Ronald P. Rohner

The parental "acceptance-rejection syndrome": universal correlates of perceived rejection.

This article reviews theory, methods, and evidence supporting the concept of a relational diagnosis here called the parental acceptance–rejection syndrome. This syndrome is composed of 2 complementary sets of factors. First, 4 classes of behaviors appear universally to convey the symbolic message that “my parent (or other attachment figure) . . . loves me (or does not love me—i.e., rejects me).” These classes of behavior include perceived warmth– affection (or its opposite, coldness–lack of affection), hostility–aggression, indifference–neglect, and undifferentiated rejection. Second, the psychological adjustment of children and adults (defined by a constellation of 7 specific personality dispositions) tends universally to vary directly with the extent to which individuals perceive themselves to be accepted or rejected in their relationship with the people most important to them.

The importance of father love: History and contemporary evidence

This article explores the cultural construction of fatherhood in America, as well as the consequences of this construction as a motivator for understudying fathers—especially father love—for nearly a century in developmental and family research. It then reviews evidence from 6 categories of empirical studies showing the powerful influence of fathers’ love on childrens and young adults’ social, emotional, and cognitive development and functioning. Much of this evidence suggests that the influence of father love on offsprings development is as great as and occasionally greater than the influence of mother love. Some studies conclude that father love is the sole significant predictor of specific outcomes after controlling for the influence of mother love. Overall, father love appears to be as heavily implicated as mother love in offsprings’ psychological well-being and health, as well as in an array of psychological and behavioral problems.

Worldwide mental health correlates of parental acceptance-rejection: Review of cross-cultural and intracultural evidence

Cross-cultural and intracultural evidence converges on the conclusion that four classes of mental health issues are possible worldwide correlates of parental acceptance-rejection. Strongest evidence supports parental acceptance-rejection theorys personality subtheory that postulates a universal relationship between perceived parental acceptance-rejection and psychological adjustment. Substantial evidence also supports the likelihood of worldwide correlations between parental acceptance-rejection and three other mental health issues: (a) unipolar depression and depressed affect; (b) behavior problems, including conduct disorder, externalizing behaviors, and delinquency; and (c) substance abuse. Finally, limitations in this body of research and implications of the findings for policy and practice are discussed.

Parental Warmth, Control, and Involvement in Schooling Predicting Academic Achievement among Korean American Adolescents

This study explored the relationship between Baumrind’s parenting prototypes and the academic achievement, judged by grade point average (GPA), of Korean American adolescents. It also examined the relative contribution to youth’s academic achievement of perceived maternal and paternal warmth and control and involvement in schooling. Approximately 74% of the sample youth did not fit any of Baumrind’s types, raising questions about their usefulness for ethnic research. Analysis of the remaining 26% showed that youth raised by authoritative and permissive fathers (but not mothers) performed better than youth raised by authoritarian fathers. Youth raised by authoritative fathers, however, did not perform significantly better than youth raised by permissive fathers. An analysis of perceived parental warmth and control exposed a positive correlation between perceived maternal and paternal warmth (but not control) and adolescents’ GPA as well as a moderator effect of perceived maternal control. Moreover, perceived paternal (but not maternal) involvement in schooling partially mediated the relationship between fathers’ reported warmth and adolescents’ GPA.

Children's Perceptions of Corporal Punishment, Caretaker Acceptance, and Psychological Adjustment in a Poor, Biracial Southern Community.

This study explores two related questions about relationships between perceived justness and perceived harshness of corporal punishment, perceived caretaker acceptance-rejection, and childrens psychological adjustment: Are childrens perceptions of caretaker harshness and unjustness of physical punishment associated with childrens psychological maladjustment? Or does the relationship between punishment and maladjustment disappear after controlling for perceived caretaker acceptance-rejection? The research is based on a proportional, stratified, random sample of 281 Black and White youths in grades 3-12 within the public school system of a poor, biracial county of southeastern Georgia. Results of structural equation modeling suggest that physical punishment is associated with childrens psychological maladjustment only if punishment is seen by youths as a form of caretaker rejection. The findings contribute information to an ongoing debate about the relationship between physical punishment and childrens psychological adjustment. Key Words: childrens psychological adjustment, corporal punishment, parental acceptance-rejection. A large national, and even international, controversy exists over whether corporal punishment has negative effects on childrens behavioral and psychological adjustment (Simons, Johnson, & Conger, 1994). Even though the popular press and many child advocates criticize the use of corporal punishment, Straus (1977, 1994) and others (Wauchope & Straus, 1990) estimated that 90%-97% of the children in the United States have been physically punished at some time in their lives. Critics of corporal punishment often cite research linking its use with negative outcomes such as increased aggression, delinquency, and psychosocial maladjustment in children (Greven, 1991; Kandel, 1991; Larzelere, 1986; McCord, 1988; Straus, 1991; Turner & Finkelhor, 1996). Harsh physical punishment, in particular, has been correlated with increased displays of aggressive behavior by children (Howes & Elderedge, 1985). Additionally, Bryan and Freed (1982) found that college students who reported receiving a high level of physical punishment when they were younger were significantly more likely to report problems with aggression. In addition to these reports of increased behavioral problems, Sternberg et al. (1993) found that the use of physical punishment is associated with poor selfesteem and emotional problems of youths. Researchers on the other side of the debate cite conflicting evidence and believe that many of the studies linking physical punishment with negative consequences have methodological problems that forbid making such conclusions (Becker, 1964; Erlanger, 1979; Kandel, 1991; Simons et al., 1994). Erlanger, for example, found that the correlation between childhood punishment and adult violence was, in fact, rather low. Baumrind (1966, 1973,1994) argued that when physical punishment is used within a loving family environment, it is effective in reducing unwanted behavior without increasing aggression. Agnew (1983) found that corporal punishment is associated with higher rates of delinquency only when the demands placed on children are inconsistent. If parental demands on the child are consistent, however, corporal punishment was reported to be negatively correlated with delinquency. Conclusions such as these point to a complex relationship between corporal punishment and its correlates. Moreover, Lefkowitz, Eron, Walder, and Huesman (1977) concluded that the relationship between physical punishment and aggression is curvilinear, where high levels of physical punishment are associated with increased aggression, but moderate levels are not. Critics of past research also contend that many of these studies are methodologically flawed because they fail to differentiate between the impact of corporal punishment and the influence of other dimensions of parenting, such as parental noninvolvement and parental rejection (Becker, 1964; Rohner, Kean, & Cournoyer, 1991; Simons et al. …

Antecedents and consequences of parental rejection: A theory of emotional abuse

Abstract Parental acceptance-rejection theory predicts that emotional abuse by parents has consistent effects on the personality development of children everywhere, as well as having consistent effects on the personality functioning of adults who were rejected as children. More specifically, parental acceptance-rejection theory predicts—and worldwide tests of these predictions confirm the expectation—that rejected children everywhere tend more than accepted children to be: hostile, aggressive, passive aggressive, or to have problems with the management of hostility and aggression; to be dependent or “defensively independent,” depending on the degree of rejection; to have an impaired sense of self-esteem and self-adequacy; to be emotionally unstable; emotionally unresponsive, and to have a negative world view. The theoretical rationale for these predictions in parental acceptance-rejection theory is presented. The article also describes an effective multimethod research strategy for studying the antecedents and consequences of parental acceptance-rejection and emotional abuse internationally. Finally, some of the worldwide social correlates of parental acceptance-rejection are discussed. For example evidence shows that the effects of parental rejection and emotional abuse are not limited simply to individual personality and behavior disorders, but they reach into such abstract domains as the religious beliefs of a people, their art, music, and other expressive behaviors. There now seems to be little doubt that the results of parental rejection as well as the mechanisms which produce or distort parental warmth work uniformly throughout our species, regardless of differences in race, nationality, time or other limiting conditions.

Worldwide Tests of Parental Acceptance-Rejection Theory: An Overview:

Parental acceptance-rejection theory (PART) is a theory of socialization which attempts to predict major psychological, environmental, and main tenance systems conditions under which parents the world over are likely to accept or reject their children. It attempts as well to predict significant consequences of parental acceptance-rejection, both for behavioral devel opment and for selected institutionalized expressive features of society. Drawing on the phylogenetic model within the theory we try to identify significant personal and situational factors associated with the ability of some rejected children to cope more effectively than others with parental hostility/aggression, indifference/neglect, or undifferentiated rejection. Holo cultural data and social psychological and developmental data within the U.S. and other nations provide support for the postulates of PART so far tested.

Youths’ Perceptions of Corporal Punishment, Parental Acceptance, and Psychological Adjustment in a Turkish Metropolis

This study explored relations among corporal punishment, perceived parental acceptance, and the psychological adjustment of 427 Turkish youths between the ages of 10 to 18. Participants responded in school to the child versions of the Physical Punishment Questionnaire, Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire, Personality Assessment Questionnaire, and a demographic questionnaire. Results of multiple regression analyses showed that youths’ perceptions of both maternal and paternal acceptance made independent and significant contributions to variations in youths’ self-reported psychological adjustment. Regression analyses also showed that neither maternal nor paternal punishment by themselves made significant contributions to variations in youths’ adjustment when the influence of perceived maternal and paternal acceptance was controlled. Thus, we concluded that apparent relations between parental punishment and youths’ psychological adjustment were almost completely mediated by youths’ perceptions of parental acceptance. Neither youths’ gender nor age was associated with either perceived parental acceptance or punishment.

Advantages of the Comparative Method of Anthropology

Reflecting anthropologys deep idiographic disposition, approximately 80 percent of anthropological research falls on the idiographic node of the idiographic-nomothetic continuum. Increasing numbers of anthropolo gists, however, are beginning to recognize the importance of cross-cultural, comparative, nomothetic research. Comparativists use five principal meth odologies in their research. These research designs vary in their relative power, i.e. in their ability to eliminate false hypotheses about worldwide relationships. The power as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each methodology are discussed.

Corporal Punishment in Cross-Cultural Perspective: Directions for a Research Agenda

This article discusses major issues in corporal punishment research and identifies directions for improvement of current knowledge about this disciplinary practice. Conceptual and methodological problems in existing corporal punishment research are discussed. The authors also highlight research challenges that lie ahead. These include the need for (a) an explicit and consistently used definition of physical punishment, (b) the development of an assessment procedure that includes the full range of variables important in understanding corporal punishment and its effects, (c) the evaluation of children’s own perception of punishment, (d) the assessment of third variables, and (e) the evaluation of nonlinear relations between corporal punishment and child outcomes. The authors present parental acceptance-rejection theory’s (PARTheory’s) research agenda that attempts to address all these issues.