THE ROLE OF CHILD-CENTERED PERSPECTIVES IN A MODEL OF PARENTING

The mediating role of mothers' child-centered perspectives was examine d in a longitudinal study of 323 children. The conceptual model of par enting was tested to determine whether maternal perspectives mediated the relations between the parenting resources of social support, child -rearing history, and self-esteem and the child's developmental level with parenting behavior. This conceptual model was compared to alterna tive models using structural equation modeling. Results indicate that mothers' perspectives directly related to parenting behavior in two di fferent contexts as well as mediated the relations between maternal re sources and behavior. Maternal self-esteem also mediated the relation between social support and child-rearing history with child-centered p erspectives. Results support the importance of examining child-centere d perspectives as an influence on parental competence as well as the i mportance of examining how parenting resources interrelate with one an other to impact parenting behavior. (C) 1997 Academic Press.