Can We Help But Overreact?: The Relationship Between Impulsivity, Parenting Knowledge and Disciplinary Style

xiii Chapter 1: Impulsivity, Parental Disciplinary Style and Parenting Knowledge. 1 Chapter 2: Parental Disciplinary Style. 12 The Development of Self-Regulated Compliance . 15 Assessment of Parental Disciplinary Style. 22 The Parenting Scale. 24 Chapter 3: Parenting Knowledge. 28 Enhancement of Parenting Knowledge Through Parenting Programs. 30 Parenting Knowledge as a Means to Improving Parenting Outcomes. 34 Chapter 4: Parental Impulsivity. 39 Temporal Discounting Rate as a Measure of Impulsivity. 42 Temporal discounting rate and preference change. 45 Exponential discounting. 46 Hyperbolic discounting. 49 Choice (titration) and matching procedures for measuring temporal discounting. 50 Individual factors affecting temporal discounting rates. 53 Temporal discounting and substance abuse. 53 Intelligence and working memory. 57 Can intertemporal decisions be explained without temporal discounting? 57 Impulsivity and Disciplinary Style.58 A Potential Influence of Impulsivity on Parenting Knowledge Acquisition . 65 Assessing the Construct of Impulsivity. 71 Self-report measures of impulsivity. 71 ii Supplementing self-report with intertemporal measures of impulsivity. 77 Relationship between Self-Report Impulsivity and Temporal Discounting Rate. 78 Chapter 5: Investigating the Relationships Between Impulsivity, Parental Disciplinary Style and Parenting Knowledge. 81 Effective discipline and impulsivity. 82 Study Aim and Hypotheses. 83 Chapter 6: Method. 86 Recruitment procedure. 86 Participants. 88 Measures. 88 Procedure. 92 Statistical Analyses. 93 Chapter 7: Preliminary Data Analysis. 97 Chapter 8: Path Analysis. 107 Descriptive Statistics. 108 Correlation Analysis.108 Chapter 9: Results. 111 Direct Effects. 114 Indirect Effects. 115 Chapter 10: Discussion. 117 Chapter 11: Conclusion. 145 References. 154 Appendices. 172 iii LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Individual and Family Characteristics as a Percentage of the Sample. 100 2. Computation of Item Loading Weights for Calculation of Factor Composites. 106 3. Descriptive Statistics for Composite Variables Including Means, Standard Deviations and Ranges. 108 4. Correlations for Variables Derived from Confirmatory Factor Analyses for Entry into Path Analysis. 109 5. Results of Bootstrapping Mediation Analysis including Standardized Direct and Indirect Effects and Associated p-values. 116 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Proposed Relationship Between Impulsivity, Parenting Knowledge, and Parental Disciplinary Style . 9 2. Hypothesised Path Model for Relationship Between Parental Impulsivity, Parenting Knowledge, and Parental Disciplinary Style. 85 3. Confirmed Model for Factor of Over-reactivity. 102 4. Confirmed Model for Factor of Laxness. 103 5. Confirmed Model for Subjective Impulsivity (BIS-Brief). 104 6. Conceptual Diagram for Potential Path Process for Composite Variables. 112 7. Conceptual Diagram for Potential Path Process for Composite Variables Detailing Results of Model Fit Test and Associated Standardized Regression Weights. 112 8. Final Path Model Illustrating the Relationship Between Study Variables. 114