Relational and social-cognitive correlates of early adolescents' forgiveness of parents.

This study examined how mother and father-child relationship quality and marital forgiveness were related to early adolescents' forgiveness of mothers and fathers. Adolescents' social-cognitive skills (empathy and emotional regulation) and parents' forgiveness of child were examined as mediators. Mother, father, and child self-reported questionnaires and observational data were taken from Time 1 and Time 3 (two years later) of the Flourishing Families Project, and included 334 two-parent families with an early adolescent (M age at Time 1 = 11.24; 51% male; 76% Caucasian). Using path analyses via structure equation modeling, mother-child relationship quality and adolescents' own social-cognitive skills were salient correlates of adolescents' forgiveness toward parents. The unique contributions of mothers and fathers, differences by reporter, and the importance of studying forgiveness within the parent-child relationship are discussed.

Parenting in emerging adulthood: an examination of parenting clusters and correlates.

The changing nature of the transition to adulthood in western societies, such as the United States, may be extending the length of time parents are engaged in "parenting" activities. However, little is known about different approaches parents take in their interactions with their emerging-adult children. Hence, this study attempted to identify different clusters of parents based on the extent to which they exhibited both extremes of control (psychological control, punishment, verbal hostility, indulgence) and responsiveness (knowledge, warmth, induction, autonomy granting), and to examine how combinations of parenting were related to emerging adult children's relational and individual outcomes (e.g. parent-child relationship quality, drinking, self-worth, depression). The data were collected from 403 emerging adults (M age = 19.89, SD = 1.78, range = 18-26, 62% female) and at least one of their parents (287 fathers and 317 mothers). Eighty-four percent of participants reported being European American, 6% Asian American, 4% African American, 3% Latino, and 4% reported being of other ethnicities. Data were analyzed using hierarchical cluster analysis, separately for mothers and fathers, and identified three similar clusters of parents which we labeled as uninvolved (low on all aspects of parenting), controlling-indulgent (high on both extremes of control and low on all aspects of responsiveness), and authoritative (high on responsiveness and low on control). A fourth cluster was identified for both mothers and fathers and was labeled as inconsistent for mothers (mothers were above the mean on both extremes of control and on responsiveness) and average for fathers (fathers were at the mean on all eight aspects of parenting). The discussion focuses on how each of these clusters effectively distinguished between child outcomes.

Proactive parenting practices during early adolescence: a cluster approach.

The purpose of the current study was to explore clusters of proactive parenting practices, and how they might vary as a function of parental demographics, the quality of the parent-child relationship, and the traits and behaviors of the adolescent child. Data were taken from the Flourishing Families Project, which includes 500 families with an early adolescent child (M age = 11.49). Findings suggested that there were four clusters of parents, and patterns were similar for mothers and fathers. Findings also suggested that proactive clusters varied primarily as a function of demographics of the parent (e.g., religiosity, ethnicity, education) and the traits and behaviors of the adolescent child (e.g., empathy, internalizing and externalizing behaviors). Discussion highlights the importance of using a typological approach to study parenting, and places particular emphasis on parents' use of pre-arming (alone, or in conjunction with other practices) in an attempt to avoid misbehavior before it occurs.