Parenting by Lying: Interdisciplinary Evidence from Singapore, Canada, and Turkey

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Parents often tell lies to their children for the purpose of parenting. The contradiction is that parents are supposed to be moral socialization agents and role models to educate their children on the importance of honesty. When parents both lie and exhort their children to tell the truth, there is inconsistency in their messaging. As children observe that their parents’ actions do not match their words, children may imitate their parents’ behaviors and find it permissible to use lying as a means to achieve personal goals.

Although parenting by lying is a widespread and common practice, it has been largely overlooked in child development and parenting research. This symposium recruits complementary, interdisciplinary methods from developmental science, moral development and parenting to provide a range of new international research findings on parenting by lying.

Paper 1 finds that greater parental religiosity was associated with a lower likelihood of parenting by lying in Singapore. Paper 2 finds that greater recall of parenting by lying in childhood was associated with more frequent lying to parents in adulthood, and more frequent lying to parents was significantly associated with increased psychosocial adjustment problems and psychopathic traits in adulthood in Turkey. Finally, Paper 3 finds a positive association between parenting by lying and children’s lying in both parent-reports and child lying in a lab paradigm in Canada.

Collectively, these studies offer novel insights into the role of parents in children’s moral socialization. Future studies should adopt experimental and longitudinal studies to further parenting by lying research.

Sub Unit

• Moral Development

Chairs

• Peipei Setoh, Nanyang Technological University

• Kang Lee, University of Toronto

Individual Presentations

• Parents with Greater Religiosity Lie Less to Their Children - Presenting Author: Siqi Zhao, New York University; Non-Presenting Author: Peipei Setoh, Nanyang Technological University; Non-Presenting Author: Rachel Jackson, University of Toronto; Non-Presenting Author: Gail D Heyman, University of California - San Diego; Non-Presenting Author: Kang Lee, University of Toronto

• Parenting by Lying in Turkey: Associations with Negative Psychosocial Outcomes and Psychopathy in Adulthood - Non-Presenting Author: Rachel Jackson, University of Toronto; Presenting Author: Muge Ekerim-Akbulut, Istanbul 29 Mayis University; Non-Presenting Author: Sarah Zanette, University of Regina; Non-Presenting Author: Bilge Selcuk, Koç Üniversitesi; Non-Presenting Author: Kang Lee, University of Toronto

• Parenting by Lying and its Relation to Lying and Psychosocial Adjustment Difficulties in Children - Presenting Author: Rachel Jackson, University of Toronto; Non-Presenting Author: Sarah Zanette, University of Regina; Non-Presenting Author: Gail D Heyman, University of California - San Diego; Non-Presenting Author: Kang Lee, University of Toronto