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. 2011 Nov;56(4):374-82.
doi: 10.1037/a0025634.

Mothers report more child-rearing disagreements following early brain injury than do fathers

Emily A Bendikas  1 , Shari L Wade, Amy Cassedy, H Gerry Taylor, Keith Owen Yeates
Affiliations

Mothers report more child-rearing disagreements following early brain injury than do fathers

Emily A Bendikas et al. Rehabil Psychol. 2011 Nov.

Abstract

Objective: To investigate differences between mother's and father's perceptions of marital relationship quality, child rearing disagreements, and family functioning over the initial 18 months following traumatic brain injury (TBI) in early childhood relative to an orthopedic-injury comparison group.

Methods: Participants included 147 parent-dyads of children with TBI (n = 53) and orthopedic injuries (OI; n = 94) who were between the ages of 3 and 7 years at injury. Family functioning, marital quality, and child-rearing disagreements were assessed shortly after injury and at 6, 12, and 18-month follow-ups, with ratings at the initial assessment completed to reflect preinjury functioning. Mixed model analyses were used to examine mother and father's reports of family functioning, marital quality, and child-rearing disagreements over time as a function of injury severity and parent gender.

Results: We found a significant Group x Gender interaction for ratings of love and parenting disagreements. As hypothesized, mothers of children with severe TBI rated the relationship as significantly less loving than did their partners, and mothers of children with both moderate and severe TBI endorsed more parenting disagreements than did their partners. However, fathers reported higher levels of family dysfunction than their partners, regardless of injury type or severity.

Conclusions: Implications for treatment based on differences in mothers' and fathers' perceptions of family and marital functioning, and future directions for research, are discussed.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Mean scores on Child-Rearing Disagreements questionnaire in the three comparison groups separated by parent gender.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Mean scores on the love subscale from the Braiker and Kelley Partnership Questionnaire in the three comparison groups separated by parent gender.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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