Looking Good or Being Good? Parenting Goals Predict Need Satisfaction and Frustration in Mothers and Fathers

• Published in: Journal of child and family studies Vol. 32; no. 8; pp. 2444 - 2452
• Main Authors: Smith, C. Veronica, Bilsky, Sarah A., Fuentes, Julian D., Hadden, Benjamin W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.08.2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Achievement Need; Autonomy; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Child and School Psychology; Child Rearing; Children; College Students; Friendship; Frustration; Objectives; Original Paper; Parent Child Relationship; Parent-child relations; Parents & parenting; Psychological needs; Psychology; Relatedness; Romantic relationships; Self image; Selfimage; Social Sciences; Sociology; Sympathy; Parenting; Basic need frustration/thwarting; Parenting goals; Basic need satisfaction
• ISSN: 1062-1024; 1573-2843
• DOI: 10.1007/s10826-023-02604-1

Compassionate and self-image goals, respectively, are related to various positive and negative outcomes in friendships and in romantic relationships. There is, however, little research examining these goals in parents. This brief report presents two studies that examine parenting goals in relation to the satisfaction and frustration of parents’ needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Parents of incoming first-year college students completed measures of compassionate and self-image goals, psychological need satisfaction (Studies 1 and 2), and psychological need frustration (Study 2). Compassionate goals predicted greater need satisfaction and less need frustration while self-image goals predicted lower need satisfaction and greater need frustration. These findings demonstrate links between parents’ goals for their relationships with their children and their perceptions about these relationships. Implications for these findings are discussed. Highlights Parenting goals and psychological need satisfaction and frustration of parents of college-bound children were measured. Compassionate parenting goals predicts higher need satisfaction and lower need frustration in parent-child relationships. Self-image parenting goals predicts lower need satisfaction and higher need frustration in parent-child relationships. The links between parenting goals and need satisfaction and frustration are not moderated by parent gender.