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Mothers' and fathers' sensitivity with their two children: A longitudinal study from infancy to early childhood

Hallers-Haalboom,E.T.
; 
Groeneveld,M.G.
; 
van Berkel,S. R.
; 
Endendijk,J. J.
; 
van der Pol,L. D.
; 
Linting,M.
; 
Bakermans-Kranenburg,M. J.
; 
Mesman,J.
Abstract
To examine the effects of child age and birth order on sensitive parenting, 364 families with two children were visited when the second-born children were 12, 24, and 36 months old, and their older siblings were on average two years older. Mothers showed higher levels of sensitivity than fathers at all assessments. Parental sensitivity increased from infancy to toddlerhood, and then decreased into early childhood. The changes in parental sensitivity with child age were similar for mothers and fathers, and mothers’ and fathers’ sensitivity levels were related over time. However, the changes in parental sensitivity towards the firstborn and second-born child were not related to each other, suggesting that parents’ experiences with the firstborn child do not have implications for their sensitivity towards their second-born child. Instead, the child’s own unique characteristics and developmental stage seem to play a more important role. These findings highlight the importance of considering the child’s developmental characteristics in the study of parenting, and suggest that individual differences in attaining developmental milestones may affect parental sensitivity.
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Date
2017
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Tilburg University Research Output Collection
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Keywords
Sensitivity, Fathers, Mothers, Birth order, Child age
Citation
Hallers-Haalboom, E T, Groeneveld, M G, van Berkel, S R, Endendijk, J J, van der Pol, L D, Linting, M, Bakermans-Kranenburg, M J & Mesman, J 2017, 'Mothers' and fathers' sensitivity with their two children : A longitudinal study from infancy to early childhood', Developmental Psychology, vol. 53, no. 5, pp. 860-872. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000293
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14602/65875
License
info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess
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