Exploring how adolescent boys' and girls' internalizing and externalizing behaviors impact parental self‐efficacy: A vignette study

• Published date: 01 February 2023
• Author: Terese Glatz,Christy M. Buchanan
• Date: 01 February 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12696

RESEARCH

Exploring how adolescent boys’and girls’

internalizing and externalizing behaviors impact

parental self-efficacy: A vignette study

Terese Glatz

1

|Christy M. Buchanan

2

1

School of Law, Psychology and Social Work,

Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden

2

Department of Psychology, Wake Forest

University, Winston-Salem, NC

Correspondence

Terese Glatz, School of Law, Psychology and

Social Work, Örebro University,

Fakultetsgatan 1, SE–701 82 Örebro, Sweden.

Email: terese.glatz@oru.se

Funding information

Vetenskapsrådet, Grant/Award Number:

350-2012-283

Abstract

Objective: We examine the effect of children’s sex and

behaviors on parents’level of parental self-efficacy (PSE).

Background: PSE is a fundamental predictor of effective

and positive parenting. Child characteristics could influ-

ence PSE and can help in understanding why some parents

feel lower PSE.

Method: We randomly assigned 1,020 American parents

to read one of four vignettes describing a 16-year-old

boy or girl with either externalizing or internalizing

behaviors. Then, parents reported on their level of PSE

for this hypothetical adolescent. We ran analyses of var-

iance, including the sex of parents’focal child (6th–12th

grade) as a factor.

Results: Parents reported higher levels of PSE for girls and

for externalizing behaviors than for boys and internalizing

behaviors, respectively. A three-way interaction (vignette

behavior vignette sex focal child’s sex) was significant

for the level of PSE. Parents whose focal child was a boy

reported higher levels of PSE if they read a vignette of a

boy with externalizing behaviors than if they read a

vignette of a boy with internalizing behaviors. This was

not found for parents whose focal child was a girl.

Conclusion: The results gave partial support for a

sex-incongruent hypothesis, as parents might find it easier to

relate to the problems described if they have at least one child

of the same sex as the vignette child.

Author note: This work was supported by the Swedish Research Council (grant no. 350-2012-283).

Received: 28 May 2021Revised: 22 November 2021Accepted: 28 February 2022

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12696

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits

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© 2022 The Authors. Family Relations published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of National Council on Family Relations.

Family Relations. 2023;72:347–360. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare 347