Analyzing when parental warmth but without parental strictness leads to more adolescent empathy and self-concept: Evidence from Spanish homes

Abstract

IntroductionClassical research mainly conducted with European-American families has identified the combination of warmth and strictness (authoritative style) as the parenting always associated with the highest scores on developmental outcomes. Additionally, despite the benefits of empathy for prosocial behaviors and protection against antisocial behaviors, most research has considered the contribution of specific practices (e.g., reasoning or power assertion), but not so much the parenting styles. Similarly, family studies tend to study the relationship between parenting and global self-perceptions (self-esteem), but not so much those of each dimension (self-concept).MethodsIn the present study, 600 Spanish adolescents from 12 to 17 years old (M = 15.25, SD = 2.01) were classified within one of the four household typologies (i.e., authoritative, indulgent, authoritarian, or neglectful). Adolescent developmental outcomes were cognitive empathy (adopting perspectives and emotional understanding), emotional empathy (empathic stress and empathic happiness), and self-concept (academic, social, emotional, family and physical).ResultsThe results showed that the indulgent parenting (warmth but not strictness) was related to equal or even better empathy and self-concept than the authoritative style (warmth and strictness), whereas non-warm parenting (authoritarian and neglectful) was consistently associated with poor results.DiscussionOverall, the present findings seriously question that parental strictness combined with parental warmth (authoritative style) is always the parenting style related to the greatest outcomes. By contrast, it seems that reasoning, warmth and involvement, without strictness (indulgent parenting) help adolescents to achieve a good orientation toward others in terms of cognitive and affective empathy and a good self-evaluation in terms of self-concept.

Positive parenting style and positive health beyond the authoritative: Self, universalism values, and protection against emotional vulnerability from Spanish adolescents and adult children

“…In the present study, the categorization of families (i.e., authoritative, indulgent, authoritarian, and neglectful) is provided by the split procedure on each dimension (i.e., warmth and strictness). The use of the split procedure, a statistical technique to assign participants to the parenting styles based on the measures of the two parenting dimensions, is a strategy commonly used in studies from different parts of the world, 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1066282 for example, the United States (Lamborn et al, 1991;Steinberg et al, 1994;Milevsky, 2020) or Europe (Calafat et al, 2014;Climent-Galarza et al, 2022;Fuentes et al, 2022). Other parenting typologies different from the classical parenting styles have been examined based on clustering methods such as latent profile analysis (LPA) (Borden et al, 2014;Ayon et al, 2015;Huang et al, 2022).…”

Parenting Practices and Adolescents’ Mental Health: The Mediating Role of Perceived Maternal and Paternal Acceptance-Rejection and Adolescents’ Self-Efficacy

“…Furthermore, Pascual-Sanchez and colleagues [9] found that ineffective parenting practices (IPP), which is defined as the parental use of poor monitoring, inconsistent discipline, and corporal punishment seem to be risk factors for adolescents' mental health, while effective parenting practices (EPP) were protective factors. Parental warmth was found to promote better psychological adjustments [14], empathy, and self-concept among Spanish adolescents [15]. In a study conducted in Chile and Ecuador, IPP such as corporal punishment and poor monitoring predicted lower self-efficacy and higher frequency of externalized behavior [16].…”

Adjustment and maladjustment to later life: Evidence about early experiences in the family

“…Parents transmit social norms and values to make their children autonomous, mature, and independent individuals (Darling and Steinberg, 1993;Climent-Galarza et al, 2022). Parental socialization takes place in very different social, cultural, and ethnic contexts (Deater-Deckard et al, 1996;Chao, 2001;Fuentes et al, 2022). For example, poor neighborhoods tend to have fewer opportunities, higher unemployment, worse schools, and greater crime rates than middle-class neighborhoods (Steinberg et al, 2006;Sandoval-Obando et al, 2022).…”

“…For example, poor neighborhoods tend to have fewer opportunities, higher unemployment, worse schools, and greater crime rates than middle-class neighborhoods (Steinberg et al, 2006;Sandoval-Obando et al, 2022). However, parental socialization can be consistently related to differences in adjustment, so it is possible to identify parenting styles that are positive for children's well-being and parenting styles that are related to detrimental consequences (Lamborn et al, 1991;Fuentes et al, 2022). In parental socialization research, for each specific context, families can be characterized in terms of high or low levels of warmth and strictness.…”