Coping With Remembrances of Parental Rejection in Childhood: Gender Differences and Associations With Intimate Partner Relationships

Grounded in interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory (IPARTheory), this exploratory study investigated a) major characteristics of affective copers and non-copers, b) the effects of acceptance by one parent insofar as it moderates rejection by the other parent, and c) the mediation effect of intimate partner relationships on the relation between remembered parental rejection and adults’ current psychological adjustment. The theory recognizes that the psychological adjustment of some adults who remember having been rejected by parents in childhood is not as seriously impaired as it is for the majority of individuals. These people are called affective copers in IPARTheory. The sample included 724 affective copers and 1121 non-copers, which are adults who remember having been rejected by their parents in childhood, and whose psychological adjustment is impaired in adulthood. Results of analyses revealed that for male affective copers, both maternal and paternal rejection were unique and significant predictors of adjustment, whereas for female copers, age and an interaction between remembrances of maternal and paternal rejection were significant predictors. For male non-copers, age, remembered parental rejection, and an interaction between maternal and paternal rejection were significant predictors of psychological adjustment. For female non-copers, in contrast, remembrances of both maternal and paternal rejection in childhood were significant predictors. Lastly, perceived partner acceptance-rejection mediated the relationship between remembered parental rejection in childhood and the psychological adjustment of non-copers, but not of affective copers. Results of this study inform the work of practitioners and prevention scientists working with adults who experienced serious rejection from their parents in childhood.     

Effects of Marital Distress on Turkish Adolescents’ Psychological Adjustment

This research explores the effects of parental marital distress on Turkish adolescents’ psychological adjustment, as mediated by adolescents’ perceptions of maternal and paternal acceptance–rejection. This issue has generated considerable interest within the United States, but only recently internationally. The study draws from a sample of 180 12- through 18-year-old Turkish adolescents (94 females and 86 males; mean age of 16 years) and their parents. Assessments of the level of husbands’ and wives’ marital distress were made using the Turkish language version of the Intimate Partner Acceptance–Rejection/Control Questionnaire IPAR/CQ. Adolescents’ perceptions of the level of parental acceptance were made using the mother and father forms of the Child Parental Acceptance–Rejection/Control Questionnaire. Adolescents’ psychological adjustment was assessed using the child version of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire. Mediation analyses revealed that adolescents’ perceptions of both maternal and paternal acceptance mediated the relationship between the adolescents’ (both sons’ and daughters’) psychological adjustment and wives’ perceptions of their husbands’ acceptance. Thus, the spillover hypothesis was partially supported as was one of the central postulates of parental acceptance–rejection theory.     

Fathers and Perceptions of God Play an Important Role in Psychological Adjustment Among Emerging Adults in Guatemala and the United States

Interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory posits that people require parental acceptance in childhood to develop healthy psychological adjustment. People’s beliefs about and their relationship with deity also influences their psychological adjustment. The purpose of the present study was to investigate how both perceived parental acceptance and a relationship with deity are related to psychological adjustment for emerging adults in Guatemala and the United States. Participants (N?=?189) from Guatemala and the United States completed measures of perceived parental acceptance-rejection, images of God, attachment to God, and psychological adjustment. Results indicate that perceived paternal acceptance-rejection was only a significant predictor of psychological adjustment in U.S. participants, and not in Guatemalan participants. In both samples, images of God did not predict psychological adjustment. However, an anxious attachment with God predicted psychological maladjustment for both groups. The findings suggest that two important factors to be considered by researchers, educators, and mental health professionals are adults’ perceptions of their father’s level of acceptance-rejection and the amount of anxiety they experience in their relationship with God.     

Perceived Parental Warmth, and Children’s Psychological Adjustment, and Personality Dispositions: A Meta-analysis

The purpose of this meta-analysis is to address three questions drawn from one of the basic postulates of parental acceptance–rejection theory: (1) To what extent are children’s perceptions of parental warmth related to their psychological adjustment? (2) To what extent are children’s perceptions of parental warmth related to their personality dispositions? (3) Do relations found in these questions vary by the gender of parents? The meta-analysis was based on 30 studies from 16 countries in five continents involving 12,087 children (52 % boys and 48 % girls). All studies included in the meta-analysis, used child versions of the Parental Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaire for Mothers and for Fathers (Child PARQ: Mothers and Fathers), as well as the child version of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire (Child PAQ). Results showed that perceived parental warmth correlated significantly with psychological adjustment and personality dispositions—including hostility and aggression, independence, positive self-esteem, positive self-adequacy, emotional responsiveness, emotional stability, and positive worldview of children across ethnicities, cultures, gender, and geographical boundaries.     

All you fear is love: The roles of rejection by intimate others

Interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory (IPARTheory) asserts that recollections of parental rejection in childhood tend to result in psychological maladjustment and intimacy problems in later romantic relationships. Informed by IPARTheory, we investigated the association between maternal & paternal rejection, and fear of intimacy by the mediating role of psychological maladjustment in a Turkish sample with 462 mostly young adults. We further explored the moderator role of gender in Model 1 and the moderating roles of both gender and intimate partner rejection in Model 2. Model 1 revealed that adults who had experienced maternal and paternal rejection in childhood tended to be psychologically maladjusted. Consequently, they also tended to have a fear of intimacy, regardless of gender. Model 2 revealed that women who recall having been rejected in childhood by their mothers tended to be psychologically maladjusted and to have a significant fear of intimacy when they also experienced moderate or more than moderate intimate-partner rejection. However, both women and men who experienced paternal rejection in childhood tended to be psychologically maladjusted and to experience a greater fear of intimacy when they perceived any degree of intimate partner rejection. Implications of the results for theory, research, and practice are discussed.     

Psychological maladjustment mediates the link between remembrances of parental rejection in childhood and loneliness in adulthood: A cross-cultural comparative study

Drawing stimulus from interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory, this multicultural study examined relations between men's versus women's remembrances of maternal and paternal acceptance-rejection in childhood and their current level of loneliness, as mediated by adults' self-reported psychological maladjustment. Adults (N = 899) from five nations (Iraq, Italy, the Netherlands, Pakistan, and the United States) responded to the Adult version of the Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire-short form for mothers and fathers, the Adult version of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire-short form, and the Interpersonal Acceptance-Rejection Loneliness Scale. Adults' remembrances of maternal and paternal rejection in childhood significantly and independently predicted feelings of loneliness but remembered paternal rejection was more strongly related to these feelings than were remembrances of maternal rejection. Psychological maladjustment fully mediated the effect of remembered maternal rejection but only partially mediated the effect of remembered paternal rejection on loneliness. There were no significant differences in these results across the five countries or genders. Overall, the results suggest that adults' remembrances of parental rejection in childhood—along with the theoretically expected development of psychological maladjustment—are likely to be associated panculturally with the experience of loneliness in adulthood.     

Remembrances of parental rejection are associated with loneliness as mediated by psychological maladjustment in young Bangladeshi men but not women

Loneliness is a significant public health issue that affects young adults. This investigation drew from interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory to understand how remembrances of parental rejection contributed to psychological maladjustment and loneliness in Bangladeshi college students (N = 300; 50% female). Students reported their remembrances of mothers' and fathers' acceptance-rejection, their current psychological maladjustment, and loneliness. Remembrances of rejection by parents in childhood were associated with psychological maladjustment (hostility/aggression, negative self-esteem, negative self-adequacy, emotional unresponsiveness, emotional instability, and negative worldview) for young adult men and women. Psychological maladjustment, in turn, was associated with feelings of loneliness in young adulthood for young men, but not women. Remembrances of parental rejection were also associated with greater hostility and aggression over and above general psychological functioning among both men and women. Findings are discussed in the context of different social and structural features of young adulthood for women and men in Bangladesh.     

Perceived Parental Hostility and Aggression,and Children’s Psychological Maladjustment,and Negative Personality Dispositions: A Meta-Analysis

The purpose of this meta-analysis is to explore relations between children’s perceptions of parental hostility/aggression, and their psychological maladjustment, and negative personality dispositions as postulated in interpersonal acceptance and rejection theory. The meta-analysis was based on 35 studies from 16 countries in four continents involving 13,406 children (52% boys and 48% girls). All studies included in the meta-analysis, used child versions of the Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire for Mothers and for Fathers (Child PARQ: Mothers and Fathers), as well as the child version of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire (Child PAQ). Results showed that both maternal and paternal hostility/aggression correlated significantly with the psychological maladjustment and with all seven negative personality dispositions, including (1) hostility/aggression, (2) dependence or defensive independence, (3) negative self-esteem, (4) negative self-adequacy, (5) emotional instability, (6) emotional unresponsiveness, and (7) negative worldview of children across ethnicities, cultures, and geographical boundaries. Results further revealed that perceived maternal than paternal hostility/aggression has significantly stronger relations with children’s psychological maladjustment globally.     

Adult Intimate Relationships and Psychological Adjustment

This study explored relations among perceived acceptance and behavioral control by intimate partners, remembrances of parents’ acceptance and behavioral control in childhood, and adults’ psychological adjustment. The study was conducted on 98 American adults (50 men and 48 women) between ages 18 and 50 (mean 26 years). Measures used were the Adult version of the Parental Acceptance-Rejection/Control Questionnaire for Mothers and Fathers(Adult PARQ/Control: Mother and Father); Intimate Partner Acceptance-Rejection/Control Questionnaire (IPAR/CQ); and, the Adult version of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire (Adult PAQ). Results showed significant positive correlations between psychological adjustment and perceived partner acceptance and parental acceptance for both women and men. Results also showed significant negative correlations between psychological adjustment and perceived partner control and parental control for both women and men. Regression analyses, however, revealed a significant independent effect of only paternal acceptance (but not of maternal and partner acceptance) on the psychological adjustment of men. Regression analyses also revealed significant independent effects of both paternal and maternal acceptance (but not partner acceptance) on the psychological adjustment of women.     

Perceived Parental Acceptance-Rejection and the Development of Children's Locus of Control

In a study of relationships between locus of control and perceived parental acceptance-rejection as they vary by age, 271 boys and girls from 9 through 11 years of age were administered the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale, short form, and the Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire. A multiple regression/correlation analysis revealed that internality increased significantly with children's age and with children's perceptions of increased parental acceptance. Moreover, age and parenting jointly accounted for 22% of the variance in children's locus of control scores.     

The Relation of Parental Qualities to Psychological Well-being,School Adjustment,and Problem Behavior in Chinese Adolescents with Economic Disadvantage

Adolescents with economic disadvantage ( N = 229) were asked to respond to instruments measuring their perceptions of parental qualities, psychological well-being, school adjustment, and problem behavior. Measures of parental qualities include perceived parenting styles, support and help from parents, and conflict and relationship with the parents. Results showed that perceptions of parental qualities were in general related to better adolescent psychological well-being (including existential well-being, life satisfaction, mastery, self-esteem, and general psychiatric morbidity), school adjustment (perceived academic performance and school conduct), and problem behavior (substance abuse and delinquency). Relative to maternal parenthood qualities, paternal parenthood qualities were found to have stronger relationships with measures of well-being and problem behavior in adolescents with economic disadvantage.     

Psychological Hardiness in Learning and Quality of College Life of Business Students: Evidence from Vietnam

Vietnam’s continuing economic transformation has sharply increased the demand for highly-qualified business graduates. Vietnamese universities have responded to this increase in demand by improving the quality of their programs and raising their performance standards. The degree to which high-quality competitive programs increase students’ satisfaction with their educational experience is determined by their psychological hardiness in learning, their learning motivation, and their assessments of the functional value of business education. This study gathered survey data from a convenience sample of 1,024 business students in Vietnam, then validated measures of four constructs: Quality of College Life, psychological hardiness in learning, learning motivation, and perceived functional value of business education. The relationships among the constructs were estimated by Structural Equation Modeling. The results demonstrate that psychological hardiness in learning and learning motivation have statistically significant positive impacts on students’ perceived Quality of College Life. The impacts are significantly stronger for students with higher assessments of the functional value of a business education. These findings suggest that universities could enhance the Quality of College Life and academic performance by offering programs to cultivate students’ psychological hardiness in learning and their learning motivation, and by providing them with objective information about the functional value of business careers.     

Using Identity Style and Parental Identification to Predict Political Orientation

There has been a recent increase in interest in the psychological differences and antecedents related to political orientation. Personality, disgust sensitivity, attachment, and closeness to parents have all been found or have been theorized to be predictive of political orientation. These variables and the additional roles played by normative identity style and parental identification were examined. The results showed that normative identity style is associated with political orientation and that the role played by parental identification depends on the perceived parental political ranking, the gender of the parent, and the measure used to examine political orientation. No support was found for Lakoff’s (2002) model of parenting and political orientation.     

Managers’ selection preferences: The role of prejudice and multicultural personality traits in the assessment of native and immigrant job candidates

PresentationStatistics across European countries show that immigrants have a disproportionate lower employment probability than persons born in the host country (SOPEMI, 2010). Explanations to this phenomenon are complex.ObjectivesAn experiment was conducted to investigate the relationship between multicultural personality traits and managers’ selection preferences in the hiring of native vs. foreign-born job candidates. We proposed that this relationship was mediated by prejudice.MethodsNorwegian managers (n = 222) were presented with one Turkish immigrant job candidate and two Norwegian-born, less qualified job candidates. The managers completed the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) and the Blatant Prejudice Scale (SBPS).ResultsWe found that the threat and rejection blatant prejudice subscale and Emotional stability predicted the managers’ hiring preferences. Specifically, the higher threat and rejection subscale scores and the lower emotional stability scores, the more likely it is that the managers preferred to hire a native, less qualified candidate over the Turkish immigrant candidate. The effect of emotional stability on candidate preference was not mediated by prejudice.ConclusionsThe results suggest that managers’ feelings of threat due to foreign-born immigrants’ participation in the host society (political conservatism), and threat due to intercultural interactions, are significantly related to foreign-born immigrant job candidates’ chances of being hired.     

Basic need satisfaction in the parental relationship offsets millennials’ worries about the transition to college

ABSTRACT

Students’ worries about transitioning to college are correlated with long-term reduced psychological well-being, so we investigated how psychological need satisfaction might mitigate millennials’ worries about college. As parents can support or undermine their children’s basic needs, we also examined the influence of autonomy-supportive and helicopter parenting during the transition. Additionally, we compared these outcomes between first- and continuing-generation students. Incoming college students (N = 355) completed measures of parental relationship need satisfaction, parental involvement, worries about college, and family achievement guilt. Higher need satisfaction in the parental relationship was associated with reduced worries and feelings of achievement guilt for both first- and continuing-generation students. Autonomy-supportive parenting moderated the relationship between autonomy and millennials’ worries about college. Helicopter parenting did not moderate any of the relationships examined in this study but was positively associated with students’ transition worries and achievement guilt. We discuss these findings in the context of self-determination theory.     

Cognitive ability,parenting and instruction in Vietnam and Germany

In a sample of N = 105 fifth graders from Vietnam and Germany, cognitive abilities (CogAT-Nonverbal, i.e. fluid figural, CogAT-Quantitative, i.e. crystallized mathematics), family attributes, parenting styles, leisure time activities, and attributes of school and instruction were compared. In spite of large cultural and economic differences, the general cognitive ability levels were similar (M_Vnm = 99.43 vs. M_Deu = 99.13 IQ points in current UK norms). This result is in contradiction to usual outcomes in developing countries. However, regarding family, parenting, school and instruction, differences were observed: German families had more books. German parents were less frequently married and German families less frequently consisted of both mother and father. Vietnamese parents had more children. Vietnamese parents showed higher levels of authoritarian and neglecting parenting. German children read more books. The Vietnamese did not attend kindergarten, had larger classes, more homework, and more private tuition. In a path analysis, parental educational level, number of books, burgher family, low birth order rank, amount of teaching, parental income, Confucian educational orientation and Vietnamese background all revealed a positive impact on children's intelligence.     

Effect of parent responsiveness on young athletes’ self-perceptions and thriving: An exploratory study in a Belgian French-Community

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to examine the influence of parental responsive support (observed) and perceived parental responsive support on athletes’ self-perceptions and thriving.MethodsForty-one French-speaking Belgian individual sport athletes aged 12–15 years (M = 13.13, SD = 0.90) and one of their parent’s spent 10 min discussing three important athletes’ sport-related goals for the next season. The discussion was video-taped and coded to identify parents’ responsive support behaviors. After the discussion, athletes responded to a series of questionnaires measuring perceived parental responsiveness, self-efficacy, self-esteem, and thriving indicators (i.e., positive affect, vitality, life satisfaction, and health quality).ResultsThe results show that observed and perceived parental responsive support contributed to athletes’ proximal perceptions of self-efficacy. Both parental observed responsive support and athletes’ perceived parental responsiveness, mediated by athletes’ self-efficacy, were positively related to athlete’s self-esteem. Further, athletes’ perceived parental responsiveness was positively related with thriving while mediated in series by self-efficacy and self-esteem.ConclusionOverall, it appears that parents’ responsive support (observed) and athletes’ perception of responsive support are associated with positive self-perceptions and optimal wellbeing in young athletes. This study demonstrates that parents can provide responsive support to their children in the sport context. These results add further weight to suggestions that sport organizations should actively include, rather than exclude, parents in their processes.     

Predictors of Psychological Well-Being of Adolescents’ Parents

Informed by theories about processes in families with adolescent children, this study examined the contribution of self-perceived decline in physical and cognitive functioning related to midlife, marital satisfaction, and parent–child conflict to psychological well-being of parents of young adolescents. Parental well-being was conceptualized within Ryff’s multidimensional model, which encompasses six dimensions: Autonomy, Self-Acceptance, Environmental Mastery, Positive Relationships with Others, Personal Growth, and Purpose in Life. In examining relationships between parental well-being and supposed predictors, sociodemographic variables (parental age and education), perceived general life stress, and perceived available social support were controlled for. Participants were Croatian mothers (N?=?356) and fathers (N?=?328) whose oldest child was transitioning to adolescence. Overall, the patterns of associations between the studied predictors and well-being dimensions were similar for mothers and fathers. The main finding of the study was that individual differences in the psychological well-being of adolescents’ parents may be more attributable to self-perceived midlife changes (particularly for mothers) and marital satisfaction (particularly for fathers) than to perceived level of parent–adolescent conflict.     

Psychometric Properties of the Perceived Social Support from Family and Friends Scale: Data from an Adolescent Sample in Ghana

Several studies have found that perceived social support plays a crucial role in the psychological and physical wellbeing of young people. A number of instruments measuring perceived social support have been developed and validated, including the Perceived Social Support from Family and Friends subscales. The psychometric properties of the Perceived Social Support from Family and Friends subscales have been demonstrated in a range of samples, although not in Ghana. The purpose of this study is to investigate the psychometric properties of the Perceived Social Support from Family and Friends subscales in Ghanaian adolescents using data from a school-based survey (N?=?770; 14–21 years). Participants completed a self-report questionnaire containing the Perceived Social Support from Family and Friends subscales, the Adolescent Stress Questionnaire, and the 12-item General Health Questionnaire. An exploratory factor analysis in addition to simultaneous confirmatory factor analyses with structural equation modelling were performed to evaluate the factor structure and factorial validity of the subscales along with Cronbach’s α and intercorrelations. Three factors and two factors were extracted for the Friends and Family subscales respectively. While the unidimensional model of the friends subscale had a better fit with the data than the three-factor model, the two-factor model of the family subscale had a better fit than the unidimensional model, even though the unidimensional models of both subscales produced higher internal consistency coefficients. With respect to construct validity, the family subscale demonstrated some evidence of convergent and discriminant validity, but the friends subscale demonstrated some evidence of only discriminant validity, in terms of the association between social support and common mental illness and perceived stress. It appears that the Perceived Social Support subscales are useful instruments for assessing social support from family and friends and could therefore be used to further our understanding about the role of social support in stressful life events and psychological functioning of Ghanaian adolescents, although further research is required for the friends subscale.     

The relationship between child-report, parent self-report, and partner report of perceived parental rearing behaviors and anxiety in children and parents

This study investigated the relationship between child anxiety, parental anxiety, and perceived current parental rearing practices, using a multiple informants approach, that is, by aggregating the perception of the child, parent and partner on parental rearing behaviors. Unselected children aged 9–12 (n=75) and both their biological parents filled in the SCARED-C to measure child anxiety, and parents completed the SCARED-A to measure parental anxiety. In addition, child report, parental self-report, and partner report of the rearing dimensions “autonomy-encouragement versus overprotection”, “acceptance versus rejection”, and “psychological control” of both parents was assessed. Results showed that the homogeneity of some rearing dimensions using a single informant was insufficient, but sufficient when using multiple informants. Inter-informant agreement was low (M=0.29). Three-informants' aggregates yielded good generalizability (M=0.54), and the generalizability of six-informants' aggregates (combining both parents) was impressive (M=0.76). Using multiple informants, parental autonomy granting versus overprotection was substantially related to child anxiety (r=−0.41, p<0.001), as well as to parental anxiety (r=−0.45, p<0.001). More precisely, paternal autonomy–overprotection was predominantly related to child anxiety, whereas maternal autonomy–overprotection was predominantly related to maternal anxiety. Acceptance versus rejection and psychological control were only modestly related to child and parental anxiety.