Investigation analog task of parents' attributions for child behaviors

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Title Investigation analog task of parents' attributions for child behaviors
Publication Type thesis
School or College College of Education
Department Educational Psychology
Author Jedrziewski, Chezlie Tresan
Date 2009-05
Description This study evaluated a novel analog task to assess how parents' beliefs of whether children acted intentionally were related to the potential of physical child abuse. The analog task utilized eye-tracking technology to assess attributions without responses being influenced by conscious processing, addressing prior limitations in attribution and child maltreatment research. Comparisons were expected to show that parents who more commonly make the attribution that children act intentionally will have higher child abuse potential. Twenty-six parents (7 fathers and 19 mothers) of a child at least 9 years old or younger were recruited to participate in a study examining new ways of assessing parenting. Participants were asked to read passages on a computer while eye movements were monitored; to complete self-report measures that assessed attributions; to answer culpability scenarios; and to complete the Parent Intentionality Annoyance-Attribution scale (PIAA) that assessed child abuse potential, Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory-2 (AAPI-2), Child Abuse Potential Inventory (CAPI), and Parent Intentionality Annoyance-Punishment scale (PIAP). Results indicated no significant correlations between the scores obtained from the analog task and the self-report version of the identical scenarios. However, marginal correlations were found between the second pass and total time scores of the analog task with the other self-report measure of intentionality attributions (PIAA). Significant correlations were found between self-reported discipline approaches (PIAP) and second pass and total time scores on the analog task. However, the other child abuse risk measures (CAPI and AAPI-2) were not significantly correlated with scores on the analog task, despite the fact that the PIAP was associated with these measures. These results are consistent with prior research that parents who rate children's behavior as more intentional are more likely to choose more severe punishments. The connection between child abuse potential and attributions was assessed without conscious-processing biases, suggesting that using eye-tracking technology as an analog task can facilitate measuring constructs that are difficult to accurately measure using self-report. The lack of association with the self-report scenarios and two of the abuse risk measures highlight the potential differences between implicit and explicit measures of child abuse potential. v
Type Text
Publisher University of Utah
Subject Parenting; Child abuse
Dissertation Institution University of Utah
Dissertation Name MS
Language eng
Relation is Version of Digital reproduction of "Investigation analog task of parents' attributions for child behaviors" J. Willard Marriott Library Special Collections, BF21.5 2009 .J43
Rights Management © Chezlie Tresan Jedrziewski
Format application/pdf
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 4,304,950 bytes
Identifier us-etd2,105324
Source Original: University of Utah J. Willard Marriott Library Special Collections
Conversion Specifications Orginal scanned on Epson GT-30000 as 400 dpi to pdf using ABBYY FineReader 9.0 Professional Edition.
ARK ark:/87278/s654334m
Setname ir_etd
ID 192965
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s654334m
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