Parental Psychological Control: Revisiting a Neglected Construct

• Published in: Child development Vol. 67; no. 6; pp. 3296 - 3319
• Main Author: Barber, Brian K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Malden, MA University of Chicago Press 01.12.1996; Blackwell; University of Chicago Press for the Society for Research in Child Development, etc; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescent Behavior; Adolescents; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child Behavior Disorders - psychology; Child psychology; Children; Children & youth; Delinquency; Depression (Psychology); Depressive Disorder - psychology; Depressive disorders; Developmental psychology; Discipline; Dyadic relations; Family members; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Parent Child Relationship; Parent Control; Parent-Child Relations; Parental control; Parenting; Parenting Styles; Parents; Parents & parenting; Preadolescents; Psychological aspects; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Psychometrics; Social psychology; Social research; Socioeconomic Factors; Human; Mood disorder; Parental behavior; Anxiety disorder; Depression; Preadolescent; Parent child relation; Behavioral disorder; Social interaction; Juvenile delinquency; Adolescent; Discipline; Social behavior disorder
• ISSN: 0009-3920; 1467-8624
• DOI: 10.2307/1131780

This article argues for the value in socialization research of focusing explicitly on the construct of parental psychological control of children-control that constrains, invalidates, and manipulates children's psychological and emotional experience and expression. The article traces the history of the construct and distinguishes psychological control theoretically and empirically from more behaviorally oriented control. 2 new measures of psychological control are developed. Data from 3 separate studies are presented which indicate that psychological control can be adequately measured across demographically varied samples and mode of measurement. In both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses, psychological control, particularly as perceived by preadolescents and adolescents, is consistently predictive of youth internalized problems (depression) and, in some cases, externalized problems (delinquency). In contrast, behavioral control is related primarily to externalized problems.