•We investigated the influence of parental knowledge on educational practices.•Fathers have less knowledge than their partners.•Mothers apply dysfunctional educational practices more frequently.•Some ...types of knowledge are a protective factor against laxness and overreactivity.•Generally, the impact of knowledge on educational practices is not very relevant.
Our contribution aims to verify whether parental knowledge about child development and parenting constitutes a protective factor in the application of dysfunctional educational practices. Numerous studies have found that parental knowledge has a great influence on parenting, however it remains unclear whether both are casually linked in a direct and linear way. Data currently available on parental knowledge almost exclusively refers to mothers and subjects at risk. Furthermore, there are almost no studies which take into consideration subjects who are Italian citizens.
In contrast our work takes into consideration a normative sample of 157 Italian couples who are the parents of children aged between 16 and 36 months and who completed the Knowledge of Infant Development Inventory (KIDI; MacPhee, 1981) and the Parenting Scale (Arnold, O’Leary, Wolff, & Acker, 1993). The results highlight differences between mothers and fathers, both in terms of knowledge levels (higher for mothers) and educational practices (maternal practices are more frequently dysfunctional); knowledge influences educational practices above all in the case of fathers, although said effect is slight, which supports the idea that interaction between knowledge and parental practices is not linear but rather mediated by other factors.
Introduction: The literature highlights that pupils with Specific Learning Disability (SLD) often reveal a poor meta-cognitive system, with low levels of attribution to internal factors like ...diligence and personal skill, and high levels of attribution to external factors like ease of task, luck or help from others. Methods: This study aims to analyze the attributions expressed in the school context by pupils diagnosed with Specific Learning Disability (N = 38; Age in months; Mean = 100.24; SD = 5.828) and to compare them with those by children without learning disabilities (N = 70; 38 of them with the same academic achievements as the pupils with SLD, and 32 with opposite achievements levels). The instruments are the "Attribution Test 4-10 years," "nationally validated learning tests" and the "Student-Teacher Relationship Scale." Results: The analysis shows that just the pupils with SLD do not have an attributive style of the "strategic effort" kind, and, among them, the children that obtain the best scores in the nationally validated learning tests are the ones who least often, especially in cases of success, choose the ability factor and most often luck as the cause. Considering the teachers' perceptions of the relationship between the pupils in the sample, the most significant score is related to Dependency: children with SLD are perceived far more dependent than their mates without SLD. Discussion and Conclusion: Results show that SLD do not cause a disadaptive attribute style but it causes an higher level of Dependency on the teacher; these children, in fact, do not have a strong, stable attributive style with internal locus, and are inclined to attribute their results also to factors outside their own person. As a result, they seem not aware of their potential and search help even when it is not necessary.
•Parents-educator agreement in the assessment of behavioural problems is analyzed.•Mothers-fathers agreement is high, mostly for externalizing behaviours.•Evaluation of educators is significantly ...different compared to both parents.•Parents-educator accordance is greater on internalizing behaviours.
The study investigates the degree of agreement between mothers, fathers and educators in the evaluation of early childhood behavioural problems, through the CBCL 1½–5. Data analysis indicates a good level of agreement between mothers and fathers, along with a significant divergence between parents and educators.
Objective
The aim of this study was to explore the changes in quality of couples' relationships from pregnancy to postpartum in pregnant Italian women who conceived spontaneously and to analyze the ...differences in transition to motherhood with respect to birth of (a) first child, (b) second child, and (c) twins.
Background
The transition to motherhood leads to several changes for parents and can significantly affect a couple's adaptation. The couple's adaptation to parenthood may depend on whether they are having a first child, a second child, or twins.
Method
A total of 119 women (61 primiparous women with single pregnancy, 42 multiparous women with single pregnancy, and 16 primiparous women with twin pregnancy) completed the Dyadic Adjustment Scale during the third trimester of pregnancy and 3 months after childbirth. To explore whether the three groups differed regarding the quality of the couple relationship during pregnancy, a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted. Subsequently, a series of mixed 2 × 3 ANOVA with Time (pregnancy and postpartum) as the within factor and Group as the between factor for each dependent variable linked to the dimensions of the Dyadic Adjustment Scale was carried out to explore whether the quality of the couple relationship differed 3 months after childbirth.
Results
Results highlighted that, during pregnancy, mothers expecting one child (both primiparas and multiparas) reported a higher level of couple relationship quality than did women expecting twins. However, after childbirth, mothers of twins reported significant improvements on some qualitative aspects of their couple relationship (Affective Expression), whereas the other mothers reported some worsening in the perceived couple relationship 3 months after the birth of the child, especially regarding global score, Dyadic Cohesion, and Affective Expression.
Conclusion
In conclusion, birth preparation courses must pay attention not only to parenting transition but also to promoting involvement of both partners in household duties. Anticipating a fair division of household chores can allow partners to prepare for childbirth and limit the stress of the couple.
Implications
The promotion of dyadic adjustment can reduce parenting stress and increase parents' well‐being.
The objective of this study was to analyze the mediating role of a child's attachment to a pet dog relative to the child's attachment to their mother and their level of adjustment. A cross-sectional ...study was conducted with a convenience sample of 136 participants who owned one or more dogs (68 children: mean age = 9.01 years; 68 parents: mean age = 41.90 years). The children were asked to respond to items about their attachment to their mother and to their pet dog. The parents were asked to respond to items about their child's psychological adjustment. A mediation model was tested using the SPSS macro PROCESS; we hypothesized a mediating effect for a child's attachment to their pet dog on the relationship between the child's attachment to their mother and their psychological adjustment. The results showed that a child's attachment to their mother both directly (c′ = -0.242, p = 0.006) and indirectly (indirect effect = 0.084, bootstrapped 95% CI = 0.003, 0.174) predicted their psychological adjustment, the indirect effect being via the child's attachment to their pet dog. Overall, our data support that secure attachment to the mother predicts positive psychological adjustment. A more secure attachment to the mother predicts less attachment to the dog, and this may indicate that a secure attachment to the mother saturates the child's emotional and support needs, resulting in less psychological need for the dog. In this situation, the dog does not need to compensate for deficiencies in the maternal attachment figure, resulting in less attachment of the child to the dog. Finally, our data support an association between attachment to a pet dog and psychological adjustment in middle childhood, indicating the potentially protective role of a relationship with a pet dog.
The prevalence of fear of childbirth in pregnant women is described to be about 20–25%, while 6–10% of expectant mothers report a severe fear that impairs their daily activities as well as their ...ability to cope with labour and childbirth. Research on fear of childbirth risk factors has produced heterogeneous results while being mostly done with expectant mothers from northern Europe, northern America, and Australia.
The present research investigates whether fear of childbirth can be predicted by socio-demographic variables, distressing experiences before pregnancy, medical-obstetric factors and psychological variables with a sample of 426 Italian primiparous pregnant women.
Subjects, recruited between the 34th and 36th week of pregnancy, completed a questionnaire packet that included the Wijma Delivery Expectancy Questionnaire, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Dyadic Adjustment Scale, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, as well as demographic and anamnestic information. Fear of childbirth was treated as both a continuous and a dichotomous variable, in order to differentiate expectant mothers as with a severe fear of childbirth.
Results demonstrate that anxiety as well as couple adjustment predicted fear of childbirth when treated as a continuous variable, while clinical depression predicted severe fear of childbirth.
Findings support the key role of psychological variables in predicting fear of childbirth. Results suggest the importance of differentiating low levels of fear from intense levels of fear in order to promote adequate support interventions.
The aim of this article was to estimate the prevalence of psychological maltreatment in Italian middle school students by their teachers, and to test the applicability of surveying instruments for ...this phenomenon in Italian educational settings. The sample consisted of 105 teachers and 128 middle school students, who were asked about their experiences with emotionally abusive behaviors (i.e., demeaning, discriminating, dominating, destabilizing, distancing, and diverse) in the Italian school system. Teachers did not tend to perceive their behavior as abusive, while the students showed a very high perception of abuse (98%). Males were more likely to be victims of abuse, and they also reported lower scores in the Achievement scale. Emotional child abuse is highly present in Italian educational settings, and there is a strong need for interventions aimed at supporting teacher education, in the hopes of increasing the general well-being in schools.
Through two studies, this work examined the applicability, interpretability, and construct validity of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System K-3 (CLASS) to measure quality of classroom ...interactions. In the first study, the CLASS was used in 332 classrooms to test three alternative models (in time order, the one-, three-factor, and two-factor models) to examine its factorial structure. The one-factor model showed worse fit than the other two models. The latent factors of the three-factor model were highly correlated. The bifactor model showed adequate fit. The aim of the second study was to investigate the construct validity of the CLASS. We used data collected from 31 classrooms to examine associations between factors extracted from the bifactor model with outcome variables in the domains of the student-teacher relationship, behavioral problems, and academic achievement. General- and domain-specific factors revealed different patterns of associations with child outcomes. The results are discussed relative to the Italian context.
Using data gathered from grandparents (G1), parents (G2), and young adults (G3), this study examines the continuity of intergenerational victimization (physical, emotional, and sexual) across three ...generations. The study included data from 168 participants within three generations: grandparents, G1 (19.2% male, 80.8% female,
M
= 78.13 years old); parents, G2 (25.5% male, 74.5% female,
M
= 50.13 years old); and young adults, G3 (40% male, 60% female,
M
= 21.10 years old). The data is analyzed at two levels: (1) bivariate analyses to address relationships between the variables studied by Spearman’s correlations, and (2) a path model to examine the intergenerational abuse simultaneously considering all variables. Overall, path modeling showed that experienced abuse demonstrated continuity from G1 to G2 and from G2 to G3. Specifically, findings indicated that grandparents’ physical and psychological victimization has a direct effect on parents’ sexual and physical abuse victimization, respectively. Additionally, parents’ physical victimization has a direct effect on young adults’ psychological and sexual victimization, while parents’ psychological victimization has a direct effect on young adults’ physical and sexual victimization. These findings highlight the need for preventive interventions focused on breaking intergenerational cycles of abuse.
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