Abstract
Parent–child relationship quality has a lifelong impact on individuals’ psychological adjustment, and the family system includes recurring relational patterns across generations. The aim of the current study was to examine the intergenerational transmission of perceived parental acceptance-rejection and psychological adjustment across three generations of the same family lineage. Data were collected from three generations of female members of 246 families. The repeated measures ANOVA and latent growth curve modeling were used for both group-based and family lineage-based comparisons. In addition, autoregressive cross-lagged modeling was used to examine the theoretical model of intergenerational transmission. Results provided sufficient evidence for a modest linear decrease in overall score of perceived parental rejection across generations. However, the positive changes in perceived paternal attitudes emerged with a one-generation time lag compared to perceived maternal attitudes. The model provided an indirect transmission across generations, and second-generation mothering mediated the transmissions between grandmothers and granddaughters. Consecutive generations provided appropriate conditions for readjusting the perceived quality of parent–child relationship established in the previous generations, and the current study mainly highlighted the change in relational patterns across generations.
Highlights
-
Retrospective childhood experiences revealed a moderate effect on adjustment both in young, adult, and elderly sub-samples in this study.
-
Three-generation continuity of the relational patterns mainly refers to an indirect transmission across generations.
-
The highlighted increase in the value of children was significantly reflected on childrearing practices across generations.
-
Consecutive generations displayed a more affectionate parenting for readjusting the perceived quality of parent–child relationship.
-
Positive changes in perceived paternal attitudes emerged with a one-generation time lag compared to perceived maternal attitudes.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ali, S., Khaleque, A., & Rohner, R. P. (2015). Pancultural gender differences in the relation between perceived parental acceptance and psychological adjustment of children and adult offspring: a meta-analytic review of worldwide research. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 46, 1059–1080. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022115597754.
Ali,S., Khatun,N., Khaleque,A., & Rohner,R. P. (2019). They love me not: A meta-analysis of relations between parental undifferentiated rejection and offspring’s psychological maladjustment. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 50(2), 185–199. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022118815599.
Bailey, J. A., Hill, K. G., Oesterle, S., & Hawkins, J. D. (2009). Parenting practices and problem behavior across three generations: monitoring, harsh discipline, and drug use in the intergenerational transmission of externalizing behavior. Developmental Psychology, 45, 1214–1226. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016129.
Bakeman, R. (2005). Recommended effect size statistics for repeated measures designs. Behavior Research Methods, 37(3), 379–384. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03192707.
Baldwin, J. R., Reuben, A., Newbury, J. B., & Danese, A. (2019). Agreement between prospective and retrospective measures of childhood maltreatment: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Psychiatry, 76(6), 584–593. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.0097.
Bandalos, D. L., & Finney, S. J. (2001). Item parceling issues in structural equation modeling. In G. A. Marcoulides & R. E. Schumacker (Eds), New developments and techniques in structural equation modeling (pp. 269–296). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.
Beaver, K. M., & Belsky, J. (2012). Gene-environment interaction and the intergenerational transmission of parenting: testing the differential-susceptibility hypothesis. Psychiatric Quarterly, 83, 29–40. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-011-9180-4.
Birditt, K. S., Tighe, L. A., Fingerman, K. L., & Zarit, S. H. (2012). Intergenerational relationship quality across three generations. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 67(5), 627–638. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbs050.
Bowen, M. (1978). Family therapy in clinical practice. New York, NY: Aronson.
Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and loss: Attachment (Vol. I). New York, NY: Basic Books.
Brook, J. S., Lee, J. Y., Finch, S. J., & Brown, E. N. (2012). The association of externalizing behavior and parent-child relationships: an intergenerational study. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 21(3), 418–427. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-011-9493-9.
Capaldi, D. M., Pears, K. C., Kerr, D. C., Owen, L. D., & Kim, H. K. (2012). Growth in externalizing and internalizing problems in childhood: a prospective study of psychopathology across three generations. Child Development, 83(6), 1945–1959. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01821.x.
Chen, F. F. (2007). Sensitivity of goodness of fit indexes to lack of measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling, 14, 464–504. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705510701301834.
Conger, R. D., Neppl, T., Kim, K. J., & Scaramella, L. (2003). Angry and aggressive behavior across three generations: a prospective, longitudinal study of parents and children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 31(2), 143–160. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022570107457.
Cournoyer, D. E., & Rohner, R. P. (1996). Reliability of retrospective reports of perceived maternal acceptance–rejection in childhood. Psychological Reports, 78, 147–150. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1996.78.1.147.
Curran, P. J., & Bollen, K. A. (2001). The best of both worlds: combining autoregressive and latent curve models. In L. M. Collins & A. G. Sayer (Eds.), New methods for the analysis of change (pp. 107–135). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Dube, S. R., Williamson, D. F., Thompson, T., Felitti, V. J., & Anda, R. F. (2004). Assessing the reliability of retrospective reports of adverse childhood experiences among adult HMO members attending a primary care clinic. Child Abuse & Neglect, 28(7), 729–737. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2003.08.009.
Farrington, D. P., Coid, J. W., & Murray, J. (2009). Family factors in the intergenerational transmission of offending. Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health: CBMH, 19(2), 109–124. https://doi.org/10.1002/cbm.717.
Fasang, A. E., & Raab, M. (2014). Beyond transmission: intergenerational patterns of family formation among middle-class American families. Demography, 51(5), 1703–1728. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-014-0322-9.
Fraenkel, J. R., Wallen, N. E., & Hyun, H. H. (2012). How to design and evaluate research in education. 8th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Gershuny, J. (2001). Changing times. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Gillis, J. (2000). Marginalization of fatherhood in western countries. Childhood, 17(2), 225–238. https://doi.org/10.1177/0907568200007002007.
Gladding, S. T. (2011). Family therapy: History, theory, and practice. 5th ed Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education.
Hair, J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., & Anderson, R. E. (2014). Multivariate data analysis. New Jersey, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Hank, K., Salzburger, V., & Silverstein, M. (2017). Intergenerational transmission of parent-child relationship quality: evidence from a multi-actor survey. Social Science Research, 67, 129–137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2017.06.004.
Hu, L. C., & Chiang, Y. L. (2020). Having children in a time of lowest-low fertility: value of children, sex preference and fertility desire among Taiwanese young adults. Child Indicators Research, 13(4), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-020-09753-5.
Kagan, J. (1978). The parental love trap. Psychology Today, 12, 54–61.
Kagitcibasi, & Ataca, B. (2005). Value of children and family change: a three-decade portrait from Turkey. Applied Psychology: International Review, 54(3), 317–337. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2005.00213.x.
Kagitcibasi, & Ataca, B. (2015). Value of children, family change, and implications for the care of the elderly. Cross-Cultural Research, 49(4), 374–392. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069397115598139.
Khaleque, A., & Rohner, R. P. (2011). Transnational relations between perceived parental acceptance and personality dispositions of children and adults: a meta-analytic review. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 16(2), 103–115. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868311418986.
Khaleque, A., & Rohner, R. P. (2012). Pancultural associations between perceived parental acceptance and psychological adjustment of children and adults: a meta-analytic review of worldwide research. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 43(5), 784–800. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022111406120.
Khaleque, A. (2015). Perceived parental neglect, and children’s psychological maladjustment, and negative personality dispositions: a meta-analysis of multi-cultural studies. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 24(5), 1419–1428. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-014-9948-x.
Kitamura, T., Shikai, N., Uji, M., Hiramura, H., Tanaka, N., & Shono, M. (2009). Intergenerational transmission of parenting style and personality: direct influence or mediation? Journal of Child and Family Studies, 18, 541–556. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-009-9256-z.
Kline, R. B. (2011). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Lomanowska, A. M., Boivin, M., Hertzman, C., & Fleming, A. S. (2017). Parenting begets parenting: a neurobiological perspective on early adversity and the transmission of parenting styles across generations. Neuroscience, 342, 120–139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2015.09.029.
Madden, V., Domoney, J., Aumayer, K., Sethna, V., Iles, J., Hubbard, I., Giannakakis, A., Psychogiou, L., & Ramchandani, P. (2015). Intergenerational transmission of parenting: findings from a UK longitudinal study. European Journal of Public Health, 25(6), 1030–1035. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckv093.
Marsh, H. W., Hau, K.-T., & Grayson, D. (2005). Goodness of fit in structural equation models. In A. Maydeu-Olivares & J. J. McArdle (Eds), Multivariate applications book series. Contemporary psychometrics: a festschrift for Roderick P. McDonald (pp. 275–340). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
McGoldrick, M., Gerson, R., & Petry, S. (2008). Genograms: Assessment and intervention (3rd ed.). W W Norton & Co.
Nauck, B., & Klaus, D. (2007). The varying value of children: empirical results from eleven societies in Asia, Africa, and Europe. Current Sociology, 55(4), 487–503. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392107077634.
Neppl, T. K., Conger, R. D., Scaramella, L. V., & Ontai, L. L. (2009). Intergenerational continuity in parenting behavior: mediating pathways and child effects. Developmental Psychology, 45(5), 1241–1256. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014850.
Olejnik, S., & Algina, J. (2003). Generalized eta and omega squared statistics: measures of effect size for some common research designs. Psychological Methods, 8(4), 434–447. https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989X.8.4.434.
Putallaz, M., Costanzo, P. R., Grimes, C. L. & & Sherman, D. M. (1998). Intergenerational continuities and their influences on children’s social development. Social Development, 7(3), 389–427. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9507.00074.
Rauscher, E. A., Schrodt, P., Campbell-Salome, G., & Freytag, J. (2020). The intergenerational transmission of family communication patterns: (In)consistencies in conversation and conformity orientations across two generations of family. Journal of Family Communication, 20(2), 97–113. https://doi.org/10.1080/15267431.2019.1683563.
Rohner, R. P., Khaleque, A., & Cournoyer, D. E. (2005). Parental acceptance-rejection: theory, methods, cross-cultural evidence, and implications. Ethos, 33(3), 299–334. https://doi.org/10.1525/eth.2005.33.3.299.
Rohner, R. P., & Khaleque, A. (2005). Handbook for the study of parental acceptance and rejection. Storrs, Connecticut: Rohner Research Publications.
Rohner, R. P. (1975). They love me, they love me not: a worldwide study of the effects of parental acceptance and rejection. New Haven, CT: HRAF Press. Available as e-book from Rohner Research Publications, Storrs, CT.
Rohner, R. P. (1986). The warmth dimension: foundations of parental acceptance-rejection theory. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. Available as e-book from Rohner Research Publications, Storrs, CT.
Rohner, R. P. (2004). The parental acceptance-rejection syndrome: universal correlates of perceived rejection. American Psychologist, 59(8), 830–840. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.59.8.830.
Rohner, R. P., Melendez, T., & Kraimer-Rickaby, L. (2008). Intimate partner acceptance, parental acceptance in childhood, and psychological adjustment among American adults in ongoing attachment relationships. Cross-Cultural Research, 42(1), 13–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069397107309750.
Roskam, I. (2013). The transmission of parenting behaviour within the family: an empirical study across three generations. Psychologica Belgica, 53(3), 49–64. https://doi.org/10.5334/pb-53-3-49.
Sabatier, C., & Lannegrand-Willems, L. (2005). Transmission of family values and attachment: a French three‐generation study. Applied Psychology, 54(3), 378–395. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2005.00216.x.
Scaramella, L. V., Neppl, T. K., Ontai, L. L., & Conger, R. D. (2008). Consequences of socioeconomic disadvantage across three generations: parenting behavior and child externalizing problems. Journal of Family Psychology, 22(5), 725–733. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0013190.
Sharf, R. S. (1996). Theories of psychotherapy and counseling: concepts and cases. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks and Coles.
Simons, R. L., Whitbeck, L. B., Conger, R. D., & Chyi-In, W. (1991). Intergenerational transmission of harsh parenting. Developmental Psychology, 27(1), 159–171. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.27.1.159.
Stull, D. E. (2008). Analyzing growth and change: latent variable growth curve modeling with an application to clinical trials. Quality of Life Research, 17(1), 47–59. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-007-9290-5.
Sultana, S., & Khaleque, A. (2016). Differential effects of perceived maternal and paternal acceptance on male and female adult offspring’s psychological adjustment. Gender Issues, 33, 42–52. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12147-015-9147-0.
Thornberry, T. P., Freeman-Gallant, A., Lizotte, A. J., Krohn, M. D. & & Smith, C. A. (2003). Linked lives: the intergenerational transmission of antisocial behavior. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 31(2), 171–184. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022574208366.
van Ijzendoorn, M. H. (1992). Intergenerational transmission of parenting: a review of studies in nonclinical populations. Developmental Review, 12(1), 76–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/0273-2297(92)90004-L.
Varan, A. (2003). Turkey reliability and validity study of the IPARTheory assessment tools. (Unpublished manuscript). Izmir: Ege University.
Funding
This work was supported by the Pamukkale University Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit [grant number 2018KRM002-140].
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
I declare that there is no other financial support or relationship that could create a conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Turkdogan, T. Intergenerational Transmission of Perceived Parental Acceptance–Rejection and Psychological Adjustment: Grandmothers, Mothers, and Adult-Granddaughters. J Child Fam Stud 30, 1327–1341 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-01942-2
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-021-01942-2