Parents' Actions: Are They Related to Children's Self-Concepts, Evaluations of Parents, and to Each Other?

Parish, Thomas S., Necessary, James R., Adolescence

The importance of the family in promoting the psychosocial development of children has been well documented in the literature (e.g., Kagan, 1980; Parish, 1987). According to Byrne (1977), the family represents a basic human support system within which various needs are met, or go unmet. Thus, degree of family happiness has been found to be significantly related to individuals' subsequent level of self-esteem, as well as regard for others within the family (see Parish, Dostal, & Parish, 1981; Parish & Nunn, 1988).

That the family serves as a basic support system potentially associated with how individuals come to see themselves and other family members is important to understand, but another important issue is, "Don't parents' actions toward one another play a similar role?" To date, Parish (1988) has reported that college students' self-concepts were significantly related to how their fathers acted toward their mothers (r = .61, p [is less than] .01), and how their mothers acted toward their fathers (r = .58, p [is less than] .01), but Parish and Necessary (1993) failed to find similar relationships with high school students. With such disparate findings already available, one wonders what relationships could prevail with younger children (i.e., middle-schoolers) of …

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Publication information: Article title: Parents' Actions: Are They Related to Children's Self-Concepts, Evaluations of Parents, and to Each Other?. Contributors: Parish, Thomas S. - Author, Necessary, James R. - Author. Journal title: Adolescence. Volume: 29. Issue: 116 Publication date: Winter 1994. Page number: 943+. © 1999 Libra Publishers, Inc. COPYRIGHT 1994 Gale Group.

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