2-027 - Understanding the Complexity of Parental Control: Definitions, Measures, Outcomes, and Moderators

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Controlling parenting has been widely defined and measured, and has been shown to be negatively associated with children’s academic achievement and adjustment. More research is needed to understand this complex parenting dimension, specifically to tease apart different types and to further understand its relations contextually. These three presentations will examine the relations of controlling parenting with children’s adjustment and task engagement. The first aimed to measure internally (e.g., guilt induction) and externally (e.g., yelling/demanding) controlling parenting as separate constructs, and to examine their unique relations with children’s symptomology and self-regulation. Certain types of controllingness uniquely predicted child outcomes, indicating the importance of differentiating various types of control. In the second, the authors examined factors that interact with maternal assertive control to predict child self-regulation in two compliance tasks. Results showed that maternal assertive control was associated with children’s lower self-regulation only when mothers were also low in positivity, involvement, and directiveness, highlighting the complex interactions among maternal behaviors in understanding children’s self-regulation. In the third, authors examined the effects of performance feedback on mothers’ control and children’s subsequent engagement and performance on a cognitive task. Findings indicated that negative performance feedback may serve as an evaluative threat, leading mothers to be more controlling when children were perceived as falling behind. Mothers’ controllingness did not predict gains in children’s performance. Presenting these studies together will spark discussion of the complexity of parental control, including how it is measured, its different types, and the contexts in which it relates to child outcomes.

Sub Unit

• Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Chair

• Madeline Levitt, Clark University

Discussant

• Amanda Morris, Oklahoma State University

Individual Presentations

• Differential Contexts of Maternal Control: Relations to Children’s Self-Regulation - Presenting Author: Cynthia L Smith, Virginia Tech; Non-Presenting Author: Lin Tan, University of Michigan

• Internal and External Parental Control: Associations with Children’s Symptomatology and Self-Related and Relational Outcomes - Presenting Author: Madeline Levitt, Clark University; Non-Presenting Author: Wendy Grolnick, Clark University

• Performance Feedback and Mothers’ Controlling Behaviors: An Experimental Study - Presenting Author: Cecilia Cheung, University of California, Riverside; Non-Presenting Author: Vanessa Zavala, University of California, Riverside; Non-Presenting Author: Yena Kyeong, University of California, Riverside