Abstract :
[en] Introduction and Aim
Child’s externalizing behavior (EB) are defined as the expression of anger, aggression, hyperactivity,
impulsivity that interfere with the child’s general functioning.
A child’s behavior problems at age 3 increased harsh parenting and mothers’ withdrawal tactics at
age 5, which, in turn, increased child’s emotional problems and EB at age 7. In the same way, a child’s
EB predicts subsequent incompetent parenting and parents’ psychological distress.
Cognitive biases have been related to the perpetuation of symptoms in many psychological problems
(e.g., depression). In terms of parenting, when assessing their child’s displaying EB, parents tend to
recall more his/her negative behaviors than his/her positive ones. While promising, the presence of
and relations between attention, interpretation, and memory biases in parents of children with EB
problems have never been experimentally tested.
The objective of our study is to determine by experiment the relationship between parents’ cognitive
biases (i.e., attentional, interpretation, and memory biases) and EB of their child.
Material and Methods
A dyadic approach will be used: Both parents participated in this study to test the Actor-Partner
Interdependence Model (APIM) in cognitive biases within- and between-couple. Attentional bias was
assessed by the Visual Probe Task, interpretation bias by a Scrambled Sentence Test, and memory
bias by the Incidental Recall Task. Participants also completed the French version of the Highly
Sensitive Person Scale, an adapted parent-report version of the Highly Sensitive Children scale, and
the Parental Stress Scale as moderators.
Results
We expect parents of a child with higher EB to have a significantly higher level of cognitive biases. We
also hypothesize that biased attention would have an indirect effect on memory through its influence
on interpretation bias. In addition, we expect an interdependence of one parent’s cognitive biases on
the other.
Results should be available by July.
