Parent‐early adolescent relationship quality and problem behavior in Hungary, the Netherlands, India, and Iceland

Abstract

Higher parent-child relationship quality has been associated with less internalizing and externalizing problem behavior. However, it remained less clear whether these associations are universal or depend on the country under investigation. Furthermore, fathers are still understudied, even though there is increasing evidence of their important role in early adolescent development. Our study compared the association of mother-child as well as father-child relationship quality with early adolescents' problem behavior in four culturally different countries, namely Hungary (N = 293; M age = 11.22; 53% boys), the Netherlands (N = 242; M age = 11.20; 48% boys), India (N = 230; M age = 10.68; 61% boys), and Iceland (N = 261; M age = 10.90; 53% boys). Early adolescents filled out questionnaires in their classroom, assessing warmth and conflict with fathers and mothers and internalizing and externalizing problem behavior. Stepwise multi-group path analysis demonstrated no cross-cultural differences in associations between quality of the parent-child relationship and problem behavior. We did not find any effects of maternal or paternal warmth. However, across samples conflict with mothers was associated with more internalizing and externalizing problem behavior, and conflict with fathers was associated with more externalizing problem behavior. Our findings highlight the need to target conflict with both fathers and mothers in interventions across different countries, especially when addressing externalizing problem behavior.

The association between parent-child relationship and problematic internet use among English- and Chinese-language studies: A meta-analysis

“…Countries with higher levels of individualism have higher subjective wellbeing; they will be happy if they are different from the group. Italian parents cultivate their independence, encourage their children to express themselves, and use authoritative education methods (Hillekens et al, 2020 ). However, in collectivist countries, such as China, parents tend to cultivate their children to integrate into the collective, suppress their self-expression, and adopt authoritarian education methods.…”

Psychological Distress and Adolescents’ Cyberbullying under Floods and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Parent–Child Relationships and Negotiable Fate as Moderators

“…However, these adolescents would still believe in their efforts to help them attain their personal agency. Previous research supported this inference by revealing that both higher negotiable fate and PCRs are both closely related to active coping behaviors [22,[35][36][37]. A high belief in negotiable fate is positively related to active coping strategies [22].…”

Family Surveillance: Understanding Parental Monitoring, Reciprocal Practices, and Digital Resilience

“…Moreover, the sample size is not representative of a larger Dutch or international population, nor was this the intention of this study. The conclusions derived from this study are influenced by cultural-specific norms in the Netherlands like equality, autonomy, independence, and assertiveness (Rooyackers, de Valk, and Merz 2014;Hillekens et al 2020;Gerrits, Dekovic, and Noom 1996). For instance, the idea that families in the Netherlands value equality becomes increasingly visible in how parents approach discussions about technology use.…”

“…Yet, the majority of fathers still work full time and the majority of mothers part-time-with the latter taking up more of the childcare and household duties (Yerkes et al 2020). Moreover, Dutch parents are described as valuing equality, equal power distribution, independence, assertiveness, and autonomy (Rooyackers, de Valk, and Merz 2014;Hillekens et al 2020;Gerrits, Dekovic, and Noom 1996).…”