Mothers’ Attributions In The Relationship Between Young Children’S Temperament And Parenting Stress

Although extensive research has been devoted to understanding motherchild relationships, few studies have examined mothers’ differential attributions as mediators in the relationship between young children’s temperament and mothers’ parenting stress. As a result, the current study examined the relationships among young children’s temperament, mothers’ attributions, mothers’ parenting stress, and young children’s behavior problems using the responses of mothers who were raising children between the ages of 3 and 6 years. Using correlation and regression analyses, results of this study suggested that these variables were interrelated significantly. Regression results also indicated that mothers’ attributions mediated the relationship between young children’s temperament and mothers’ parenting stress. Further, mothers’ attributions appeared to be important predictors of their young children’s behavior problems. Such findings suggested that interventions would benefit from targeting mothers’ attributions of their young children and mothers’ reflective functioning as well as the relationships among mothers’ attributions, parenting stress, and young children’s behavior problems