Maternal Attributions of Taiwanese and American Toddlers’ Misdeeds and Accomplishments

Abstract

Parental beliefs are important influences on their child-rearing practices, which, in turn, affect their children’s personal-social development. Such parental beliefs are derived from the culture in which a parent and child reside. The differences might contribute to observed differences in children’s behaviors across nationalities. In the present study, parental beliefs (attributions) regarding the reasons for their children’s and their own positive and negative behaviors are examined. Five attributional orientations were assessed: (a) external/uncontrollable (situation), (b) external/unstable (luck-fate- chance), (c) internal/unstable (emotions), (d) internal/stable (traits), and (e) maternal socialization. Participants included 21 Taiwanese and 36 American mothers of children ranging from 24 to 36 months old. Results suggested that American mothers typically attributed positive behaviors to internal/stable dispositions and blamed external/unstable factors for negative behaviors, whereas Taiwanese mothers attributed positive behaviors to external/unstable factors and negative behaviors to internal/stable and/or external/ unstable characteristics. Implications are discussed.

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