Maternal Psychological Control and Rural Left-Behind Children's Anxiety: The Moderating Role of Externalizing Problem Behavior and Teacher Support

Based on the risk and protective factor framework and context-dependent theory, the present study investigated the association between maternal psychological control and anxiety among left-behind children in rural China as well as the moderating roles of externalizing problem behavior and teacher support in this association. A total of 149 children with two migrant parents, 306 children with only a migrant father, and 287 accompanied children aged 11–16 years (M = 13.85 years, SD = 0.50) in the rural areas of Shandong Province, Eastern China, participated in the study. Children reported their perceived levels of maternal psychological control, teacher support, externalizing problem behavior, and anxiety. The results provided evidence that a higher level of psychological control was associated with more anxiety symptoms in all three groups of children, and this association was stronger in children with two migrant parents than in accompanied children. Hierarchical regression analysis supported our hypotheses that the moderating effects of externalizing problem behavior and teacher support varied as a function of parents' migrant status, with externalizing problem behavior exacerbating the impact of psychological control on anxiety in accompanied children, and teacher support buffering the impact of psychological control on anxiety in children with a migrant father. These findings broaden our understanding of the factors and processes that contribute to anxiety problems in left-behind children in rural China.

Bidirectional Longitudinal Relationships between Maternal Psychological Control and Bullying/Victimization among Father-Absent Left-behind Children in China

The topic of school bullying has become an important issue over the world. Being in disadvantaged situations of fathers’ absence, prior research suggested that left-behind children (LBC) with absent fathers in China are more vulnerable to get involved in school bullying (bullying or being bullied). In addition, fathers’ absence brings much pressure to single stay-at-home mothers, leading to more maternal psychologically controlling parenting. Following a three-wave longitudinal design, this study aimed to examine the developmental relationship between maternal psychological control and father-absent LBC’s bullying/victimization as well as its mechanism. A total of 348 father-absent LBC aged 7–11 years in China completed a battery of questionnaires at three-time points. The results indicated that there are reciprocal effects between maternal psychological control and father-absent LBC’s bullying/victimization. Specifically, maternal psychological control at T1 predicted father-absent LBC’s victimization at T2; children’s victimization at T2 predicted maternal psychological control at T3; maternal psychological control predicted later children’s bullying perpetration stably from T1 to T2 and from T2 to T3; children’s bullying at T2 predicted maternal psychological control at T3. Two vicious circles happened in the above relationships. Current findings highlight the stronger effects of mothers’ negative parenting on children’s school bullying, which bring inspiration for future family education and school intervention.

Υoung Adults’ Assertiveness in Relation to Parental Acceptance-Rejection in Greece and in Bosnia and Herzegovina

This study explored the relation between assertiveness and parental behavior as perceived by young adults through parental acceptance-rejection and behavioral and psychological control. Αssertiveness is a mode of personal behavior and communication characterized by willingness to stand up for one’s own needs and interests in an open and direct way. Inappropriate parenting may be associated with assertiveness difficulties and as evidence-based findings from many surveys have shown that assertive skills can be improved, it seems to be of great importance to examine the relation between assertiveness and parental rejection along with lack of support, and vice versa. In this study, assertiveness was investigated using the Rathus Assertiveness Schedule and parental behavior was studied using the Adult Parental Acceptance-Rejection/Control Questionnaire. Psychosocial personality traits and psychological control were assessed through the Adult Personality Assessment Questionnaire and the Psychological Control Scale, respectively. The sample consisted of 1,117 university students from Greek universities in Athens, Greece, and in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H). For all measures and their psychometric structure, factor equivalence for the two countries was verified through congruence coefficients and through confirmatory factor analyses. Findings showed that in respect to the Greek sample (but not the B&H sample), assertive-behavior skills are more common among men than women. Assertiveness for all participants is correlated with maternal psychological control and paternal acceptance and also with self-evaluation and worldview. Apparently, maternal psychological control and paternal acceptance-rejection seemed to be associated with young adults' levels of assertiveness to a greater degree than with the other parental behavior parameters assessed in the present research.