Emergent research seriously questions the use of parental strictness as the best parenting strategy in all cultural contexts. Moreover, previous research on environmental socialization offers inconsistent findings about which specific parenting practices would be the most appropriate for environmental socialization. The present paper aims to examine parents’ contribution (i.e., authoritative, indulgent, authoritarian, and neglectful) to adolescents’ self-esteem and internalization of environmental values. Participants were 308 Spanish adolescents with 171 females (55.5%), between 12 and 17 years old. The four parenting styles were defined using measures of parental warmth and strictness. Self-esteem was captured with global and multidimensional measures. Internalization of environmental values was evaluated by measuring the priority given to biospheric values. Results revealed a consistent pattern between parenting styles and adolescent self-esteem and internalization of environmental values. Overall, adolescents from homes characterized by parental warmth (i.e., indulgent and authoritative) have higher self-esteem and greater internalization of environmental values than their counterparts. These findings clearly contrast with those obtained in other cultural contexts where parental strictness is essential in achieving well-adjusted children with optimal psychosocial development.

IntroductionPrevious parenting studies with European-American families have identified optimal parenting as being based on warmth combined with strictness (i.e., authoritative parenting). The present study analyzes, in adolescents and adults, their adjustment and maladjustment related to age and their early experiences in the family.MethodsThe sample consisted of 2,158 Spanish people (58.29% women): 624 adolescents, 630 young adults, 504 middle-aged adults, and 400 older adults. The families were classified into one of the four parental typologies (authoritative, indulgent, authoritarian, and neglectful) based on their scores in the two main dimensions (warmth and strictness). Child functioning was measured as components of adjustment (self-esteem, emotional self-concept, and empathy) and maladjustment (aggression and hostile sexism).ResultsOverall, only adolescents and adult children raised in indulgent families reported the highest self-esteem, emotional self-concept, and empathy, and the lowest aggression and hostile sexism. Authoritative parenting (warmth with strictness) was related to a lower emotional self-concept and greater aggression and hostile sexism than indulgent parenting (warmth without strictness). The worst scores corresponded to authoritarian and neglectful parenting.DiscussionThe present findings provide new evidence about early experiences in the family, even after parental socialization has ended. Interestingly, contrary to the main findings from classic studies with European-American families, only high parental warmth combined with low parental strictness (i.e., indulgent parenting) is always positive for greater adjustment and less maladjustment in all age groups.

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Resumo O objetivo deste estudo foi testar um modelo teórico-explicativo para as representações sociais sobre o cenário sociopolítico brasileiro de 2017, de acordo com as seguintes relações: as representações seriam influenciadas diretamente pela confiança nas instituições, e essa confiança, determinada pelas simpatias ideológicas. Participaram 164 estudantes universitários - cuja idade média era 24 anos - que responderam a escalas intervalares. Realizaram-se modelagens de equações estruturais para testar o modelo teórico proposto. Os resultados indicaram: adequabilidade do modelo; dois grupos de variáveis apresentando relações positivas entre as variáveis do mesmo grupo e negativas na comparação intergrupos. No primeiro grupo constaram as variáveis: ideias-força de esquerda, confiança nos movimentos sociais, avaliação do governo Dilma e avaliação das políticas de esquerda; no segundo: ideias-força de direita, confiança nas instituições de controle, confiança na mídia, avaliação do governo Temer e avaliação das políticas de esquerda. Concluiu-se que a confiança institucional e a simpatia ideológica ancoravam as representações sociais do cenário brasileiro na população universitária estudada.

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