Maternal and Paternal Psychological Control Dimensions: Relations with Adolescent Outcomes

Parental psychological control (PC) is an emotionally manipulative parenting behavior that is used to control adolescents’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Although PC has consistently been associated with greater problematic outcomes during adolescence, few studies have explored this parenting construct in its conceptual fullness. The current study aimed to 1) examine the factor structure of items from three commonly used measures of psychological control for mothers and fathers, separately; and 2) determine whether resulting factors are uniquely associated with a range of adolescent outcomes including substance use, risky cyber behaviors, problem eating behaviors, depression, anxiety, delinquency, and aggression. Participants were 406 adolescents (M_age = 15.00, SD = 1.64; 85.7% Caucasian; 57.6% female) living in an Appalachian, southeastern region. Participants completed surveys assessing maternal/paternal psychological control, substance use, risky cyber behaviors, problematic eating behaviors, depression, anxiety, delinquency, and depression. Results indicated that maternal psychological control is comprised of three distinct factors (i.e., personal attack, invalidating feelings, love withdrawal) which were uniquely and differentially associated with adolescents’ problematic outcomes. However, paternal psychological control was comprised of only one factor, which was associated with numerous problematic outcomes. The findings provide insights into potentially more precise ways to measure maternal and paternal psychological control. Findings suggest that adolescents may vary in their perceptions of maternal versus paternal psychological control, which has implications for their problematic outcomes.