Relationships among Retrospective Perceptions of Parents and Current Perceptions of Partner to Psychological Distress of Middle-Age Adults
type: CreativeWork
description: This study was designed as a constructive replication of Wintre and Gates (2006) research which investigated the relationships between recalled parents' parenting styles and perceptions of reciprocity with their parents in adolescence, as well as current perceptions of spousal/partner reciprocity to their current psychological distress as middle-age adults. The operational definition of parenting styles for this research study is based on Baumrind's theory of childhood parenting styles, and the construct of parent-child reciprocity is derived from Youniss' theory of late adolescents' perceived reciprocity. The present study was based on the data individually collected from 100 adults 40-58 years of age living in a small southwestern city. The same measures from the Wintre and Gates (2006) study were used to assess the variables of this study, and a questionnaire developed by the researcher obtained additional background information from the participants. The results of the present study were highly similar to the findings of the previous study; given the smaller size sample, even when a relationship was not statistically significant, the directionality of the relationships remained the same. The main findings indicated that current partner reciprocity significantly explained more variance in the psychological distress of middle-age adults than did reported parents' parenting style in childhood and parent-child reciprocity in adolescence. In general, both mothers and fathers were reported as being more authoritarian than authoritative, but only by a small and non-statistically significant amount, whereas reported parents' permissive parenting style received the lowest mean scores. Negative correlations were found between the reported authoritative parenting style total score and the distress total scores, whereas positive correlations were found between the reported authoritarian and permissive parenting style total scores and measures of psychological distress. Perc…
abstract: This study was designed as a constructive replication of Wintre and Gates (2006) research which investigated the relationships between recalled parents' parenting styles and perceptions of reciprocity with their parents in adolescence, as well as current perceptions of spousal/partner reciprocity to their current psychological distress as middle-age adults. The operational definition of parenting styles for this research study is based on Baumrind's theory of childhood parenting styles, and the construct of parent-child reciprocity is derived from Youniss' theory of late adolescents' perceived reciprocity. The present study was based on the data individually collected from 100 adults 40-58 years of age living in a small southwestern city. The same measures from the Wintre and Gates (2006) study were used to assess the variables of this study, and a questionnaire developed by the researcher obtained additional background information from the participants. The results of the present study were highly similar to the findings of the previous study; given the smaller size sample, even when a relationship was not statistically significant, the directionality of the relationships remained the same. The main findings indicated that current partner reciprocity significantly explained more variance in the psychological distress of middle-age adults than did reported parents' parenting style in childhood and parent-child reciprocity in adolescence. In general, both mothers and fathers were reported as being more authoritarian than authoritative, but only by a small and non-statistically significant amount, whereas reported parents' permissive parenting style received the lowest mean scores. Negative correlations were found between the reported authoritative parenting style total score and the distress total scores, whereas positive correlations were found between the reported authoritarian and permissive parenting style total scores and measures of psychological distress. Perc…
author: Peterson, Leslie Rose
language: English
keywords: Middle-Age Adults, Psychological Distress, Spousal/Partner Reciprocity, Parental Reciprocity, Parenting Styles, Relationships with Parents, Relationships with Spouse or Partner
date published: 2013-07-11T07:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T05:26:29Z
provider: University of New Mexico
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of New Mexico

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/1928/23208