In addition, predictions based on the hedonic bias led us to hypothesize greater endorsement of child-rearing attributions for gifted (perceived high success) than special education (perceived low success) children. Both hypotheses were supported across all 3 domains. The dilemma of perceived parental responsibility and the usefulness of an attributional approach for understanding parents' causal beliefs are discussed.