Analysis of by Grusec and Gencoz about Warm and Harsh Parenting - Article Example

Lecturer: Presentation: Santas, D., Grusec, JE and Gencoz, T. . Warm and harsh parenting as mediators ofthe relation between maternal and adolescent emotion regulation. Journal of Adolescence, 36, pp. 1093-1101. This article by Santas, Grusec and Gencoz, reports a study which aimed to investigate the relationship between mothers’ emotional regulation (ER) and that of their adolescent children. It also assessed the role of parenting behaviour as a mediator between maternal and adolescent ER. It addressed whether maternal hostility/rejection and warmth were potential mediators of the relation between mothers’ and adolescents’ emotional regulation with a special focus on first-year high school students living in Ankara, Turkey and their mothers. The authors found that maternal hostility/rejection, and not warmth mediated the relation between maternal and adolescent emotional regulation especially for the girls. This review of Santas, Grusec and Gencoz article aims to discuss the study and examine the value of the paper in developing an understanding about emotional regulation in adolescents. To achieve this, it will examine the background/introduction, methods, results and finally the discussion section. This will help in evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the paper as well as assessing its contribution to the current research in the field. Introduction The research focus was clearly explained by the authors both in the abstract and the introduction. The research was to focus on how mothers’ emotional regulation impacted on their adolescent children’s’ ability to regulate own emotions and more specifically, on how maternal hostility and rejection and not warmth mediated the emotional regulation between mothers and adolescents. Although the authors give evidence of previous research studies on the importance of maternal emotional regulation, they do not make it clear why paternal emotions are not considered. Research (Barrett & Bliss-Moreau, 2009) indicates that women are the ‘more emotional sex’ as they experience, express and dwell on emotions while men tend to suppress their emotions. As such, fathers and mothers may have different impact on their adolescent children emotional regulation. Besides, the authors ignore the attachment theories which indicate that parents are more attached to children of similar gender hence mothers are more attached to girls while fathers are attached to boys (Eysenck, 2004). Moreover, some children are brought up in day care facilities as their mothers engage in work and this has not been addressed. Prior research has been presented leading to the conclusion of the authors about the need for current study. However, the literature is a bit contradictory as on one hand, it views children as being coached to regulate their emotions but the evidence given shows otherwise; children learn through imitation. For example, research (silk, Shaw, Skuban, Orland, and Kovacs, 2006) on 4- to-7-year-old children of depressed mothers showed that these children behaved in the same way as their depressed mothers assuming the mothers had ER problems relative to children of non-depressed mothers reflecting the importance of modelling. On the other hand, authors argue that adolescents use different methods than children hence the adolescents’ need of acceptance in dealing with their emotional problems and the importance of the role of maternal hostility and rejection as mediators of relation between mothers and adolescents. However, evidence shows that adolescents just like children learn through modelling and besides, they portray behavioural independence hence may not rely much on parents in modelling their coping mechanisms. The rationale for the research therefore, is weakened by this fact. There are also many factors that influence adolescent emotional regulation such as peers and teachers and although mentioned, the authors have not discussed how such factors impact on outcomes so as to advance reader’s knowledge and also to give a clear picture of background literature. Although the authors put more emphasis on family interactions than on peer interactions, these cannot be underestimated (Jabeen, Haque & Riaz, 2013). Furthermore, adolescence is a period of increased conflicts and these may also affect their emotions. Another area the literature did not address is the effect of parenting styles. Maternal hostility and rejection are viewed as affecting ER while warmth does not. However, according to Baumrind (1967); Bornstein (2002) and Russell, Aloa, Feder, Glover, Miller & palmer (1998) parenting styles do matter. The authoritative style often utilised by mothers includes use of harshness and hostility leading to high level of effort control while the authoritarian style often used by fathers entails high control, low warmth and unresponsiveness to children’s needs and can lead to high effort control. However, the permissive parenting style involving high level of warmth may lead to lack of behavioural control. This may make the report weak since it ignores the role played by maternal warmth and explains it as having no effect on mediation between maternal and adolescent ER. The research framework is not very clear. It lacks theoretical underpinnings to guide the research work and supports the points put forward. The only argument put forward though not fully explained in the literature is that socialization occurs in different domains and since rejection and warmth are not aspects of same domain, then their influence differs. There also lacks clear hypothesis supported by clear research questions that would enable the reader to understand what the researchers were setting out to do. Methodology The number of participants in each group was randomly selected and the selection is well explained. Mean ages of children of the participating mothers was reported and the numbers are sufficient to support empirical analysis. The gender distribution of the adolescents was also given as well as the mean age of the participating mothers. The level of education of mothers was also given hence adding strength to the report as education level is crucial in affecting ER of parents (Morris, Silk, Steinberg, Sonya, Myers & Robinson, 2007). Since participants were first-year students from eight high schools all located in Ankara, Turkey, the sample is a bit homogenous and may be difficult to generalize. There also lacks details on child characteristics which could also influence their ER. Boo and Kolk (2007) argue that research on the whole family system including siblings, grandparents, caretakers and not just parents would be more appropriate to understand how the family impacts on ER and would give the research more credibility. Feldman, Eidelman and Rotenberg (2004) on the other hand argue for inclusion of risk factors that influence emotional development such as socio-economic status. The authors used questionnaires in their data collection. The 365 adolescents filled ER questionnaires in the classroom while their parents filled the parenting questionnaires at their homes. The items on the questionnaire represented the focus of the research as adolescents indicated their ER, perceived parental rejection and hostility as well as warmth while parents indicated own ER and their rejection and warmth towards the adolescents. The constructs in the research focus were well operationalised as respondents were supposed to answer 36-items divided into six subscales based on the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). These were about rejection, warmth, gender, and other important factors influencing ER. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire were reported. According to Gratz & Roemer, (2004), the DERS questionnaire had high internal consistency, good test-retest reliability and appropriate construct and predictive validity. Another questionnaire administered to the adults and their parents was on parental rearing behaviour namely My Memories of Upbringing (s-EMBU) comprising of 22 items on three subscales. The questionnaire gave information on parental hostility/ rejection and warmth. With regard to this questionnaire, cross-national validity was also reported. The authors were ethically responsible in their procedure as they sought permission from responsible authorities including the Turkish Ministry of Education and the administration of the selected high schools. Authors also sought cooperation from teachers and the adolescents were fully informed of the study and permission sought from their parents for their participation. The design of the study has not been stated nor a clear hypothesis given. As such, it is difficult to judge which design and statistical tests would be appropriate in this context. Results In the results section, the authors’ first deal with the mediators (warmth and rejection) of relation between mothers and adolescents and data analysed using SPSS and PROCESS programs. Gender was then added later into the model as a moderator. The data was analysed into two groups: adolescents and mothers. The main findings were then reported using tables. The sample was well represented with results for girls and boys given separately to show the impact of gender as a moderator. Inferential tests were carried out to support the findings. These included T-tests to determine the probability of the results being representative of the population that the sample represented. The sample size (n=365) was sufficient enough to support the use of t-tests in the analysis. A correlation analysis was also carried out to show the strength of the relationship between the variables (Frankfurt & Leon-Guerrero, 2006). These were to test the relationships identified in the research framework being the relationship between hostility/rejection and warmth to adolescent ER, and direct influence of gender as a moderator of the relationship. Also the relationship between maternal ER and adolescent ER. These entire variables were tested for significance and were found to be significant except mother-reported warmth and adolescent ER for both girls and boys, between maternal reported warmth and hostility for boys, and between maternal and adolescent ER for boys. The types of inferential tests carried out were SPSS and PROCESS. The findings were interpreted and supported the hypotheses regarding the role of parental behaviour on adolescent ER difficulties and the moderation role of gender. Using the adolescent report, results showed that mothers’ difficulties in ER were significantly related to maternal warmth and rejection but maternal warmth was not significantly related to adolescent ER difficulties and the same case applied to analyses using mothers’ report. There is consistency in reporting data as the table and commentaries use similar units. Discussion The discussion section clearly summarises the findings of the research and answers all the research questions which deals with whether maternal parenting behaviour (hostility/ rejection and warmth) impact adolescents ER and role of gender in mediation. The interpretations were supported by the data collected and its analysis and support was also drawn from similar studies done previously such as the one conducted by Sheeber, Davis, & Hops in 2002 which showed that maternal depression posed greater risk for development of ER difficulties in girls than boys. Each of these variables was given considerable attention and evidence of previous research on the same provided hence making the report more reliable and valid. The conclusion is brief and highlights future implications of the research and gives recommendations for further research. It also highlights some of the limitations encountered in the study although not stated clearly as such. 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Australian Journal of Psychology, 50, 89-99. Santas, D., Grusec, JE and Gencoz, T (2013). Warm and harsh parenting as mediators of the realtion between maternal and adolescent emotion regualtion. Journal of Adolescence, 36, 1093-1101. Silk, J. S., Shaw, D. S., Skuban, E. M., Oland, A. A., & Kovacs, M. (2006). Emotion regulation strategies in offspring of childhood-onset depressed mothers. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 47, 69–78 Read More