Abstract
Background
Children with developmental disabilities tend to develop challenging behaviours. Parenting programmes that focus on behaviour management may help parents address these difficult behaviours by increasing parenting self‐efficacy. However, the literature on parenting self‐efficacy is still limited due to measurement variability in conceptualization and operationalization of the construct, and heavy reliance on cross‐sectional data.
Method
This study utilized hierarchical linear regression to examine the predictors of parenting self‐efficacy in 284 mothers who attended a parenting programme in a hospital’s Department of Child Development in Singapore.
Results
Our model was able to explain 37% of variance in parenting self‐efficacy. After controlling for general stress and specific parenting hassles, the programme was still found to be effective in improving mothers’ parenting self‐efficacy.
Conclusions
Results are discussed in terms of their implications for developing a model for parenting self‐efficacy, and possible improvements to be made on the parenting programme.