Effective and Ineffective Parenting

Abstract

The current study examined the impact of effective and ineffective parenting on emerging adult psychological adjustment as well as parenting characteristics associated with adjusted and maladjusted emerging adults. Participants were 175 male and 309 female emerging adults who completed questionnaires assessing their perceptions of their parents’ parenting practices, discipline strategies, and psychopathology as well as their own psychological adjustment. Participants reporting effective parenting from two parents experienced the best adjustment, whereas participants reporting ineffective parenting from two parents experienced the worst adjustment, and participants reporting effective parenting from at least one parent appeared to be protected against the particularly harmful effects of ineffective parenting from two parents. Parental psychopathology, harsh discipline, involvement, and regard for parent and child all strongly differentiated adjusted and maladjusted participants.

Keywords

emerging adulthood parenting discipline parental psychopathology psychological adjustment

Research has identified a number of variables that play a role in positive youth development. One group of factors that has been consistently associated with a variety of outcomes in children is parenting characteristics. Such characteristics include parenting practices, discipline strategies, and parental psychopathology. Although a large amount of research has studied these factors individually during childhood and adolescence (Baumrind, 1991; Feng et al., 2009; Ford, Collishaw, Meltzer, & Goodman, 2007), less research has examined how these characteristics play a role in an adolescent’s healthy transition to emerging adulthood.

Thus, the current study investigated the impact of mothers and fathers who adopt effective parenting practices and discipline strategies and who are psychologically well adjusted on emerging adult psychological adjustment. The impact of mothers and fathers who were rated as using effective parenting practices and discipline strategies as well as psychologically adjusted was compared against the impact of mothers and fathers who were rated as using ineffective parenting practices and discipline strategies as well as psychologically maladjusted. Finally, the current study also examined differences across maternal and paternal parenting practices, discipline strategies, and parental psychopathology when comparing emerging adults who rated themselves as psychologically well adjusted with those who rated themselves as psychologically maladjusted. Overall, the current study investigated both (1) the impact of effective maternal and paternal parenting on emerging adult psychological adjustment and (2) how parenting characteristics differ between psychologically well adjusted and maladjusted emerging adults from the perspective of emerging adults.

Parenting Practices and Behaviors

Baumrind (1991) identified and investigated parenting practices associated with positive youth outcomes by focusing on six specific parenting styles: authoritative (i.e., highly demanding, highly responsive, well-organized style), democratic (i.e., highly responsive, somewhat demanding, nonrestrictive, less conventional style), directive (i.e., restrictive, demanding, nonresponsive style encouraging conformity over individuality), good enough (i.e., somewhat restrictive and responsive style), nondirective (i.e., very nonrestrictive, somewhat responsive, nonconfrontational style), and unengaged (i.e., neither demanding nor responsive with little structure). Results indicated that adolescents from authoritative and democratic families were better adjusted than participants from other types of families as judged by competence (i.e., higher autonomy and self-esteem), conformity (i.e., negative attitude toward drugs and lower external locus of control), and presence of problem behaviors (i.e., lower internalizing problems and illicit drug use). These adolescents also had higher verbal and mathematic achievement scores and reported having parents who were loving and influential. Further, adolescents from nondirective homes were generally low in achievement orientation, even when intelligence scores were high. These adolescents were among the heaviest substance users, only surpassed by adolescents from unengaged homes, which were found to be most detrimental to positive youth outcomes. Adolescents from unengaged homes had high rates of externalizing problems including drug and alcohol use, performed poorly on standardized achievement tests, and were immature (i.e., high external locus of control, unindividuated). Overall, an authoritative parenting style was most conducive to positive youth outcomes and an unengaged style was least conducive. Baumrind (1991) explained that this finding was due to the high level of commitment in authoritative families contrasted with the low level of commitment in unengaged families.

Parenting styles may be simplified by using two dimensions: responsiveness and demandingness (Baumrind, 1991). Authoritative style, characterized by high levels of both dimensions, has repeatedly been related to positive outcomes for youth (Baumrind, 1991; Henderson, Dakof, Schwartz, & Liddle, 2006). In contrast, authoritarian style, characterized by high levels of demandingness and low levels of responsiveness; permissive style, characterized by high levels of responsiveness and low levels of demandingness; and neglectful style, characterized by low levels of both dimensions, have consistently been associated with negative outcomes for youth when compared with authoritative style (Baumrind, 1991; Henderson et al., 2006). Researchers have suggested that parenting styles that parents adopt guide their choices as to the behaviors they use to parent their children. That is, parenting style is a contextual model in which parents make choices about their parenting behaviors (Darling & Steinberg, 1993). For example, parents who are authoritative may choose specific parenting behaviors, including warmth, consistency, and nonviolent discipline while parenting their youth. Parents who adopt an authoritative style likely will engage in a verbal give-and-take about a particular matter such as doing homework, but the specific behaviors of how the matter is handled is determined differently (e.g., one parent may permit exercise prior to homework, whereas another does not; Darling & Steinberg, 1993).

Further research has been conducted to investigate the relationship between parenting practices and outcomes. One such study conducted by Paulussen-Hoogeboom, Stams, Hermanns, Peetsma, and van der Wittenboer (2008) found that the relationship between children’s negative emotionality and internalizing and externalizing problem was fully mediated by maternal authoritative parenting style but not authoritarian parenting style. In another study, Manzeske and Stright (2009) examined the relationship between maternal parenting practices (i.e., warmth, behavioral and psychological control) and young adults’ ability to control emotions (i.e., ability to stay stable under stress, belief that one is overly emotional). Results indicated that higher levels of maternal behavioral and psychological control were related to lower levels of emotion regulation, suggesting that functioning independently is important to young adults as they become increasingly autonomous from their parents. Feng et al. (2009) also examined emotion regulation and parenting practices by assessing girls’ expressed emotion, depressive symptoms, and perception of their parents’ acceptance and psychological control. Results indicated that lower levels of positive emotion were related to higher levels of depressive symptoms when parents were rated as moderately to highly controlling, and low levels of sadness regulation were related to higher levels of depressive symptoms when parents were rated as low to moderately accepting. Dietz et al. (2008) also examined how parenting characteristics may relate to depression in children. Results of their study indicated that mothers of children with major depressive disorder displayed a disengaged parenting style, and mothers whose children were classified as having a low risk for developing major depressive disorder displayed an authoritative parenting style.

Overall, research suggests that the quality of parenting practices is clearly associated with youth outcomes. In general, the research discussed above suggests that effective parenting practices (e.g., authoritative style— warmth, responsiveness, acceptance, etc.) are an important factor for positive outcomes in youth.

Although time spent with family typically decreases and time spent with peers typically increases during adolescence, parental discipline continues to play a valuable role in determining positive youth outcomes. As noted by Baumrind (1991), authoritative and democratic parents who place more rules, demands, and structure upon their children in a consistent manner may experience fewer instances of troublesome behavior. Fletcher, Walls, Cook, Madison, and Bridges (2008) assessed the impact of discipline strategies and parenting practices on youth outcomes. Results indicated that authoritative mothers used less punitive discipline, whereas neglecting mothers used the most. Mothers classified as authoritative or authoritarian were found to be more consistent than mothers classified as indulgent. Punitive and inconsistent parenting was associated with lower grades in school and more social, internalizing, and externalizing problems. In another study, Padilla-Walker (2008) investigated adolescents’ perceptions of discipline and found that adolescents reported that maternal talking and reasoning, as opposed to yelling or another punitive form of discipline, in response to misbehavior was considered the most appropriate and responsive. Overall, results of these studies suggest that nonpunitive and consistent disciplinary styles are associated with positive outcomes and perceptions in children.

Parental Psychopathology and Parenting Behaviors

The presence of parental psychopathology may influence not only how parents interact with their children but also their children’s overall outcome. For example, Ford et al. (2007) found that parental psychopathology was associated with poorer outcomes in children over a 3-year period. Problems related to parental internalizing problems are well documented, with rates of depression in youth of depressed mothers being significantly higher than youth of nondepressed mothers (Gross, Shaw, Burrell, & Nagin, 2009), and that paternal depression has an additive negative effect with maternal depression (Brennan, Hammen, Katz, & Le Brocque, 2002). Depression in youth of depressed parents begins earlier, lasts longer, is more severe, and is more likely to recur than depression in youth of nondepressed parents (Goodman, 2007). Further, parents with depression are less likely to be responsive to children’s needs, which may be associated with a rejection and low self-esteem (Dietz et al., 2008; Elgar, Mills, McGrath, Waschbusch, & Brownridge, 2007). Similarly, parental anxiety is associated with negative outcomes. For example, parental anxiety may lead to modeling of anxiety, including avoidance, rejection, and overcontrol (Edwards, Rapee, & Kennedy, 2010). For externalizing problems, Marmorstein, Malone, and Iacono (2004) found that, in addition to maternal depression, paternal antisocial tendencies were associated with internalizing and externalizing problems in youth. Parents with antisocial tendencies may parent consistently with those tendencies and act unresponsive, self-absorbed, irritable, and aggressive (Middleton, Scott, & Renk, 2009). Overall, research suggests that parental psychopathology may disrupt parenting practices and is associated with poorer youth outcomes.

Parenting Characteristics During Emerging Adulthood

Emerging adulthood is a developmental period during the late teens and twenties in which young people ideally are gaining autonomy from their parents while simultaneously remaining at least somewhat under parental support (Arnett, 2000; McKinney & Renk, 2008a). During this time, emerging adults have a unique relationship with their parents that is undergoing role changes. Therefore, it is essential to examine what parenting characteristics optimize psychological adjustment in emerging adults as this transition often leaves them unusually vulnerable while seeking individuality (Arnett, 2000; Hardie, 1999).

Although parenting characteristics during emerging adulthood are less studied compared to other developmental time periods (e.g., childhood and adolescence), a series of studies recently have investigated the effects of parenting characteristics on psychological adjustment from the perspective of emerging adults (i.e., McKinney, Donnelly, & Renk, 2008; McKinney & Milone, 2012; McKinney et al., 2011; McKinney & Renk 2008a, 2008b). McKinney, Milone, and Renk (2011) examined parenting practices (i.e., authoritative style, authoritarian style, warmth), discipline strategies (i.e., psychological aggression, physical punishment), and emotional adjustment (i.e., depression, anxiety, self-esteem) and found that discipline strategies mediated the relationship between parenting practices and emotional adjustment for males, but not for females, whose emotional adjustment was most strongly predicted by parenting practices. McKinney et al. (2008) investigated the role of positive and negative affect in the relationship between parenting practices (i.e., authoritative style, warmth) and emotional adjustment and found that positive parenting practices were associated with higher positive and lower negative affect in emerging adults.

McKinney and Renk (2008a) investigated how mothers and fathers parent together and found that emerging adults who reported having at least one authoritative parent also reported better emotional adjustment compared to emerging adults who reported both parents as a style other than authoritative. McKinney and Renk (2008b) investigated the role of conflict (i.e., psychological and physical aggression), developmental expectations, and family environment (i.e., cohesion, adaptability, expressiveness) in the relationship between parenting practices (i.e., authoritative style, warmth, autonomy granting) and emotional adjustment. This study found that, in general, parenting practices were related indirectly to emotional adjustment through its effects on family environment and conflict. Finally, McKinney and Milone (2012) examined the relationships among parental psychopathology (i.e., internalizing and externalizing problems), parenting practices (i.e., authoritative style, warmth, conflict, involvement, regard for parent and youth), and emerging adult psychopathology (i.e., internalizing and externalizing problems). This study found that parental psychopathology was associated with negative parenting practices and poorer emerging adult psychological adjustment

Current Study

A great body of research has examined the effects of parenting on child and adolescent outcomes, often with a focus on maternal characteristics. Although the effects of parenting practices, discipline strategies, and parental psychopathology on child outcomes have been studied, they are frequently investigated separately or fail to consider paternal characteristics alongside maternal characteristics (McKinney, Milone & Renk, 2011; McKinney & Milone, 2012). Further, fewer studies examine these variables in the context of emerging adults.

Although the studies by McKinney and colleagues described above have begun to address how parenting characteristics may contribute to the psychological adjustment of emerging adults, the current study investigated the effects of effective and ineffective maternal and paternal parenting simultaneously on psychological adjustment in emerging adults. Furthermore, the current study also investigated the types of parenting practices, discipline strategies, and parental psychopathology that were associated with psychologically well adjusted (i.e., low levels of internalizing and externalizing problems) and maladjusted (i.e., high levels of internalizing and externalizing problems) emerging adults. Thus, the current study provided information on the types of maternal and paternal parenting characteristics that are associated with positive development in emerging adults as well as the types of specific parenting characteristics that were associated with psychological adjustment and maladjustment in emerging adults. In particular, the current study utilized a clustering approach to derive empirically defined patterns of parenting and adjustment. The empirically defined cluster first indicates which characteristics associate, or cluster, together and second allows that cluster to be treated as a discernible group. This allows patterns of empirically derived parenting and adjustment to be examined rather than examining variables separately.

Effective parenting was defined as parenting characteristics that have been associated with positive outcomes. For the purposes of this study, effective parenting consisted of higher levels of authoritative style, involvement, regard for parent and child, structure, nonviolent discipline, and psychological adjustment and lower levels of authoritarian and permissive style, conflict, and harsh discipline. Ineffective parenting, traditionally associated with negative outcomes, was defined as the opposite of effective parenting. Hypothesis 1a states that emerging adults who report having a father with effective parenting or mother with effective parenting will report higher psychological adjustment (i.e., lower internalizing and externalizing problems) than emerging adults who report having fathers or mothers with ineffective parenting. Hypothesis 1b states that emerging adults who report having a father and mother who both adopt effective parenting will have the highest psychological adjustment, that those who report having a father and mother who both adopt ineffective parenting will have the lowest psychological adjustment, and that those who report having at least one parent who adopts effective parenting will be somewhat buffered from low psychological adjustment (i.e., they will be closer in adjustment to emerging adults who report a father and mother who both use effective parenting than those who report a father and mother who both use ineffective parenting). This hypothesis is based on McKinney and Renk’s (2008a) finding that having at least one authoritative parent was beneficial for emotional adjustment. Hypothesis 2 states that adjusted emerging adults will report more positive parenting characteristics (i.e., authoritative, involvement, regard for parent and child, structure, nonviolent discipline) and less negative parenting characteristics (i.e., authoritarian, permissive, conflict, parental internalizing and externalizing problems, corporal punishment, severe assault, very severe assault, and psychological aggression) than maladjusted emerging adults.

Method

Participants

The sample for this study consisted of 175 male and 309 female college students who ranged in age from 18 to 24 years (M = 18.60, SD = 1.00) and who volunteered for course credit at a southern university. Any participants who did not fall within the age range of emerging adulthood (i.e., 18-25 years) were excluded from data analyses. Participants classified their race as Caucasian (69.4%), African American (23.6%), Hispanic (2.7%), Asian (2.3%), or Other (2.1%). Participants indicated that their parents varied in their education level (4.1% of fathers and 3.0% mothers did not complete high school; 32.6% of fathers and 24.2% of mothers had received a high school degree; 10.9% of fathers and 16.3% of mothers had a 2-year degree; 29.6% of fathers and 35.8% of mothers had a 4-year degree; and 22.8% of fathers and 20.7% of mothers had a graduate degree). Participants also predominately reported that their parents lived together (77% reported a two-parent household, 23% reported a single-parent household) and that they had some form of contact (e.g., phone, face-to-face) with their mothers for an average of 3.15 hours per day and with their fathers for an average of 2.45 hours per day. Overall, participants reported that their parents live together and are educated and that they have a good amount of contact with them.

Materials

Parental Authority Questionnaire

The Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ; Buri, 1991) contains 30 questions, which assess parents’ permissive, authoritarian, and authoritative parenting styles (with 10 questions for each). Participants were instructed to rate each statement according to a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Participants rated each statement for both their mothers and fathers. Test–retest reliabilities have ranged from .77 to .92, and internal consistency reliabilities have ranged from .74 to .87 on the subscales, demonstrating good reliability (Buri, 1991). The scale also has good discriminant validity. Authoritarianism has been related inversely to permissiveness and authoritativeness, whereas permissiveness has not been related to authoritativeness (Buri, 1991). Criterion-related validity has been established, with parental warmth and authoritativeness being related positively, authoritarianism being related negatively, and permissiveness being unrelated to parental nurturance (Buri, 1991). This measure was used to indicate parenting practices.

Parental Environment Questionnaire

The Parental Environment Questionnaire (PEQ; Elkins, McGue, & Iacono, 1997) consists of 42 questions and is designed to measure the parent–child relationship. The PEQ measures the relationships the child has with the mother and father separately with subscales including parent–child conflict (e.g., My parent and I often get into arguments), involvement (e.g., I share my concerns with my parent), regard (e.g., My parent praises me when I do well), and structure (e.g., My parent makes it clear what he/she wants me to do or not do). Responses are rated on a 4-point scale with answers ranging from definitely true to definitely false. The scale has been determined to have good internal consistency reliability and construct validity (Elkins et al., 1997). This measure was used to indicate parenting practices.

Conflict Tactics Scale: Parent–Child Version

The Conflicts Tactics Scale: Parent–Child Version (CTSPC; Straus, Hamby, Finkelhor, Moore, & Runyan, 1998) is as 22-item scale used to assess types of discipline used by parents. Subscales include nonviolent discipline (e.g., explained why something was wrong), psychological aggression (e.g., shouted, yelled, or screamed at you), corporal punishment (e.g., shook you), severe assault (e.g., hit you with a fist or kicked you hard), and very severe assault (e.g. beat you up, that is, hit you over and over as hard as he or she could). Alphas in previous studies for the various subscales ranged from −.02 to .60, with low internal consistencies accounted for by the rare occurrences of strategies depicted in certain items (e.g., a parent stabbing their child) and resulting in an extremely skewed distribution (Straus et al., 1998). Although a high internal consistency is not a prerequisite of validity, test–retest reliability is. The scale has had test–retest reliabilities ranging from .49 to .80 (Straus et al., 1998). Validity of the scale has been demonstrated as the scale correlated in expected directions with various other measures and did not correlate when it was not expected to (Straus et al., 1998). This measure was used to indicate discipline strategies.

Adult Self-Report and Adult Behavior Checklist

The Adult Self-Report (ASR; Rescorla & Achenbach, 2004) and Adult Behavior Checklist (ABCL; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2003) are both 123-item self-administered instruments used to measure externalizing and internalizing psychopathology. The ABCL is used to obtain information about an individual being assessed from others’ report (e.g., a spouse, family member, friend, etc.), and the ASR is used to obtain information about the reporter. Respondents can answer the ASR and ABCL statements as 0 (not true), 1 (somewhat or sometimes true), and 2 (very true or often true). The 123 items about problem behaviors constitute 8 empirically-based syndromes derived by factor analysis. Loading on the Internalizing Problems scale are the Withdrawn, Somatic Complaints, and Anxious-Depressed Syndrome scales. Loading on the Externalizing Problems scale are the Rule-Breaking Behavior, Aggressive Behavior, and Intrusive Syndrome scales. Internal consistency alphas range from .87 to .93 in previous studies (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2003; Rescorla & Achenbach, 2004). In this study, participants completed the ABCL to assess their perceptions of psychopathology present in their mother and father and completed the ASR with regard to themselves. The Internalizing and Externalizing scales of the ABCL were used to indicate parental psychopathology and the same scales of the ASR were used to indicate emerging adult psychological adjustment.

Procedure

On approval by a university review board, the survey was conducted online and the completion or voluntary withdrawal of the study resulted in the award of one credit for participation. The survey included scales assessing perceived parenting practices, perceived discipline strategies, perceived parental psychopathology, and self-reported psychopathology from the perspective of emerging adult participants. A consent form was provided electronically before the survey began and a printable debriefing sheet was provided for the students’ benefit once the survey ended. Participants completed the surveys in random order and were instructed to complete all measures with regard to current perceptions.

Results

All statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS 19.0. An alpha level of .05 was used unless otherwise specified. Listwise deletion was used for missing data. Please see Table 1 for means and standard deviations of the scales. Initial analyses were conducted to examine differences across ethnicity and gender. Regarding ethnicity, only two statistical differences were found across the 26 parenting variables, both of which were very small effects. Thus, separate analyses were not included across ethnicities. Differences across gender were more apparent with differences being found on 9 of the 26 variables measured. Specifically, females reported higher levels of maternal authoritative style, involvement, regard for parent, regard for child, and structure than males. Further, males reported higher levels of maternal very severe assault and paternal severe assault, very severe assault, and psychological aggression. Overall, females tended to report that their mothers were more involved and caring than males, and males tended to report more harsh discipline from both parents, particularly the father, than females.

Table 1.

Means and Standard Deviations for Ratings of Fathers, Mothers, and Self.

	Fathers		Mothers		Self
Indicator	M	SD	M	SD	M	SD
PAQ Authoritative	23.28	8.15	24.63	7.13	—	—
PAQ Authoritarian	22.67	7.81	22.77	6.88	—	—
PAQ Permissive	14.99	6.76	15.32	6.12	—	—
PEQ Conflict	9.41	8.57	10.34	8.40	—	—
PEQ Involvement	24.85	9.54	27.96	7.83	—	—
PEQ Regard for Parent	18.24	7.34	19.89	5.84	—	—
PEQ Regard for Child	12.41	3.71	12.95	3.18	—	—
PEQ Structure	11.22	3.32	11.64	2.89	—	—
CTSPC Nonviolent Discipline	9.67	5.95	12.10	6.42	—	—
CTSPC Psychological Aggression	6.58	6.68	8.93	8.18	—	—
CTSPC Corporal Punishment	4.79	5.85	6.79	7.44	—	—
CTSPC Severe Assault	1.73	3.92	2.25	4.68	—	—
CTSPC Very Severe Assault	1.30	3.93	1.35	4.25	—	—
ABCL Internalizing Problems	8.35	10.89	10.20	11.52	—	—
ABCL Externalizing Problems	11.89	12.68	10.60	12.66	—	—
ASR Internalizing Problems	—	—	—	—	15.14	13.50
ASR Externalizing Problems	—	—	—	—	11.64	11.02

Note. PAQ = Parental Authority Questionnaire; PEQ = Parental Environment Questionnaire; CTSPC = Conflict Tactics Scale: Parent–Child Version; ABCL = Adult Behavior Check List; ASR = Adult Self Report.

Impact of Maternal and Paternal Effective and Ineffective Parenting

A k-means cluster analysis was conducted to classify mothers and fathers as having effective or ineffective parenting characteristics based on the PAQ, PEQ, CTSPC, and ABCL. This method allowed for an empirically derived pattern of maternal and paternal parenting practices, discipline strategies, and psychopathology to be obtained and condensed a large number of subscales from the PAQ, PEQ, CTSPC, and ABCL into two discernible groups. This procedure was based on an iterative partitioning method where k groups, or the number of clusters specified by the investigator, were selected as initial centers. Cases then were assigned to the nearest cluster center as determined by the squared Euclidean distance between the case and the center. The final cluster centers were the subscale means for the cases included in each of the final clusters. This process formed clusters that maximized intragroup similarities as well as intergroup differences. The exploratory nature of this analysis should be noted, as this statistic will always fit the data to the number of clusters specified. Thus, the determination of clusters was based on several considerations. First, a hierarchical cluster analysis, which produces an agglomeration schedule that provides values to determine the distinctness of the groups, was used. Finally, distinctness of groups (e.g., groups became increasingly vague when the analyses included additional clusters) and clarity of results contributed to the decision to use two groups. As a result, all possible combinations of parenting characteristics may not be represented. In general and as can be seen in Table 2, an effective parent, as compared with an ineffective parent, was characterized by higher levels of authoritative style, involvement, regard for parent and child, structure, and nonviolent discipline and lower levels of permissive style, conflict, harsh discipline strategies, and psychopathology.

Table 2.

Clusters for Effective/Ineffective Mothers/Fathers and Adjusted/Maladjusted Emerging Adults.

Indicator	Fathers		Mothers		Self
	Effective	Ineffective	Effective	Ineffective	Adjusted	Maladjusted
	N = 341	N = 108	N = 356	N = 102	N = 376	N = 94
	M	M	M	M	M	M
PAQ Authoritative	25.46	17.56	26.69	18.67	—	—
PAQ Authoritarian	22.57	23.08	23.22	21.73	—	—
PAQ Permissive	14.65	16.19	14.96	16.75	—	—
PEQ Conflict	6.94	17.09	8.01	17.50	—	—
PEQ Involvement	28.53	15.46	30.95	18.90	—	—
PEQ Regard for Parent	20.98	11.47	22.08	13.45	—	—
PEQ Regard for Child	13.74	8.70	14.18	9.41	—	—
PEQ Structure	12.01	9.11	12.38	9.42	—	—
CTSPC Nonviolent Discipline	10.01	9.34	12.32	11.66	—	—
CTSPC Psychological Aggression	5.36	10.73	7.01	14.56	—	—
CTSPC Corporal Punishment	3.62	8.58	5.56	10.69	—	—
CTSPC Severe Assault	0.62	4.97	1.05	6.20	—	—
CTSPC Very Severe Assault	0.26	4.34	0.25	5.06	—	—
ABCL Internalizing Problems	3.28	24.32	4.98	27.55	—	—
ABCL Externalizing Problems	5.64	30.94	4.66	31.16	—	—
ASR Internalizing Problems	—	—	—	—	9.36	37.45
ASR Externalizing Problems	—	—	—	—	7.15	29.38

A 2 (maternal parenting: effective, ineffective) × 2 (paternal parenting: effective, ineffective) mulivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted with the internalizing and externalizing subscales of the ASR used as dependent variables. Partial eta-squared (η²) served as the measure of effect size and was interpreted within Cohen’s (1988) criterion in which values from .01 to .04 are considered small, .04 to .14 moderate, and greater than .14 large.

Results of the MANOVA indicated a significant multivariate main effect of paternal parenting, Wilks’s Lambda (Λ) = .83, F(2, 428) = 45.12, p < .001, partial η² = .174. Examination of the univariate main effects indicated a significant effect for both internalizing problems, F(1, 429) = 66.28, p < .001, partial η² = .134, and externalizing problems, F(1, 429) = 84.00, p < .001, partial η² = .164. Overall, an effective father was associated with significantly (all ps <.001) fewer internalizing (M = 13.87, SE = 1.04) and externalizing (M = 10.13, SE = 0.81) problems than an ineffective father, which was associated with greater internalizing (M = 26.06, SE = 1.08) and externalizing (M = 20.86, SE = 0.85) problems.

Results of the MANOVA indicated a significant multivariate main effect for maternal parenting, Wilks’s Λ = .85, F(2, 428) = 39.23, p < .001, partial η² = .155. Examination of the univariate effects indicated a significant main effect for both internalizing problems, F(1, 429) = 59.27, p < .001, partial η² = .121, and externalizing problems, F(1, 429) = 72.02, p < .001, partial η² = .144. Overall, an effective mother was associated with significantly (all ps <.001) fewer internalizing (M = 14.20, SE = 0.92) and externalizing (M = 10.53, SE = 0.72) problems than an ineffective mother, which was associated with greater internalizing (M = 25.73, SE = 1.18) and externalizing (M = 20.46, SE = 0.92) problems.

Results of the MANOVA indicated a significant multivariate interaction effect between maternal and paternal parenting, Wilks’s Λ = .96, F(2, 428) = 7.95, p < .001, partial η² = .036. Examination of the univariate effects indicated a significant interaction effect for both internalizing problems, F(1, 429) = 5.67, p = .018, partial η² = .013, and externalizing problems, F(1, 429) = 15.72, p < .001, partial η² = .035. Examination of simple main effects revealed that emerging adults reporting both an effective mother and father reported significantly lower psychopathology than all other groups (all ps <.001, M = 9.89, SE = 0.59 for internalizing problems; all ps <.001, M = 7.48, SE = 0.46 for externalizing problems), whereas those reporting both an ineffective mother and father reported significantly higher psychopathology than all other groups (all ps <.001, M = 33.60, SE = 1.28 for internalizing problems; all ps <.001, M = 28.14, SE = 1.00 for externalizing problems). Furthermore, those reporting at least one effective parent fell between these two extremes (effective mother–ineffective father: M = 18.51, SE = 1.74 for internalizing problems; M = 13.57, SE = 1.36 for externalizing problems; ineffective mother–effective father: M = 17.85, SE = 1.99 for internalizing problems; M = 12.78, SE = 1.55 for externalizing problems), and these two groups were not significantly different from each other. Please see Figure 1 for these interaction effects.

Figure 1.

Interaction effects on internalizing and externalizing problems.

Parenting Characteristics Associated With Psychological Adjustment and Maladjustment

A similar clustering procedure as described above was completed to classify emerging adults into psychologically adjusted and maladjusted groups. As shown in Table 2, a psychologically adjusted emerging adult, as compared with a psychologically maladjusted emerging adult, reported much lower scores on the internalizing and externalizing subscales of the ASR.

A MANOVA was conducted with emerging adult psychological adjustment (adjusted, maladjusted) as the independent variable and parenting characteristics as measured by the PAQ (maternal and paternal parenting styles, including authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive), PEQ (maternal and paternal parenting behaviors, including involvement, conflict, regard for parent, regard for child, and structure), CTSPC (maternal and paternal discipline behaviors, including corporal punishment, severe physical assault, very severe physical assault, psychological aggression, and nonviolent discipline), and ABCL (maternal and paternal internalizing and externalizing problems) as the dependent variables. Results of the MANOVA indicated a significant multivariate main effect for emerging adult psychological adjustment, Wilks’s Λ = .46, F(30, 402) = 39.23, p < .001, partial η² = .540. Examination of the univariate effects indicated significant main effects for 24 of the 28 variables examined. Please see Table 3 for these effects. Overall, the psychologically adjusted group of emerging adults, as compared to the psychologically maladjusted group, reported higher levels of authoritative parenting, involvement, regard for parent and child, and structure and lower levels of permissive parenting, conflict, harsh discipline strategies, and parental psychopathology.

Table 3.

Differences in Father and Mother Parenting Characteristics Between Adjusted and Maladjusted Emerging Adults.

Indicator	Father characteristics						Mother characteristics
	Adjusted		Maladjusted		F	Partial η²	Adjusted		Maladjusted		F	Partial η²
	M	SD	M	SD	F	Partial η²	M	SD	M	SD	F	Partial η²
PAQ Authoritative	24.68	7.85	19.87	7.50	25.82	.057	26.09	6.67	20.92	6.92	40.10	.085
PAQ Authoritarian	22.93	7.59	21.27	6.96	ns	—	23.36	6.79	21.27	6.96	ns	—
PAQ Permissive	14.16	6.27	18.39	7.38	28.79	.063	14.81	6.03	17.75	6.15	15.96	.036
PEQ Conflict	7.76	7.76	15.21	8.15	61.17	.124	8.48	7.61	15.61	7.04	61.01	.124
PEQ Involvement	27.37	8.49	18.68	7.88	72.90	.145	29.94	6.69	22.23	7.70	84.64	.164
PEQ Regard for Parent	20.21	6.07	13.24	7.40	81.72	.159	21.28	4.67	15.76	6.86	77.15	.159
PEQ Regard for Child	13.38	3.03	9.35	3.88	106.83	.199	13.79	2.38	10.44	3.77	104.30	.195
PEQ Structure	11.96	2.74	9.05	4.04	62.43	.127	12.26	2.28	9.75	3.83	60.73	.124
CTSPC Nonviolent Discipline	9.89	5.84	10.20	6.15	ns	—	12.07	6.39	12.64	6.45	ns	—
CTSPC Psych Aggression	5.55	5.81	11.07	8.25	51.09	.106	7.34	7.21	12.82	8.46	36.44	.078
CTSPC Corporal Punishment	3.78	4.76	9.21	7.96	65.64	.132	5.78	6.84	9.88	8.31	22.24	.049
CTSPC Severe Assault	0.73	2.08	5.69	6.49	143.38	.250	1.16	2.82	5.89	7.23	91.97	.176
CTSPC Very Severe Assault	0.35	1.94	5.09	6.75	129.26	.231	0.36	1.72	4.98	7.34	113.33	.208
ABCL Internalizing Problems	4.85	6.55	21.43	13.62	264.27	.380	6.25	7.77	24.82	12.42	297.86	.410
ABCL Externalizing Problems	7.73	8.89	26.62	13.71	241.60	.359	6.45	8.50	26.63	14.28	282.46	.396

Note. N = 349 for adjusted and 84 for maladjusted. All ps <.0005 unless otherwise noted as ns (nonsignificant). PAQ = Parental Authority Questionnaire; PEQ = Parental Environment Questionnaire; CTSPC = Conflict Tactics Scale: Parent–Child Version; ABCL = Adult Behavior Check List; ASR = Adult Self Report.

Discussion

The current study examined the impact of fathers and mothers who were reported to have effective and ineffective parenting characteristics on emerging adult psychological adjustment as well as parenting characteristics associated with psychologically adjusted and maladjusted emerging adults from the perspective of emerging adults. Hypothesis 1a was fully supported. Emerging adults who reported an effective father or an effective mother also reported higher psychological adjustment (i.e., lower internalizing and externalizing problems). This finding was a large effect for externalizing problems and a moderate effect for internalizing problems for ratings of both fathers and mothers. This finding is not surprising as it confirms prior research suggesting that positive parenting practices are associated with positive development. Hypothesis 1b also was fully supported. Emerging adults who reported both an effective father and mother reported the highest psychological adjustment, whereas emerging adults who reported both an ineffective father and mother reported the lowest psychological adjustment. Furthermore, although emerging adults who reported one effective and one ineffective parent had lower psychological adjustment than emerging adults who reported two effective parents, these emerging adults reported much higher psychological adjustment than those who reported having two ineffective parents. Adding relatively novel information to the existing literature and confirming the finding of McKinney and Renk (2008a), it appears that even though having two effective parents may be ideal for emerging adult psychological adjustment, having at least one effective parent may help buffer against the particularly harmful combination of having two ineffective parents. Additionally, the significant interaction effect found regarding hypothesis 1b supports research (e.g., Kane & Garber, 2008; McKinney & Milone, 2012; Merikangas, Dierker, & Szamari, 1998) suggesting that paternal characteristics are important above and beyond maternal characteristics.

Hypothesis 2 also was supported largely. Emerging adults who reported higher psychological adjustment also reported higher effective parenting characteristics and lower ineffective parenting characteristics than emerging adults who reported lower psychological adjustment in almost all cases. The only exceptions were the findings that perceived authoritarian parenting and nonviolent discipline did not differentiate psychologically adjusted and maladjusted emerging adults. As shown in Table 3, some of these effects are extremely large. In particular, the largest effect sizes found in the current study are for paternal and maternal psychopathology, and these effect sizes range from .359 to .410. The next largest effect size is .250. Given this gap and the extremely large effect size concerning parental psychopathology, the current study suggests that parental psychopathology may be the most important variable of interest of those examined by the current study when investigating parenting and psychological adjustment in emerging adults. In particular, psychologically maladjusted emerging adults reported that their parents have approximately four times as many internalizing and externalizing symptoms than psychologically adjusted emerging adults reported. These findings are consistent with other research suggesting the importance of parental psychopathology (e.g., Kane & Garber, 2008; Marmorstein et al., 2004; McKinney & Milone, 2012; Papp, Cummings, & Goeke-Morey, 2005) and suggests novel information that parental psychopathology may be the largest predictor of psychological adjustment in emerging adults out of those examined by the current study.

The next largest effects, ranging from .179 to .250, are found for paternal and maternal severe and very severe assault. Given that items on these subscales fall within legal definitions of child abuse, it is not surprising to find that perceptions of these characteristics are associated strongly with psychological adjustment in emerging adults. Specifically, psychologically maladjusted emerging adults reported that their parents use these abusive discipline strategies on them 5 to 14 more times often than psychologically adjusted emerging adults reported. Paternal and maternal involvement, regard for parent, and regard for child are the next set of largest effect sizes, which range from .145 to .199. In particular, psychologically adjusted emerging adults reported higher regard from and for their parents as well as higher involvement with their parents than psychologically maladjusted emerging adults.

One final discussion point that is relevant to the current study involves the clustering of effective and ineffective fathers and mothers. The empirically derived clusters suggest that effective parenting characteristics are associated with each other, or cluster together, and that ineffective parenting characteristics also are associated with each other. Other research (e.g., Kane & Garber, 2008; McKinney & Milone, 2012) suggests that parental psychopathology predicts negative parenting practices, and given the particularly large effect of parental psychopathology found in the current study, it may be the case that parental psychopathology is the variable most associated with the formation of parenting characteristics. However, this supposition should be taken very cautiously given that the current study is unable to examine causal effects. Also related to the inability to determine causality, it conceivably could be the case that psychologically maladjusted emerging adults frustrate their fathers and mothers, who in turn utilize increasingly negative parenting practices and become stressed or disordered in response to the problems their children are having.

Implications for Research and Practice

Results of the current study hold implications for researchers. First, the current study echoes more recent research and suggests that maternal characteristics cannot be considered in isolation and must be considered alongside paternal characteristics. Research that examines one parent but not the other may be missing a significant part of the picture. Second, future research must examine further the importance and power of parental psychopathology. For example, different methodologies and informants could be used to examine parenting practices, discipline strategies, and parental psychopathology, among other characteristics, simultaneously to discern which variables are the strongest predictors. For example, the current study found that psychologically adjusted emerging adults reported effective parenting characteristics. It may be the case that healthy individuals remember their parents fondly regardless of actual occurrences, or it may be that effective parenting characteristics led to the healthy development, or both. Thus, longitudinal research investigating what drives these effects would prove useful. Related, future research should address how much parental psychopathology drives the ability to parent effectively and raise well adjusted children. For example, research may inform practice by suggesting that interventions should target parenting practices (e.g., parent management training) first; conversely, research may suggest that it is more important to provide individual therapy to address parental psychopathology prior to or while also addressing parenting practices.

Individuals interacting with youth (e.g., mental health professionals, parents, and teachers) also may use the findings reported to help prepare youth for the world. For example, working with parents to increase effective parenting practices (e.g., encourage warmth and demandingness, resolve conflict, discourage the use of harsh discipline strategies) may potentially be associated with positive effects on emerging adults’ psychological adjustment. Furthermore, it may be the case that healthy parents promote healthy youth, so improving parental mental health may be associated with improvements in both parenting practices and youth adjustment. Finally, the current study suggests that the effects of parenting characteristics extend at least into emerging adulthood and is worth considering when working with emerging adults.

Limitations

The findings of this study must be viewed in the context of its limitations. One limitation may be the generalizability of the findings. The sample consisted of traditional-aged college students who were predominately Caucasian and African American and reported a predominantly middle-class background. Although the current study may generalize well to typical college students, it is recommended that future studies explore various developmental, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds under more rigorous methodological conditions. Another limitation of this study is that it relied on the self-report of emerging adults. Although perceptions that youth hold of their parents are influential (Yahav, 2006), what emerging adults experience and recall may differ from what mothers and fathers recall, all of which may differ from what actually happened. Further, individuals experiencing psychopathology may demonstrate memory biases and indicate particularly negative perceptions as a result of their psychopathology. Although self-report may be subject to such biases, Finley, Mira, and Schwartz (2008) note that it is a valid method for gathering information about parenting characteristics from emerging adults and is related to their outcomes. Finley et al. (2008) even argue that emerging adult perceptions may be more accurate than a child’s perceptions as the emerging adult is “freer to speak their minds than are children . . . [because they] are no longer constrained by their parents’ control” (p. 65). Further, developers of the ABCL note that the individuals who are familiar with the person they are rating (i.e., emerging adults rating their parents) provide reliable and valid perceptions (McLaughlin, Hilt, & Nolan-Hoeksema, 2007). Another limitation of this study is its design. Survey in nature, this study is unable to determine causation. Finally, many other factors not studied here may influence emerging adult outcomes.

Summary

The current study examined the impact of effective and ineffective fathers and mothers simultaneously on emerging adult psychological adjustment as well as parenting characteristics associated with psychologically adjusted and maladjusted emerging adults from the perspective of emerging adults. Results indicated that having two effective parents may be best for emerging adult psychological adjustment and that having at least one effective parent may protect against the particularly harmful effects of having two ineffective parents. Results further indicated that parental psychopathology, harsh discipline strategies, parental involvement, and regard for parent and child all differentiate psychologically adjusted emerging adults from psychologically maladjusted emerging adults.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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