The Good Parent: Southern Italian Mothers’ Conceptualization of Good Parenting and Parent-Child Relationships

• In Event: 3-017 - Parents' ethnotheories of the nature, causes and management of child adjustment outcomes

Integrative Statement

Parents play a significant role in children’s early development because they regulate the majority of children’s social experiences and help children adapt to the world around them (Bornstein, 2006). However, despite the demonstrated importance of positive parenting practices, few studies have examined what constitutes appropriate or good parenting from the perspective of their principal actors, such as mothers. Moreover, childrearing goals and practices are influenced by the cultural context (Bornstein, 2012), and caregivers come to understand what is expected of good parents according to the characteristics and skills that are considered important for successful adults to possess within their specific context (Pedersen, 2016). Italy is a country with contrasting characteristics; although it is a Western society, the southern regions like Sicily have particularly maintained its rural and agricultural nature. Consequently, Sicilyoffers a unique context to explore the intermixing of traditional and contemporary cultural values, as reflected in the socialization of children.

Thus, the aim of the present study was to explore conceptualizations of a good parent and a good parent-child relationship of Sicilian mothers through focus groups. Considering the more familistic and religious nature of Sicilian culture based on its agricultural roots, we expected that mothers would emphasize defining a good parent in terms of one who socializes values such as obedience, discipline and control. Relatedly, a good parent-child relationship was expected to be characterized by interdependence and respect for parents.

The participants included 30 Sicilian (southern Italian) mothers, ranging in age between 30 and 46 years old (Mage = 37.61 years, SD = 3.97), with 4- to-5-year-old children (Mage = 4.47 years, SD = .51) participated in one of seven focus groups. Mothers were asked to discuss the characteristics of a good parent (including goals and practices), and a good-parent children relationship. Approximately 35% of these participants had university degrees, more than 48% had high school diplomas, and the remaining elementary or middle-school education. More than half the mothers were housewives, 96% were married, and 54.8% had only one child. The discussions were transcribed and analyzed using the constant comparative analysis (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Padgett, 1998), in which the data were evaluated by grouping them into themes. Each group’s transcripts were coded separately and then examined together to ensure coherence of the themes across the groups.

Two major themes, discipline and affection, with seven further subthemes emerged from the discussions surrounding the characteristics of a good parent. Sicilian mothers mostly expressed that control, discipline and demandingness were imperative and prioritized over warmth and responsiveness. Three themes emerged in describing a good parent-child relationship. Despite the importance given to demandingness, a good parent-child relationship was predominantly described as the result of a balance between love and control, mainly based on communication, confidence and respect. Our findings can be interpreted within the collectivistic, and familistic nature of Sicilian society, in which parents tend to value interdependence among family members and obedience towards parents, and respect for family is considered good and necessary for children’s positive development.

Authors

• Maria Grazia Lo Cricchio, University of Palermo
  Presenting Author

• Alida Lo Coco, University of Palermo
  Non-Presenting Author

• Charissa S. L. Cheah, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
  Non-Presenting Author

• Francesca Liga, University of Messina
  Non-Presenting Author