Parental Sensitivity and Pro-social Behavior vs. Parent Hostility and Child Behavior Problems

1. Running head: PARENTAL SENSITIVITY VS. PARENT HOSTILITY 1
Parental Sensitivity and Pro-social Behavior vs. Parent Hostility and Child Behavior Problems

2. PARENTAL SENSITIVITY VS. PARENT HOSTILITY 2
Parental Sensitivity and Pro-social Behavior vs. Parent Hostility and Child Behavior Problems
Children’s behavioral development and outcome are greatly based on the combination of
genetics as well as environmental attributes. The major key player in the development of
children is how they are raised and by whom they are raised. Different parenting styles or lack thereof
will determine the next generations of people for better or for worse. Keeping that in mind, it is
imperative that children are raised in a manner that will result in them growing into well adjusted
adults.
I chose these articles due to my line of work, which deals with child psychology. For my
profession, these articles hit very close to home when it comes to an explanation as to why someone
would end up being a patient in my unit. Although I cannot diagnose a patient, I can understand what
may have happened to many of them resulting in their current situation just by meeting the patient and
their family. By just that understanding, it seems that their situation could have been easily avoided if
raised under different parenting styles starting at birth.
It may seem presumptuous to assume such an idea without fully understanding the family that
raised a patient, but even so, behavior is something that is leaned and repeated, not necessarily
something that an individual is born with. With that understanding, it would allow other psychology
associated nurses to better sympathize with their patients. The greatest impact that these articles have
on my nursing career is finding an answer to why a person is the way they are. Even by lending an ear to
the patient can be somewhat healing.
The two articles that I have chosen are “Do sensitive parents foster kind children, or vice versa?:
Bidirectional influences between children’s pro-social behavior and parental sensitivity.” and “Adoptive
parent hostility and children’s peer behavior problems: Examining the role of genetically informed child
attributes on adoptive parent behavior.” These articles really go hand in hand with each other regarding

3. PARENTAL SENSITIVITY VS. PARENT HOSTILITY 3
the contents, of which both are about parenting styles and how those styles affect a child’s social
development. The article about sensitive parenting is the meta-analysis of the two articles and focuses
on the positive outcomes of child social development when paired with sensitive parenting. On the
other hand, the article about parent hostility focuses on the negative outcomes that result from
negative and lacking parenting and the negative social developments that often follow.
Starting with the positive side of the studies, the theories used for the article about parenting
sensitivity can be dated from current studies back to 1968 when R.Q. Bell started that children were just
as responsible as their parents for shaping the world in which they were raised. Better theories for this
article though range from 1986 to now with the common theory that antisocial behavior in children and
adolescents is the result of insufficient parenting. Children that were raised by more sensitive parents
demonstrated superior social skills and self confidence in social situations. Parents that were more
sensitive are more likely to pick up on cues from their children in terms of what the child needs in terms
of warmth and support in order to grow into a well adjusted adult. By learning sensitivity from parents,
children then grow to become caring and sensitive adults, resulting in positive social behavior. In this
study 1,364 children ranging from infancy to 15 years were used, as well as their parent and teachers.
The mothers and teacher in the study were given a nine question questioners that were revised
versions to the Ladd’s Child Behavior Scale. In this questioner, mothers and teachers rater the child
behavior, whose ages ranged from 4.5 years, 9 years old, and 11 years old, on a 3 point scale with 0
equal to not true, 1 equal to sometimes true, and 2 equal to often true. The questions that were asked
were based on the child’s behavior when it came to classmate and peers, how sociable the child was,
and the child’s playtime preference of being alone or with others. The answers received from both the
mothers and the teacher’s were consistently correlated.

4. PARENTAL SENSITIVITY VS. PARENT HOSTILITY 4
Another point that was made in the article was that parents that are more sensitive in their
parenting styles create a more stable home life for their children. When children have a consistent and
stable home life and know and understand what will happen and when it will happen they are better
able to adjust to daily life. This is then carried forward into their adult life and their social interactions
throughout their lives. Stability is an important factor in every person’s life. Without stability anyone
would suffer mentally or emotionally due to the constant uncertainly that often follows, and will carry
that uncertainty into any relationship they may engage in.
In the study, children were observed by how well they reacted to playing with their parents,
how well they played with their peers, and how well they played by themselves. Children that were 4.5
years old were studied as they were tasked to do the following; completing a maze, constructing a tower
with blocks, and interacting with puppets. Children that were 9 and 11 years old were studied while
performing task including planning an activity then discussing said activity. Each parent was then rated
on a 7 point scale with 1 equaling very low, and 7 equaling very high in terms of sensitivity towards their
children. In most cases, children that had come from hostile mothers demonstrated a very distinct
shyness and little interest in other children. Due to this shyness and disinterest, these children were less
likely to be interested in activates that offered a reward. The low scoring children in this study also
demonstrated symptoms of depression and anxiety that can also be linked to the hostile parenting that
they had received.
Also, the way in which parents interact with their children will greatly affect who their children
will ultimately become. Think of a child as an empty vessel. A child can only have as much warmth and
kindness and compassion as they are given. A child will be the ultimate reflection of a person’s parenting
skills. If the child isn’t given the skills he or she needs to become a complete person, that resentment

5. PARENTAL SENSITIVITY VS. PARENT HOSTILITY 5
and lack of warmth will be carried throughout their adult life, creating a vicious circle if he or she has
children of their own.
In the study that was done by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Study of Early Child Care (NICHD SECC), parents and children were observed and scored accordingly base
on their interactions with each other. During this study it was shown that mothers and fathers who had
higher than a high school education (35% and 39%) were more sensitive during their interactions with
their children compared to the mothers and fathers who only had a high school education or lower. The
children of those parents who had higher education were more outgoing and sociable than the children
who parents had a high school degree or none at all. The children used in the study were in the age
groups of 4.5 years old, 9 years old, and 11 years old. There was no significant difference in attitude of
children based on age when compared to their relationships with their parents.
There was also a lot of focus on mothers in this study. It is the mother in this study that has the
greatest impact on a child’s life as traditionally the mother spends the most time with children, and is
the source from which children learn how to care for and get along with others. Whether the time spent
together (mother and child) was in play or conflict played a great roll in the child’s actions and how the
child interacted with other children. Again, children that had a warm connection with the mother had
more outgoing personalities and generally wanted to interact with other children. There was one
notable occurrence in the study that was based on the gender of the children. Parents who had female
children tended to be more sensitive to their daughters than parents with male children were to their
sons.
In the study about parental hostility and child behavioral problems, the article went into depth
when describing the effects of negative parenting and its correlation to their children developing poor
social skills. Also, this article covers only children that had been adopted and no long in the custody of

6. PARENTAL SENSITIVITY VS. PARENT HOSTILITY 6
their birth parents. This article was the quantitative study of the two articles. This article definitely
focuses more on the negative effects on children due to poor parenting and/or lack of parenting as
opposed to the article previously described.
In this study, 361 children from 10 states across the U.S were used from 2003 through 2006. All
of these children were used through 33 adoption agencies based on criteria needed for the study
including being born to a mother and a father, then being adopted by a mother and father. The
adoptions had to have happened within the first 3 months after birth, have any major medical
conditions or extensive medical surgeries, and the children could not be adopted by a relative, nor were
there and open adoption cases used.
The main message that was given throughout the article was that negative and hostile parenting
has a very damaging effect on children and how those children react to others. As I mentioned before, a
mother’s role in a child life is a great impact. In this study, it was repeatedly shown that mothers who
had no warmth or sympathy for their children caused their children to be less social, less motivated and
even hostile. Unfortunately, these behavior characteristics in children lead to harsher parenting in order
to try and correct the damage that has already been done, becoming yet another vicious cycle for the
parents.
Birth mothers in the study, (361 participants) were given a survey that asked general question
about what they liked to do, how they preferred to spend their time, and questions about their own
personality. The main purpose of the survey was to determine the type of personalities of the birth
mothers to see if the was a correlation between their own behavior and that of their children. Those
whose answer that were on the impulsive and selfish side of the personality spectrum had children that
had poor social skills and low motivation. Those mothers whose answers were less impulsive and less
selfish on the side of the spectrum had children who had little to no problem interacting with other

7. PARENTAL SENSITIVITY VS. PARENT HOSTILITY 7
children. From that information, one could determine that the mother’s parenting skills were lacking if
they were to put their own needs first over their child’s.
Once the children had reached the age of 27 months, the adoptive mothers and fathers were
given a Maternal Perception Questionnaire that was based on a 7 point scale with 1 equal to strongly
agree and 7 equal to strongly disagree. The statements that were made in the questionnaire included
the following; “My child prefers to play by him/herself rather than with me”, “My child doesn’t come to
me as often as I would like”, and “I often find it hard to get my child’s attention”. The higher the parents
scored their children was an indicator as to how well their child reacted to social situations, an vice
versa. Answers provided by the adoptive mothers and father were very correlated with one another,
shown an agreement on their child’s behavior.
Something that was also notable in the study that that there was some focus on the father’s role
unlike the article before it. It was observed that when fathers were negative and hostile parents, it
played a stronger contribution into raising children with disruptive social behavior. Negative and even
controlling authoritarian parenting by the father figure often lead to children being unable to develop
socially, become aggressive and often lead to being rejected by peers in the future, where as negative
parenting from mothers mostly left children with a social awkwardness and an inability to adapt.
Unfortunately, in cases like these it is difficult to undo damage that has already been done
without any psychological therapy. What can be done to prevent such cases from happening is to
educate everyone who is going to be a parent or who wants to eventually be a parent, and help them
understand that every child raising decision they make could have a detrimental impact. When someone
becomes a parent, they become responsible not only for they own life, but the live of the children they
have created. Prevention is a great alternative to trying to rebuild a person psychologically.

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Ways that this can be done is to start teaching these practices in high schools, especially at a
time when adolescence are already learning about sexual education. This could also potentially help
adolescent refrain from such activities if they understand the weight of every decision they make, the
consequences of those decisions, the amount of people that could or would be affected by their
decisions, and the length of time those consequences will last. Parenting classes can also be held as
college elective courses, as well as at community centers or health and parenting expos nationwide.
Education is something that can be carried throughout a life time.
In conclusion, these articles worked extremely well with one another both making many points
that went hand in hand with each other. The biggest message that was express throughout the article
was that negative parenting has the harshest impact on children. Although most people would come to
that same conclusion, not everyone would make the same positive decisions if put in the same position.
Some may need reminders before making a hasty decision in parenting that could potentially have long
lasting negative effects. Anyone would be damaged if raised in an environment that was filled with
hostility, lack of warmth, or lack of support.