Glimpsing the Iceberg: Parent-Child Physical Aggression and Abuse

Using ecological momentary assessments to understand how drinking during special occasions relates to parenting behaviors

BACKGROUND

Drinking on special occasions (e.g., Super Bowl, Christmas) often results in more alcohol consumed. Further, police often report higher levels of crime, such as assaults and domestic violence, on days of major sporting events (e.g., Super Bowl, World Cup). Yet, drinking behaviors of parents during special occasions or large sporting events have not been assessed for their effects on parenting behaviors. Here, we assess the relationship between drinking during the Super Bowl and on Valentine's Day to determine whether they differ.

METHODS

Participants, recruited from social media, completed a 40-min baseline survey and 14 days of three daily Ecological Momentary Assessments (EMAs) about parenting. Two hundred fifty-five participants (with 684 EMAs) were enrolled on the Super Bowl and 184 (492 EMAs) were enrolled on Valentine's day. Measures of parenting include aggressive, punitive, and nonpunitive discipline and positive techniques. Drinking was assessed on days 7 and 14 of the EMA and corresponded to the EMA time frame during the previous week. Participants were largely White, well-educated mothers. Data were analyzed using multilevel logistic regression models.

RESULTS

Parents who reported drinking on the day of the Super Bowl were more likely to use aggressive discipline (OR = 2.560; 95% CI: 1.308, 5.150) and punitive parenting (OR = 2.701; 95% CI: 1.394, 5.257) during the time that drinking occurred. In contrast, parents who reported drinking on Valentine's Day were less likely to use aggressive discipline (OR = 0.197; 95% CI: 0.077, 0.502).

CONCLUSIONS

The differential relationship between drinking and parenting measures could be the result of differing norms or differences in who is present during the special occasions studied here. Identifying and understanding how alcohol use on special occasions contributes to parenting could help to create environments that are most conducive to positive parenting behaviors and reduce harms related to harsh or aggressive parenting.

Revisiting the debate on effects of parental power-assertive control in two longitudinal studies: early attachment security as a moderator

Although there is a consensus that harsh, hostile, abusive discipline has uniformly adverse effects on children, scholars continue to debate implications of varying degrees of power assertion commonly used by most parents in daily interactions with young children. Attachment theory can inform this debate, as early attachment organization can serve as a catalyst, or moderator, of future socialization trajectories. Specifically, insecure attachment can amplify, whereas secure attachment can attenuate, detrimental effects of parental power-assertive control. In two community studies of mothers, fathers, and infants, Family Study (FS, N = 102), and Children and Parents Study (CAPS, N = 200), we assessed attachment security in infancy, parental power-assertive control at 4.5 years in FS and at 16 months in CAPS, and child positive orientation to the parent at 10 years in FS and at 3 years in CAPS. In both studies, fathers' power-assertive control undermined children's positive orientation toward the fathers, but only for children with less secure attachment histories in infancy (Attachment Q-Set in FS and Strange Situation Paradigm in CAPS), and not for those with more secure histories. The findings highlight indirect yet powerful, long-term effects of the early parent-child security, and suggest distinct processes in mother- and father-child dyads.