Deion Porter Parent/Child Relations

Parenting Positively (Authoritative)

In a recent study by Oana Alexandra David titled The Rational Positive Parenting
Program for Child Externalizing Behavior: Mechanism of Change Analysis, with the help other
cited resources, found there are key factors in parenting styles that address childs likeliness in
misbehaving. The program in the study emphasized that teaching parents child and self-
management was designed to promote positive parenting (i.e., attending to the child, social
rewards, parents as role models, encouragement, quality time, communication with children;
giving effective commands and instructions and behavior charts) and other strategies are
designed to help parents manage misbehavior (I.e. setting rules, common discipline mistakes;
active ignoring, consequences) (David, 2014, p.6). The study shows that there is a significant
decrease in childs externalizing behavior when parents are using an authoritative parenting
style. Study also included that parents reducing their stress, depression, and irrational cognition
produced positive changes in childs behavior. In positive parenting, attending to the child
means the child generally have certain needs that have to be met for example feeling valued by
the parent, developing values and opinions for themselves, and to love and to be loved by
others. One practice parents can try is active listening, repeating childs words and thought to
fully understand what they are trying to say. Parents as role models, this is explained by
Bandura model where someone learns a behavior by modeling. The basic idea is that the
behavior is learned by imitating what is seen. Pavlovs theory includes operant conditioning
that behaviors are encouraged and taught if it is immediately rewarded or reinforced. The
likelihood of a certain behavior when something desirable is added, for example high fiving a
child for completing a task, and negative reinforcement will increase the likelihood of a
Deion Porter Parent/Child Relations
behavior by removing an unpleasant stimulus, such as child cries when in a closed space and
you remove the child from the closed space. Encouragement is the best way for desirable
behaviors, using rewards may lead the child to think they are entitled to certain things If I
behave, I will get candy, money, and more. Active ignoring decreases the likelihood of the
behavior recurring, for example, ignoring a child tapping their pencil on a desk. The family must
spend quality time together. This means to do some activity together, but also included face
to face conversation. This includes having dinner together in the same room, playing a board
game together, going on a walk together, but you must have communication to build a bond
and interest in the childs life. To help manage misbehavior, there are four goals of
misbehaviors to keep in mind. The first is called Attention seeking; the child will show negative
behaviors in order to attract attention on the basis that negative attention is better than none.
The alternative is to give attention to positive attention. The second goal is called Power
seeking, the child does what he or she wants by refusing to cooperate, fighting or giving in only
increases the childs desire for control. The alternative is to give the child options or choices to
choose from. The third goal is called revenge seeking, the child feels hurt and decides to get
back at the parent by misbehaving. The alternative is to avoid hurting the childs feelings,
making sure the child feels loved. The fourth goal is Avoidance of failure; essentially the child
does not cooperate because they feel as though everything they do is wrong. The alternative is
to avoid judging and criticizing the child, focus on their strengths. A common discipline mistake
includes punishing a child without fully understanding the situation. The Antecedent is the
event that took place before the misbehavior. The Consequence includes what happens after
the misbehavior. Parent must understand what happened before the misbehavior first to fully
Deion Porter Parent/Child Relations
understand how the child feels and is thinking before deciding what happens after. Following
these guidelines will decrease the chances of child externalizing behaviors.
Work Cited

David, O. (2014). The Rational Positive Parenting Program For Child Externalizing Behavior: Mechanisms
of Change Analysis. Journal Of Cognitive & Behavioral Psychotherapies, 14(1), 21-38.

Jerry Bigner & Clara Gerhardt (2014). Parent-Child Relations: An Introduction to Parenting. (9th Edition).

Salari, R., Ralph, A., & Sanders, M. R. (2014). An Efficacy Trial: Positive Parenting Program for Parents of
Teenagers. Behaviour Change, 31(1), 34-52. doi:10.1017/bec.2013.31