Parental Socialization Styles: The Contribution of Paternal and Maternal Affect/Communication and Strictness to Family Socialization Style.

Inge Axpe,Iratxe Antonio-Agirre,Eider Goñi,Arantzazu Rodríguez-Fernández

doi:10.3390/ijerph16122204

Abstract

The aim of this study is two-fold: (a) to determine the general degree of family affect/communication and strictness by examining the combination of the two classical dimensions of mother parenting style: affect/communication and strictness, and (b) to analyze the impact of both parents’ affect and strictness on the family style, thereby exploring the specific contribution made by each parent’s style and dimension. Participants were 1190 Spanish students, 47.1% boys and 52.3% girls (M = 14.68; SD = 1.76). The Affect Scale (EA-H) and the Rules and Demandingness Scale (ENE-H) (both by Fuentes, Motrico, and Bersabé, 1999) were used. Structural equation models (SEMs) were extracted using the EQS program. The results reveal that it is not the father’s and the mother’s parenting style combined, but rather the combination of maternal and paternal affect/communication, and maternal and paternal strictness which generates one perception of family affect and another of family strictness. The results also indicated that the weight of both dimensions varies in accordance with the parent’s gender, with maternal dimensions playing a more important role in family socialization style.

Highlights

Several different models have been proposed since the initial publication of studies in this field [6], the most commonly-used is that resulting from the combination of two underlying dimensions which have guided the study of parenting for decades [7,8]: responsiveness and demandingness [9,10]
To analyze the combination of the different dimensions which together make up parenting styles and their effect on family socialization style, three different structural regression models were empirically compared
The present study aimed to explore the influence of parenting practices on the establishment of family socialization style, understood as an emotional context or climate [13] in which parenting practices may acquire different meaning when both the mother’s and father’s affect-communication and strictness are combined

Summary

Introduction

Several different models have been proposed since the initial publication of studies in this field [6], the most commonly-used is that resulting from the combination of two underlying dimensions which have guided the study of parenting for decades [7,8]: responsiveness and demandingness [9,10]. Both refer to patterns of parental practices that are grouped into these two central dimensions considered theoretically [10] and empirically [11,12] as orthogonal (independent) dimensions. The combination of both orthogonal dimensions results in a quadrant of four parental

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion