Congruence on child rearing in families with early adolescent and middle adolescent children

Abstract

This study investigates the extent to which parents’ and adolescent’s reports of parental child-rearing behaviour are in agreement with each other. The aim of this study is twofold. The first aim is to verify whether familial congruence (congruence between family members) about child rearing exists. The second aim is to verify whether the level of congruence varies with the stage of the adolescent (early and middle) and gender of parent or child. The sample consists of 788 families with a child between the ages of 9 and 16 years. Congruence scores were computed on diverse aspects of child rearing: material rewarding, expression of affection, conformity, autonomy, ignoring, and punishment. The results show that familial congruence exists, not only between father and mother but also between parents and their children. A second result is that congruence between parents and their children increases from early to middle adolescence indicating that children become more competent interpreting their parents’ behaviour.