Help! I Have to Assist My Child With Reading and Spelling: Mothers' Teaching Self-Efficacy and Mother–Child Conflict During Homework

Abstract

Treatment of children with dyslexia is often accompanied by practice in reading and spelling at home. Mothers often help their children with this homework, almost on a daily basis. However, some might not feel efficacious in helping their child with homework. We examined which mother and contextual factors contribute to mothers' specific teaching self-efficacy and more general parental self-efficacy, and to what extent self-efficacy is related to mother–child conflict during homework. Participants were 153 mothers of children from second to eighth grade. Mothers reported on their teaching and general parental self-efficacy, perceived stress, household chaos of the family, and the quality of support received by the clinic for the treatment of dyslexia and also about conflicts with their child during homework. Path analysis showed that increased levels of perceived stress and household chaos were associated with lower teaching and parental self-efficacy, whereas a higher quality of support by the clinic was related to a higher level of teaching self-efficacy. Only mothers' sense of efficacy in teaching was independently associated with the amount of mother–child conflict during homework. Our results speak to the general importance of teaching self-efficacy in providing adequate support with homework.