Parental sense of competence, resilience, and empathy in relation fathers’ responses to children’s negative emotions in the context of everyday paternal childrearing decisions

Abstract

It is expected that children are going to respond with anger and resentment to some of their parents’ child rearing and disciplinary decisions. Parents may perceive intense emotional reactions by children as an “attack” on them, challenging their ability to provide a supportive parental thoughtful responses. The present study examines the role of parental sense of competence and parental resilience, as well as parental empathy and aggression in fathers’ reactions to children’s negative emotions (FRCNE) in the context of such parental decisions. Study 1, assessed the role of paternal competence and resilience in fathers’ reactions to their children’s negative emotions. Findings showed that both paternal competence and resilience were associated with less negative parental reaction such as punishment toward the child but not with more positive reaction like calming down the child. Extending Study 1, Study 2, examined whether paternal empathy and aggression would associate with paternal positive responses. Findings showed that paternal greater empathy was associated with fathers’ higher likelihood to respond positively to child frustrations. Considered together, the findings of the two studies suggest that the importance of both paternal resilience and empathy in addressing and managing children’s reactions to frustration. Implications for intervention are discussed.

Keywords

• family relations
• parenting
• parent-child relations