Although previous research has examined how dependent and self-critical people recall their parents, there has been little investigation of the influence of Dependency and Self-Criticism on parental attitudes and behavior. The present research examined these relationships in mothers of adolescent children. In Studies 1, 2, and 3, mothers completed measures of Dependency and Self-Criticism and of baseline affect, then were given experimentally manipulated feedback about the child's competence and autonomy. Affect was assessed again, and mothers "coached" children on computer problem-solving puzzles. Studies 1 and 2 examined mothers of adolescent girls, and Study 3 examined mothers of adolescent boys. In mothers of adolescent girls, Dependency was associated with punitive and controlling reactions to daughter autonomy. This was also true of mothers of less competent adolescent sons. In mothers of highly competent sons, however, Dependency was associated with punitive and controlling reactions to low autonomy. Dependency was also associated with increases in depressed affect in response to daughter, but not son, autonomy. In mothers of adolescent girls, Self-Criticism was associated with punitive behavior, regardless of the manipulated characteristics of the daughters. This was true even when, in Study 2, the highly competent performance of daughters was made extremely salient. Self-Criticism had no discernible impact on the parental behavior of mothers of adolescent sons. These results were interpreted as indicating that, especially in mothers of adolescent daughters, parents high in Dependency and Self-Criticism interact with their children in ways that are likely to foster the development of Self-criticism and Dependency in their children. Study 4 examined the relationship between parent and child Dependency and Self-Criticism in the combined data collected from the first three studies. Contrary to expectations, there was no relationship between parent and child
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.36721 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| Creators | Thompson, Ralph Richard. |
| Contributors | Zuroff, David C. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Psychology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001744258, proquestno: NQ64682, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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