Parental Positive Affect, Child Negative Affect and Resiliency in Preschool: Investigating whether some children develop “for-better”

• Author / Creator

  Khan, Maria

• Using the vantage sensitivity model as a guiding framework, I examined the interactions among child negative affect, parental positive affect, and resiliency in preschoolers. The study sample consisted of 100, two-parent families and their children (50 boys, 50 girls, 2 – 5 years old, mean age = 3.8 years). Parental positive affect and child negative affect were measured at Time 1, and child resiliency was measured at Time 2 (one year later). To assess parental positive affect, video-tapes of parent-child interactions during a clean-up task were coded. Child resiliency and negative affect were measured through parent-report. Results indicated that only child negative affect significantly predicted resiliency one year later. Children with lower levels of negative affect demonstrated the highest levels of resiliency in the study. Though the interactions between parental positive affect, child negative affect, and resiliency were not significant, there was a slight trend towards a moderation relationship. Children with high levels of negative affect demonstrated somewhat higher resiliency one year later when parents exhibited greater amounts of positive affect and lower resiliency when parents demonstrated fewer amounts of positive affect. Findings are presented in the context of research on the parenting and temperament interaction and environmental sensitivity models. Future directions, implications, and limitations are also discussed.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Development
  • Parenting
  • Temperament

• Graduation date

  Fall 2018

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Education

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3222RN6F

• License

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