PurposeTo investigate the observation that perpetrators of abusive head trauma engage in repeated shakings because shaking “works” to quiet the infant.MethodsSixty first-time parent couples individually cared for a programmable model infant in two consecutive 7-min trials. After six minutes of consolable followed by inconsolable crying, parents selected one of three soothing techniques. For trial one, parents were randomized to a “Successful” or “Failed” Soothing Condition. Whether the soothing technique was repeated after trial two was determined by the study investigators. Parents rated their frustration after each trial.ResultsAs hypothesized, parents were more likely to repeat a soothing technique that “worked” in trial one. Compared to fathers, mothers reported more frustration when soothing failed.ConclusionsThat caregivers were more likely to repeat a successful soothing technique converges with perpetrator confessions that crying cessation after shaking may be a reason why shaking is used repeatedly in response to crying.

Background: Unwanted intrusive thoughts of intentionally harming one's infant (intrusive harm thoughts) are common distressing experiences among postpartum mothers and fathers. Aim: To understand infant crying as a stimulus for intrusive harm thoughts and associated emotional responses in prepartum and postpartum mothers and fathers in response to infant cry. Method: Following completion of self-report measures of negative mood and anger, prepartum (n = 48) and postpartum (n = 44) samples of mother and father pairs completed 10 minutes of listening to audio-recorded infant crying. Post-test questionnaires assessed harm thoughts, negative emotions, urges to comfort and flee, and thoughts of shaking as a soothing or coping strategy. Results: One quarter of prepartum and 44% of postpartum parents reported intrusive infant-related harm thoughts following crying. Mothers and fathers did not differ in the likelihood of reporting harm thoughts, nor in the number of thoughts reported. Women reported more internalizing emotions compared with men. Hostile emotions were stronger among postpartum parents, and parents reporting harm thoughts. All parents reported strong urges to comfort the infant. Urges to flee were stronger among parents who reported harm thoughts. The likelihood of using infant shaking as a soothing or coping strategy was minimally endorsed, albeit more strongly by fathers and parents who also reported harm thoughts. Conclusions: In response to crying, harm thoughts are common and are associated with hostile emotions, urges to flee, and increased thoughts of using infant shaking. Reassuringly, the number of participants considering infant shaking as a strategy for soothing or for coping with a crying infant was low.

Prolonged inconsolable crying bouts in the first months of life are frustrating to parents and may lead to abuse. There is no empirical description of frustration trajectories during prolonged crying, nor of their emotional predictors or emotional and behavioural sequelae. Frustration responses and their relationships were explored in an analogue cry listening paradigm. Without knowing how long it would last, 111 postpartum mothers were randomized to listen to a 10-min audiotape of infant crying or cooing while continuously recording frustration on a visual analogue ‘slider’ scale. The listening bout was preceded by questionnaires on negative mood, trait anger and empathy and followed by questionnaires on the reality of the cry sound, positive and negative emotions, soothing strategies, coping strategies and urges to comfort and flee. Individual frustration trajectories were modelled parametrically and characterized by frustration maximum, rate of rise, inflections and harmonicity parameters. As hypothesized, the modal response was of gradually increasing frustration throughout. However, there were marked individual differences in frustration trajectories. Negative mood, trait anger and empathy did not predict modal or modelled individual trajectories. However, frustration responses were significantly related to post-listening emotions and behavioural ratings. In particular, prolonged crying generated highly ambivalent positive and negative emotional responses. In summary, maternal frustration generally increased as the crying bout progressed; however, frustration trajectories were highly individual and emotional responses were highly ambivalent in terms of positive and negative emotions generated. Some emotional and behavioural responses were associated with specific trajectory parameters of frustration responses.

Parental differences regarding childrearing may be operationalized as actual dissimilarity in the parenting actions or goals of the parents, or as perceived conflict or disagreement related to these dissimilarities. This study tested whether these two types of parental differences are each associated with child problems, independent of the contributions of parenting effectiveness. A community sample of 160 couples with a firstborn child (ages 2–5 years) participated. Mothers and fathers independently completed measures of childrearing disagreement, parenting behaviors and goals, and child behavior. Interparent childrearing disagreement accounted for unique variance in child internalizing and externalizing problems, even after controlling for family income, marital satisfaction, and parenting effectiveness. Dissimilarity in mother and father parenting behaviors (but not goals) was associated with child problems at the bivariate level, but not after controlling for parenting effectiveness.

This study examined whether negative parental attributions for adolescent behaviour mediate the association between parental and adolescent depressive symptoms, and whether this relationship is moderated by adolescent gender. Mothers and fathers and 124 adolescents (76 girls and 48 boys; ages 14 to 18) participated. Adolescents were primarily Caucasian, and varied in the level of depressive symptoms (with 27% of the sample meeting diagnostic criteria for a current unipolar depressive disorder). Parents and adolescents completed measures of depressive symptoms, and participated in a videotaped problem-solving discussion. After the discussion, each parent watched the videotape and, at 20 s intervals, offered attributions for their adolescent's behaviour. Adolescent gender moderated the relation between parental attributions and adolescent depressive symptoms, with stronger associations for female adolescents. For both mothers and fathers, both parental depressive symptoms and negative attributions about the adolescent's behaviour made unique contributions to the prediction of depressive symptoms in adolescent females. There also was evidence that negative attributions partially mediated the link between depressive symptoms in mothers and adolescent daughters. The results are interpreted as consistent with parenting as a partial mediator between parental and adolescent depressive symptoms, and suggest that adolescent girls may be particularly sensitive to parents' negative interpretations of their behaviour.

This study examined whether parents of adolescents experiencing depressive symptoms or disorder make more negative and fewer positive attributions for their adolescents' behavior than do parents of nondepressed adolescents, and whether parental attributions for adolescents' behavior contribute to parenting behavior, above and beyond the adolescents' behavior. Parents and adolescents (76 girls and 48 boys) participated in videotaped problem-solving interactions (PSIs). Each parent subsequently watched the videotape and offered attributions for their adolescent's behavior. In addition, parent and adolescent behavior during the PSIs was coded. Mothers and fathers in families of nondepressed adolescents made significantly fewer negative attributions for their children's behavior than did parents in families of adolescents with diagnostic or subdiagnostic levels of depressive symptoms. Moreover, mothers' and fathers' negative attributions were related to greater levels of observed aggressive behavior and lower levels of observed facilitative behavior during the PSIs controlling for both demographic characteristics and the relative level of adolescent aggressive and facilitative behavior during the PSI.

This study examined parent and child gender effects on parents' attributions and beliefs in regards to child symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Participants included mothers and fathers of 19 girls and 17 boys with ADHD. Groups of boys and girls, aged 5-13 years, were equated on age and medication status, as well as ADHD symptom severity. These groups also were similar in the severity of comorbid oppositional behaviors and internalizing problems, as well as a variety of demographic characteristics. Parents' attributions for child behavior were assessed in response to written scenarios describing either hyperactive/impulsive or inattentive symptoms of ADHD. Parents also completed a questionnaire assessing beliefs and knowledge about ADHD. There were no child gender effects for parents' attributions or beliefs. All parents attributed inattentive symptoms to more internal, global and stable causes than impulsive symptoms. Mothers attributed both inattentive and impulsive child symptoms to more global and stable causes than did fathers. Fathers, but not mothers, reported more negative reactions to ADHD symptoms that were perceived as having an internal cause. Finally, mothers scored higher on beliefs in behavior management than did fathers, and fathers believed more in psychological causes and treatments for ADHD. Possible explanations for and implications of these results are explored.

This study extends previous research by examining whether maternal inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity are associated with different parenting behaviors. Ninety-six mother-son dyads participated in the study, and the boys ranged between 4 and 8 years of age. Maternal inattention was uniquely and positively associated with mothers' use of inconsistent discipline and lower involvement with the child after controlling for impulsivity and the control variables of child age, maternal depression and hostility, family socioeconomic status, and child behavior problems. Maternal impulsivity was uniquely and negatively associated with mothers' use of positive reinforcement after similar controls. Possible reasons for the different patterns of associations between maternal inattention and impulsivity, and parenting and the clinical implications of the findings are discussed.