Taking Responsibility in Adolescence and its Relationship with Parenting Style
Zuzana Petrovičová, Mojmír Tyrlík
Masaryk University, Faculty of Social Studies, Institute for Research on Children, Youth and Family, Joštova 10, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic
[email protected]
fss.muni.cz/~petrovic
1) What is the role of parents in responsibility
taking during adolescence?
• Responsibility as a complex phenomenon involves invisible (cognition,
affect, and attitude) components that are manifested in one’s behavior.
• In present study we examine responsibility through constructs of
attributional style and identity status, representing the invisible
component of responsibility, and personal and family related chores,
accounting for behavioral autonomy component.
4) Results
Results
Results
1) Identity statuses and Internality
3) Components of Parenting and Internality
5) Predicting Identity statuses and Internality
Adolescents in identity diffusion scored significantly higher on
externality, while and adolescents with more achieved identity
reported greater internality.
The highest correlations were found between parental enabling and
internality. Laissez fair component was related to greater externality,
demands component to internality.
Based on previously reported results, we conducted hierarchical
multiple regression models for each identity status and internality.
Summary of Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Predicting Identity Diffusion
Identity
Diffusion
Father
Positive
Emotions
-.29**
• Current research states that authoritative parenting, characterized by
firm boundaries and responsiveness, is the best predictor for positive
psychosocial development (1-5). Authoritative parenting is believed to
foster the development of instrumental competence in adolescence (2).
Parental enabling attitudes, such as insulating children from the
consequences of their actions, disables children from learning selfcontrol, independence, and strategies to correct peculiar behavior (6).
Identity
Foreclosure
.15
Mother
Negative
Emotions
- .13
-.21*
Father
Negative
Emotions
Variables
Mother
Positive
Emotions
- .03
Mother
Laissez faire
.09
Summary of Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Predicting Identity Foreclosure
-.22**
INTERNALITY
INTERNALITY
.02
Identity
Moratorium
Variables
-.19*
Mother
Demands
.30**
Father
Laissez faire
.28**
.23**
-.43**
2) Study has five main goals
Identity
Achievement
1) To investigate the relationship between identity statuses and
internality
2) To examine the relationship between components of parenting and
identity statuses
3) To examine the relationship between components of parenting and
internality
4) To examine the relationship between components of parenting and
personal and family-related responsibilities
5) On the basis of correlational analyses we will look at dimensions of
parenting and enabling as the predictors of identity statuses and
internality.
-.39**
Mother
Enabling
Father
Demands
*p<.05, **p<.01
Variables
*p<.05, **p<.01
Results
Results
2) Components of Parenting and Identity Statuses
4) Component of Parenting and Personal and Family Related
Responsibilities
MOTHER
Positive emotions
.29*
male
.26*
Negative emotions
.30*
.33**
3) Method
-.34**
.25*
Instruments
Adolescents
• Attributional Style Questionnaire (7)-eight hypothetical events for which adolescents have to state
what they think is the main cause of each situation (α= .54)
• Personal and Family Responsibilities (8)- Items inquire about self initiated activities: personalrelated responsibilities (e.g. doing homework, earning one’s own money, keeping one’s room clan, α= .71),
family-related responsibilities (e.g. cleaning up, cooking, and taking care of younger siblings, α= .75)
• Identity – shortened and translated version of EOMEOS-2 (9-10). Items indicate the identity statuses
as defined by Marcia - presence or absence of crisis and presence or absence of commitment: identity
diffusion (α=.64), identity foreclosure (α=.75), moratorium (α= .56), and identity achievement (α=.68).
• Parenting style - The Parenting Style Questionnaire (11) consists of 40 items, 10 for each component
(positive, negative, laissez faire, and demands), separately for mother and father. α= 0.74 - 0.90
FATHER
MOTHER
.24*
.25**
.36**
Identity Foreclosure
female
Demands
FATHER
male
.30*
Positive emotions
-.26*
Identity
Moratorium
female
Negative emotions
.25*
-.19*
.27**
-.22*
Demands
male
female
Enabling
Enabling
*p<.05, **p<.01
-.26*
Laissez faire
Laissez faire
Family Responsibilities
-.29*
-.28*
.22*
Negative emotions
Laissez faire
.35**
Enabling
Negative emotions
-.32**
.25** Personal Responsibilities
male
.31*
Family responsibilities were related to parental positive emotions.
Personal responsibilities were related to demandingness
dimension of parenting and paternal emotions toward the child.
Positive emotions
Demands
Participants
high school students (n= 140, age 14 – 18years of age, M=16.03) and their parents from midsize town
in western Slovakia
Variables
Positive emotions
-.23*
Laissez faire
Identity
Achievement
Demands
References
Enabling
1)
*p<.05, **p<.01
2)
3)
4)
5)
Parents
6)
7)
8)
• Lynch Enabling Survey for Parents (6) -translated it and slightly modified for our culture (e.g. “My
child dyes his/her hair against my advice and it is a disaster. I allow him/her to stay home from school”, α= .77)
9)
10)
11)
Sex
Father_positive emotions
R2 = .15; *p < .05, **p < .01.
Identity Moratorium
B
SE B
β
1.23
1.03
.11
.33
.11
.26**
Summary of Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Predicting Identity Achievement
Identity Diffusion
female
Sex
Mother_positive emotions
Mother_laissez faire
R2 = .15; *p < .05, **p < .01.
Identity Foreclosure
B
SE B
β
-1.92
1.11
-.15
.54
.14
.34**
-.33
.14
-.22*
Summary of Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Predicting Identity Moratorium
Father
Enabling
Emotional components of parenting were related to identity.
Sex
Mother_negative emotions
Father_negative emotions
Father_enabling
R2 = .22 ; *p < .05, **p < .01.
Identity Diffusion
B
SE B
β
-1.40
1.09
-.11
.60
.15
.40**
-.41
.15
-.27**
.13
.04
.26**
Allen, J. P., Hauser, S. T., Bell, K. L., & O’Connor T. G. (1994). Longitudinal assessment of autonomy and relatedness in adolescent-family interactions as predictors of adolescent ego development and selfesteem. Child Development, 65, 179-194
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1, 183-198
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Čáp, J., Boschek, P. (1994). Dotazník pro zjišťování zpusobu v rodině: Příručka. Brno: Psychodiagnistika s.r.o.
Sex
Mother_positive emotions
R2 = .12; *p < .05, **p < .01.
Identity Achievement
B
SE B
β
2.99
1.12
.23**
.41
.14
.25**
Summary of Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Predicting Internality
Variables
Sex
Mother_demands
Father_demands
Father_enabling
R2 = .12; *p < .05, **p < .01.
B
1.25
.37
.23
-.23
Internality
SE B
1.21
.16
.15
.05
β
.08
.22**
.14
-.37**
) Conclusion
• Adolescents with more achieved identity reported greater internal
explanations as opposed to adolescents in identity diffusion.
• Parenting style was found to be related to all three components of
responsibility. Positive and negative emotional components of
parenting were related to adolescents’ identity status. Adolescent’s
internality/ externality was associated with parental demandingness
and enabling.
These results may offer better understanding of the concept of
responsibility and its relationship with parenting style, however, our
study has limitations. First, reliability of Slovak version of the
measures we used was not very satisfying. Secondly, the age
differences between participants were quite large. Lastly, selfreported measures should be supported by information from other
sources.
Future research is recommended to assess the parenting attitudes and
behaviors and its influence on the responsibility taking process in
adolescence.