Parenting Style, Discipline, and Parental Psychopathology: Gender Dyadic Interactions in Emerging Adults

Regarding parental influences on child adjustment, research has examined parental and child gender separately more often than the interaction between them. Thus, the current study investigated the effects of parenting styles, discipline practices, and parental psychological symptoms in parent–child gender dyads. The sample consisted of 177 male and 313 female emerging adults who ranged in age from 18 to 24 years and reported they were primarily White and African American. Participants reported on parental characteristics including perceived parenting styles, discipline practices, and parental psychological symptoms in addition to their own psychological symptoms. Results indicated that parent and emerging adult gender moderated some relationships. Notably, interaction effects suggested that higher levels of authoritative parenting were associated with higher levels of emerging adult psychological symptoms. This unexpected finding may indicate that parents provide less authoritative parenting to high functioning emerging adults compared to those who have problems, or that emerging adults perceive high levels of authoritative parenting during this time in their lives as problematic. Thus, effective parenting may vary as a function of children’s development.