“I Won’t Love You Anymore if You Keep Behaving Like This”: Collectivistic Values and Psychological Control

• In Event: Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: PS 10 Topic - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Abstract

Psychological control is the control over child’s behaviors/psychological experiences via manipulating child’s emotional states and thoughts, and include behaviors like shaming, inducing guilt, withdrawing love, and expressions of disappointment about child behaviors and feelings (Barber, 1996; Nelson et al., 2012; Soenens & Vansteenkiste, 2010); which are linked to negative developmental outcomes (e.g., Ballash et al., 2006; Nanda et al., 2012). The outcomes of psychological control is more widely investigated while its precursors are mostly under-studied. The main aim of the current study is to investigate the role of maternal collectivistic values on their psychological control practices. The second aim of the study is to examine whether perceived normativeness could be a mediator between the influence of culture on maternal use of psychological control. Data were collected from 318 Turkish mothers (Mage = 35.49, SD = 4,32), with a preschool-aged child. Mothers were asked to complete questionnaires about their collectivistic values, their psychologically controlling behaviors, their perceptions on the normativeness of psychological control. Analyses showed significant associations between collectivistic values and psychological control (r=-.19, p<.001). Path analyses testing the hypothesized mediational link showed good model fit to the data (χ2 (2, N=318)=3.03; ns; RMSEA=.04 [90% CI=.00-.13]; CFI=.99; see Figure 1). The indirect effect of collectivistic values on the frequency of using psychological control, via perceived normativeness, was significant; B=.13; Bse=.03; 95% CI=.05 - .20; p<.001; indicating that the mothers who had collectivistic values perceived psychological control as more normative and in-turn used psychological control more with their preschoolers. These findings will be discussed with regard to the current literature about psychological control and the role of culture.

Authors

• Melis Hatice Yavuz-Müren, University of Toronto
  Presenting Author

• Selin Kitiş, Koç University
  Non-Presenting Author

• İlke Candar, Masters Student at Bilkent University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Bilge Selcuk, Koç Üniversitesi
  Non-Presenting Author