The influence of causal attribution of parents on developing the child enuresis

• Main Author: Jerković Ivan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Drustvo Psihologa Srbije 2003-01-01
• Series: Psihologija
• Online Access: http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0048-5705/2003/0048-57050301073J.pdf

Causal attributions are affirmed as a cognitive element able to explain emotional and motivational aspects of behaviour of some categories of adult psychiatric patients, primarily depressive ones. Theoretical and practical success of cognitive ideas in explaining the origination of depressive disorders, and in the monitoring of depressive patient treatment has led to further development of theory, but also to the attempt to apply the learning about causal attributions to various problems. Characteristic attempts are those that the problems of child abuse, children’s depression, upbringing problems, school failure, hyperactivity, enuresis, and long-term effects of different child treatment, too, are analysed from the point of view of causal attributions. By assessing parent causal attributions regarding child night urination, we wanted to establish to what extent specific attributions for child behaviour differentiate the parents of children having this problem from those parents whose children have established control. Parents were assessed in terms of four dimensions of causal attributions for child’s problem. Those are the dimensions of globality, counter-lability, internality, and the stability of the cause of child’s problem. The analysis of parent causal attributions show that mothers and fathers in both assessed groups similarly experience the cause of enuretic problems of their children. Enuresis is seen as caused by specific, internal, and instable causes. Such a system of dimensions could correspond to the belief that the main etiological factor of the enuresis is maturing. For more reliable verification of this attitude, longitudinal strategy in research is necessary, especially to comprehend whether parental attributions have been developed as an effect of persistent enuresis, or whether the enuresis is developed as an effect of parental attributions.