Study: authoritarian parenting outcomes

[spartan max2]

Unfortunately, I didn't have enough space in the title to accurately describe the study lol.

But this study claims authoritarian style mother's leads to depression and alochol use in their kids, whereas authoritarian father's has the opposite effect.

 

Quote

New research published in Addictive Behavior Reports sheds new light on perfectionism and how parenting contributes to risk for alcohol–related problems. The study found that authoritarian parenting by mothers — but not fathers — was linked to negative facets of perfectionism, which can indirectly influence alcohol use.

Quote

A survey of 419 university students uncovered a complicated pathway between parenting styles, depressive symptoms, and alcohol-related problems.

The researchers found that participants with a more authoritarian mother tended to exhibit higher levels of a negative facet of perfectionism known as discrepancy, which in turn was associated with increased depressive symptoms.

Quote

Surprisingly, however, having a more authoritarian father appeared to lead to the oppose outcome. Patock-Peckham told PsyPost that “authoritarian fathers actually promote high standards in their offspring, which is a protective link against depression and using alcohol to self-medicate.”

 

https://www.psypost.org/2019/11/authoritarian-mothering-may-indirectly-contribute-to-alcohol-problems-by-fostering-maladaptive-perfectionism-54784

 

 

[Piney]

23 minutes ago, spartan max2 said:

But this study claims authoritarian style mother's leads to depression and alochol use in their kids, whereas authoritarian father's has the opposite effect.

It doesn't ring right with me. I've seen plenty of authoritarian mothers whose kids turned out OK. Japanese and Korean mothers as a rule are very authoritarian. 

[spartan max2]

9 minutes ago, Piney said:

It doesn't ring right with me. I've seen plenty of authoritarian mothers whose kids turned out OK. Japanese and Korean mothers as a rule are very authoritarian. 

Yeah, later I plan on digging into the study, too lazy to read the direct study atm.

I'm curious how they defined authoritarian.

[spartan max2]

37 minutes ago, Piney said:

It doesn't ring right with me. I've seen plenty of authoritarian mothers whose kids turned out OK. Japanese and Korean mothers as a rule are very authoritarian. 

I just looked at the full study closer.

It's interesting because the results went against the studies own hypothesis with the gender discrepancy. 

To your point, all the studies participants were college students and of those only 8 percent were Asian. Maybe some cultural difference.

Also to your point, a perfectionist suffering from depression are much harder to spot then other people suffering from depression. Due to the nature of perfectionist caring about appearances. 

The definition of authoritarian was pretty much like you would except.

The study seems to go with the idea that aspects of perfectionism lead to a greater risk for depression, which gives you a greater risk to self medicate.

For whatever reason having "higher standards for ones self" aspect of perfectionism decreased your risk for depression. And authoritarian father's gave the child a greater increase in higher standards.

It looks like they didn't control for if a child grew up with a single parent or two parents though. Which could effect things if the authoritarian mom's are alone and the father's are not. 

Edited November 4, 2019 by spartan max2

[Gwynbleidd]

2 hours ago, spartan max2 said:

It's interesting because the results went against the studies own hypothesis with the gender discrepancy. 

Which gender do you mean though?

[Alchopwn]

5 hours ago, spartan max2 said:

... this study claims authoritarian style mother's leads to depression and alcohol use in their kids, whereas authoritarian fathers has the opposite effect.

This sounds like primate psychology, not human psychology.  Also, with only 419 students as the cohort, the statistical power isn't great (not terrible, just not great, it really needs 1000+ respondents).  For those who want to know more about  a negative facet of perfectionism known as "discrepancy" click here: Psychology of Perfectionism link.  People wanting to read the actual study, here's a shortcut: LINK.

For people wanting to hear their own critique:

Despite the potentially important contributions of this work, there are limitations that must be considered. First and foremost, the indirect effects observed in the current study were based on cross sectional data. Thus, it is not possible to determine the temporal precedence of the variables in the model.

(This is fair, but they should also have been more critical of their reliance on FIML, which is a substitute for an adequate sample size.  We should also note that the participants are all university students from Arizona, of whom more that 60% were caucasian, and they cut over 200 participants from the study without really explaining their motives for doing so, but perhaps I missed the explanation on my first skim).

For example, it is possible that alcohol-related problems could be a cause rather than a consequence of greater depression or self-medication motives for drinking. Similarly, child behaviors may evoke particular parenting behaviors. For example, a child who upholds high standards may evoke less authoritarian parenting from mothers.

(Remember what hard recreational drinkers many college students are.  Remember that the participants are in an artificial environment i.e. tertiary education, and may be away from their family for the first time in their lives.  So... peer pressure and homesickness have nothing to do with depression and alcoholism in a group of college students... no, they're drinking because they are so sad that they had obnoxious controlling mothers who destroyed their sense of self worth.  Sounds legit)

Please don't assume that I favor authoritarian parenting styles from my response here.  I loathe authoritarianism in all its forms.  I just see the defects in this study.  While it manages to establish something of a pattern of association, I think the reasoning behind the conclusions it draws is suspect.  I know plenty of kids with issues of bad parenting who were enjoying their time being free in college, but who partied too hard and became depressed because managing their own freedom was harder than anticipated, their grades suffered, and they became depressed.  I think therefore that this study might be misattributing causation, and assuming a wider relevance for a study that really only covers university student behaviors. 

Edited November 4, 2019 by Alchopwn

[spartan max2]

6 hours ago, Gwynbleidd said:

Which gender do you mean though?

I meant the study didn't hypothesis that the gender would be relevant. They were just studying authoritarian parenting and it's relation to perfectionism and then depression in general. 

They won't expecting there to be a difference based on if the authoritarian parent was the mom or dad. 

[TigerBright19]

My mother is very religious and my childhood was quite strict because of it.  Does practicing religion come under the heading of authoritarianism?

 

 

[Duke Wellington]

18 hours ago, spartan max2 said:

Unfortunately, I didn't have enough space in the title to accurately describe the study lol.

But this study claims authoritarian style mother's leads to depression and alochol use in their kids, whereas authoritarian father's has the opposite effect.

https://www.psypost.org/2019/11/authoritarian-mothering-may-indirectly-contribute-to-alcohol-problems-by-fostering-maladaptive-perfectionism-54784

In psychology a persons position in a social hierarchy impacts their serotonin levels.

It means that a controlling parent that keeps dominating their offspring lowers their serotonin levels. The response from that is aggression, depression, and it contributes to the development of anti-social personality disorder.

Women are more likely to be controlling than men, and its usually in a way which is abusive.

[XenoFish]

Wouldn't it be more of a difference between authoritarian vs. oppressive?

[spartan max2]

1 hour ago, XenoFish said:

Wouldn't it be more of a difference between authoritarian vs. oppressive?

The study goes off of other studies of it's kind which catagorize parenting styles in three ways:

Permissive

Authoritative

And Authoritarian

Here is a link of the three.

https://www.webmd.com/parenting/features/when-parenting-styles-differ

But yeah I think you are right that authoritarian and overtly oppressive parenting would probably all fall under "authoritarian" in these types of studies. Probably would be hard to weed out the differences. 

[spartan max2]

5 hours ago, Aaron2016 said:

My mother is very religious and my childhood was quite strict because of it.  Does practicing religion come under the heading of authoritarianism?

 

 

Not really. It just depends on how the rule where established and enforced. It depends on how she practices it.

 

https://www.webmd.com/parenting/features/when-parenting-styles-differ

[Gwynbleidd]

11 hours ago, spartan max2 said:

I meant the study didn't hypothesis that the gender would be relevant. They were just studying authoritarian parenting and it's relation to perfectionism and then depression in general. 

They won't expecting there to be a difference based on if the authoritarian parent was the mom or dad. 

That's really interesting - you'd think it would be one or the other.  I thought it would've been the role of the father, but I guess that changes according to the family situation.  

[Alchopwn]

19 hours ago, Aaron2016 said:

My mother is very religious and my childhood was quite strict because of it.  Does practicing religion come under the heading of authoritarianism?

When religion is used as an excuse to strip a child of their freedom of expression, to justify corporal and psychological punishment, and/or to strip them of the opportunity to be children, then yes.

If religion is used as a means of moral instruction, but the parent makes no pretense of their own infallibility, and is neither cruel nor unjust, and does not slip into sadomasochism,  nor hide behind religion as an excuse for their own behavior in the discipline of the child, then the answer would be no.

I don't pretend my own opinion is definitive, but I accept that it is perfectly possible to raise a child in a religious household and have them turn out a reasonable and decent human being.

Edited November 5, 2019 by Alchopwn

[TigerBright19]

59 minutes ago, Alchopwn said:

When religion is used as an excuse to strip a child of their freedom of expression, to justify corporal and psychological punishment, and/or to strip them of the opportunity to be children, then yes.

If religion is used as a means of moral instruction, but the parent makes no pretense of their own infallibility, and is neither cruel nor unjust, and does not slip into sadomasochism,  nor hide behind religion as an excuse for their own behavior in the discipline of the child, then the answer would be no.

I don't pretend my own opinion is definitive, but I accept that it is perfectly possible to raise a child in a religious household and have them turn out a reasonable and decent human being.

It's more polarized here in Northern Ireland as each community is separated by religion and what our upbringing has done (troubles passed down from generation to generation).  Some of my friends were Catholic (big taboo) which meant both my family and their families were under threat of attack, both mentally and physically which required us to have strict parental rules in order to stop us from endangering the family.  A gay couple lived in the house opposite from us and I was ordered to stay away from that side of the street and not to make any eye contact with them or speak to them, and when our church minister retired and was replaced by a female minister we were not allowed to go to church anymore.  Religion dominates the parental structure over here.  Keeps us safe, but also makes us distrust anyone who is different.  It's like we have been brought up for generations to believe that diversity is a virus and religion is the cure.  I guess the same parental obedience happens in Jewish and Muslim communities as well.

 

 

Edited November 5, 2019 by Aaron2016

[Golden Duck]

I have a memory of Robin Williams saying, parenthood was a dictatorship - not a democracy.

[Alchopwn]

17 hours ago, Aaron2016 said:

It's more polarized here in Northern Ireland as each community is separated by religion and what our upbringing has done (troubles passed down from generation to generation).  Some of my friends were Catholic (big taboo) which meant both my family and their families were under threat of attack, both mentally and physically which required us to have strict parental rules in order to stop us from endangering the family.  A gay couple lived in the house opposite from us and I was ordered to stay away from that side of the street and not to make any eye contact with them or speak to them, and when our church minister retired and was replaced by a female minister we were not allowed to go to church anymore.  Religion dominates the parental structure over here.  Keeps us safe, but also makes us distrust anyone who is different.  It's like we have been brought up for generations to believe that diversity is a virus and religion is the cure.  I guess the same parental obedience happens in Jewish and Muslim communities as well.

Having been to Northern Ireland I would argue that religion is mainly about systems of tribal allegiance for the purposes of skirmish warfare, which is conducted largely because you need to be involved in conflict and pumping adrenalin or your blood will freeze over due to the nasty weather. 

As to the issue of diversity, I can see cogent arguments both for and against it.  One might argue that diversity is a bad thing as the only people who benefit from the introduction of outside migration are really the ruling classes, who see the poor divided by language and can exploit migrants more easily, and that they damage the homogeneity of a local culture and destroy trust.  On the other hand, one might also argue that migration increases prosperity for everyone ultimately, and brings worthwhile new influences to an otherwise moribund and potentially xenophobic society.  Certainly I think some groups of migrants are better than others in how they integrate, prosper, and give back to the community that takes them in.

[TigerBright19]

2 hours ago, Alchopwn said:

Having been to Northern Ireland I would argue that religion is mainly about systems of tribal allegiance for the purposes of skirmish warfare, which is conducted largely because you need to be involved in conflict and pumping adrenalin or your blood will freeze over due to the nasty weather. 

As to the issue of diversity, I can see cogent arguments both for and against it.  One might argue that diversity is a bad thing as the only people who benefit from the introduction of outside migration are really the ruling classes, who see the poor divided by language and can exploit migrants more easily, and that they damage the homogeneity of a local culture and destroy trust.  On the other hand, one might also argue that migration increases prosperity for everyone ultimately, and brings worthwhile new influences to an otherwise moribund and potentially xenophobic society.  Certainly I think some groups of migrants are better than others in how they integrate, prosper, and give back to the community that takes them in.

Very true.  I think it could just be the lack of public consent.  We are told by the government and local authorities what is good for us with no choice but to accept it.  Much like parental authority.

 

 

[Duke Wellington]

On 11/5/2019 at 12:01 PM, Alchopwn said:

When religion is used as an excuse to strip a child of their freedom of expression, to justify corporal and psychological punishment, and/or to strip them of the opportunity to be children, then yes.

If religion is used as a means of moral instruction, but the parent makes no pretense of their own infallibility, and is neither cruel nor unjust, and does not slip into sadomasochism,  nor hide behind religion as an excuse for their own behavior in the discipline of the child, then the answer would be no.

I don't pretend my own opinion is definitive, but I accept that it is perfectly possible to raise a child in a religious household and have them turn out a reasonable and decent human being.

The best approach to parenting is about the parent realising their child is a fully separate human being with all their own psychological needs, hopes, and aspirations.

When they are young they need encouraging, they need parents that spend quality time with them equipping them with life skills, and when things go wrong they need wisdom passing on to help them. As a separate human being they need treating with love, respect, kindness, and understanding. Someone that hates, bullies, demeans, controls, bosses around, and is generally negative towards their child, is quite frankly not fit to be a parent.

At the very minimum their child will grow up to hate them, but its likely they will end up messed up in the head too.

I personally think the Catholic Church is a disgrace in Ireland and here in the UK too. There is a culture of abuse present in that religion, and I`m not referring to the paedo priests although they are a problem too. I mean the evil nuns. Those nuns who are abusive (both psychologically and physically) towards misbehaving children for being sinners and in order `save their souls`. And I mean the neurotic Catholic parents continuing on with the abuse behind closed doors.

Those children do not grow up into happy well-balanced adults.

[Alchopwn]

19 hours ago, RabidMongoose said:

The best approach to parenting is about the parent realising their child is a fully separate human being with all their own psychological needs, hopes, and aspirations.

When they are young they need encouraging, they need parents that spend quality time with them equipping them with life skills, and when things go wrong they need wisdom passing on to help them. As a separate human being they need treating with love, respect, kindness, and understanding. Someone that hates, bullies, demeans, controls, bosses around, and is generally negative towards their child, is quite frankly not fit to be a parent.

At the very minimum their child will grow up to hate them, but its likely they will end up messed up in the head too.

I personally think the Catholic Church is a disgrace in Ireland and here in the UK too. There is a culture of abuse present in that religion, and I`m not referring to the paedo priests although they are a problem too. I mean the evil nuns. Those nuns who are abusive (both psychologically and physically) towards misbehaving children for being sinners and in order `save their souls`. And I mean the neurotic Catholic parents continuing on with the abuse behind closed doors.

Those children do not grow up into happy well-balanced adults.

If only more people had the same common sense, sanity and ethics that evolution granted this rabid mongoose, the world would be a better place.

Edited November 10, 2019 by Alchopwn

[IDunThinkSoBish]

This was the case in my family. I can attest to its potential accuracy. I think authoritarianism in general is another word for psychopathy.