Loosening the Reins or Tightening Them? Complex Relationships Between Parenting, Effortful Control, and Adolescent Psychopathology

Abstract

Background Adolescents face major developmental tasks such as increasing individuation and establishing autonomy. These developmental tasks increase demands on adolescent self-control, hereby putting youth with poor effortful control at risk for psychopathology. Specific parenting behaviors might be warranted to buffer against this risk. Objective This study was designed to examine parenting-related risk and protective factors in the associations between effortful control and adolescent psychopathology. We hypothesized that youth with poor effortful control require more parental involvement (i.e., lower autonomy granting) to help complete these developmental tasks and subsequently avoid psychopathology. Methods Via adolescent self-reports (N = 809), associations between effortful control, perceived parenting (i.e., psychological control and autonomy support), and externalizing (i.e., interpersonal aggression and rule-breaking) and internalizing problems (i.e., depressive and anxiety problems) were examined. Results Regression analyses supported our hypothesis in boys: higher levels of autonomy support exacerbated the negative association between effortful control and rule-breaking. In contrast, in girls this was the case for lower levels of autonomy support. For both genders, low autonomy support and psychological control exacerbated negative associations between effortful control and internalizing problems. No buffering effects of parenting were found. Conclusions Low effortful control is associated with psychopathology in adolescents, but parenting can affect this association in several ways, depending on the type of psychopathology and the adolescent's gender. Future research should focus on finding 'optimal' levels of parental control that can help avoid psychopathological problems in youth with poor effortful control.

Psychological Intimate Partner Violence, Insecure Attachment, and Parental Psychological Control from Adolescence to Emerging Adulthood

“…First, PPC may predict pIPV. Perceived PPC was positively correlated with interpersonal aggression among Dutch adolescents (Houtepen et al, 2018). If social learning theory (Bandura, 1978) applies to the relationship between PPC and pIPV, PPC will directly predict pIPV.…”

Mediating effect of self-esteem on the relationship between leisure experience and aggression

“…On the basis of the linear regression analysis, perceived freedom, perceived intrinsic motivation and perceived competence of leisure experience were all negatively correlated with aggression after controlling for gender. Perceptions of these three kinds of experience are generally associated with adaptive psychosocial functioning 46 , 47 . Leisure is sometimes seen as compensation for other areas of life, probably because individuals can gain a deep sense of satisfaction in their perceptions of freedom, competence, and intrinsic motivation 48 .…”

Early Parenting in China: Associations and Interactions with Socialization Context, Child Self-Control, and Social Adjustment

“…Respect for autonomy negatively predicted their internalization, which might indicate a lack-of-fit between their temperamental trait and parenting behaviors (Kiff et al, 2011). The comparable results have also been found among adolescent boys in regard to their rule-breaking behaviors (Houtepen et al, 2019). The regions-of-significance analyses are based on the observed ranges of hot or cool effortful control.…”

“…Rather, preschoolers low on effortful control may require maternal behavioral corrections and limit-setting to help them achieve the same level of internalization as their peers. If mothers only support their independence and autonomy, they might not be able to comply with adults' rules when out of surveillance or might even exhibit rule-breaking behaviors (Houtepen et al, 2019).…”

“…For children with a high level of effortful control, respect for autonomy would scaffold their internalization as they are more developmentally prepared for having their internalization calibrated by this parenting (Ryan, Kuhl, & Deci, 1997), whereas negative control would hamper internalization because of a mismatch between this parenting behavior and their self-regulation level (Kiff, Lengua, & Zalewski, 2011). For children with a low level of effortful control, negative control would facilitate internalization because they need external control and behavioral corrections to guarantee their compliance with adults' rules (Houtepen, Sijtsema, Klimstra, Van der Lem, & Bogaerts, 2019;Kiff et al, 2011) whereas respect for autonomy would hinder internalization as they are too immature to benefit from allowing their own initiatives and independence for internalization development (Kiff et al, 2011).…”