Parental psychological control and children's self-esteem: A longitudinal investigation in children with and without oppositional defiant problems

Oppositional defiant problems are among the most prevalent psychological problems among children and adolescents from China and across the world. Still little is understood about how self-esteem, in conjunction with parenting experiences, develops in children with oppositional defiant problems. We addressed this gap of knowledge in a two-year longitudinal study. Specifically, we explored how parental psychological control predicts children's self-esteem levels over time, and in turn, how children's self-esteem levels predict parental psychological control. We collected data in Chinese children (ages 8 to 13 at T1) with (N = 224) and without (N = 217) oppositional defiant problems, and tested three-wave cross-lagged panel models. Multigroup analyses showed that the associations between parental psychological control and children's self-esteem were the same for children with and without oppositional defiant problems. Results for the total sample revealed bi-directional associations between maternal psychological control and children's self-esteem. Children who perceived more psychological control from their mothers were likely to exhibit lower self-esteem over time, and vice versa, children with lower self-esteem were likely to perceive more maternal psychological control over time. Conversely, a unidirectional paternal effect was observed in father-child dyads. Our findings help understand the parent-child dynamics that shape the psychological development of children with oppositional defiant problems.

Are All Negotiations Equally Favorable? The Role of Adolescents' Negotiation Style, Social Domain, and Mothers' Authoritarian Beliefs and Family History

Although negotiation is generally considered an adaptive means for adolescents to express disagreement in the parent-child relationship, previous research on the correlates of adolescents' negotiation has reported rather mixed results. This may be because parents do not always positively appraise and respond to adolescents' negotiation. The key aim of the present study was to better understand variability in mothers' appraisals and responses to adolescents' negotiation attempts. This was done by examining whether their appraisals and responses vary as a function of adolescents' negotiation style, social domain, and mothers' personal characteristics (i.e., authoritarian beliefs and their own history of being parented). A total of 476 mothers of 9th and 10th grade adolescents in Belgium (Mage mothers = 44.93 years old, SD = 4.07; Mage adolescents = 14.88, SD = 0.75, 51.7% boys) participated in a vignette-based experimental study. Mothers completed questionnaires assessing authoritarian beliefs and their own history of being parented, and read a vignette-based scenario depicting an adolescent's negotiation attempt. Using a between-person 2 × 2 design, adolescents' negotiation style (autonomy-supportive versus controlling) and social domain (personal versus multifaceted) were experimentally manipulated. Mothers were more likely to positively appraise and respond in more constructive ways if adolescents adopted an autonomy-supportive instead of a controlling negotiation style, and when the situation involved a personal rather than a multifaceted issue. Mothers with high authoritarian beliefs and those with a history of being parented in a psychologically controlling way, had a more negative attitude towards adolescents' negotiation. Overall, the results suggest that the success of adolescents' negotiation depends on how, about what, and with whom they negotiate.

Understanding Strengths in Adolescent-Parent Relationships: A Qualitative Analysis of Adolescent Speech Samples

Although adolescents' perspective on the parent-adolescent relationship uniquely predicts their mental health and wellbeing, there is limited research using qualitative methodologies to explore rich descriptions of adolescents' expectations, attitudes, and beliefs towards parents. The current study qualitatively analyzed adolescent narratives regarding their relationships with their parents. Seventy-two adolescents (68% female; M age = 16.56) provided three-minute speech samples that were examined using thematic analysis to understand key themes in adolescent-parent relationships from adolescents' perspectives. Overall, adolescents valued positive relationships with parents (involving emotional support and companionship), respected their authority, and looked to parents to role-model-valued traits. Mentions of negative interactions were mostly absent or justified as normal. Thus, normative adolescent-parent relationships are largely positive and valued by adolescents.

Association between Parental Feeding Styles and Excess Weight, and Its Mediation by Diet, in Costa Rican Adolescents

Background. Whereas parental feeding styles (PFS) influence children’s diet, less is known about this relationship in adolescents. Methods. A cross-sectional study in 686 Costa Rican adolescents (13–18 years) evaluated 4 validated PFS scores: healthy eating verbal encouragement; scolding; directly controlling diet; instrumental/emotional. Diet was evaluated through 3-day food records, deriving a Traditional Costa Rica Adolescents Diet Score (TCRAD). Excess weight (EW) measured by BMI was dichotomized following standards. Regression-based mediation analysis estimated the overall and sex-stratified odds ratios of EW for natural direct (NDE), natural indirect (NIE), and total effects (TE) of the pathway PFS→TCRAD→EW. Results. A one-unit increase in the direct control PFS score was associated with higher EW odds overall [(TE: 1.55; 95% CI: 1.04–2.31; p-value = 0.033), (NDE: 1.52; 95% CI: 1.02–2.27; p-value = 0.039)], and in boys [(TE: 2.13; 95% CI: 1.04–4.38; p-value = 0.039), (NDE: 2.10; 95% CI: 1.03–4.31; p-value = 0.042)]. Non-significant mediation by TCRAD was observed for the healthy eating verbal encouragement PFS overall (p-value = 0.06). Associations for the instrumental/emotional and scolding PFS were not significant. Conclusions. Direct diet control from parents may contribute to adolescents’ excess weight, particularly among boys. Parents encouraging healthy eating might support adolescents’ healthy weight through a healthy diet. Longitudinal research should clarify the association between PFS and diet-related outcomes among diverse adolescents.

How Do Adolescents Manage Information in the Relationship with Their Parents? A Latent Class Analysis of Disclosure, Keeping Secrets, and Lying

The use of disclosure and concealment strategies by adolescents in the relationship with their parents may have important implications for their adjustment. Few studies of adolescents' information management have taken a person-centered approach, yet it is a useful way to understand variations in how they regulate information shared with their parents. This study explored adolescents' information management constellations with their mothers and fathers, and how these patterns differ in terms of perceived need-supportive parenting, autonomous reasons for disclosure, and problematic alcohol use. Three hundred thirty-two Swiss adolescents (45% female; M_age = 15.01 years) reported information management strategies used with each parent (disclosure, keeping secrets, lying), perceptions of maternal and paternal need-supportive parenting (involvement, autonomy support, structure), autonomous reasons for disclosure, and problematic alcohol use. Latent class analyses revealed three classes: Reserved (37%), Communicators (36%), and Deceptive (27%). Comparisons across classes showed that adolescents in the Communicators class reported the highest levels of parental involvement and autonomy support, as well as autonomous reasons for disclosure. Adolescents in the Deceptive class reported the lowest levels of parental involvement and autonomy support, as well as autonomous reasons for disclosure. Associations between classes and problematic alcohol use were also found, such that the likelihood of problem drinking was greater for adolescents in the Deceptive class. These findings underscore the importance of continued information sharing with both parents, and underline how a need-supportive parenting context may encourage adolescents to talk voluntarily.

Ambivalence towards the Protection of Refugee Children: A Developmental Relational Approach

In this paper we analyze the contemporary ambivalence to child migration identified by Jacqueline Bhabha and propose a developmental relational approach that repositions child refugees as active participants and rights-bearers in society. Ambivalence involves tensions between protection of refugee children and protection of national borders, public services and entrenched images. Unresolved ambivalence supports failures to honor the rights of refugee children according to international law and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. There is failure to protect and include them in national public services and in international coordination of public health and wellbeing. We identify misrepresentations of childhood and refugeeness that lie behind ambivalence and the equitable organization and delivery of public services for health and wellbeing. With illustrative studies, we propose a developmental relational framework for understanding refugee children’s contributions in the sociocultural environment. Contrary to the image of passive victims, refugee children interact with other people and institutions in the co-construction of situated encounters. A developmental relational understanding of children’s ‘co-actions’ in the social environment provides a foundation for addressing misrepresentations of childhood and refugeeness that deny refugee children protection and inclusion as rights-bearers. We point to directions in research and practice to recognize their rights to thrive and contribute to society.

Mothers’ Perspectives on Resistance and Defiance in Middle Childhood: Promoting Autonomy and Social Skill

This study explored mothers’ perceptions of their children’s resistance to their requests and defiance of parental authority during middle childhood and early adolescence. We were interested in parental perceptions of change in resistance, their interpretations of the meaning of resistance, and parental responses to these behaviors. Forty Canadian mothers of children 9–13 years of age participated for one week in a study focused on parents’ experiences of children’s resistance and opposition. Procedures consisted of a qualitative analysis of mothers’ reports from a five-day event diary and a 1 h semi-structured interview. Mothers reported developmental changes in the quantity and quality of children’s resistance to parental requests and expectations. Most mothers reported increasing displays of defiance and direct and indirect expressions of attitude but also noted changes in the skill with which children expressed resistance. Mothers interpreted children’s resistance as annoying but normal expressions of children’s developing autonomy. Mothers supported children’s right to expression of agency through resistance but attempted to channel children’s resistance toward socially competent expressions of assertiveness. The findings have implications for a relational perspective on autonomy-supportive parenting and parents’ goals for children’s developing social competence in the 21st century.

How do adolescents deal with intrusive parenting? The role of coping with psychologically controlling parenting in internalizing and externalizing problems

INTRODUCTION

While research has shown convincingly that psychologically controlling parenting increases the risk for internalizing and externalizing problems among adolescents, little is known about how adolescents cope with such parenting. This study examined the role of two non-autonomous ways of coping (i.e., compulsive compliance and oppositional defiance) and one more autonomous way of coping (i.e., negotiation) in the associations between psychologically controlling parenting and internalizing and externalizing problems.

METHOD

Two-wave data from a larger longitudinal study with Belgian adolescents (N = 198; 51% female; mean age = 14.89 years, range = 13-17 years) were analyzed using multilevel modeling.

RESULTS

The results showed that oppositional defiance exacerbated associations between psychologically controlling parenting and externalizing problems at the between-person level of analysis. Both compulsive compliance and negotiation exacerbated the association with internalizing problems at the within-person level. In addition to these moderating effects, both oppositional defiance and negotiation played a partly mediating role in associations between psychologically controlling parenting and externalizing problems and oppositional defiance partly mediated associations between psychologically controlling parenting and internalizing problems at the between-person level.

CONLUSION

Overall, results suggest that oppositional defiance and compulsive compliance are rather dysfunctional coping responses and that negotiation is a mixed blessing. Directions for future research are discussed.

Developmental Changes in Secrecy During Middle Adolescence: Links with Alcohol Use and Perceived Controlling Parenting

Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by fundamental transformations in parent-child communication. Although a normative shift in adolescents' secrecy seems to occur in parallel to changes in their drinking behaviors and in their perceptions of the relationship with their parents, relatively little attention has been paid to their associations over time. The present longitudinal study examined the associations between developmental changes in adolescents' secrecy, alcohol use, and perceptions of controlling parenting during middle adolescence, using a latent growth curve approach. At biannual intervals for two consecutive years, a sample of 473 Swiss adolescents (64.7% girls) beginning their last year of mandatory school (mean age at Time 1 = 14.96) completed self-report questionnaires about secrecy, alcohol use, and perceived controlling parenting. The results of the univariate models showed mean level increases in secrecy and alcohol use, but stable levels in controlling parenting over time. The results of a parallel-process model indicated that higher initial levels of secrecy were associated with higher initial levels of alcohol use and perceived controlling parenting, while an increase in secrecy was associated with an increase in alcohol use and an increase in perceived controlling parenting over time. In addition, adolescents who reported the lowest initial levels of perceived controlling parenting showed a greater increase in secrecy over time and those with high initial levels of secrecy reported a relative decrease in perceived controlling parenting. Finally, adolescents with the lowest initial levels of alcohol use experienced a greater increase in secrecy. Overall, these results indicate that the development of adolescents' secrecy is associated with the development of their drinking habits and perceptions of family relationships in dynamic ways.

The Rights of Refugee Children and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

Refugee children are identified as rights-bearers by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), but their rights are not uniformly honored in the policies and practices of contemporary states. How the CRC’s safeguards for refugee children’s rights are honored depends partly on what it means to be ‘a refugee child’ and partly on how the claims of refugee children’s rights are recognized, respected, and implemented in international and national legal and bureaucratic systems. We examine the CRC’s affirmation of the rights of the child and analyze the CRC’s articles in relation to the rights related to the life circumstances of refugee children and state responsibilities. Following an analysis of resistance to the CRC’s mandates by contemporary states, we relate refugee children’s rights to their refugee and developmental experiences and argue for repositioning refugee children into the center of protection dialogue and practice, internationally and nationally.

Support of adolescents to resist peer pressure and coercion to sexual activity

AIM

The aim of this study was to explore and describe how peer pressure and coercion to sexual activity manifested among adolescents in a district in South African and how primary healthcare nurses could support them to resist it.

BACKGROUND

When adolescents engage in early sexual activity, unplanned pregnancies and sexual transmitted infections become health threats. Notwithstanding the governmental health promotion programmes to improve the sexual health of the youth in South Africa, adolescents are still having unprotected sex and even multiple sex partners.

METHODS

A constructivist grounded theory study was done. The initial sample consisted of 10 adolescents and nine professional nurses who were selected from six primary healthcare clinics in the identified district. Constant comparative data collection and analysis were done to identify the initial codes that were theoretically saturated through another round of data collection and analysis involving five participants (four professional nurses and one health educator).

FINDINGS

The findings of the study refer to the definition of peer pressure and coercion and the relationship between professional nurses and adolescents. Ways to optimize the relationship in order for nurses to substitute for parental shortcomings in guiding adolescents towards responsible sexual behaviour and to address the adolescents' vulnerability regarding peer pressure were identified.

CONCLUSION

Challenging adolescent-nurse interaction incidents were identified that warranted different approaches to build on existing initiatives to improve adolescent-friendly health services.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE AND POLICY

Primary healthcare nurses should perform complementary roles to substitute for parents who do not have the skills to guide their adolescent children towards responsible sexual behaviour. Programmes need to be developed to enable nurses to optimize their relationships with adolescents and to deliver services through mobile healthcare units to adolescents where they regular socialize. Management should provide budgets for nurses to use multimedia to interact with adolescents.

Jamaican Mothers' Perceptions of Children's Strategies for Resisting Parental Rules and Requests

Research on Jamaican socialization of children has primarily focused on parental discipline practices. Little is known about children's responses to parental attempts to control their behavior. The present study investigated mothers' perceptions of children's strategies for resisting their rules and requests. Thirty mothers living in Kingston and St. Andrew, Jamaica, participated in a 1- to 1.5-h semi-structured, open-ended interview regarding their 8- to 12-year-old children. Mothers reported that their children's resistance strategies included assertive refusal, arguing, ignoring/avoiding, attitude, and negotiation. Most mothers disapproved of their children's actions and responded with power-assertive strategies such as physical punishment, psychological control, forced compliance, and threats. Few mothers responded with autonomy support strategies including accommodation and reasoning. The findings provided insight into the ways Jamaican children use their agency to protect their autonomy despite their mothers' greater power, and the relational nature of children's influence on their mothers' behaviors and reactions. More research is needed to expand our knowledge of child agency in Afro-Caribbean families and the various ways that parents may support their growing autonomy that is socially constructive.

Deconstructing noncompliance: parental experiences of children's challenging behaviours in a clinical sample

PURPOSE

This study explored the phenomenon of children's nonconforming behaviours from the perspective of parents who sought clinical services for children's severe noncompliance.

METHOD

Mothers from 25 families who accessed clinical services were interviewed about their relationship with their children aged 8-13 and their experiences of their children's challenging behaviours.

RESULTS

Mothers distinguished two different types of challenging behaviour: normative resistance and extreme aggression. Mothers described normative resistance as an expected part of children's developing autonomy and treated resistance with behavioural management strategies. Mothers also described occasions when children displayed emotionally dis-regulated extreme aggression, which were consistent with clinical descriptions of children's difficult to manage behaviour.

CONCLUSION

Contrary to clinical recommendations mothers used relational strategies to reconnect children with their agency. The distinction between two different child behaviours, and strategies for each challenging behaviours have theoretical and practical implications.

Flirting with resistance: children's expressions of autonomy during middle childhood

PURPOSE

Developmental research suggests that children's early non-compliance can be understood as "resistance", an agentic response to parental control where children express their autonomy within a close relationship context. Research with toddlers and adolescents suggests that children's resistance strategies can be differentiated using the dimensions of assertiveness, social skill, and overt versus covert expression. This study explores children's strategies for expressing resistance during the neglected period of middle childhood.

METHOD

Forty children, 9-13 years of age, participated for 1 week in a study focused on children's experiences of socialization and parent-child relationships. Procedures included a 5-day event diary, and a 1-hour semi-structured interview about the rules and expectations in their home and their strategies of resistance.

RESULTS

Thematic analysis identified a rich repertoire of strategies for resisting unwelcome parental demands. These included overt resistance, such as negotiation, argument, and expressions of non-acceptance and covert resistance such as covert transgressions and cognitive non-acceptance of parental demands when compelled to comply.

CONCLUSION

The findings were interpreted as reflecting children's development of assertiveness and social skill as they expressed their autonomy in the interpersonal context of the interdependent but asymmetrical relationship with their parents.

Time to re-think picky eating?: a relational approach to understanding picky eating

Background

Estimates of picky eating are quite high among young children, with 14-50% of parents identifying their preschoolers as picky eaters. Dietary intake and preferences during the preschool years are characterized by slowing growth rates and children developing a sense of autonomy over their feeding and food selection. We argue that the current conceptualization of picky eating defines acts of resistance or expressions of preference (acts of autonomy) by a child as deviant behaviour. This conceptualization has guided research that uses a unidirectional, parent to child approach to understanding parent-child feeding interactions.

Objectives

By reviewing the current feeding literature and drawing parallels from the rich body of child socialization literature, we argue that there is a need to both re-examine the concept and parent/clinician perspectives on picky eating. Thus, the objective of this paper is two-fold: 1) We argue for a reconceptualization of picky eating whereby child agency is considered in terms of eating preferences rather than categorized as compliant or non-compliant behaviour, and 2) We advocate the use of bi-directional relational models of causality and appropriate methodology to understanding the parent-child feeding relationship.

Discussion

Researchers are often interested in understanding how members in the parent-child dyad affect one another. Although many tend to focus on the parent to child direction of these associations, findings from child socialization research suggest that influence is bidirectional and non-linear such that parents influence the actions and cognitions of children and children influence the actions and cognitions of parents. Bi-directional models of causality are needed to correctly understand parent-child feeding interactions.

Conclusions

A reconceptualization of picky eating may elucidate the influence that parental feeding practices and child eating habits have on each other. This may allow health professionals to more effectively support parents in developing healthy eating habits among children, reducing both stress around mealtimes and concerns of picky eating.

When Do Adolescents Accept or Defy to Maternal Prohibitions? The Role of Social Domain and Communication Style

Drawing upon both Social-Cognitive Domain Theory and Self-Determination Theory, the goal of the present multi-informant study was to test whether the correlates of maternal prohibitions depend on what is prohibited (i.e., the content of the social domain involved), thereby contrasting moral with friendship prohibitions, as well on how the prohibition is communicated, thereby contrasting an autonomy-supportive with a controlling communication style. In a sample of adolescents (N = 196; mean age = 13.9 years; 63 % female) and their mothers (N = 185; mean age = 44 years), we first examined mean-level differences between the two domains in terms of mothers' degree and style of prohibition, as well as on a number of developmental outcomes (i.e., adolescents' legitimacy perceptions, internalization, and oppositional defiance). Both adolescents and mothers reported more maternal involvement in the moral domain (e.g., higher scores for degree of prohibition and controlling communication style). In addition, adolescents reported greater perceived legitimacy and less oppositional defiance in the moral domain (as compared to the friendships domain). Second, we tested whether associations between degree and style of prohibition and the developmental outcomes were moderated by social domain. Whereas associations between degree of prohibition and developmental outcomes either were non-significant or moderated by domain, the associations with communication style were more domain-invariant, with an autonomy-supportive style generally yielding an adaptive pattern of correlates and with a controlling style relating to maladaptive outcomes. The discussion focuses on similarities and differences in the characteristics and correlates of both types of prohibitions.

Helping Parents With Chores or Going Out With Friends: Cultural Differences in Adolescents’ Responses to Potentially Conflicting Expectations of Parents and Peers

The study examined cultural similarities and differences in how adolescents deal with conflicting expectations of parents and peers. It was tested to what extent adolescents’ interdependence values and satisfaction with family and friendships predict the way they would solve the disagreement, where they had planned to go out with friends, but their parents wanted them to stay at home to do chores. Moreover, adolescents’ reasons for their reported actions were examined. The sample included 894 Estonian, German, and Russian adolescents ( M age around 15 years). Russian adolescents were more likely than their Estonian and German peers to comply with parents’ requests. This was possibly due to interdependence values being more important for them. Satisfaction with family relationships and friendships was not linked to adolescents’ compliance. Adolescents from all cultures were similar in terms of suggesting self-oriented reasons for noncompliance, while Estonian and German adolescents expressed their need for autonomy more explicitly. Russian adolescents were, however, more oriented to maintaining good relationships with parents and friends, respectively, in their reasons for compliance and noncompliance. They were also less likely to suggest compromise.

Parenting adolescent drivers is both a continuation of parenting from earlier periods and an anticipation of a new challenge

Greater parental involvement in the driving process and greater parent-imposed limits on novice adolescent drivers hold promise for reducing driving fatalities. However, relatively little is known about why some parents are more involved in the driving process than others. Driving-specific parenting may be both a continuation of established patterns of parenting and a response to a novel developmental task. Adolescents (n=242, M age 15.4 years, 49% male) who were enrolled in a drivers' education courses and their parents (n=276, 70% mothers) completed questionnaires reporting pre-driving parenting styles and monitoring behaviors; the adolescents' previous driving experiences; perceptions of risks for novice adolescent drivers; attitudes regarding parental involvement; and expected levels of limit-setting and autonomy attainment once adolescents begins driving. Parents' and adolescents' involvement attitudes and expectations for limits on driving and autonomy attainment were linked in multivariate models with established patterns of parenting and perceptions of risk. The discussion emphasizes implications for prevention and intervention efforts to increase parental involvement and limits.