ABSTRACT
PARENTING AND CHILDREN’S ADJUSTMENT The link between parenting practices and child behaviour or children’s adjustment has been shown in many studies. Authoritative parentingcharacterized by high warmth, control and autonomy support-has been linked to positive child development in cognitive and social-emotional domains (Baumrind, 1993; Laible & Carlo, 2004). Mothers with more inconsistent parenting had sons with more antisocial behaviour, relationship problems and school problems (Conger, Patterson, & Ge, 1995). This was also found over time: high parental engagement and low frequencies of harsh discipline were related to low levels of externalizing behaviour in elementary schoolchildren three years later (Beelmann, Stemmler, Lo¨sel, & Jaursch, 2007). A meta-analysis found a significant association between parental caregiving-“approval, guidance, motivational strategies, synchrony and absence of coercive control”—and children’s externalizing behaviour (Rothbaum & Weisz, 1994, p. 66).
