Maternal Valuing of Conformity Links to Adolescent Attachment Status and Mother-Adolescent Interaction Behaviors Nell N. Manning, Kathleen B. McElhaney,

Maternal Valuing of Conformity

Links to Adolescent Attachment Status and Mother-Adolescent

Interaction Behaviors

Nell N. Manning, Kathleen B. McElhaney, Joseph P. Allen

Introduction Parental valuing of conformity with social rules and norms in their

children has been linked to self-reported authoritarian parenting practices of children (Luster et al., 1989; Kohn, 1977), but this has not been examined for parents of adolescents.

Parental valuing of conformity is also significantly correlated with poor educational outcomes during the early school years, but its relationship with adolescent educational outcomes is unexamined (Schaefer & Edgerton, 1985).

The link between socio-economic status and parenting values is well established. Lower-SES parents are more likely to value conformity in their children than middle-class parents, who value self-direction more highly (Kohn, 1963, 1977, 1979; Schaefer & Edgerton, 1985; Wright & Wright, 1976).

However, the influence of conformity values on parental behavior and child outcomes, over and above their link with SES, has not been examined.

Introduction:Theoretical Approaches to Understanding Conformity

According to Loevinger’s theory of ego development (1976), conformity is a stage of maturity in which individuals restrain their impulses by identifying strongly with a group and adhering strictly to that group’s norms and rules. Conformists tend to:

value niceness and helpfulness judge right or wrong according to rules, not consequences see external aspects of behavior, but have undifferentiated concepts

of and limited interest in internal states and feelings Perceive group, but not individual, differences

Accordingly, mothers who value conformity in their adolescents would be expected to undermine their teens’ autonomy and fail to attend warmly to their adolescents’ individual needs.

Other developmental theories feature a stage characterized by rigidity or conformity that contrasts with more flexible and adaptive styles, e.g., conventional vs. post-conventional moral development (Kohlberg, 1976) and ego control vs. resiliency (Block, 2002).

Questions Asked:

In the current study, we ask: is mothers’ valuing of conformity in their adolescents related to:

Mother-teen interaction behavior? Security of attachment and ego development in

adolescents? Adolescent interaction behavior with peers? Adolescent academic performance?

Method

Participants Multi-method, multi-reporter data were collected from a sample of 180 adolescents, their mothers (n=158), and closest same sex friends (n=165). Adolescents were recruited through a public middle school in the Southeastern United States when they were originally in the 7th or 8th grade, n=97 and n=83 respectively Mean age at time of first measurement = 13.4, sd 0.65 51.6% of the sample were male 38% minority Median family income $40,000-60,000/yr

Method Parenting Values Questionnaire (Schaefer and Edgerton, 1985; Kohn,

1977) presents mothers with a list of commonly desired behaviors for children and adolescents and asks them to rank these behaviors according to importance. The valuing of conformity scale includes items such as, “I hope my adolescent will . . .

. . . have good manners.” . . . keep him or herself neat and clean.” . . . obey parents and teachers.”

Higher scores represent a greater valuing of conformity.

Childhood Report of Parental Behavior Inventory (Schaefer, 1965): Maternal psychological control captures the perception of the degree to which the parent uses guilt, anxiety, love withdrawal or other psychological methods to control the adolescent's behavior.

Supportive Behavior Coding System (Allen et al., 1999): Mother’s warmth with teen (valuing and given emotional support) and mother’s attention to teen (engagement and accuracy in understanding the teen’s difficulty).

Method Autonomy and Relatedness Coding System (Allen, et al., 1998):

Adolescents and their mothers discussed an area of disagreement (e.g., grades, chores, siblings, curfews). Adolescents and their best friends participate in a hypothetical disagreement task (Allen, Porter, & McFarland, 2003).

Mothers’ inhibiting of adolescent autonomy scale captures the extent to which the mother inhibits productive discussion of an issue by making a statement she does not mean (e.g., by pretending to agree); pressuring the adolescent to agree; and overpersonalizing, or focusing on the qualities of the other person rather than his or her ideas.

Adolescents’ positive relatedness with mother scale captures the extent to which the teen asks questions of the mother, validates the mother’s ideas, and is engaged with the mother during the disagreement

Adolescents’ displaying of autonomy with best friend scale captures the extent to which the teen confidently presents reasoned arguments to promote his ideas

Adolescents’ avoidance with best friend captures the extent to which the teen avoids or shies away from conflict with his best friend.

Method Adult Attachment Interview (Main & Goldwyn, 1998) and AAI Q-set

(Kobak et al., 1993): Attachment security reflects the overall degree of coherence of discourse, the integration of episodic and semantic attachment memories, and a clear objective valuing of attachment.

Sentence Completion Task (Hy & Loevinger, 1996): Teen’s ego development was coded from teens’ responses to open-ended sentences such as “I feel sorry. . . “. Responses are correlated with 7 stages of ego development.

Academic GPA: the teen’s unweighted 8th-grade GPA obtained from school records.

Sociometric Status: Popularity is calculated from the number of nominations received from same-age peers (Coie, 1982).

Analyses: Gender and family income were included as covariates in all hierarchical regression analyses that follow.

Results: Maternal conformity, teen attachment orientation and teen ego development

Note. *** p < .001, ** p ≤ .01, * p < .05. N=160.

Predicting Maternal Valuing of Conformity

β entry

β final

R2

Total R2

Step I. Gender (1=M; 2=F)

Family Income Total

.13 -.53***

.17* -.43***

.315***

.315***

Step II. Adolescent attachment security

-.24*** -.15* .051*** .355***

Step III. Adolescent’s ego development

-.21**

-.21**

.036**

.391**

Maternal valuing of

conformity is uniquely and

negatively related to

both adolescent security of attachment

and to adolescent

ego development.

Results: Maternal conformity and observed maternal warmth and attention with teen


β entry

β final

R2

Total R2

Step I.

Gender (1=M; 2=F) Family Income

Total for step

.16* -.51***

.19** -.44***

.308***

.308***

Step II. Mother’s observed attention toward teen Mother’s observed warmth toward teen Total for step

-.26** .09

-.26** .09

.044***

.352***

Note. *** p < .001, ** p ≤ .01, * p < .05. N=158.

Maternal valuing of conformity is

negatively related to how much

attention mothers pay to their

teens’ individual concerns, but not

to how much warmth they

exhibit with them.

Results: Maternal conformity and observed maternal undermining of teen’s autonomy


β entry

R2

Total R2

Step I.


Total for step

.13 -.54***

.317***

.317***

Step II. Mother’s self-reported psychological control Mother’s teen-reported psychological control Mom’s negative autonomy toward teen Total for step

.14* .22** .17*

.102***

.419***

Note. *** p < .001. ** p ≤ .01. * p < .05. N=152.

Maternal valuing of conformity is

uniquely and positively related

to mothers’ use of psychological

control and to their observed

inhibiting of autonomy during conflict with their

adolescents.

Results: Maternal conformity and teens’ observed relatedness with mother


β entry

β final

R2

Total R2

Step I.

Gender (1=M; 2=F) Total Family Income Total

.13 -.53***

.13 -.48***

.312***

.312***

Step II. Observed teen positive relatedness with mother

-.20**

-.20**

.039** .351***

Note. *** p < .001. ** p ≤ .01. * p < .05. N=155.

Maternal valuing of

conformity is negatively related to

teens’ degree of relatedness

with their mothers.

Results: Maternal conformity and teen’s observed autonomy with best friend

Note. *** p < .001. ** p ≤ .01. * p < .05. N=165.

Maternal valuing of


teens’ display of autonomy

with their best friends.


β entry

β final

R2

Total R2

Step I.

Gender (1=M; 2=F) Total Family Income

Total for step

.13* -.53***

.13* -.48***

.314***

.314***

Step II. Observed adolescent autonomy displayed with close peer

-.21** -.21** .041** .355***

Results: Maternal conformity and teen’s observed avoidance with best friend

Note. *** p < .001. ** p ≤ .01. * p < .05. N=165.

Maternal valuing of

conformity is positively related to

teens’ avoidance of conflict with

their best friends.


β entry

β final

R2

Total R2

Step I.

Gender (1=M; 2=F) Total Family Income

Total for step

.14* -.53***

.13* -.52***

.314***

.314***

Step II. Observed adolescent avoidance with close peer

.15* .15* .023* .337***

Results:Maternal conformity and teen popularity


β entry

β final

R2

Total R2

Step I.


Total for step

.13* -.53***

.15* -.48***

.311***

.311***

Step II. Adolescent popularity -.17* -.17* .025* .336*** Note. *** p < .001. ** p ≤ .01. * p < .05. N=170.

Maternal valuing of


teens’ popularity

with school-aged peers.

Results:Maternal conformity and teen academic performance


β entry

β final

R2

Total R2

Step I.


Total for step

.15* -.55***

.15* -.55***

.337***

.337***

Step II. Adolescent 8th grade unweighted GPA -.07 -.07 .005 .342*** Note. *** p < .001. ** p ≤ .01. * p < .05. N=129.

Maternal valuing of

conformity is not related to

teens’ academic

performance.

Summary of findings Mothers who highly value conformity in their adolescents are

more likely to: Undermine their teen’s autonomy during mother-teen conflict Have teens who are less positively related to them during conflict Pay less attention to their teens’ specific concerns or requests for

support

Adolescents of mothers who value conformity highly are more likely to:

Have lower levels of attachment security and ego development Display lower levels of autonomy in interaction with their peers Be less popular with their peers

Contrary to expectations, maternal valuing of conformity was not found to be related to:

Warmth (or lack thereof) shown by the mother to the teen Adolescent academic outcomes

Discussion Maternal valuing of conformity in adolescents is

linked not only with markers of low-SES but with relationship patterns and teen outcomes over and above the effects of SES. It is strongly linked to undermining and unrelated patterns in mother-teen interactions and to teens’ dependent patterns of interaction with close peers.

In addition, maternal valuing of conformity is linked, over and above SES, to adolescents’ intrapsychic development and functioning, including their state of mind with regard to attachment. If valuing conformity reflects a lack of intrapsychic development in mothers, this lack of development appears to be transferred to their adolescents.

Discussion Contrary to expectations, maternal valuing of conformity was not

linked to mothers’ demonstrating a lack of warmth for their teens. This suggests that valuing of conformity might not be a marker of authoritarian parenting per se. Some conforming mothers are warm toward their adolescents; these mothers, however, do not pay close attention to their teens’ individual needs. Thus, a pattern of indifferent parenting might be suggested by these data.

Also contrary to expectations, teens’ academic performance was not linked to maternal valuing of conformity, as it has been in studies with young children. It may be the case that patterns of teen outcome related to maternal conformity might lie mainly in the social realm.

Causality is not implied by any of these data; all are correlational. Longitudinal analyses are needed.

The relationship of fathers’ valuing of conformity to interaction patterns and teen outcomes also needs to be examined.

References Allen, J. P., Hauser, S. T., Bell, K. L., McElhaney, K. B., & Tate, D. C. (1998). The autonomy and relatedness coding system. Unpublished

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American Sociological Review, 41, 527-537.

Acknowledgements I would like to thank the William T. Grant Foundation, Spencer

Foundation, and National Institute of Mental Health for funding provided to Joseph Allen, Principal Investigator, for the conduct and write-up of this study.

A copy of this poster and other publications on related topics is available at www.teenresearch.org.

Address correspondence to: Nell N. Manning

University of Virginia, Dept. of Psychology

P.O. Box 400400

Charlottesville, VA 22904

[email protected]

www.teenresearch.org

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Maternal Valuing of Conformity Links to Adolescent Attachment Status and Mother-Adolescent Interaction Behaviors Nell N. Manning, Kathleen B. McElhaney,