Assessment of parent-child subsystem qualities in Chinese adolescents : behavioral control, psychological control and parent-child relational qualities

IntroductionAccording to the ecological perspective, different systems influence the development of human beings. Among different systems, "family" works as a social system that influences the development of children and adolescents on different levels. The dynamic and reciprocal effects are created by each family member (e.g., parents and siblings) or the extended family members (e.g., grandparents) and the interaction between them (1). Besides, family is the primary agent of socialization for children (2-5) that influences the interpersonal skills and competences of children and adolescents. Besides systemic family processes such as climate and family functioning, family processes within the parent-child dyad are also important factors influencing adolescent development.Amongst the different parent-child dyadic processes, parenting can be regarded as an important family process. Over the past few decades, parenting has been examined in various ways such as parenting styles (6, 7), attitudes toward childrearing (8), or parenting behaviors (9). According to the literature, family researchers have proposed several models on parenting styles. First of all, Schaefer (10, 11) proposed a two-dimensional model on parenting behavior. This model described the social and emotional interactions between mother and child. The factors of this two-dimensional model included "autonomy vs. control" and "love vs. hostility". Schaefer also developed the Children's Reports of Parental Behavior Inventory (CRPBI) to measure the quality of parenting. Second, there was the four-fold classification scheme of parenting styles which was proposed by Maccoby and Martin (7). The four-fold classification of parenting styles include authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and neglectful types, which are based on two dimensions - demandingness and responsiveness. While demandingness refers to the degree of how parents showed control, maturity demands and supervision in their parenting, responsiveness refers to the degree of how parents show affective warmth, acceptance, and involvement to their children.Third, parenting behavior has also been conceived in terms of different forms of parental control. Generally speaking, parental behavioral control and parental psychological control are commonly differentiated (7, 12). As far as parental behavioral control (or demandingness) is concerned, it usually refers to rules, regulations, and restrictions (7, 13) which have been commonly conceptualized in terms of parental knowledge or parental monitoring (13, 14). Generally speaking, parental behavioral control refers to parental attempts to regulate, structure, and monitor the child's behavior (15). For example, parents may regulate their children by giving a clear set of guidelines for appropriate behaviors, such as setting rules on child's involvement with peers or schedule for study and leisure activities (16). Though there are different arguments regarding the role of parental knowledge in parental monitoring (17, 18), some researchers suggested that it should be taken into consideration when parental behavioral control is studied (13, 19). Shek (19) argued that there are five common aspects of parental behavioral control, including parental knowledge (how much the parent knows about the situation of the child), parental expectations (rules imposed and expectations of the parent), parental monitoring (whether the parent takes initiative to understand the child such as parental surveillance and tracking), parental discipline (reward and punishment of the child), and global parental control such as parental demandingness. Besides, Shek (19) also pointed out that parental monitoring was the strongest predictor of parental knowledge, and suggested to use parental knowledge as an indicator of parental behavior control.The second form of parental control is psychological control. According to Barber and his colleagues (20), parental psychological control is "parental behavior tries to exercise control over the child's psychological world or is an attempt to regulate the child's behavior" (p. …