Parenting Knowledge, Attributions and the Perceptions of Parenting Roles as They Relate to the Parenting Behaviors of Mothers' towards Their Infants

ABSTRACT

The main purpose of this study was to examine the associations between mothers' parenting cognition and their parenting behaviors. The subjects consisted of 212 mothers of 12- to 36-month-old infants, resident in metropolitan cities in Korea. Data were collected through questionnaires and a series tests of ANOVA was carried out for the purposes of data analysis. The results revealed that; 1) mothers who had higher parenting knowledge, higher levels of internal attribution when undertaking successful child-caring practices, and who also possessed lower external attributions when they were unsuccessful in child-caring practices were more likely to engage in a great many of social behaviors with their child; 2) mothers who had lower internal attribution levels when unsuccessful child-caring, had higher perceptions of parenting investment and lower levels of parenting balance, were also more likely to reveal didactic behaviors; 3) mothers who had lower levels of internal attributions when unsuccessful child-caring were more likely to exhibit limit setting behaviors. These results underscored the importance of parenting cognition in relation to mothers' parenting behaviors towards their infants.