The intergenerational transmission of need for closure underlies the transmission of authoritarianism and anti-immigrant prejudice

Previous research has identified need for closure (NFC) as an important motivational-cognitive basis of authoritarianism and prejudice. However, to date, the role of NFC in the intergenerational similarity in authoritarianism and prejudice has remained unclear. In a sample of 169 parent–child dyads, we investigated the similarity between parents and children in NFC and tested whether this intergenerational similarity may account for the intergenerational similarity in authoritarianism and anti-immigrant prejudice. Our results revealed that parental levels of NFC were indeed concordant with the levels of NFC in their children. Even more importantly, parental NFC was indirectly related to child authoritarianism and prejudice in two ways. The first pathway proceeded through the direct relationships between parental and children’s levels of authoritarianism and prejudice. The second pathway, however, bypassed parental levels of authoritarianism and prejudice and proceeded through the intergenerational similarity in NFC. Our findings thus indicate that a significant portion of children’s levels of authoritarianism and anti-immigrant prejudice can be explained by parent–child similarity in motivated cognition. Implications for developmental theories of prejudice acquisition are discussed.     

家庭社会经济地位对小学生阅读自主性的影响:父母鼓励和阅读动机的中介作用

采用家庭社会经济地位问卷、学生阅读自主性量表、父母鼓励阅读问卷和阅读动机问卷,对313名小学生进行测查,并运用结构方程模型探讨家庭社会经济地位对阅读自主性的影响机制。结果表明:(1)家庭社会经济地位影响阅读自主性;(2)父母鼓励和阅读动机是上述影响关系的中介变量;(3)家庭社会经济地位通过父母鼓励影响阅读动机,进而影响阅读自主性,即父母鼓励和阅读动机起链式中介的作用。模型中两个中介变量父母鼓励和阅读动机一"外"一"内"协同作用,支持了家庭投资模型。     

Authoritarianism,Anger, and Hostile Attribution Bias: A Test of Affect Displacement

Past research has supported the hypothesis that the relationship between harsh childhood punishment and adult political attitudes is due to the displacement of negative emotions that arise onto punitive public policies, e.g., support for the death penalty (Milburn, Conrad, Sala, & Carberry, 1995). Cognitions associated with childhood punishment may also impact adult political attitudes, yet their effects have not yet been examined, despite research that shows that punitive childhood experiences increase the tendency to attribute hostility to others. Thus, we investigated whether the tendency to make hostile attributions about others' behavior influences a person's authoritarianism, controlling for their parents' political orientation. Respondents completed an online survey concerning their childhood punishment experiences, their parents' political orientation, their trait anger, their level of hostile attribution bias (HAB), and their authoritarianism. Multiple regression analyses and structural equation modeling (SEM) found that higher childhood punishment has a significant direct effect on higher levels of authoritarianism, even after controlling for parents' political orientation, and that trait anger and HAB appear to mediate the effects of childhood punishment experiences on authoritarianism,. These results support the process of affect displacement as an important influence on adult punitiveness and political orientation.     

Parental Authority Questionnaire

A questionnaire was developed for the purpose of measuring Baumrind's (1971) permissive, authoritarian, and authoritative parental authority prototypes. It consists of 30 items per parent and yields permissive, authoritarian, and authoritative scores for both the mother and the father; each of these scores is derived from the phenomenological appraisals of the parents' authority by their son or daughter. The results of several studies have supported the Parental Authority Questionnaire as a psychometrically sound and valid measure of Baumrind's parental authority prototypes, and they have suggested that this questionnaire has considerable potential as a valuable tool in the investigation of correlates of parental permissiveness, authoritarianism, and authoritativeness.     

Intergroup contact buffers against the intergenerational transmission of authoritarianism and racial prejudice

The present study focused on the buffering role of positive intergroup contact in the intergenerational transmission of authoritarianism and racial prejudice in a sample of adolescents and one of their parents. In accordance with our expectations, adolescents’ intergroup contact experiences moderated the mediated relationships between parental authoritarianism and adolescents’ prejudice, both via adolescents’ authoritarianism and via parental prejudice. These relationships were stronger among adolescents with lower, rather than higher, levels of intergroup contact. We conclude that intergroup contact buffers the indirect relationship between parents’ authoritarianism and adolescents’ racial prejudice and therefore constitutes a promising means of reducing the intergenerational transmission of prejudice.     

Three Years Later: A Follow‐Up Study of Parents' Assessments of Their Children's Competencies1

The present study is a follow‐up of one that was designed to examine the changes that have occurred in parents' views of a child's competencies during the child's first 3 years of school. Parents with a university education (N=180) and a vocational education (N=249) were asked to assess their children's competencies in domains representing school subjects and abilities in preschool and at the end of the 1st and 3rd school years. The findings indicated that parents' initial optimistic views had prevailed. Furthermore, our findings on the gender‐ and education‐dependent differences suggested that the underlying social psychological organization of parental assessments already has taken shape by the time the child enters school.     

Home environment and cognitive development of black infants in impoverished South African families

This study examined the interrelationships between home environment, mental and psychomotor development, growth, and educational and occupational indices of socioeconomic status among an urban sample of 305 African infants aged 2 to 30 months. The infants were assessed on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development and the Home Screening Questionnaire, and their heights and weights were recorded. Information regarding the family's socioeconomic status was obtained during interviews with caretakers. No significant relationships were found between parental education and occupation and infant cognitive development, but quality of the home environment was positively correlated with these indices of parental socioeconomic status. On the other hand, home environment scores were found to be significantly related to mental development, independent of parental education and occupation. There was considerable variation in home environments in the sample, which was drawn from generally impoverished urban communities. These findings from an African cultural group support the generalizability of the importance of the quality of the home environment for infant development.     

Parents' cognitions and expectations about their pre‐school children: The contribution of parental anxiety and child anxiety

This study investigated the relative associations between parent and child anxiety and parents' cognitions about their children. One hundred and four parents of children aged 3–5 years completed questionnaires regarding their own anxiety level, their child's anxiety level and their cognitions about the child, specifically parents' expectations about child distress and avoidance, and parents' perceived control over child mood and behaviour. Both parent anxiety and parent report of child anxiety were significantly associated with parents' cognitions. Specifically, parent report of child anxiety correlated significantly with parent locus of control generally and, more specifically, with parental expectations and perceived control of child anxious mood and behaviour. Parent anxiety correlated significantly with locus of control and parents' expectations of child anxious mood and behaviour. Furthermore, when both child and parent anxiety were taken into account, only parental anxiety remained significantly associated with parental locus of control and perceived control of child anxious behaviour. For parents' perceived control of child anxious mood, only child anxiety remained significantly associated. The results suggest that parents' perceived control over their children's behaviour may primarily reflect parental anxiety, rather than child anxiety. Parental anxiety may, therefore, present an important target for interventions that aim to change parent's cognitions and behaviour.     

The role of psychological control,socioeconomic status and academic achievement in parents' educational aspirations for their adolescent children

The present study examined the associations between mothers' and fathers' psychological control, socioeconomic status (SES) and their role in parents' educational aspirations for their adolescent children. Moreover, we examined to what extent SES and psychological control predicted their child's grade point average (GPA) and educational aspirations. A total of 1,034 Finnish adolescents aged 15 to 16 and their parents (720 mothers, 542 fathers) were surveyed at the beginning of the last grade of compulsory school. The results showed that the use of psychological control was more common among parents with lower SES. Moreover, the lower parents' SES was and the more psychological control they imposed, the lower were their educational aspirations for their adolescent children and lower was their child's GPA. The impact of SES was partially mediated by psychological control. The effects were similar for mothers and fathers.     

Matters of Life and Death: Justice in Judgments of Wrongful Death1

Two experiments investigated the influence of social categories on mock juror judgments of wrongful death compensatory damages. The research also examined whether these cues—decedent race, parental status, age, and socioeconomic status—differentially affected noneconomic and economic awards and, further, the extent to which jurors' distributive justice concerns could explain the findings. Results revealed a decedent's parental status to consistently impact noneconomic awards; whereas his parental status, age, and socioeconomic status all consistently affected economic awards. Decedent race did not inform participants' judgments. These results were in close alignment with the values participants expressed (Study 2) regarding the use of social categories in compensatory damage awards. Overall, the pattern of findings supports a distributive justice account.     

The Role of Parent Education and Parenting Knowledge in Children's Language and Literacy Skills among White,Black, and Latino Families

This study investigated the role of parenting knowledge of infant development in children's subsequent language and pre‐literacy skills among White, Black and Latino families of varying socioeconomic status. Data come from 6,150 participants in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Birth Cohort. Mothers' knowledge of infant development was measured when children were 9 months old, and child language and pre‐literacy skills were measured during the fall of the preschool year prior to Kindergarten when children were approximately four years old. Mothers' knowledge of infant development was uniquely related to both maternal education and race/ethnicity. Reported sources of parenting information/advice also varied by education and race/ ethnicity and were related to parenting knowledge. Further, controlling for demographic factors, parenting knowledge partially mediated the relation between parent education and child language and pre‐literacy skills, and this relation differed by race/ethnicity. One way to eliminate socioeconomic status achievement gaps in children's early language and literacy skills may be to focus on parents' knowledge of child development, particularly in Latino families. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Parents' perfectionism and its relation to child rearing behaviors

The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between parents' perfectionism and self‐reported parenting behaviors. The study included 786 parents (417 mothers and 369 fathers) of high school students. Results showed that parents' positive and negative perfectionism were differently related to specific forms of child rearing practices. Namely, positive perfectionism was positively, while negative perfectionism was negatively related to parental acceptance for both mothers and fathers. Mothers' and fathers' negative perfectionism was positively related to parental criticism and permissiveness. In addition, fathers' positive perfectionism was negatively associated with permissive child rearing practices. After controlling for background variables, parents' positive and negative perfectionism explained significant amounts of variance in all self‐reported parenting dimensions for fathers and significantly accounted for the variance of parental acceptance and criticism for mothers. According to our findings, parents' perfectionism might have an important role in shaping parenting behaviors.     

Parents' Education Levels,Parents' Beliefs,and Child Outcomes

Relationships between parents' education levels, parents' beliefs concerning children, children's cognitions related to themselves and their relationships, and academic achievement were investigated in a sample of Turkish fourth-grade children and their parents. Structural equations were used in data analysis. Level of parents' education was a significant predictor of parents' beliefs for both parents. Relationships between parents' beliefs and child outcomes were somewhat different for mothers and fathers. In addition, level of mother's education was directly related to child perceptions of external control, child endorsement of insecure attachment prototype, and child academic achievement; level of father's education was directly related only to child perceptions of efficacy.     

A factorial study of a new measure of authoritarianism

In the present study scores on Ray's Directiveness scale were subjected to Varimax rotation. Three factors explaining more than 50% of the variance of authoritarianism were interpreted and labelled Submissiveness, Dominance and Aggressiveness, respectively. Although these are in line with Ray's earlier conception of the nature of authoritarianism and do, to some extent, support other findings, it is suggested that the Directiveness scale be expanded to accommodate more characteristics of authoritarianism such as rigidity, hostility and superstitiousness.     

Reinforcement or compensation? The effects of parents' work and financial conditions on adolescents' work values during the Great Recession

The Great Recession brought many changes to the work and financial lives of American families. Little is known, however, about how changes in parental work conditions in recessionary times influence children's vocational development. Drawing on data from the Youth Development Study, we examine whether parents' recessionary experiences shape adolescents' work values. The findings indicate that adolescents' work values are shaped through a cross-generational reinforcement model; both extrinsic and intrinsic values are stronger when parental work conditions are more rewarding. In an exception to this pattern, unemployment among parents with low levels of education (high school degrees or less) is positively associated with children's extrinsic and intrinsic orientations, more consistent with a compensation model.     

Parental Patterns of Cooperation in Parent–Child Interactions: The Relationship Between Nonverbal and Verbal Communication

This study expands the existing research into forms of parent–child cooperation by simultaneously assessing verbal/nonverbal channels of communication and their congruent/incongruent interrelatedness. The study aims to explain parental patterns of cooperation and to analyze the effect of a wide range of social and situational factors, including parents' gender, child's gender, socioeconomic status, and task difficulty. Parent–child interactions (n = 160) in structured joint game sequences were filmed in their homes and analyzed using a mixed multivariant design. The results highlight the importance of integrative congruence/incongruence patterns and the significant effects of background variables in parental inducing/inhibiting‐cooperation patterns. The proposed model expands the theoretical and methodological framework of parental cooperation.     

Bodily perspective taking goes social: the role of personal,interpersonal, and intercultural factors

Mentally placing the self in the physical position of another person might engage social perspective taking because participants have to match their own position with that of another. We investigated the influence of personal (sex), interpersonal (siblings, parental marital status), and cultural (individualistic, collectivistic) factors on individuals' abilities to mentally take the position of front‐facing and back‐facing figures in an online study (369 participants). Replicating findings from laboratory studies responses were slower for front‐facing than back‐facing figures. Having siblings, parents' marital status, and cultural background influenced task performance in theoretically predictable ways. The present perspective‐taking task is a promising experimental paradigm to assess social perspective taking and one that is free from the response biases inherent in self‐report.     

Ego development, authoritarianism, and social status: an investigation of the incremental validity of Loevinger's sentence completion test (short form)

This study presents two sets of analyses designed to evaluate the relation between a 12-item form of the Washington University Sentence Completion Test of ego development (Short Form; SCT-S) and socioeconomic status (SES). The subjects were a large national random sample of adolescent and young adult men and women who were stratified into three artificial age cohorts. The first set of hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that SES accounted for 8% to 13% of the variance in SCT-S scores. Incremental validity of the SCT-S in predicting social attitudes, beyond that predicted by SES, was generally supported for authoritarian aggression and partially supported in predicting masculine sex role expectations. Findings suggest that research on ego development with subjects over age 18 might use level of education as a rough index of SES. For younger subjects, parental factors and education are both important. This study also provides revised age-specific national norms for the SCT-S.     

Parents' Emotion‐Related Beliefs,Behaviours, and Skills Predict Children's Recognition of Emotion

Children who are able to recognize others' emotions are successful in a variety of socioemotional domains, yet we know little about how school‐aged children's abilities develop, particularly in the family context. We hypothesized that children develop emotion recognition skill as a function of parents' own emotion‐related beliefs, behaviours, and skills. We examined parents' beliefs about the value of emotion and guidance of children's emotion, parents' emotion labelling and teaching behaviours, and parents' skill in recognizing children's emotions in relation to their school‐aged children's emotion recognition skills. Sixty‐nine parent–child dyads completed questionnaires, participated in dyadic laboratory tasks, and identified their own emotions and emotions felt by the other participant from videotaped segments. Regression analyses indicate that parents' beliefs, behaviours, and skills together account for 37% of the variance in child emotion recognition ability, even after controlling for parent and child expressive clarity. The findings suggest the importance of the family milieu in the development of children's emotion recognition skill in middle childhood and add to accumulating evidence suggesting important age‐related shifts in the relation between parental emotion socialization and child emotional development. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Predicting disturbed parental awareness in mothers with a newborn infant: test of a theoretical model

Parental awareness refers to parents' perceptions and making sense out of children's responses and behaviours. This study examined a theoretical model on the determinants of disturbed parental awareness, with a central place given to Belsky's buffer hypothesis. Maternal characteristics were hypothesized to have direct effects on parental awareness, whereas effects of negative childhood experiences and low levels of social support were regarded as being mediated by maternal characteristics. The model was examined in a community sample of 101 mothers from different socioeconomic backgrounds with a zero‐to‐three infant. Social nurses providing home visits reported on parental awareness, childhood experiences, social support, and maternal characteristics. Results supported a modified model that added a direct pathway between childhood experiences and parental awareness, supporting the intergenerational transmission hypothesis. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.