| This study aimed to investigate the intergenerational patterns in the transmission of the parental psychological control and the role of parental perfectionism and marital satisfaction(of the second generation: G2)and gender(of three generations: G1,G2 and G3)on these patterns by measuring past experience of psychological control and current level of perfectionism and marital satisfaction in predicting present use of psychological control.Four hundred father-mother dyads with adolescents were recruited to participate in this survey.Results showed that:(1)The perception of paternal psychological control and maternal psychological control were stronger in boys than girls.There was no significant difference among 4 grades.Gender and grade interaction was not significant.There was no significant difference between paternal psychological control and maternal psychological control in every family.(2)Psychological control experience of mothers was significantly positively related to their children's perception of maternal psychological control and maternal perfectionism.Maternal perfectionism was positively related to maternal psychological control.Maternal marital satisfaction was significantly negatively related to paternal psychological control of mothers and adolescent's perception of maternal psychological control.Maternal marital satisfaction was not related to maternal perfectionism significantly,but positively related to maternal self-oriented perfectionism.Psychological control experience of fathers was significantly positively related to their children's perception of paternal psychological control and paternal perfectionism.Paternal marital satisfaction was not significantly related to fathers' past experience of psychological control.Paternal marital satisfaction was negatively related to paternal psychological control.Paternal perfectionism was positively related to adolescent's perception of paternal psychological control.(3)Past experience of psychological control for mothers was a significant predictor of maternal use of psychological control.Maternal perfectionism and maternal marital satisfaction partially mediated the transmission of psychological control in mothers sample.(4)Past experience of psychological control for fathers was a significant predictor of paternal use of psychological control.However,in the fathers' sample,the mediating effects of paternal perfectionism and paternal marital satisfaction were not significant.The findings broaden our understanding of the factors and mechanism that account for both discontinuity and continuity in parental psychological control,particularly within the Chinese cultural context and supported the hypothesis of Belsky's social-contextual model of parenting to some extent.Parental risk factors may be the targets to break the intergenerational cycle. |
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