Mind games: Parental psychological control and emerging adults’ adjustment

Abstract

Although parental psychological control has been consistently linked with negative outcomes in the child and adolescent literature, little is known about how it functions during the developmental time frame of emerging adulthood, which is characterized by increased freedom and instability. Consequently, this study examined the extent to which paternal and maternal psychological controls were directly and indirectly (via self-esteem) related to hallmarks of emerging adult adjustment, notably risky behaviors, life satisfaction, and feelings about adulthood status. Recruited via MTurk, participants were 310 emerging adults (M _age = 25.37; 56% female) across the U.S. who completed an online survey. Results revealed paternal psychological control had a direct effect on risky behaviors and self-esteem, whereas maternal psychological control solely had a direct effect on risky behaviors. Results also indicated indirect effects of paternal psychological control. Increases in paternal psychological control were linked to declines in self-esteem, which in turn was associated with decreased life satisfaction and endorsement of adulthood status. Altogether, findings suggest that even low levels of parental psychological control were linked to detrimental outcomes in an age-representative sample—encompassing the full age range of emerging adulthood from 18 years to 29 years—of emerging adults. Thus, findings contribute to a better understanding of parent–child relationships and the consequences of parental control during the third decade of life, which has important implications for informing parenting strategies across emerging adulthood.

Keywords

Adjustment emerging adults parent–child relationship psychological control self-esteem

In the past 25 years, intrusive and controlling parenting has become a popular topic, especially during childhood and adolescence. However, it is important to continue to understand the characterization and impact of controlling parenting during later life stages such as emerging adulthood. This is because the presence of autonomy-suppressive parenting behaviors during this time may be quite developmentally incongruous for attaining the self-sufficiency that is integral for the transition to adulthood. Psychological control, which encompasses any means that constrain, manipulate, and invalidate emotional and psychological development, is most relevant to investigate in emerging adulthood because it is easily expressed from a distance and most emerging adults live separately from their parents (Arnett, 2015; Barber, 2002). Most importantly, it is predictive of the most negative adjustment outcomes (Luyckx, Soenens, Vansteenkiste, Goossens, & Berzonsky, 2007; Nelson, Padilla-Walker, Christensen, Evans, & Carroll, 2011; Urry, Nelson, & Padilla-Walker, 2011).

Despite the practical relevance and predictive validity of parental psychological control, the body of research on this construct during emerging adulthood is limited compared to earlier developmental periods. Furthermore, there are important gaps in the existing scholarship on parental psychological control during emerging adulthood: (a) identifying a mechanism that explains how psychological control is adversely linked to adjustment outcomes that are hallmarks of emerging adulthood; (b) exploring these links among a sample of emerging adults representing the entire spectrum of this developmental time frame from 18 to 29 years, beyond the commonly employed college student sample; and (c) examining the unique effects of mothers’ and fathers’ psychological control. To date, few studies have accomplished these conceptual and methodological aspects altogether. Thus, the current study addressed these three gaps by investigating the relationship between parental psychological control and adjustment among emerging adults aged 18–29 years. Notably, we assessed links between maternal and paternal psychological controls and engagement in risk behaviors, life satisfaction, and feelings about adulthood status and explored self-esteem as a mechanism linking psychological control and the adjustment outcomes that reflect key markers of emerging adulthood. Given that emerging adults desire greater independence and autonomy from parents, but also need parental support to facilitate gains in independence (Arnett, 2015), it is important to understand how parental psychological control may play a role in emerging adults’ development during this formative life stage.

Theoretical frameworks

The current study was guided by the theory of emerging adulthood and self-determination theory (SDT). In the 21st century, young people take longer to reach adulthood in many industrialized countries (Arnett, 2015). This extended time between adolescence and adulthood, during which young people explore opportunities and make gains in self-sufficiency before committing to adult roles, is recognized as the life stage of emerging adulthood. Emerging adulthood is characterized by the key features of identity explorations, self-focus, instability, optimism, and feeling in-between. Given the instable and in-between nature of emerging adulthood, active parenting through the 20s is commonplace and is argued to facilitate a successful adulthood transition (Arnett, 2015; Fingerman & Yahirun, 2016; Nelson et al., 2007). Although parents remain key socialization agents, renegotiating the parental presence can be difficult because emerging adults require parental support and involvement as they become autonomous (Lowe & Dotterer, 2017) and because the parent and child roles lack clarity during this life stage (Padilla-Walker, Nelson, & Knapp, 2014). Parents are therefore tasked with the difficult balancing act of providing support while respecting emerging adults’ burgeoning autonomy and identity explorations (Aquilino, 2006; Padilla-Walker & Nelson, 2012). The balancing act is difficult because it can tip toward creating a family context that promotes manifestations of parental control whereby parents attempt to direct emerging adults’ pathway to adulthood. This control, especially psychological control, which pressures emerging adults to obey, think, and feel in specific, subscribed ways set forth by their parents, has the potential to stifle development and be especially damaging because it is enacted during a life stage that is synonymous with autonomy seeking. For instance, emerging adults may feel pressured into certain careers, worldviews, and/or intimate relationships instead of independently exploring and choosing these aspects of their lives. If emerging adults feel lost and incongruent with their identity, they may not only experience difficulty with assuming adult roles but also experience feelings of insufficiency and self-doubt. Although researchers argue that parental psychological control should result in negative effects, especially on mental health outcomes for any age child, little is known about the form, content, and consequences of this parental control during emerging adulthood (Soenens & Vansteenkiste, 2010).

SDT proposes that three features of social environments (autonomy support—the promotion of volitional functioning, structure, and involvement) aid in adaptive functioning (Deci & Ryan, 2000). A lack of these features (i.e., control, lack of structure, and lack of involvement) can produce environments that thwart individuals’ growth and self-esteem. In turn, a lack of self-esteem can have widespread negative impacts on development across the life span. Central to the present study, SDT identifies internalization as a key process underlying features of the social environment and self-esteem and defines it as individuals’ ability to integrate social values and behaviors into their sense of self (Deci & Ryan, 2000). According to SDT, parents have the ability to set up environments for their children that can undermine or facilitate internalization. As such, autonomy-supportive environments facilitate internalization which promotes self-esteem via supporting and scaffolding children’s self-directed behaviors and decisions (Deci & Ryan, 2000; Joussemet, Landry, & Koestner, 2008). Conversely, under an SDT framework, parental control is the opposite of autonomy support and includes coercion, domination, intrusion, and pressure (Soenens & Vansteenkiste, 2010). Although there is an ongoing debate about whether autonomy support and parental control are independent parenting dimensions or opposite poles on one parenting continuum dimension (see Silk, Morris, Kanaya, & Steinberg, 2003; Soenens & Vanstenkiste, 2010), it is argued that the relation between the two constructs depends on the definition of autonomy support. Using an SDT framework, autonomy support is defined as the promotion of volitional functioning and with such a definition can be seen as the opposite pole of parental control on a single parenting dimension (Soenens & Vanstenkiste, 2010).

While there are many forms of parental control, in the present study, we focused on the dimension of psychological control. Psychological control is thought to undermine autonomy and internalization. Thus, psychological control is a threat to internalization and developing a positive sense of self (Joussemet et al., 2008), which in turn can lead to negative academic and adjustment outcomes (Barber, 1996, 2002). Applying SDT to parent–child relationships during emerging adulthood suggests that the presence of psychological control, during a life stage that is epitomized by the development of autonomy, can have a detrimental influence on emerging adults’ adjustment via reductions in feelings of esteem. SDT therefore provides a testable mechanism (self-esteem) to unpack links between psychologically controlling parenting and emerging adults’ adjustment.

Psychological control

A thorough review of the emerging adulthood literature identified only 15 papers that investigated psychological control to some capacity (e.g., Desjardins & Leadbeater, 2016; Inguglia et al., 2016; Urry et al., 2011). The lack of literature on psychological control in emerging adulthood is problematic considering psychological control is used more prominently by both mothers and fathers with emerging adult children than behavioral control or helicopter parenting (Padilla-Walker & Nelson, 2012) and because it has consistently been linked to emerging adult maladjustment. Although one study documented parental psychological control declines across emerging adulthood, its negative effects held (Desjardins & Leadbeater, 2016). Altogether, findings across studies show that psychological control is linked to poorer responses to stress (Abaied & Emond, 2013), lower levels of emotion regulation (Manzeske & Stright, 2009), difficulties in identity commitment (Luyckx et al., 2007), dysfunctional levels of dependence and independence (Kins, Soenens, & Beyers, 2012), less attachment (Leondari & Kisseoglou, 2002), greater depression and anxiety (Desjardins & Leadbeater, 2016; Inguglia et al., 2016; Soenens, Vansteenkiste, Luyten, Duriez, & Goosens, 2005), greater internalizing and work stress (Costa, Soenens, Gugliandolo, Cuzzocrea, & Larcan, 2015; Desjardins & Leadbeater, 2016), more problems in the workplace (Desjardins & Leadbeater, 2016), less perceived competence, and problems with establishing vocational identity (Lindell, Campione-Barr, & Killoren, 2017). Although some of these findings replicate results from the child and adolescent literature (e.g., Inguglia et al., 2016; Urry et al., 2011), much remains to be learned about the effects of psychological control during emerging adulthood when it may in fact be more developmentally inappropriate. Despite the contributions of this existing work, it suffers from two major criticisms of research on parenting in emerging adulthood, which are the reliance on convenient samples of college students and the use of aggregate measures of parenting (e.g., Abaied & Emond, 2013) or reports on mothers only (e.g., Urry et al., 2011). Because college students are not representative of the entire population of emerging adults in terms of age, ethnicity, education level, and socioeconomic status (SES) (Arnett, 2016), and because mothers’ and fathers’ parenting can have differential impacts on outcomes across developmental stages (e.g., Day & Padilla-Walker, 2009; Williams & Kelly, 2005), addressing these criticisms is warranted. Thus, the current study aims to overcome these limitations by examining the unique influences of paternal and maternal psychological controls in a sample of emerging adults who are not solely college students.

The indirect effects of self-esteem

With obligations to others reaching a life-span low during emerging adulthood, there is a large focus on the self, which is integral and developmentally appropriate for identity and autonomy development (Arnett, 2015). However, because of the instability of this time, some individuals might experience reductions in self-esteem and feel more self-doubt (Arnett, 2015). As such, there is a need to study self-esteem and factors that promote its sustainability in emerging adulthood. Previous research has consistently documented a strong negative link between parental psychological control and self-esteem during childhood and adolescence (e.g., Barber, 2002). Essentially, the “mind games” of psychological control reduce self-esteem because, as noted by SDT, this control undercuts individuals’ abilities to internalize a positive sense of self. These reductions in self-esteem are negatively implicated for adjustment (e.g., Joussemet et al., 2008; Lo Cascio, Guzzo, Pace, Pace, & Madonia, 2016). Therefore, self-esteem is a viable mechanism for understanding the relationship between psychological control and adjustment outcomes. With a few notable exceptions (i.e., Leondari & Kisseoglou, 2002; McCormick, Turner, & Foster, 2015; Soenens et al., 2005), the emerging adult literature has not examined the relationship between parental psychological control and self-esteem. These exceptions indicate negative associations between psychological control and self-esteem (Leondari & Kiosseoglou, 2002; Soenens et al., 2005), indicating control remains deleterious to self-esteem in emerging adulthood. Importantly, no studies have assessed the indirect effects of self-esteem on the relation between psychological control and adjustment.

In an effort to contribute to and extend this literature, the current study aims to investigate direct associations between parental psychological control (i.e., maternal and paternal) and self-esteem and to explore self-esteem as a mechanism connecting the influence of parental psychological control on emerging adult’s adjustment. This aim is grounded in SDT (Deci & Ryan, 2000) and is supported by research documenting links between parental psychological control and self-esteem and links between self-esteem and risk behaviors and life satisfaction among adolescents and emerging adults (Biro, Striegel-Moore, Franko, Padgett, & Bean, 2006; McCormick et al., 2015). Although the association between self-esteem and feelings about adulthood status has yet to be explored, the theory of emerging adulthood and SDT both suggest these factors are related, as individuals who have confidence in their abilities to make independent decisions and be responsible for themselves are more likely to feel more adult (e.g., Arnett, 2015).

Adjustment outcomes

Drawing from the theory of emerging adulthood, the three outcome variables used to assess adjustment—risky behaviors, life satisfaction, and feelings about adulthood status—were selected because they reflect the unique developmental features of this life stage. Specifically, risky behaviors tap the exploration feature, life satisfaction taps the instability and optimism features, and feelings about adulthood status taps the feeling in-between feature of emerging adulthood (Arnett, 2015).

Participation in risky behaviors, notably alcohol and drug use and risky sexual behaviors, peaks during emerging adulthood (Lefkowitz & Gillen, 2006). Given the freedom from adult responsibilities as one engages in identity exploration, participation in risky behaviors during this life stage can be considered normative, especially among college students (Arnett, 2015; Ravert, 2009). However, emerging adults also report that complying with societal norms (e.g., not binge drinking) is an important aspect for becoming an adult (e.g., Nelson & Barry, 2005). Regarding links to parental psychological control, college students report higher levels of impulsiveness, alcohol use, drunk driving, and consumption of illegal drugs when parents are controlling and do not foster autonomy (Nelson et al., 2011; Urry et al., 2011). Because the normative trajectory of risky behaviors suggests a decline across the 20s, it is important to continue to investigate if parental psychological control helps explain the etiology of risky behaviors in emerging adults who are 18–29 years of age.

Emerging adulthood is also a time when optimism, a sense of possibilities, purpose and meaning, and life satisfaction are high, as little about one’s life has been decided for certain and the opportunity to change the direction of one’s life seems fruitful (Arnett, 2015; Steger, Oishi, & Kashdan, 2009). Regarding links to parental psychological control, emerging adults and adolescents report lower levels of life satisfaction when parents are controlling behaviorally and psychologically (Cacioppo, Pace, & Zappulla, 2012; Schiffrin et al., 2014). Importantly, past work has documented differential links between maternal and paternal psychological controls and internalizing problems, including depression and anxiety, which are also associated with lower levels of life satisfaction (Inguglia et al., 2016; Urry et al., 2011). Given that the majority of lifetime prevalence for internalizing problems occurs by mid to late emerging adulthood (Arnett, 2015), it is crucial to investigate if life satisfaction is impacted by parental psychological control.

Another one of the hallmark characteristics of emerging adulthood is a feeling of being in between adolescence and adulthood, and part of this transitional period involves establishing oneself as autonomous from parents (Arnett, 2015; Nelson et al., 2007). Indeed, research suggests that one of the emerging adults’ most important criteria for becoming an adult is to be independent from their parents (Nelson & Barry, 2005). While very little research has examined parental control in relation to feelings about adulthood status, a few recent studies have suggested that parental control (including psychological control) can constrain an emerging adults’ autonomy and make them feel less like an adult (Lindell et al., 2017; Padilla-Walker et al., 2014). These recent findings add evidence to the idea that parental control, notably psychological control, is related to perceptions of feeling like an adult.

The current study

The current study had three main research aims. First, we aimed to descriptively explore both the experience of psychological control and some hallmark adjustment outcomes of emerging adulthood in an age-representative sample (i.e., 18–29 years old), so as to contribute to the small body of research on the lived experiences of emerging adults outside of the commonly employed college sample. Second, we aimed to examine the unique contributions of both mothers’ and fathers’ psychological control on emerging adult’s adjustment, so as to contribute to clarifying how both parents’ psychological control may be differentially associated with emerging adults’ adjustment. Finally, we aimed to investigate the indirect effect of self-esteem on the relation between psychological control and emerging adults’ adjustment, so as to contribute to understanding potential mechanisms that may explain the link between psychological control and adjustment. Altogether, there is both accumulated research evidence and theory to support our assessment of the indirect effects of self-esteem on the relation between psychological control and indicators of adjustment. Based on the theoretical frameworks and reviewed literature, we identified four hypotheses.
First, we hypothesized that maternal and paternal psychological controls would directly predict adjustment, specifically positively predict risky behaviors and negatively predict life satisfaction and feelings about adulthood status.

Second, we predicted that maternal and paternal psychological controls would directly, negatively predict self-esteem.

Third, we hypothesized that self-esteem would directly, negatively predict risky behaviors and directly, positively predict life satisfaction and adulthood status.

Finally, we hypothesized that maternal and paternal psychological controls would indirectly, positively predict risky behaviors and indirectly, negatively predict life satisfaction and feelings about adulthood status via reductions in self-esteem.

Method

Participants

Participants were a national sample of 310 U.S. emerging adults (M _age = 25.37, SD = 1.53; range: 18–29) recruited online from Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk; http://www.mturk.com). About 56% of the sample were women and most identified as White (73%), with 11% reporting Asian, 7% Hispanic, 6% African American, 2% Native American, and 1% “other.” Mother’s highest education level indicated SES, and 36% had mothers who attained a Bachelor’s degree, 26% with a high school degree, 19% with some college but no degree, 10% with a 2-year degree, 5% with less than high school, and 4% with more than a Bachelor’s degree. In terms of participants’ own education level, 46% of the sample reported having a Bachelor’s degree, 25% had some college but no degree, 10% had a high school degree, 10% had a 2-year college degree, 5% were current college students, and 3% with more than a Bachelor’s degree.

Measures

Psychological control

The 8-item Psychological Control Youth Self-Report (Barber, 1996) was used to assess maternal and paternal psychological controls. Emerging adults completed this measure separately for their mother and father. A sample item was “My mother/father is a person who if I have hurt her/his feelings, stops talking to me until I please her/him.” Responses were scored on a 3-point scale (1 = not like her/him, 2 = somewhat like her/him, and 3 = a lot like her/him) and mean scores were calculated for each parent, with higher scores indicating more psychological control for that parent (α = .91 for mothers and fathers).

Self-esteem

The 4-item Global Self-Esteem Subscale from the Self-Perception Profile for Emerging Adults (Harter, 2016) was used to assess self-esteem. A sample item was “Some young adults are typically pleased with themselves BUT other young adults are often disappointed with themselves.” Emerging adults first selected which side of the statement that was most like them (e.g., pleased with themselves or often disappointed) and then rated if the statement they chose was “really true for me” or only “sort of true for me” resulting in four response options. Thus, each item was rated on a 4-point scale and items were averaged to create a mean score, with higher scores indicating greater global self-esteem (α = .82).

Risky behavior

A 20-item scale, adapted from Bradley and Wildman’s (2002) Risk and Reckless Behavior Questionnaire, was used to assess engagement in risky sexual, drug, driving, and drinking behaviors. A sample item was “Used designer drugs (e.g., heroin, ecstasy, etc.),” and emerging adults rated the frequency of engagement in the past month on a 5-point scale (1 = none, 2 = once in the past month, 3 = a few times in the past month, 4 = a few times a week, and 5 = almost everyday). Mean scores were computed with higher scores indicating engaging in more risky behaviors (α = .93).

Life satisfaction

The 5-item Satisfaction with Life Scale by Diener, Emmons, Larsen, and Griffin (1985) was used to assess emerging adults’ happiness with their current life. A sample item was “In most ways my life is close to ideal,” and participants responded on a 7-point scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Total sum scores were calculated and higher scores indicated greater life satisfaction (α = .90).

Feelings about adulthood status

Feelings about adulthood status were measured with 1 item, “Do you think you have reached adulthood?” Emerging adults responded on a continuous 3-point scale that ranged from low (1 = no), to moderate (2 = in some ways yes, in some ways no) to high levels of feeling like an adult (3 = yes). This measure has been consistently used to indicate one’s perception of their attainment of adulthood status and found to have adequate face validity (e.g., Nelson & Barry, 2005).

Procedure

Participants were recruited online over the course of a month via the crowdsourcing platform MTurk, where individuals can complete small tasks and surveys to receive small monetary compensation. Criteria for participation included currently living in the U.S. and being between the ages of 18 years and 29 years. Data were collected in batches of 25 participants, and new recruitment notices were posted every few days. Consent was obtained on the first page of the online survey, measures were presented in a random order within the survey, and participants received 50 cents for completing the 10–15 min survey. To be included in data analysis, participants were required to answer four out of five attention check questions correctly.

Data analysis

The indirect effects path model was estimated in R (Version 3.4.3; R Core Team, 2017). Specifically, the R-packages haven (Version 1.1.1; Wickham & Miller, 2018) and lavaan (Version 0.5.23.1097; Rosseel, 2012) were used to test if maternal and paternal psychological controls were associated with emerging adult’s adjustment directly and indirectly via their self-esteem while controlling for gender and age. Importantly, maternal and paternal psychological controls were estimated in the same model. Bootstrapping (recommended 5,000 samples; Preacher & Hayes, 2008) was used to generate bias-corrected 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs). While longitudinal data are ideal, cross-sectional data are sufficient to investigate indirect effects (Hayes, 2009). Model fit was primarily judged via the fit statistics (comparative fit index [CFI], root mean square error of approximation [RMSEA], and standardized root mean square residual [SRMR]) and the size of the path coefficients. CFI values above .90 indicate a good fit, RMSEA values equal to or below .08 indicate a good fit, and SRMR values below .05 indicate a good fit (Hu & Bentler, 1999; Kline, 2011).

Before proceeding with the indirect effects analysis, all variables were screened for missing values. Missing data were low, with the six key study variables on average missing only .25% of data. Additionally, Little’s Missing Completely at Random (MCAR) test indicated that data were missing completely at random. Therefore, due to the small amount of missing data, full information maximum likelihood was used to estimate missing data, as it is an acceptable way of handling missing data (Enders & Bandalos, 2001).

Results

Descriptive statistics

Descriptive statistics and correlations for variables are presented in Table 1. Aligning with hypotheses, key findings from the correlation analysis included the negative associations between maternal and paternal psychological controls and emerging adults’ life satisfaction and self-esteem, as well as the positive associations between maternal and paternal psychological controls and risky behaviors (all effect sizes mirrored each other for mothers and fathers). Frequency statistics and distributions are presented in Table 2.

Table 1.
Correlations and descriptive statistics for key study variables (N = 310).

Variables 1 2 3 4 5 6

1. Maternal psychological control —

2. Paternal psychological control .51* —

3. Emerging adult self-esteem −.20 −.26* —

4. Emerging adult risk behaviors .35* .37* −.15 —

5. Emerging adult life satisfaction −.15* −.20* .62* −.08 —

6. Emerging adult adulthood status −.07 −.08 .30*** −.13* .28*** —

M 1.51 1.55 2.84 1.51 26.67 2.47

SD 0.58 0.58 0.78 0.66 8.38 0.57

α .91 .91 .82 .93 .90

p < .05; p < .01; p < .001.

Table 2.
Frequency distributions of key study variables.

Variable Percent endorsed for each item (%)

Maternal psychological control

Not like their parents (low) 60

Somewhat like their parents (moderate) 25

A lot like their parents (high) 13

Paternal psychological control

Not like their parents (low) 63

Somewhat like their parents (moderate) 21

A lot like their parents (high) 15

Self-esteem

Below average 11

Slightly below average 25

Slightly above average 34

Above average 30

Risky behaviors

Never 75

Once in past month 8

A few times in past month 9

A few times a week 5

Almost every day 3

Life satisfaction

Strongly disagreed 8

Disagreed 8

Somewhat disagreed 15

Neutral 12

Somewhat agreed 24

Agreed 25

Strongly disagreed 10

Feelings about adulthood status

Not yet adult 4

Adult in some ways, but not others 45

Reached adulthood 51

On average, emerging adults reported similar low levels of maternal and paternal psychological controls, t(309) = 1.19, p = .23. Analyses investigating group differences in the key study variables by emerging adult gender, ethnicity, and SES (via mother’s highest education level) revealed no differences in maternal or paternal psychological control across these demographic characteristics. There was a gender difference in risky behaviors and an age difference (i.e., 18–24 years = young and 25–29 years = older) in adulthood status with males reporting more risky behaviors, t(307) = 5.36, p < .001, d = .60, and older emerging adults reporting higher levels of feeling adult, t(308) = −2.78, p = .006, d = .37). Given these group differences, age and gender were included as control variables in the model.

Path analysis

Overall, the hypothesized model (see Figure 1) was a good fit to the data, χ²(6) = 2.00, p = .92, CFI = 1.00, RMSEA = .00, 95% CI = [0.00, 0.03], SRMR = .01. Results indicated that maternal and paternal psychological controls were positively correlated, r = .51, SE = .02, p < .001. Results also revealed paternal (β= .24, SE = .07, p < .001) and maternal psychological controls (β = .23, SE = .06, p < .001) positively predicted risky behaviors. The direct effects of maternal and paternal psychological controls on life satisfaction and adult status were nonsignificant. Only paternal psychological control was a significant predictor of self-esteem, with higher levels of paternal psychological control predicting lower levels of emerging adult self-esteem, β = −.21, SE = .10, p < .01. Regarding the direct effects of self-esteem on adjustment, self-esteem positively predicted life satisfaction (β = .61, SE = .51, p < .001) and feelings about adulthood status, β = .30, SE = .03, p < .001. Self-esteem did not predict risky behaviors.

Figure 1.
Final estimated path model for parental control predicting EA adjustment, with only significant, standardized direct paths drawn. Note. EA = emerging adult. Error terms, control variables, and indirect effects have been excluded for clarity of presentation. p < .01; p < .001.

In terms of indirect effects, results showed that paternal psychological control had a negative indirect effect on life satisfaction, such that as paternal psychological control increased, emerging adult self-esteem decreased, which in turn decreased life satisfaction, β = −.13, SE = .67, 95% CI = [−3.24, −0.63]. There was no indirect effect of maternal psychological control on life satisfaction. Findings for feelings about adulthood status were similar in that there was a significant negative indirect effect of paternal psychological control, β = −.06, SE = .02, 95% CI = [−0.12, −0.02], but not maternal psychological control, on feelings about adulthood status via emerging adult self-esteem. No indirect effects were found for risky behaviors. See Table 3 for all results regarding the path analysis.

Table 3.
Standardized direct and indirect effects for parental psychological control and EA self-esteem predicting EA adjustment while controlling for age and gender.

Variables Direct effect Indirect effect 95% CI

β SE β SE LL UL

EA self-esteem

Maternal psychological control −.09 .10

Paternal psychological control −.21 .10

EA risky behaviors

Maternal psychological control .23 .06 .00 .01 −0.01 0.02

Paternal psychological control .24* .07 .01 .01 −0.01 0.03

EA self-esteem −.04 .04

Age .00 .01

Gender −.29* .07

EA life satisfaction

Maternal psychological control −.01 .88 −.06 .66 −2.04 0.54

Paternal psychological control −.04 .84 −.13* .67 −3.24 −0.63

EA self-esteem .61* .51

Age −.01 .15

Gender .05 .75

EA adulthood status

Maternal psychological control −.02 .06 −.03 .02 −0.07 0.02

Paternal psychological control .02 .06 −.06* .02 −0.12 −0.02

EA self-esteem .30* .03

Age .20*** .01

Gender .04 .06

Note. N = 310. EA = emerging adult; LL = lower limit; UL = upper limit.

p < .01; *p < .001.

Discussion

During emerging adulthood, parents are tasked with negotiating the delicate balance between providing support and autonomy to their emerging adult at a point in the life span when the parent and child roles are unclear (Aquilino, 2006; Padilla-Walker et al., 2014). The tipping of this balance can result in the presence of psychological control. Thus, an understanding of parental psychological control and its associations with emerging adults’ adjustment is crucial during this time of renegotiating parent–child relationships amid acquiring self-sufficiency. The current study therefore sought to understand the relation between parental psychological control and emerging adult adjustment by examining self-esteem as a mechanism in this relationship. Generally, results showed that both maternal and paternal psychological controls positively predicted risky behaviors and that the relationship between paternal psychological control and emerging adults’ life satisfaction and feelings about adulthood status was partially explained by emerging adults’ self-esteem.

Descriptive statistics implications

To the best of our knowledge, this is the second study (with the exception of Desjardins & Leadbeater, 2016) to document the frequency of psychological control in an age-representative sample of emerging adults. On average, emerging adults reported similar low levels of maternal and paternal psychological controls (i.e., in between “not like” and “somewhat like” him/her) that accords with previous research using college student samples (i.e., Desjardins & Leadbeater, 2016; Luyckx et al., 2007). Assimilating our findings with this literature, parental psychological control seems relatively stable at low to moderate levels regardless of parent gender and emerging adult age and college status. Although we did not longitudinally assess psychological control, the premise that psychological control may be stable across emerging adulthood has implications for intervention; notably, that programs promoting positive parenting could be designed for parents of all emerging adults, and not just younger, college-going emerging adults.

The moderately high levels of life satisfaction found in the present study mirror levels documented in studies with young college students (i.e., Zorotovich, Johnson, & Linn, 2016) and support the theoretical proposition that life satisfaction is relatively high among emerging adults (Arnett, 2015). The low levels of risk behaviors (i.e., “none” to “once in the past month”) contrast most research conducted with undergraduate college students (i.e., Urry et al., 2011), suggesting that the purported decline and stabilization in risky behaviors during the mid-20s may be a bit steeper than initially expected. Finally, 45% of our sample felt adult in some ways but not others, which mirrors frequencies found in national samples of 18–29 years old (Arnett, 2015). This finding affirms the idea that gains in feeling fully adult gradually occur during the 10-year period of emerging adulthood. Overall, the descriptive statistics of our study variables provide more clarity of what emerging adulthood looks like beyond the college years.

Path model implications

Results showed maternal and paternal psychological controls were positively correlated, which replicate previous research (Leondari & Kiosseoglou, 2002; Padilla-Walker et al., 2014). But, because this correlation’s effect size was moderate, it seems that maternal and paternal psychological controls are distinguishable and suggests that future researchers should continue to assess both and explore what differentiates mothers’ and fathers’ psychological control. Findings also showed that greater levels of paternal and maternal psychological controls predicted more engagement in risky behaviors, which complements previous research (Manzesle & Stright, 2009; Urry et al., 2011). This suggests that it may be fruitful for risky behavior interventions to extend their focus to factors outside of the person as well, including parents. Direct effects from psychological control to life satisfaction and feelings about adulthood status were not significant, and future researchers should seek to replicate our findings, given that the negative links between psychological control and both adjustment outcomes have been documented (e.g., Cacioppo et al., 2012; Lindell et al., 2017). It may be that psychological control has a stronger effect on behavioral, rather than subjective, outcomes. Thus, our findings suggest that when risky behaviors, life satisfaction, and feelings about adulthood status are simultaneously modeled, that risky behaviors rise as the outcome with the most salient connections to parental psychological control.

Regarding connections to self-esteem, results revealed that greater paternal psychological control predicted lower emerging adult self-esteem, which replicated most previous research (e.g., Lo Cascio et al., 2016; Soenens et al., 2005). However, maternal psychological control was unrelated to self-esteem, which diverged from most previous work (i.e., Barber, 2002; Leondari & Kiosseglou, 2002). It is likely that participant characteristics underlie these differences, as for instance Leondari and Kiosseglou’s (2002) sample consisted of Greek adolescents and emerging adults. Overall, given that researchers have found fathers are often less involved than mothers, it may be that when fathers and emerging adults do have contact, those interactions are more impactful than mothers (Bean, Bush, McKenry, & Wilson, 2003; Williams & Kelly, 2005). This could explain why only paternal psychological control was related to self-esteem in the current study.

Regarding direct effects between emerging adults’ self-esteem and adjustment, results showed self-esteem did not predict risky behaviors. Although this result contrasts previous literature with adolescent samples (i.e., Biro et al., 2006; Owens, 1994), it may be that the developmental time frame is at the root of these differences. In other words, variables other than self-esteem may be more salient to promoting or inhibiting risky behaviors during emerging adulthood. In line with this proposition, results from the current study suggest that maternal and paternal psychological controls, despite being low on average, almost solely accounted for the prediction of risky behaviors, and not self-esteem. In short, psychological control “overpowered” the positive presence of self-esteem, which implies that psychological control may be especially detrimental during emerging adulthood. Our results also showed that higher levels of self-esteem predicted greater levels of life satisfaction and feeling adult, which reverberates previous research and theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000; McCormick et al., 2015) and suggests that as individuals gain confidence in their ability to make independent, responsible decisions, they are more likely to feel more adult (Arnett, 2015).

We found partial support for the indirect effects of self-esteem, as it only connected paternal psychological control to life satisfaction and feelings about adulthood status. These findings complement SDT (Deci & Ryan, 2000) whereby parents’ use of controlling strategies can undermine emerging adults’ feelings of self-esteem, which in turn detracts from development. These findings also accord with the theory of emerging adulthood, which suggests this life stage is a time of feeling in-between and a time of instability with balancing the presence of parents and the support of autonomy (Aquilino, 2006; Padilla-Walker & Nelson, 2012). In sum, the overarching path model supports the idea that difficulties with renegotiation of the parental role during emerging adulthood can have negative implications for emerging adult development. However, this conclusion can only be interpreted with fathers’ psychological control in mind and leads to the question of why, exactly, fathers were so important in the context of this path model.

Why fathers?

First, fathering has been more strongly related to problem behaviors and externalizing problems (Day & Padilla-Walker, 2009; Williams & Kelly, 2005). This could explain the paths between paternal psychological control and risky behaviors and self-esteem; however, it cannot account for the path found between maternal psychological control and risky behaviors. Other research suggests that fathers play an important role in autonomy processes (Boykin, Allen, Stephenson, & Hare, 2009), which reiterates SDT premises whereby parental autonomy granting, the antithesis of parental control, is a supportive factor for promoting positive development. It therefore seems as though paternal psychological control is more salient for negative outcomes than maternal psychological control. Another hypothesis is that because fathers tend to have less contact with their children than mothers (Williams & Kelly, 2005), when interactions do occur, they are of a higher stake (Bean et al., 2003). Finally, another line of research suggests fathers’ parenting might focus on norm compliance (Lamb, 2004), which helps explain why paternal psychological control predicted both risky behaviors and feelings about adulthood status.

Limitations and conclusion

Despite the current study’s contributions, there were limitations. First, data were correlational and cross-sectional, and thus causality and the direction of effects cannot be inferred. Given the bidirectional nature of the parent–child relationship, it is likely that emerging adults also influenced their parents and this dynamic could not be captured through our cross-sectional design. Although our path model is informed by research evidence and theory, which bolsters confidence in our results, future research should look to replicate this study using longitudinal data in order to decipher causality and the direction of effects. Second, all reports were solely from the emerging adults’ perspective. Although emerging adults more accurately report unpleasant aspects of their relationship with their parents (Collins & Laursen, 2004), future research should utilize third-party assessments of study variables to corroborate self-report measures. Another limitation of the current study was the lack of information on family structure and that all participants had to have parents in opposite-sex relationships. Future studies should take into account family structure and seek to include a breadth of types of families, as the characterization and implication of psychological control may be different. Finally, our sample was mainly White, and while we found no ethnic differences in key study variables, small group sizes within our sample limited this exploration.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to document the indirect effects of parental psychological control on emerging adult adjustment through self-esteem, and thus has implications for parenting interventions. During a life stage when expectations for parents and children are unclear, rarely discussed, and in constant flux (Padilla-Walker et al., 2014), the present results can provide some clarity and direction for parental involvement strategies. For instance, despite low levels of parental psychological control in the current study, there were negative consequences of the presence of a small amount of psychological control. Thus, parenting interventions could include strategies for parents, especially fathers, to provide appropriate support to their emerging adult, while being mindful of impinging upon autonomy through negative psychological control tactics. Interventions could also provide emerging adults with strategies to identify, cope with, and manage such parental manipulations. In conclusion, the present study reiterates the important role that parents still play in the lives of their emerging adult children and the need for parents to be aware of engaging in psychologically controlling parenting practices, as they can be related to poor adjustment during a life stage that is already typified by uncertainty.

Variables	1	2	3	4	5	6
1. Maternal psychological control	—
2. Paternal psychological control	.51***	—
3. Emerging adult self-esteem	−.20**	−.26***	—
4. Emerging adult risk behaviors	.35***	.37***	−.15**	—
5. Emerging adult life satisfaction	−.15*	−.20***	.62***	−.08	—
6. Emerging adult adulthood status	−.07	−.08	.30***	−.13*	.28***	—
M	1.51	1.55	2.84	1.51	26.67	2.47
SD	0.58	0.58	0.78	0.66	8.38	0.57
α	.91	.91	.82	.93	.90

Variable	Percent endorsed for each item (%)
Maternal psychological control
Not like their parents (low)	60
Somewhat like their parents (moderate)	25
A lot like their parents (high)	13
Paternal psychological control
Not like their parents (low)	63
Somewhat like their parents (moderate)	21
A lot like their parents (high)	15
Self-esteem
Below average	11
Slightly below average	25
Slightly above average	34
Above average	30
Risky behaviors
Never	75
Once in past month	8
A few times in past month	9
A few times a week	5
Almost every day	3
Life satisfaction
Strongly disagreed	8
Disagreed	8
Somewhat disagreed	15
Neutral	12
Somewhat agreed	24
Agreed	25
Strongly disagreed	10
Feelings about adulthood status
Not yet adult	4
Adult in some ways, but not others	45
Reached adulthood	51

Variables	Direct effect	Indirect effect	95% CI
EA self-esteem
Maternal psychological control	−.09	.10
Paternal psychological control	−.21**	.10
EA risky behaviors
Maternal psychological control	.23***	.06	.00	.01	−0.01	0.02
Paternal psychological control	.24***	.07	.01	.01	−0.01	0.03
EA self-esteem	−.04	.04
Age	.00	.01
Gender	−.29***	.07
EA life satisfaction
Maternal psychological control	−.01	.88	−.06	.66	−2.04	0.54
Paternal psychological control	−.04	.84	−.13***	.67	−3.24	−0.63
EA self-esteem	.61***	.51
Age	−.01	.15
Gender	.05	.75
EA adulthood status
Maternal psychological control	−.02	.06	−.03	.02	−0.07	0.02
Paternal psychological control	.02	.06	−.06***	.02	−0.12	−0.02
EA self-esteem	.30***	.03
Age	.20***	.01
Gender	.04	.06

Footnotes

Funding

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

ORCID iD

Amanda N. Faherty

Open research statement

As part of IARR’s encouragement of open research practices, the author(s) have provided the following information: This research was not pre-registered. The data used in the research are available. The data can be obtained by emailing: afaherty@clarku.edu. The materials used in the research are available. The materials can be obtained by emailing: afaherty@clarku.edu.

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