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Relationships Between Perceived Teachers' and Parental Behavior and Adolescent Outcomes in Estonia Tiia Tulviste and Ronald P. Rohner Cross-Cultural Research 2010 44: 222 originally published online 14 April 2010 DOI: 10.1177/1069397110366797 The online version of this article can be found at: http://ccr.sagepub.com/content/44/3/222
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Relationships Between Perceived Teachers’ and Parental Behavior and Adolescent Outcomes in Estonia
Cross-Cultural Research 44(3) 222–238 © 2010 SAGE Publications Reprints and permission: http://www. sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1069397110366797 http://ccr.sagepub.com
Tiia Tulviste1 and Ronald P. Rohner2
Abstract This study addresses relationships between perceived maternal, paternal, and teacher acceptance and behavioral control, and adolescents’ psychological adjustment, school conduct, and academic achievement in Estonia. A total of 224 sixth graders respond to 3 self-report measures. Adolescents’ school conduct and grade point average (GPA) are reported by teachers. Study findings show that girls’ psychological adjustment was predicted by their perceptions of both maternal and paternal acceptance, whereas boys’ psychological adjustment was predicted only by their perceptions of maternal acceptance. Perceived paternal control emerge as the only significant predictor of boys’ school conduct problems, whereas girls’ school conduct is predicted only by perceived teacher acceptance. Academic achievement of the adolescents is not significantly related to either perceived parental or teachers’ behavior. Keywords parental acceptance and control, teacher acceptance and control, psychological adjustment, school conduct, academic achievement 1
University of Tartu, Estonia University of Connecticut
2
Corresponding Author: Tiia Tulviste, Department of Psychology & Centre of Behavioral and Health Sciences, University of Tartu, Tiigi 78–336, Tartu 50410, Estonia E-mail:
[email protected]
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This study examines relationships between adolescents’ (boys’ vs. girls’) perceptions of parental (mothers’ and fathers’) and teachers’ acceptance and behavioral control, and adolescents’ psychological adjustment, behavior problems in school, and academic success in Estonia.
Perceived Parental Acceptance and Adolescent Outcomes Although cultures vary in their norms of expressing parental warmth (acceptance-rejection) and behavioral control (see Rohner & Rohner, 1981; Wu & Chao, 2005), more than 2,500 studies (Rohner, 2009) show that warm and accepting parenting has beneficial effects on child development and functioning. Several hundred of these studies also support parental acceptance–rejection theory’s (PARTheory’s) postulate that a universal relationship exists between perceived parental rejection and psychological maladjustment (Khaleque & Rohner, 2002a; Rohner, Khaleque, & Cournoyer, 2009). Prior studies have reached inconsistent conclusions, however, about whether perceived maternal versus paternal rejection is a better predictor of children’s psychological maladjustment, behavior problems, or delinquency. Rohner and Veneziano (2001) and Rohner and Britner (2002), for example, found that perceived paternal rejection generally tends worldwide to be a better predictor than perceived maternal rejection of such issues as behavioral problems, substance abuse, and depression or depressed affect— but not all studies reach this conclusion. On the positive side of parenting, Chen, Liu, and Li (2000) reported that maternal warmth predicted Chinese children’s emotional adjustment better than paternal warmth, whereas paternal warmth predicted later social and school achievement better than maternal warmth. In addition, Rohner and Veneziano (2001) found that paternal warmth and acceptance tend to be better predictors cross-culturally than maternal acceptance of young adults’ sense of well-being. This emerging body of research highlights the fact that perceived paternal rejection sometimes makes as great or greater contribution than maternal rejection to child and adolescent development. But the full range of conditions under which this happens is yet to be determined. Even less clear are conditions under which paternal rejection makes independent contributions to the development of sons versus daughters.
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Perceived Parental Behavioral Control and Adolescent Outcomes Perceived behavioral control (permissiveness-strictness) does not appear to have the same consistent effects on adolescents’ development as do the effects of perceived parental acceptance and rejection. For example, some research suggests that behavioral control by itself is related to externalizing issues such as conduct problems and antisocial behavior (Aunola & Nurmi, 2005; Barber & Olsen, 1997; Steinberg, 2005). Other research, however, argues that these effects are likely to emerge primarily in contexts where adolescents perceive the behavioral control to be an expression of parental rejection (Rohner & Khaleque, in press). In another context, Kurdek, Fine, and Sinclair (1995) found that moderate levels of behavioral control facilitated the highest grade point average (GPA) of adolescents. Kim and Rohner (2002), however, found that behavioral control by itself was not correlated significantly with adolescents’ academic achievement. Perceived maternal control (but not paternal control) did, however, moderate the association between perceived maternal acceptance and adolescents’ school performance. Clearly, a great deal more work must be done on topics such as these before researchers are able to estimate conditions under which parents’ (mothers’ and fathers’) behavioral control is likely to have specific effects on sons and daughters.
Perceived Teacher Acceptance and Behavioral Control and Adolescent Outcomes Relatively little research is yet available that links adolescents’ perceptions of teachers’ acceptance and behavioral control to specific adolescent outcomes. Most studies regarding the influence of teachers’ behaviors on student outcomes focus on early school adjustment and on academic issues among younger children (e.g., Pianta, Steinberg, & Rollins, 1995). A few studies, however, do show that adolescents’ perceptions of teacher acceptance and emotional support are related to positive motivational outcomes, including the intention to behave prosocially and responsibly, interest in academic issues, school engagement, and positive self-concept (e.g., Garcia-Reid, 2007; Harter, 1996; Roeser, Midgley, & Urban, 1996; Wentzel, 1994, 1997). None of these studies included the influence of teachers’ perceived behavioral control. This appears to be an issue that is seldom addressed.
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Gender Differences in Adolescents’ Relationships With Teachers Conclusions regarding gender differences in adolescents’ relationships with teachers have been inconsistent. Some studies, for example, suggest that girls often receive less support and attention than boys do from their teachers (Reddy, Rhodes, & Mulhall, 2003). Other studies conclude that teachers tend to report better relationships with girls than with boys (Birch & Ladd, 1997). As with the preceding topics, a great deal more research is needed before researchers are able to draw firm conclusions about the effects of teachers’ accepting-rejecting and behaviorally controlling behaviors on adolescent development, especially insofar as there may be gender differences in this development.
Teacher and Parental Behavior and Adolescent Outcomes in Estonia The present study contributes to this body of literature by examining gender differences in relationships between adolescents’ perceptions of parental (mothers’ and fathers’) and teachers’ acceptance and behavioral control, and adolescents’ psychological adjustment, behavior problems in school, and academic success in Estonia. Estonia is a small country with 1.36 million people who lived for 50 years under Soviet rule. The Republic of Estonia has undergone rapid political, societal, and economic transformations since the time of its independence in 1991. However, even though important transitions into a more democratic and liberal socialization style are visible, most parents and teachers in Estonia still seem to favor conservative socialization practices. Comparative observational research on everyday family interaction, for example, has shown that Estonian mothers control their adolescents’ behavior more often than do mothers in the United States, Finland, or Sweden (Tulviste, 2000, 2004; Tulviste, Mizera, De Geer, & Tryggvason, 2003). In addition, most Estonian schools have been characterized by traditional teacher-centered teaching methods, as well as by challenging curricular demands. It is generally believed in Estonia that the main task of teachers is to impart knowledge (Uibu & Kikas, 2008). As a result, children seem to have few opportunities for close personal contacts with their teachers. Given these considerations, we ask two major questions in this article: First and foremost, what contribution do perceived maternal, paternal, and teacher acceptance and behavioral control make to adolescents’ (boys vs. girls’) psychological adjustment, school conduct, and academic achievement? Second,
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are these patterns of relationships among Estonian adolescents similar to those found in studies in other cultures?
Method Sample The sample consisted of 224 sixth-grade students (109 boys and 115 girls) in the age range of 11 to 14 years (M = 12.29 years, SD = 0.56). A total of 32 students from single-mother families were unable to respond to the questionnaire described below regarding fathers. Consistent with Estonian school populations in general, the sample was homogeneous in sociocultural background. All students identified themselves as Estonian, and all spoke Estonian as their native language.
Procedure Students responded to four Estonian-language questionnaires described in what follows, during a regular 45-min class period. They received the questionnaires in a sealed envelope and returned them at the end of the class. Teachers were not present during this time. On a separate occasion, however, teachers completed the Teacher’s Evaluation of Student Conduct (TESC) described in the following section. They also provided information about each student’s GPA.
Measures Parental Acceptance-Rejection/Control Questionnaire (PARQ/Control: Child version). Students filled out two Estonian-language versions of the measure (Rohner, 2005a). One version asked about the students’ perceptions of their mothers’ behaviors; the other asked about their perceptions of their fathers’ behaviors. The Child PARQ/Control is a 73-item self-report measure assessing adolescents’ perceptions of maternal and paternal warmth/ affection, hostility/aggression, indifference/neglect, undifferentiated rejection, and behavioral control (permissiveness-strictness). Undifferentiated rejection refers to individuals’ beliefs that their parents do not really love, want, appreciate, or care about them without necessarily experiencing clear behavioral indicators that the parents are neglecting, unaffectionate, or aggressive toward them. Sample items on the mother version of the Child PARQ/ Control include “My mother makes me feel wanted and needed” (perceived warmth/affection), “My mother goes out of her way to hurt my feelings”
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(perceived hostility/aggression), “My mother ignores me as long as I do not do anything to bother her” (perceived indifference/neglect), “My mother does not really love me” (perceived undifferentiated rejection), and “My mother wants to control whatever I do” (perceived behavioral control). The mother and father versions of the Child PARQ/Control are identical, except for reference to mothers’ behavior versus fathers’ behavior. Adolescents responded to the items like these on a 4-point Likert-type scale from 4 (almost always true) to 1 (almost never true). Scores for the four acceptance-rejection scales were summed (after reverse scoring the warmth/ affection scale to create a measure of perceived coldness and lack of affection). The total score on the measure ranges from a possible low of 60 (maximum perceived acceptance) to a possible high of 240 (maximum perceived rejection). Scores at or above 150 on the acceptance-rejection portion reveal the experience of parental rejection. Scores between 140 and 149 reveal that adolescents experience serious rejection but not necessarily more overall rejection than acceptance. On the other hand, scores between 60 and 120 reveal the perception of substantial parental love. Scores on the control scale of the Child PARQ/Control range from a possible low of 13 (minimum behavioral control) to a possible high of 52 (maximum restrictive control). The behavioral control scale was designed in such a way that scores between 13 and 26 indicate low/lax control (permissive); 27 through 39 indicate moderate control; 40 through 45, firm control; and 46 through 52, strict/restrictive control. The PARQ with and without the control scale has been used in more than 400 studies in the United States and internationally. Extensive evidence reported in Khaleque and Rohner, 2002a shows the measure to be reliable and valid for use in cross-cultural research. This conclusion is supported by the present study, where coefficient alpha on the acceptance-rejection portion of the father version was .96, and for the acceptance-rejection portion of the mother version, it was .97. Similarly, the control scale has also been found to be a reliable and valid measure for use in cross-cultural research (Rohner & Khaleque, 2003). In the present study, alpha on the father version of the control scale was .84; on the mother version it was .82 (see Table 1 for achieved values of major variables in this study). Teacher Acceptance-Rejection/Control Questionnaire (Child TARQ/Control). Students filled out the Estonian-language version of this instrument (Rohner, 2005b). The Child TARQ/Control is a 29-item adaptation of the standard Child PARQ/Control, but it is designed to assess students’ perceptions of their primary teachers’ accepting-rejecting and behaviorally controlling behaviors. The warmth/affection scale on the TARQ/Control contains 8 items, the hostility/aggression scale and the indifference/neglect scale each contain
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Table 1. Achieved Values and Cronbach’s Alphas: Perceived Maternal, Paternal, and Teacher Acceptance, and Adolescents’ Psychological Adjustment, School Conduct, and Grade Point Average (GPA) Measures
Achieved scores Min.
Max.
Sample size Number of items
Cronbach’s alpha
Maternal Acceptance 62 230 215 60 Control 15 51 215 13 Paternal Acceptance 66 218 192 60 Control 16 48 192 13 Teacher Acceptance 24 96 208 24 Control 6 20 208 5 Child Adjustment 60 136 208 42 Conduct 18 72 192 18 GPA 0.8 5.0 215 —
.97 .82 .96 .84 .91 .51 .85 .96 —
6 items, the undifferentiated rejection scale contains 4 items, and the behavioral control scale contains 5 items. Students assessed the behavior of the teacher who was most familiar with them (i.e., head teachers, or teachers who taught several classes to the students). Low scores on the acceptancerejection portion of the questionnaire revealed that the teacher was perceived to be accepting (i.e., warm and affectionate, low in hostility and aggression, low in indifference and neglect, and nonrejecting in the undifferentiated form). Scores at or above the midpoint of 60 on the acceptance-rejection portion of the measure, however, showed that the teacher was perceived to be qualitatively more rejecting than accepting. Scores 5 to 9 on the behavioral control scale revealed that the teacher was perceived to be low in behavioral control (i.e., permissive/lax control); scores 10 to 14 revealed the perception of moderate behavioral control, 15 to 17 revealed firm behavioral control, and 18 to 20 revealed strict/restrictive behavioral control. Cronbach’s alpha for the total teacher acceptance portion of the TARQ/Control in this study was .91, and for the behavioral control scale it was .51. Personality Assessment Questionnaire (Child PAQ). Students responded to the Estonian-language version of the Child PAQ to assess their own psychological adjustment (Rohner & Khaleque, 2005). Psychological adjustment on the PAQ is measured by students’ responses to items dealing with seven personality dispositions, including hostility and aggression (e.g., “I think
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about fighting or being mean”), dependence (e.g., “I like my parents to give me a lot of attention”), negative self-esteem (e.g., “When I meet someone I do not know, I think (s)he is better than I am”), negative self-adequacy (e.g., “I think I am a failure”), emotional unresponsiveness (e.g., “It is hard for me to show the way I really feel to someone I like”), emotional instability (e.g., “I am cheerful and happy one minute and gloomy and unhappy the next”), and negative worldview (e.g., “I see the world as a dangerous place”). Each subscale consists of 6 items. The sum of these 7 subscales composes the total PAQ score, which was used in this study. The higher the score, the higher the level of psychological maladjustment. Specifically, scores of 105 or higher reveal self-reported maladjustment. Scores from 42 through 83 reveal excellent to good self-reported adjustment. The measure has been found to be reliable for use among ethnic groups in the United States and internationally (Khaleque & Rohner, 2002b). In the present study, Cronbach’s alpha was .85. Teacher’s Evaluation of Student Conduct (TESC). Teachers responded to the Estonian-language version of the TESC to evaluate students’ conduct in school (Rohner, 2005b). The measure consists of 18 items of schoolrelated behavior problems such as “Refuses to do school work,” “Is cruel and makes fun of others,” and “Is disobedient.” Each item is rated on a five-point Likert-type scale from 5 (very often) to 1 (almost never). Possible scores spread from a low of 18 (no or only minimal conduct problems) to a high of 90 (maximum/very serious conduct problem). Scores at or above 54 indicate the presence of significant school conduct problems. In this study, the same teachers whose accepting-rejecting and behaviorally controlling behaviors that students assessed responded to the TESC. Prior research has shown the TESC to be a reliable and valid measure for cross-cultural research (Rohner, 2005c). Cronbach’s alpha for the TESC in this study was .96. Academic achievement. Students’ GPA was used as the measure of academic achievement in this study. In Estonian schools, GPA is calculated at the end of each semester on the basis of all courses taken by a student. Possible scores spread from 0 to 5, where 0 is totally failing, 2 is unsatisfactory, 3 is satisfactory, 4 is good, and 5 is outstanding.
Results On the whole, Estonian adolescents (both boys and girls) perceived their parents (both mothers and fathers) as well as their teachers to be accepting and moderately controlling, as shown in Table 2. However, because there were significant sex differences between boys and girls in many of the
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variables most central to this study, we focus on gender issues throughout this article. For example, as shown in Table 2, even though there were no significant differences between boys and girls in their perceptions of maternal acceptance and behavioral control, boys reported experiencing significantly less paternal acceptance than did girls. Similarly, boys reported experiencing significantly and substantially less teacher acceptance than did girls. Boys also reported their teachers to be substantially and significantly more behaviorally controlling than did girls. There were no significant sex differences in adolescents’ self-reports of their psychological adjustment. Teachers, on the other hand, reported significantly more conduct problems among boys than they did about girls. Teachers also reported that boys tended to do significantly less well in school than did girls—as assessed by GPA. Having said this, however, we should point out that both groups of adolescents tended, on the average, to do quite well in school. Moreover, on the average, neither group presented a serious conduct problem in school, and both groups tended to self-report fair though not excellent psychological adjustment. As shown in Table 3, perceived maternal, paternal, and teacher acceptance were all correlated significantly with the psychological adjustment of both boys and girls. Perceived maternal, paternal, and teacher acceptance also correlated significantly with teachers’ reports of girls’ (but not boys’) school conduct. (The less accepting girls perceived their mothers, fathers, and teachers to be, the more of a behavior problem teachers reported them to be.) Only perceived teachers’ acceptance was correlated significantly with boys’ school conduct. (The less accepting boys perceived their teachers to be, the more of a behavior problem teachers reported them to be.) Unlike girls, however, boys’ school conduct was also correlated significantly with maternal and paternal behavioral control. (The more controlling both parents were perceived to be, the more of a behavior problem teachers reported boys to be.) Finally, academic achievement of the adolescents was not significantly correlated with either parental or teacher acceptance or behavioral control. Because of this, the issue of academic achievement was dropped from further consideration. Table 3 also shows that perceived maternal, paternal, and teacher acceptance were all significantly intercorrelated, as well as being significantly correlated with the psychological adjustment of both boys and girls. By entering mother, father, and teacher acceptance simultaneously into a standard multiple regression equation, it was possible to estimate the relative contribution of each class of adults’ accepting behaviors to adolescents’ adjustment. Results showed that the linear combination of all three predictors was significantly related to the adjustment of both boys, F(3, 72)= 11.99, p < .001, and girls, F(3, 92)= 20.71, p < .001.
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Table 2. Means and Standards Deviations of Perceived Maternal, Paternal, and Teacher Acceptance and Control, and Psychological Adjustment, School Conduct, and Grade Point Average (GPA)—by Gender Measures
Boys M
Girls SD
M
Maternal Acceptance 99.32 23.02 94.30 Control 34.52 6.66 33.88 Paternal Acceptance 104.58* 26.55 96.04* Control 32.77 7.61 31.24 Teacher Acceptance 53.29*** 12.02 43.13*** Control 14.20*** 3.04 12.58*** Child Adjustment 93.42 13.50 92.68 Conduct 33.28*** 13.82 24.09*** GPA 3.94*** 0.54 4.28***
SD 32.28 6.75 29.65 7.45 11.04 2.52 15.38 8.61 0.65
Note: Superscript asterisks show significant differences between sexes, according to t tests. *p < .05. ***p < .001.
The sample multiple correlation coefficient for boys was R = .58 and for girls it was R = .64. These results indicate that approximately 34% of the variance in boys’ and 41% of the variance in girls’ psychological adjustment could be accounted for by the combination of the three predictor variables. However, only perceived maternal acceptance by itself made an independent and significant contribution to boys’ psychological adjustment (β = .46, t = 3.39, p < .001), after controlling for the influence of paternal and teacher acceptance (teachers’ acceptance, but not paternal acceptance, made a marginally significant independent contribution to boys’ adjustment, β = .21, t = 1.90, p = .06). Girls’ psychological adjustment, on the other hand, was predicted by both perceived maternal acceptance (β = .36, t = 3.77, p
