Mothers' beliefs, social comparisons and self-reported childrearing behaviour: A content analysis of non-descriptive information in free descriptions of children's personality

Vandenplas-Holper, Christiane;Roskam, Isabelle;Pirot, Laurence
(2006) European Journal of Developmental Psychology — Vol. 3, n° 4, p. 338-356 (2006)

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The present study analyses free descriptions that mothers made of their child's personality. 210 descriptions of 3- and 9-year-old children were collected and analysed with respect to the five-factor model of personality. According to a first content analysis frame, personality descriptors, mainly trait adjectives and behavioural descriptors, have been coded with respect to the five factors of personality. Although mothers were only asked to describe their children's personality, their descriptions included different types of non-descriptive information. Mothers use social comparisons; they refer to stability or change as their child grows older and to consistency or inconsistency across contexts and moments; they give explanations of their child's personality. Finally, they refer to various forms of their childrearing behaviour. These qualifiers of the children's personality have been coded according to a second frame for content analysis and analysed with respect to the children's age, gender and mothers' educational level. They have also been correlated with the positive and negative polarity of the descriptors of personality. Finally, a microanalysis has been carried out for stability vs. change across time and consistency vs. inconsistency across situations and moments. Results indicate that mothers of 3-year-olds refer more often to stimulating childrearing behaviour than mothers of 9-year-olds. Explanations provided by mothers vary according to their educational level. Mothers referred more to intraindividual variations according to time and situations for girls than for boys. It also appeared that mothers qualified behaviour or traits that they thought were not "normal''. Furthermore they considered change in a positive direction and described their child's behaviour and traits as inconsistent across situations and moments.
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Vandenplas-Holper, C., Roskam, I., & Pirot, L. (2006). Mothers’ beliefs, social comparisons and self-reported childrearing behaviour: A content analysis of non-descriptive information in free descriptions of children’s personality. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 3(4), 338-356. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405620600557672 (Original work published 2006)