Parental Interpersonal Style and the Parent-Child Relationship: Implications at Both Normal-Range and Pathological Levels

• In Event: 1-116 - Circle Up: Using Interpersonal Theory and The Interpersonal Circumplex to Study Interpersonal Relationships Across Development

Integrative Statement

Interpersonal style is defined by one’s characteristic approach to interpersonal situations and relationships. Along with other factors, interpersonal style determines the quality of functioning in specific relationship domains, including the parent-child relationship. Interpersonal style can be conceptualized using two bipolar, orthogonal interpersonal dimensions, agency (dominance versus submissiveness) and communion (coldness versus warmth). At normal-range levels, these dimensions reflect functional individual differences in interpersonal style, but at pathological levels, these dimensions are associated with dysfunctional patterns of interaction. We considered implications of parental interpersonal style for the parent-child relationship using two complementary approaches. We first examined associations at pathological levels in a meta-analytic review of the empirical research on parental personality pathology, interpersonal style, and the quality of the parent-child relationship (total k = 127 studies). In a series of meta-analyses that yielded average effect sizes, corrected for sampling error and measurement unreliability, and aggregated using a random-effects model, we found that a parental interpersonal style marked by extreme levels of dominance and coldness (i.e., among parents with paranoid, schizotypal, antisocial, borderline, avoidant personality pathology) was modestly but significantly associated with greater dysfunction in the parent-child relationship across a range of indicators (e.g., parental positive affect, warmth, responsiveness; parental hostility, intrusiveness, rejection, harsh discipline). We then examined associations between normal-range parental interpersonal style and multiple observationally-assessed indicators of the parent-child relationship in a community sample of mothers, fathers, and their 3- to 6-year-old children (N = 157 families). A confirmatory bifactor analysis of parental self-reported interpersonal style yielded specific agency and communion dimensions, as well as a general dimension that captured interpersonal distress. A series of multilevel modeling analyses that accounted for the nested family data indicated that parental interpersonal distress was associated with less parental involvement, positivity, and responsiveness during parent-child interactions; parental dominance was also associated with less parental involvement, positivity, and responsiveness, as well as more hostility and intrusiveness; and parental coldness was associated with less parental involvement and positivity. Taken together, results of these two projects highlight implications of parental interpersonal style for functioning in a critical interpersonal domain, the parent-child relationship. As might be expected, results of the meta-analytic review indicated that an interpersonal style marked by pathological levels of dominance and coldness, as seen in parents with personality pathology, was associated with dysfunction in the parent-child relationship. However, our examination in a community sample of mothers and fathers evidencing relatively low levels of pathology indicated that normal-range parental dominance and coldness were also associated with more negative parent-child interactions. Parental interpersonal style, including both normal-range and pathological indicators of agency and communion, plays an important role for the quality of the parent-child relationship.

Authors

• Sylia Wilson, University of Minnesota
  Presenting Author

• Catherine B. Stroud, Williams College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Emily Durbin, Michigan State University
  Non-Presenting Author