Parental Psychological Abuse and Control in the Personal and the Social Domains: Comparison of U.S. and Japanese Samples

The study cross-nationally examined to what degree parental psychological abuse (rejection, isolation, and emotional neglect) would be associated with control of adolescents' personal domain as opposed to prudential-conventional domain. Participants (ages 14–18) included 170 Americans, 125 Japanese from Akita Prefecture, and 320 from Tokyo. With all samples, abuse was linked to overcontrol. However, the link was domain specific, pertaining only to the personal domain (e.g., hairstyle) and not prudential (e.g., use of alcohol) or conventional (e.g., table manners) domains. Psychological abuse also predicted adolescents' desire of parental authority in different domains among cultures. U.S. adolescents, linked to abuse, desired more freedom within the overlap issues, whereas Akita adolescents desired greater parental authority for the personal. Tokyo adolescents' autonomous expression was in the middle between the U.S. and Akita samples. This study suggests control of the personal is a component of psychological abuse. Cultural effect on autonomous expression linked to abuse is discussed.