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Parenting Style and Child Behavior Problems: A Longitudinal Analysis

Data from the National Survey of Children were used to study the relationships between children's perceptions of parental support and control and measures of self-esteem and behavior problems over time. Data were collected in 1976 , when the children were aged 7-11; 1981, when the children were in their early to mid teens (age 12 to 16); and 1987, when the children were in their late teens and early 20s (age 17 to 22). Parenting measures , based on children's reports, were developed for each wave from items included in the data; constructed variables measuring self -esteem and internal and external expressions of behavior problems were also comprised of individual items drawn from each wave of data. Preliminary analyses showed that parental support was positively correlated to children's self-esteem and negatively related to behavior problems. Although the parental control measures had little effect on the outcome variables , the effect that was present showed that parental coerciveness, rejection, and permissiveness were negatively correlated with children's self-esteem, while being positively associated with both internal and external behavior problems. The preliminary results also showed that the parental effects of mothers and fathers differed for daughters and sons. LISREL analyses were done in an effort to more fully investigate the interactive effects between the constructed variables of interest. Generally, the measures were related as expected , although the relationships were not as strong as anticipated. Of the parenting measures, parental support showed the strongest effects on child outcomes; parental control measures had very little effect on children's self-esteem or behavior problems . In 1987, parenting style had virtually no effect on youths' self-esteem or on behavior problems. For this wave, self-esteem was the strongest predictor of behavior problems in young adults.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UTAHS/oai:digitalcommons.usu.edu:etd-3824
Date01 May 1993
CreatorsYoung, Margaret H.
PublisherDigitalCommons@USU
Source SetsUtah State University
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceAll Graduate Theses and Dissertations
RightsCopyright for this work is held by the author. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. For more information contact Andrew Wesolek (andrew.wesolek@usu.edu).

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