Title: Parenting Styles and Psychopathology: The Importance of Grandparents
Abstract: Background: Controversy exists regarding the role played by parent-children relationships for childrenâs behavioral and psychosocial development. Crucial for some authors, others consider parenting styles as part of a more complex system. Less adaptive parenting styles are generally associated with children who have lower involvement at school and may contribute for psychopathology emergence. Objectives: To investigate the contribution of parenting styles for the explanation of child psychopathology. Hypothesis: Parenting styles (H1) and parentsâ childhood memories regarding parenting styles (H2) do contribute significantly for the explanation of statistical variance of childrenâs psychopathology. Method: Participants: 110 children (67 boys, 43 girls) aged 7-11 years (M = 9.22, SD = 1.14) from schools in Portugal as well as 83 fathers and 86 mothers; Instruments: For parenting styles, the Portuguese version of EMBU memories of upbringing (for parents regarding their own parents), EMBU-P (for parents) and EMBU-C (for children) were used. To assess childrenâs psychopathology the Portuguese version of CBCL was used. Results: According to linear regressions, individual and family factors do contribute significantly for the explanation of all CBCLâs indexes. EMBU-C regarding mothersâ parenting styles only explains the Hyperactivity/Attention index. EMBU-P explains most of CBCLâs indexes. Mothersâ and Fathersâ EMBU Memories of Upbringing explains the overall CBCLâs indexes. Conclusions: The explanation of childrenâs psychopathology by parenting styles is not restricted to parentsâ representations regarding their own parenting styles nor to childrenâs perceptions regarding parenting styles but extends to memories of parents regarding parenting styles used by their own parents. The ability of EMBU Memories of Upbringing to explain childrenâs psychopathology seems to exceed the EMBU-Pâs and EMBU-Câs capacity.