Parenting and psychopathology: Differences in family membersʹ perceptions of parental rearing styles

Psychiatric patients generally report more adverse recollections of their parentsʹ rearing behaviour than individuals from the general community. It is, however, as yet unclear whether we can infer from this finding that the families of psychiatric patients differ from the families of healthy controls, that is, whether patientsʹ adverse views are shared by their family members. This issue bears on the construct validity of reports about parental rearing styles: should these reports be interpreted to reflect characteristics of the family, of the parent, of the parent-child relationship, or of the individual providing the reports? In this study, patterns of agreement and variability within families with regard to recalled parental behaviour were analysed in order to examine this aspect of the validity of parental representations. We examined whether families of psychiatric patients report less favourable parenting styles than families of healthy controls. Furthermore, we examined the level of agreement between all family members participating in the study, between the two members reporting on the same parent-child relationship, between parents, and between siblings. Finally, we examined what factors might be accountable for differences of opinion between family members. Results suggested that perceptions of parental rearing styles are primarily tales by individuals, and to a much smaller extent tales about families, parents or relationships. The implications of these findings for research with regard to the relationship between parental rearing behaviour and adult psychopathology are discussed.