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Differences in sensitivity to parenting depending on child temperament: A meta-analysis.
Meike Slagt1, Judith Semon Dubas2, Maja Deković1
1Department of Clinical Child and Family Studies, Utrecht University.
Psychological Bulletin
|August 12, 2016
Summary
Children with difficult temperaments are more affected by parenting, showing greater vulnerability to negative parenting and increased benefits from positive parenting, supporting the differential susceptibility model. This sensitivity impacts various aspects of child adjustment.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Behavioral Genetics
- Child Psychiatry
Background:
- Individual differences in environmental sensitivity are explained by several models, including diathesis-stress, vantage sensitivity, and differential susceptibility.
- These models suggest varying sensitivity to environmental factors based on individual characteristics.
- Temperament is a key individual difference factor that may influence sensitivity to parenting.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if children's temperament moderates their sensitivity to parenting.
- To determine which model (diathesis-stress, vantage sensitivity, or differential susceptibility) best describes parenting-temperament interactions.
- To examine how difficult temperament, negative emotionality, surgency, and effortful control influence the association between parenting and child adjustment.
Main Methods:
- A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies (k=105 samples, N=6,153) involving children up to 18 years.
- Included studies reporting parenting-by-temperament interactions predicting child adjustment.
- Analyzed 235 independent effect sizes for associations between parenting and child adjustment.
Main Results:
- Children with difficult temperaments were more vulnerable to negative parenting and benefited more from positive parenting, supporting differential susceptibility.
- Differential susceptibility was observed in externalizing/internalizing problems and social/cognitive competence.
- Support for differential susceptibility was found for negative emotionality in infancy, but not consistently for surgency or effortful control.
Conclusions:
- The differential susceptibility model best explains how temperament influences sensitivity to parenting.
- Difficult temperament is a significant moderator of parenting effects on child adjustment.
- Parenting assessment methods (observation vs. questionnaire) impact the observed strength of parenting-by-temperament interactions.
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