Dutch Mothers’ and Fathers’ Differential Attributions and Parenting Reactions to the Misbehavior of Sons and Daughters

There is ample evidence that fathers and mothers react differently to misbehavior of sons and daughters. Relatively little is known about the mechanisms underlying this differential treatment. This set of quasiexperimental studies examined whether parental attributions about child misbehavior mediate the association between child gender and negative parenting practices, and whether this is different for fathers and mothers. Dutch parents (Study 1: N = 190, 65% mothers, 53% girls; Study 2: N = 287, 56% mothers, 50% girls) of 2-to 4-year-old children were presented with scenarios illustrating child misbehaviors and were asked to imagine their own child in the scenarios. Subsequently, parents were asked about their attributions of the child behavior (Study 1: intentionality, developmental level; Study 2; typicality) and their hypothetical reactions (Studies 1 and 2; negative parenting; Study 2; frustration) in each situation. Study 1 revealed that fathers attributed boys’ misbehavior more to being intentional than girls’ misbehavior. Fathers’ intentional attributions also mediated the association between child gender and negative parenting reactions to child misbehavior. Study 2 revealed that mothers attributed boys’ misbehavior more to being typical for the child than girls’ misbehavior. For mothers, the association between child gender and negative parenting reactions to child misbehavior was mediated by mothers’ typicality attributions and frustration. Thus, gender-differentiated attributions seem to underlie how Dutch fathers and mothers respond to boys’ and girls’ misbehavior. Yet, both the type of internal attributions and the underlying mechanism for this gender-differentiated attributional process differ for mothers and fathers.