Poster #146 - Parental Criticism and High Expectations: Implications for Psychological Functioning Among Upper-Middle Class Adolescents

• In Event: 3-159 - Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Background
Despite assumptions that family affluence would constitute a low-risk environment with respect to offspring well-being, there is replicated evidence that these youth experience clinically significant mental health problems at rates that significantly exceed national norms (Luthar & Barkin, 2012; Luthar, Barkin, & Crossman, 2013). Although wealth and achievement are central to the development of such problems among these youth (Lund & Dearing, 2012), the pressure to achieve can accumulate from multiple sources, including youth-perceived parental values (Ciciolla, Curlee, Karageorge, & Luthar, 2016). The current study, which involved a sample of high school students from a high-achieving, affluent area, investigated associations between psychological functioning and adolescent perceptions of maternal and paternal criticism and expectations. To build on past research, which focused on the negative outcomes associated with maternal factors (Asselmann, Wittchen, Lieb, & Beesdo-Baum, 2015; Berg-Nielsen et al., 2002), this study assessed separate perceptions of mothers and fathers; that is, we propose specific consideration of how paternal factors may buffer or exacerbate the consequences associated with maternal factors.

Methods
Self-report data was acquired from a sample of 710 adolescents from an upper-middle class community (mean age = 16.7 years; 45.1% female). Participants completed self-report measures assessing their perceptions of criticism and expectations from their mothers and fathers as well as internalizing and externalizing problems that they experience. Both variable-centered and person-centered analyses were used to characterize associations between adolescent perceptions of parents and psychological functioning. Multiple regression evaluated how adolescent-reported maternal and paternal criticism and expectations, as well as their interaction, was associated with internalizing and externalizing problems. We will also eventually employ latent profile analysis to discern empirically-distinct classes of adolescents based on their reports of maternal and paternal criticism and expectations. Class differences in internalizing and externalizing problems will then be characterized. Adolescent gender differences in their perceptions of parents and their experience of psychological problems will also be tested.

Results
Preliminary results indicate that adolescent perceptions of criticism from both mothers and fathers were positively associated with youth self-reported internalizing and externalizing problems. In addition, perceived paternal expectations positively predicted internalizing and externalizing problems, whereas perceived maternal expectations did not. Ongoing analyses characterizing individual-level patterns with latent profile analysis will characterize common configurations of reported parental criticism and expectations within the sample and outcomes associated with these subgroups.

Conclusions
The current study will inform how maternal and paternal factors influence the pressure to achieve that many adolescents from successful, affluent communities experience. Findings will help elucidate the contributions of adolescent-reported parental criticism and expectations to negative psychological outcomes. This study will also build on existing literature by exploring differential associations for mothers and fathers as well as daughters and sons. As upper-middle class adolescents have been identified as a group at high risk for mental health problems, ongoing research that identifies factors related to this risk, like the current study, will be important to prevent and reduce negative outcomes among this group of youth.

Authors

• Kelsey Stiles, University of California, Los Angeles
  Presenting Author

• Steve Lee, University of California, Los Angeles
  Non-Presenting Author

• Suniya S Luthar, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author