PARENTING AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY - DIFFERENCES IN FAMILY MEMBERS PERCEPTIONS OF PARENTAL REARING STYLES

Psychiatric patients generally report more adverse recollections of th eir parents' rearing behaviour than individuals from the general commu nity. II is, however, as yet unclear whether we can infer from this fi nding that the families of psychiatric patients differ from the famili es of healthy controls, that is, whether patients' adverse views are s hared by their family members. This issue bears on the construct valid ity of reports about parental rearing styles: should these reports be interpreted to reflect characteristics of the family, of the parent, o f the parent-child relationship, or of the individual providing the re ports? In this study, patterns of agreement and variability within fam ilies with regard to recalled parental behaviour were analysed in orde r to examine this aspect of the validity of parental representations. We examined whether families of psychiatric patients report less favou rable parenting styles than families of healthy controls. Furthermore, we examined the level of agreement between all family members partici pating in the study, between the two members reporting on the sane par ent-child relationship, between parents, and between siblings. Finally , we examined what factors might be accountable for differences of opi nion between family members. Results suggested that perceptions of par ental rearing styles are primarily tales by individuals, and to a much smaller extent tales about families, parents or relationships. The im plications of these findings for research with regard to the relations hip between parental rearing behaviour and adult psychopathology are d iscussed. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.