The relationship between maternal self-efficacy and parenting practices: implications for parent training

The present study examined the relationship between maternal self‐efficacy, dysfunctional discipline practices and child conduct problems. Specifically, three levels of self‐efficacy, global, domain and task‐specific self‐efficacy, were assessed in mothers of 2‐ to 8‐year‐old children with conduct problems (clinic group, n = 45) and non‐clinic mothers from the community (non‐clinic group, n = 79). Measures of global, domain and task‐specific self‐efficacy were completed by mothers. Clinic mothers reported significantly lower self‐efficacy than non‐clinic mothers for all but one of the parenting tasks assessed. Both groups of mothers reported lowest self‐efficacy for similar parenting tasks. In the sample as a whole self‐efficacy measures were significant predictors of maternal discipline style after controlling for other parent, child and risk factors. Of the self‐efficacy variables behavioural self‐efficacy was the best predictor of mothers discipline style. The findings support the importance of developing parenting strategies that enable parents to generalize their parenting skills to a diverse range of diverse parenting contexts both in the home and in the community.