Right-wing authoritarianism,political affiliation,religiosity, and their relation to psychological androgyny

The authoritarian personality is characterized by a traditional attitude towards gender roles that reflects its conservative ideology [T. W. Adorno, E. Frenkel-Brunswik, D. J. Levinson, and R. N. Sanford (1950) The Authoritarian Personality, New York: Norton]. The present study investigated the relationship between S. L. Bem's [(1974) sex roles The Measurement of Psychological Androgyny, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Vol. 42, pp. 155–162], on the one hand, and right-wing authoritarianism [RWA; B. Altemeyer (1988) Enemies of Freedom: Understanding Right-Wing Authoritarianism, San Francisco], political affiliation, and religiosity level, on the other. Subjects were 365 Jewish undergraduate students (227 women and 138 men) at a number of universities; 81 were second generation Israelis, 90 were children of Ashkenazic parents, 75 were children of Sephardic parents, and 113 were children of parents from mixed background. They completed Altemeyer's RWA scale and a shortened version of Bem's Sex Role Inventory. Political affiliation and religiosity level (variables strongly linked to the authoritarian personality theory) were also measured. Among women, the RWA mean score of the cross-sex typed subjects was significantly lower than that of the sex-typed and the undifferentiated subjects, and most of the cross-sex typed women supported the political left and defined themselves as secular, while among men, no statistically significant RWA, political affiliation, and religiosity differences were found between Bem's four personality types. These results highlight gender differences in the relationships between authoritarian personality and gender-role identification. While it seems that cross-sex-typed women tend to rebel against the status quo, the question of why similar patterns do not appear among men still remains open to speculation.     

Enforcing Social Conformity: A Theory of Authoritarianism

Fifty years after the publication of The Authoritarian Personality, the empirical literature on authoritarianism continues to grow even though there is no widely accepted theory to account for the phenomenon. The absence of a secure theoretical grounding severely limits our understanding of authoritarianism. This paper offers a new conceptualization in which authoritarian predispositions originate in the conflict between the values of social conformity and personal autonomy. Prejudice and intolerance should be observed among those who value social conformity and perceive a threat to social cohesion. These hypotheses were tested with a sample of undergraduate students; the questionnaire included new measures of the dimension of social conformity–autonomy as well as items from Altemeyer's RWA (right–wing authoritarianism) scale.     

Right‐Wing Authoritarianism: Protective Factor Against or Risk Factor for Depression?

Because the authoritarian personality was introduced to explain the rise of fascism during World War II, research focused on its ability to predict prejudice, leaving its associations with well‐being largely unexplored. Studies that did examine these associations yielded inconsistent results, and some authors even argued that authoritarianism buffers against the negative effects of psychological vulnerability factors (i.e. D‐type personality) and negative life events on well‐being, especially among people in an authoritarian environment. Using a cross‐sectional community sample (N = 1010), Study 1 failed to support the idea that authoritarianism relates to depressive symptoms and buffers against the negative effects of D‐type personality on depressive symptoms. Using a longitudinal college student sample (N = 499), Study 2 showed that authoritarianism did not moderate the effects of life events either and even predicted over‐time increases in depressive symptoms. Using a longitudinal high school sample (N = 590), Study 3 showed that this effect emerged regardless of degree of fit with the social environment (i.e. with family and friends). Taken together, results suggest that authoritarianism constitutes a risk factor for rather than a protective factor against depressive symptoms. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Parenting styles and learned resourcefulness of Turkish adolescents

This study investigated the differences among 834 high school students regarding learned resourcefulness in terms of perceived parenting style and gender. The data were gathered by administering the Parenting Style Inventory (PSI) and Rosenbaum's Self-Control Schedule (SCS). The results of ANOVA pertaining to the scores of learned resourcefulness yielded a significant main effect for parenting style groups. Neither the main effect for gender nor the gender and parenting style interaction effect was significant. The findings suggest that those who perceived their parents as authoritative had a relatively high level of learned resourcefulness as compared to those who perceived their parents as neglectful and authoritarian. Findings also indicated that those who perceived their parents as indulgent had a higher level of learned resourcefulness than those who perceived their parents as neglectful and authoritarian.     

Family adjustment,parental attitudes,and social desirability

This study examines the role of social desirability response set on the report of marital adjustment, child adjustment, and parenting attitudes. Results from 69 married couples closely replicate previous self-report findings suggesting that the more positive the report of marital adjustment, the fewer the number of child problem behaviors endorsed by parents (r = -.19(69), p less than .05). When social desirability is controlled, however, the marital-child adjustment relationship is nonsignificant. Previous reports of a global relationship between marital and child adjustment may have been inflated by individual differences in willingness to endorse problems on self-report measures. Parenting attitudes are not associated with social desirability or marital adjustment. Warmth, but not authoritarianism, is negatively correlated with child behavior problems in the home (r = -.25(69), p less than .01). The authors propose that family interaction research use a multimethod strategy to focus on circumscribed variables that influence marital and parenting behavior.     

Using Structural Equation Modeling and Multidimensional Scaling to Assess Female College Students’ Academic Adjustment as a Function of Perceived Parenting Styles

One understudied aspect of first-year students' transition to college is their relationship with their parents. This study investigated the relationship between three parenting styles (authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative) and adjustment to college life of Palestinian-Arab young females. The aims of the study were to measure Palestinian-Arab females' perceptions of their parents' parenting styles and the set of connections between these perceptions and adjustment to college constructs. This study used repeated measures analysis, structural equation modeling (SEM) and smallest space analysis (SSA, a variant of multidimensional scaling MDS) statistical methods to compute the complex relationships indicated in previous research between the examined variables. Repeated measures analysis results showed that the participants perceived their parents as more authoritative than permissive or authoritarian. With regard to the authoritative parenting, the path model and the SSA solution indicated different results. Only the SSA has confirmed the postulated connection between authoritative parenting style and academic adjustment, for both parental structures. Both statistical methods showed a positive connection between the authoritarian parenting style and academic maladjustment. Permissive parenting style was not found to be related to positive or negative adjustment to college. Interpretation of these results, their congruence within the context of the theoretical frameworks and practical implications are discussed.     

Perceptions of family relations when mothers and fathers are depicted with different parenting styles

College students (N = 125) reported their perceptions of family relations in response to vignettes that presented 5 different parenting styles. Participants viewed family relations as most positive when parents were portrayed as authoritative or permissive and as most negative when parents were portrayed as uninvolved-neglecting or authoritarian. Student gender and parent gender effects qualified these findings. Female students reported family relations to be less positive than did male students when parents were depicted as authoritarian or as uninvolved-neglecting, and they rated family relations more positively than did male students when parents were depicted as permissive. Participants viewed family relations as more positive when mothers rather than fathers were presented as permissive and when fathers rather than mothers were depicted as authoritarian. The authors discuss the findings of the study in relation to theories of beliefs about children and implications for future parenting styles of male and female college students.     

On perceived conflicts between religion and science: the role of fundamentalism and right-wing authoritarianism

Volunteers from fundamentalist churches and a Psychology of Religion class (N = 77) completed Altemeyer and Hunsberger's 1992 Fundamentalism Scale, Altemeyer's 1988 Right-wing Authoritarianism Scale, and answered questions about science, religion, and their relationship. Scores on the scales were highly positively correlated. Neither orientation correlated with seeing science as improving life, and both correlated with being troubled by newer developments in science such as organ transplants or genetic engineering. Partial correlations showed that both orientations favored religious beliefs over scientific data when there was a perceived conflict. Three subscales of right-wing authoritarianism clarified how authoritarianism correlated with other measures, thereby supporting a multidimensional conceptualization of right-wing authoritarianism.     

Authoritarianism and sociopolitical attitudes in response to threats of terror

The relationship between threat and authoritarianism in relation to support for democratic values and military aggression was examined. Participants completed Altemeyer's Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale, read a scenario concerning 9/11/01 that was either threatening or nonthreatening, and completed the Democratic Values Scale and the Militarism Scale. Simple linear regressions indicate RWA scores contributed significant variation to Democratic Value Scale scores (43% of the variance) and Militarism Scale Scores (22% of the variance). There was a significant difference in the contribution of RWA scores between the threatening and nonthreatening conditions on the Democratic Values Scale (34% and 17%, respectively). These results suggest that in the presence of threat, there is increased activation of authoritarian responses.     

Elucidating The Etiology and Nature of Beliefs about Parenting Styles

This study was designed to investigate relationships among self‐reported and spouse‐reported beliefs about parenting styles, the characteristics of the individuals manifesting these styles, and the contextual characteristics of parenting. Demographic characteristics, life circumstances, family functioning, personality traits, ability indices, and parenting‐styles indicators were collected from a sample of 452 women and 293 men, all of whom were raising adolescents in contemporary Russia. Of the families studied, 275 were intact (i.e. consisted of married and cohabiting couples). It was found that individual characteristics and contextual characteristics (e.g. family functioning) together predicted about 20% of the variance in reported beliefs about parental styles of responsiveness and demandingness. Moreover, these variables discriminated about 65% of the parents reporting indulging, neglectful, authoritarian or authoritative beliefs about parenting. The percentage of explained variance doubled when beliefs about parenting styles of partners were placed in the model. Thus, in attempts to understand the etiology of parents’ beliefs about parenting styles, more attention should be given to beliefs about parenting styles of their spouses. It might be that beliefs about parenting styles emerge as a structure shared by spouses; they are mediated, but not solely determined, by the individual characteristics of parents and their children.     

Relations of Parenting Styles and Friendship Quality to Self-Esteem,Life Satisfaction and Happiness in Adolescents

This study aims to examine the effects of mother’s and father’s perceived parenting style and friendship quality on several indicators of adolescents’ well-being. High school students (n?=?401) completed scales assessing their perception of their mother’s and father’s parenting style (authoritarian, authoritative and permissive), quality of friendship, self-esteem, general satisfaction with life and subjective happiness. The results showed that the perceived parenting style of both parents as well as the quality of friendship had significant effects on adolescent’s well-being, while the interaction effects of friendship quality and either parent’s parenting style were not significant. Adolescents of authoritative and permissive mothers reported higher self-esteem and life satisfaction than adolescents who had authoritarian mothers. Also, adolescents who considered their mothers authoritative were happier than those with authoritarian mothers. Adolescents who perceived their fathers as authoritative or permissive showed higher results on all assessed indicators of well-being than adolescents whose fathers were authoritarian. Furthermore, adolescents with a higher quality of friendship reported more happiness, life-satisfaction and self-esteem. The obtained results highlight the importance of the role of parents and peers in fostering positive development in adolescence.     

Authoritarianism and Political Impoverishment: Deficits in Knowledge and Civic Disinterest

Past research shows that authoritarian individuals hold strong opinions about a variety of political and social issues, such as race relations and military conflict. What has not been established, though, is the amount of general political knowledge that authoritarians possess. In this study, three groups of college students were administered Altemeyer's Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) scale; most of them also received items assessing general political knowledge and specific knowledge about the 2000 presidential election, as well as items assessing interest in politics. Relative to students with low RWA scores, those with high scores possessed less political knowledge; moreover, they expressed less interest in learning about politics. In general, authoritarianism was unrelated to how individuals got their political information or how credible they found their sources. The implication that authoritarians hold strong attitudinal beliefs with weak political knowledge is discussed.     

Parenting Styles in a Cultural Context: Observations of "Protective Parenting" in First-Generation Latinos

Current literature presents four primary parenting styles: authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and neglectful. These styles provide an important shortcut for a constellation of parenting behaviors that have been characterized as consisting of warmth, demandingness, and autonomy granting. Empirically, only warmth and demandingness are typically measured. Research reporting on parenting styles in Latino samples has been equivocal leading to questions about conceptualization and measurement of parenting styles in this ethnic/cultural group. This lack of consensus may result from the chasm between concepts (e.g., authoritarian parenting) and observable parenting behaviors (e.g., warmth) in this ethnic group. The present research aimed to examine parenting styles and dimensions in a sample of Latino parents using the two usual dimensions (warmth, demandingness) and adding autonomy granting. Traditional parenting styles categories were examined, as well as additional categorizations that resulted from adding autonomy granting. Fifty first-generation Latino parents and their child (aged 4–9) participated. Parent–child interactions were coded with the Parenting Style Observation Rating Scale (P-SOS). In this sample, the four traditional parenting categories did not capture Latino families well. The combination of characteristics resulted in eight possible parenting styles. Our data showed the majority (61%) of Latino parents as "protective parents." Further, while mothers and fathers were similar in their parenting styles, expectations were different for male and female children. The additional dimensions and implications are discussed. The importance of considering the cultural context in understanding parenting in Latino families is emphasized, along with directions for future research.     

Parenting, achievement strategies and satisfaction in ice hockey

The aim of this study is to understand adolescent players' satisfaction as a function of parenting styles, players' achievement strategies, and their norm breaking behavior. Finnish 14- and 16-year-old ice-hockey players (n=1018) completed a questionnaire measuring their achievement strategies (SAQ; Nurmi, Salmela--Aro & Haavisto, 1995 b), as well as scales of norm breaking and satisfaction, prepared for the present study. The parents (n=979) filled in scales measuring their parenting styles (CRPR; Pulkkinen, 1996) and attitudes towards norm breaking. Results revealed that players from authoritative families who showed a high level of mastery-orientation expressed high satisfaction in playing ice hockey. Results also showed negative associations between authoritative parenting and both task irrelevant and norm breaking behavior. Parents with parental stress and those with authoritarian parenting styles showed positive attitudes to norm breaking behavior, and players from authoritarian and parental stress homes showed norm breaking behavior in ice hockey. There was no association between norm breaking behavior and player satisfaction. Our results contribute to the planning of a coaching system that serves more educational and developmental purposes, and that encourages the desire to play ice hockey as a hobby.     

Authoritarianism as a Group Phenomenon

A model of authoritarianism on a group level of analysis based on Duckitt's concept of authoritarianism is presented. This conceptualization is called group authoritarianism (GA), which is defined as the belief about the appropriate relationship that should exist between groups and their individual members. The process model of group authoritarianism connects traditional authoritarianism theories with the Social Identity Approach. According to this model group-authoritarianism reflects the situation-specific activation of an authoritarian disposition in group contexts. Thus, group authoritarianism provides a perspective according to which personality characteristics and general psychological mechanisms described by Social-Identity Theory (SIT) and Self-Categorization Theory (SCT) interact in predicting intergroup hostility and intergroup discrimination. This article describes the development of a group authoritarianism scale as well as an experimental study that tests the main assumption of the group authoritarianism process model. The results confirm the reliability and validity of the group authoritarianism scales and the main hypothesis of the group authoritarianism model.     

Longitudinal impact of parental and adolescent personality on parenting

This study provides a test of how personality may shape social behaviors in a long-lasting dyad: the parent-adolescent relationship. In a large Belgian community sample, it was examined which parent Big Five characteristics were related to parenting and whether adolescent Big Five characteristics elicited certain parenting behaviors. Further, the proposition that individual differences are amplified under stress was examined by exploring whether parent personality was differentially related to parenting for parents of "easy" versus "difficult" adolescents. Moreover, possible differences in associations across parental and adolescent gender were explored. Mothers (N = 467) and fathers (N = 428) reported on their personality using the Five-Factor Personality Inventory; adolescents (N = 475) assessed their personality with the Hierarchical Personality Inventory for Children. Two types of parenting behaviors, overreactive discipline and warmth, were assessed 2 years later by parent self-reports, partner reports, and adolescent reports, from which multi-informant latent factors were created. Results indicate that parental personality was more relevant than adolescent personality for explaining overreactivity, but parent and adolescent personality were similarly relevant in explaining warmth. Especially parental and adolescent Agreeableness and adolescent Extraversion were important predictors of both types of parenting. Associations between parental personality and parenting were similarly related to parents of easy versus difficult adolescents, and for mothers and fathers parenting daughters or sons. Together, results show that parent characteristics as well as adolescent characteristics importantly affect dysfunctional and adaptive parenting.     

How Variations in Parents’ Use of Confrontive and Coercive Control Relate to Variations in Parent–Adolescent Conflict,Adolescent Disclosure,and Parental Knowledge: Adolescents’ Perspective

Benefits and drawbacks of parental control exercised in relation to adolescents continue to be debated in socialization research with greater emphasis being placed on the benefits of parental autonomy-granting than parental control. We examined the relations between maternal and paternal control and parent–adolescent conflict frequency and intensity as well as parental knowledge of adolescent activities and adolescents’ disclosure of their activities to parents. Adolescents in grades 10 and 12 were interviewed about parenting practices their parents employed when regulating 18 adolescent activities. Thirty-seven parenting practices emerged from which authoritarian, directive, authoritative, democratic, and unengaged parenting clusters were derived. Adolescents whose mothers and fathers were classified as directive or authoritative reported less conflict with parents, more disclosure to parents, and more parental knowledge than adolescents whose mothers and fathers were classified as authoritarian. Coercive control practices of authoritarian parents as well as nondemanding practices of unengaged parents and to some extent of democratic parents were related to more negative parent–child relationship indicators than was the extensive use of firm/confrontive control (rational-demanding) by directive parents or authoritative parents. Evidence herein supports the conclusion that even for middle and late adolescents, parental control that is rational and firm is related to beneficial parent–child relationship qualities. Therefore, practitioners should underscore the importance of continued parental control during adolescence not just of autonomy-granting.     

Effects of parental job insecurity and parenting behaviors on youth’s self-efficacy and work attitudes

Drawing on the spillover mechanism, the relationships among parental job insecurity, authoritarian parenting behaviors, youth’s self-efficacy, and work attitudes were examined. Specifically, parental job insecurity was hypothesized to be positively associated with (1) authoritarian parenting behaviors, and (2) youth’s perception of parental job insecurity. In turn, we hypothesized that both authoritarian parenting behaviors and youth’s perceptions of parental job insecurity were negatively associated with youth’s self efficacy. Finally, self-efficacy was predicted to be positively associated with youth’s work attitudes. Data were collected from 178 management undergraduates and their parents. Structural equation modeling results suggested that paternal job insecurity was positively associated with authoritarian parenting behaviors while maternal job insecurity was negatively associated with authoritarian parenting behaviors. Additionally, while the relationship between mothers’ authoritarian parenting behaviors and youth’s self-efficacy was supported, the relationship between fathers’ authoritarian parenting behaviors and youth’s self-efficacy was not. Youth’s self efficacy was positively associated with their work attitudes. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

幼儿父母婚姻冲突与教养方式的关系:父母情绪调节策略的调节作用

以285名幼儿家长为被试,采用问卷法考察婚姻冲突对权威教养和专制教养的差别效应以及父母情绪调节策略在其中的调节作用。结果发现:(1)幼儿父母的婚姻冲突能显著负向预测其权威教养,显著正向预测其专制教养,婚姻冲突对两类教养的预测作用大小无显著差异;(2)父母情绪调节策略对婚姻冲突与权威教养关系的调节作用显著,且这种调节作用不存在家长性别的差异:较少使用认知重评或较多使用表达抑制的家长,其婚姻冲突能显著负向预测权威教养;经常使用认知重评或较少使用表达抑制的家长,其婚姻冲突对权威教养的影响不显著。父母情绪调节策略对婚姻冲突与专制教养关系的调节作用不显著。     

Self-esteem, authoritarianism, and democratic values in the face of threat

This study investigated the associations among terrorist threat, right-wing authoritarianism, self-esteem, and their relations in support for democratic values. Students (n = 140) completed Altemeyer's Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale, Rosenberg's Self-esteem Scale, and the Democratic Values Scale. The participants also read an editorial regarding the events of 9/11/01 and completed two mortality-salience questions to induce a sense of threat. Results showed that self-esteem was a significant contributor to the prediction of scores on the Democratic Values Scale. Furthermore, the interaction between self-esteem and right-wing authoritarianism explained significant variance in the Democratic Values Scale scores. The results are interpreted in light of theories addressing authoritarianism and self-esteem.