Date of Award

6-1-2014

Document Type

Campus Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Clinical Psychology

First Advisor

Abbey Eisenhower

Second Advisor

Alice S. Carter

Third Advisor

Laurel Wainwright

Abstract

The current study evaluated the inter-rater reliability, construct validity, and demographic correlates of the Scale of Parents' Positive Beliefs (SPPB), a newly developed measure of parents' Warmth, Child-Directed Optimism, and Pride in their young children. Additionally, the mediating effect of parenting behaviors, including parent involvement, positive parenting (e.g., using praise), and inconsistent parenting, on the association between parents' positive beliefs and children's adjustment was tested. Participants included a racially and ethnically diverse group of families (n = 78) with preschool-age children (M = 4.3 years old) that were living at or below 185% of the federal poverty line. Overall, good inter-rater reliability was found (ICC = .75), and the Pride scale exhibited good convergent and discriminant validity. Evidence neither supported the construct validity of the Warmth and Child-Directed Optimism scales, nor did it reveal a mediating effect of parenting behaviors on the association between parents' Pride and children's adjustment. Future studies are indicated to acquire additional information about the impact of parents' expressions of Pride in their children on the parent-child relationship and to comprehend the nature of parents' positive beliefs about their children within the context of significant social stressors.

Comments

Free and open access to this Campus Access Thesis is made available to the UMass Boston community by ScholarWorks at UMass Boston. Those not on campus and those without a UMass Boston campus username and password may gain access to this thesis through resources like Proquest Dissertations & Theses Global or through Interlibrary Loan. If you have a UMass Boston campus username and password and would like to download this work from off-campus, click on the "Off-Campus UMass Boston Users" link above.

Download
Off-Campus UMass Boston Users

Share

COinS