Intergenerational Transmission of Constructive Parenting

Past research on the intergenerational transmission of parenting concentrates on the continuity of harsh or abusive parenting, for the most part relying on retrospective reports of early upbringing. This study investigates the intergenerational transmission of constructive parenting using a 3-- wave longitudinal data set that has spanned 2 decades, obtaining the respondents' contemporaneous reports in early adolescence, early adulthood, and middle adulthood respectively (N = 2,338). The results support the hypotheses that interpersonal relations, social participation, and role-specific modeling explain the intergenerational continuity of constructive parenting. Key Words: constructive, intergenerational, parenting, social learning, transmission. Parenting has increasingly been recognized as an important predictor for the outcomes of the offspring. Warm and supportive parenting was repeatedly credited for its association with children's higher educational achievement, better psychosocial development, and a lower rate of deviant behaviors (Baumrind, 1991; Dornbusch, Ritter, Leiderman, Roberts, & Fraleigh, 1987; Maccoby & Martin, 1983). For the most part, attention in these studies was focused on the consequences of parenting. Parenting tended to be treated as an independent variable, the variation of which was taken for granted. Since the 1980s, an increased interest in the antecedents of parenting has been observed. Various factors that might be influential in parental behavior were proposed and tested. These included early developmental history, personality, psychological state, marital satisfaction, social network support, economic hardship, parenting beliefs, and perception of the child, to name a few (see Belsky, 1984; Conger, McCarthy, Young, Lahey, & Kropp, 1984; Erel & Burman, 1995; Orvaschel, Weissman, & Kidd, 1980; Simons, Beaman, Conger, & Chao, 1993). This study is informed by a consistent empirical finding from the literature regarding the intergenerational continuity of abusive or harsh parenting (Belsky; Egeland, Jacobvitz, & Papatola, 1987; Putallaz, Constanzo, Grimes, & Sherman, 1998; Simons, Whitbeck, Conger, & Wu, 1991; Straus, Gelles, & Steinmetz, 1980) insofar as we investigate the complementary phenomenon of the intergenerational continuity of constructive parenting. Numerous research has documented the intergenerational continuity of parenting, demonstrating that present-day parents tend to use similar parenting strategies or practices that they themselves received in their childhood (see reviews by Putallaz et al., 1998, and van Ijzendoorn, 1992). A noticeable trend from this literature was its predominant attention to the intergenerational continuity of abusive or harsh parenting. Belsky (1984) pointed out that it was research inquiry into dysfunctional parenting, specifically, research on child abuse, that shed light on the intergenerational transmission of parenting for the general population. Empirical studies from the child abuse literature reported the association between the early experience of parental abuse and individuals' later abusive treatment of their own children (Belsky; Egeland et al., 1987; Straus et al., 1980). This relationship did not disappear even after controlling for socioeconomic status, personality, psychological well-being, and parenting beliefs (Simons, Whitbeck, et al., 1991; Simons, Beaman, et al., 1993). Steinmetz (1987) concluded that early exposure to harsh or abusive parenting was probably the most consistent predictor of the subsequent adoption of coercive parenting practices toward one's own children. The processes observed for extreme cases of child abuse can also be found in the normal range of parenting practices (Belsky). The findings on the intergenerational transmission of supportive parenting mostly came from the studies of parent-infant relations. It was reported that the pregnant women who recalled their own parents as being supportive, less intrusive, and more sensitive during their early years were assessed as having better adaptation in their interaction with their infants later (Cox et al. …