Perceived Parental Acceptance and Psychological Adjustment

Abstract

A sample of 168 children ages 7 through 12 years ( M = 10.49 years) from Northern Greece (47.9% boys) was drawn to explore whether interpersonal power or prestige moderated relationships between paternal and/or maternal acceptances and children’s psychological adjustment. Child versions of the Parental Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaire (mother and father forms), the Personality Assessment Questionnaire, and the youth version of the Parental Power–Prestige Questionnaire were used. Both boys’ and girls’ psychological adjustment was significantly correlated with perceived paternal acceptance, but only girls’ adjustment was significantly correlated with maternal acceptance. In addition, girls’ perceptions of parental prestige were negatively correlated with paternal acceptance. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that boys’ adjustment was marginally predicted by their perception of paternal (but not maternal) acceptance, whereas girls’ adjustment was uniquely and significantly predicted by their perception of maternal (but not paternal) acceptance. Finally, parental prestige moderated the relationship between perceived maternal acceptance and both boys’ and girls’ psychological adjustment.