So Young Choe

The Two Facet Model of Parental Psychological Control (PPC) stipulates that both intrusiveness and emotional manipulation are core facets of PPC, and intrusiveness varies by culture. However, established scales neglected to measure intrusiveness and operationalized intrusiveness with results mainly from white/European families. We tested the Two Facet Model of Parental Psychological Control with Korean adolescents ( N = 354, 13–16 years old, 207 female-identified adolescents) via an online survey. We assessed what Korean adolescents believed to be intrusive parenting by asking about 25 areas in their lives. We measured emotional manipulation based on its definitions and tactics. As hypothesized, the intrusiveness and emotional manipulation scales were significantly positively correlated with established PPC scales, and intrusiveness functioned differently from emotional manipulation. These results buttress the utility of separately measuring intrusiveness and emotional manipulation. Hence, we provide empirical support for the Two Facet Model of Parental Psychological Control.

We examined whether the cultural values of indebtedness and repayment expectation as two facets of reciprocity were indirectly associated with adolescents’ drinking via parental psychological control (PPC) in Korean culture. Korean adolescents ( N = 354, 13–16 years old, and 207 female-identified) attending a middle school in Seoul participated in an innovative online survey using a slider (0–100). Measures included the Indebtedness and Repayment Expectation Scale developed for this study, an established scale of PPC, and drinking frequency in the past year. Latent variable Structural Equation Models revealed that repayment expectation—expecting others to repay favors—was significantly positively associated with PPC among male-identified adolescents. PPC was in turn significantly positively associated with drinking frequency. Female-identified adolescents felt more controlled by their primary caregivers than did male-identified adolescents, whereas multiple group analyses showed that the strength of the association between reciprocity facets and PPC was larger for male-identified adolescents than female-identified adolescents. These results suggest that both repayment expectation and PPC may be risk factors for Korean middle school adolescents’ drinking. Our results highlight potential cultural and familial risk factors for Korean adolescents’ drinking and may guide prevention efforts focusing on reducing repayment expectation and PPC in order to reduce adolescents’ drinking.

We examined whether the cultural value of respect based on age was indirectly associated with adolescents' drinking via parental psychological control and whether gender differences existed. Korean adolescents (N = 354, 13-16 years old, 207 female-identified) attending a middle school in Seoul participated in an innovative online survey. Measures included the Respect Based on Age Scale developed for this study, an established scale of parental psychological control, and drinking frequency in the past year. Structural Equation Modeling results revealed that respect based on age was positively associated with both dependency-oriented (DPC) and achievement-oriented psychological control (APC), which were in turn positively associated with drinking frequency. These results suggest that both respect based on age and parental psychological control may be risk factors for Korean adolescents' drinking. We uncovered subtlety in the common belief that respect based on age pervades Korean culture, as Korean adolescents simultaneously held two contradictory beliefs: respect should be based on age and also should not be based on age. Moreover, female-identified adolescents felt more bound by the cultural value of respect based on age than did male-identified adolescents, and female-identified adolescents also felt more controlled by primary caregivers than did male-identified adolescents. When male-identified adolescents believed that respect did not come with age, they reported less APC than female-identified adolescents. These results highlight cultural and familial risk factors for Korean adolescents' drinking and gender-based adolescent development in Korea.

Despite adolescents’ suicidal thoughts and behaviors being major health problems, sparse literature exists on the roles of adolescents’ disclosing their feelings to caregivers in their suicidal thoughts and behaviors. This study examined whether adolescents’ comfort in disclosing their feelings and problems to caregivers predicts subsequent suicidal thoughts and behaviors and whether difficulties in emotion regulation mediate this association. High school students (N = 5,346 from 20 schools, 49% female-identified adolescents, and 35% 9th graders, 33% 10th graders, and 32% 11th graders) participated in the study for two years with four waves, each six months apart: fall semester in Year 1 (Wave 1), spring semester in Year 1 (Wave 2), fall semester in Year 2 (Wave 3), and spring semester in Year 2 (Wave 4). The degree to which adolescents felt comfortable disclosing their feelings and problems to caregivers at Wave 1 predicted lower suicidal thoughts and behaviors at Wave 4 directly and indirectly via higher emotional clarity at Wave 2 and feeling more able to handle negative emotions at Wave 3. Moreover, when female-identified adolescents reported feeling unable to handle negative emotions at Wave 3, they reported engaging in more suicidal thoughts and behaviors at Wave 4 than male-identified adolescents. Therefore, enhancing adolescents’ comfort in disclosing their feelings and problems to caregivers and adolescent emotion regulation and taking a nuanced approach to support female-identified adolescents regarding their ability to handle negative emotions could prevent adolescents’ suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

Over 750 studies have examined parental psychological control (PPC) in different cultures. However, the conceptualization of PPC remains unclear, and operationalizations of PPC have been inconsistent. Herein we review and refine conceptual models of PPC, focusing on intrusiveness and emotional manipulation as two core facets of PPC. Guided by the Social Domain Theory, we relate intrusiveness to the boundaries of the child’s personal domain, which can vary by culture and age group. We describe how our conceptual model of PPC can clarify the disagreement in the literature about whether PPC may be arguably less damaging in interdependent cultures than it is in independent cultures or not; operationalizing PPC as mainly emotional manipulation – inducing guilt – might have contributed to this argument, and testing PPC with both intrusiveness and emotional manipulation can show both universal and culture-specific consequences of PPC. We conclude with recommendations for applying our conceptual model in future studies.

We examined whether adolescent normative beliefs about aggression (NBA) functioned as a mechanism through which parental psychological control (PPC) predicted physical aggression in emerging adulthood via secondary data analyses with the Child Development Project longitudinal data. Fathers’ psychological control (fPC) that adolescents reported at age 13 predicted NBA at age 16, which then predicted their aggression at age 18, after controlling for harsh parenting, earlier NBA, aggression, and SES at age 13 and adolescent gender. However, mothers’ psychological control (mPC) that adolescents perceived at age 13 did not predict NBA at age 16. Our results suggest that fPC at age 13 uniquely predicts NBA at age 16, and that adolescents are able to distinguish fPC from mPC. Moreover, no differences in the mediational paths were found based on the gender of the adolescents, emphasizing the detrimental impacts of PPC regardless of the gender of the adolescents. Our findings suggest that adolescents may receive the message from their psychologically controlling fathers that it is okay to hurt others for one's own gain, and then the resulting belief that aggression is appropriate predicts their physical aggression in their emerging adulthood.

Parental psychological control (PPC)'s association with romantic relationships and the mechanisms through which PPC impairs relationship qualities remain crucial questions to understanding PPC. To this end, we examine if insecure attachment at age 18 mediated the association between PPC perceived at age 16 and jealousy at age 22. Our results showed that PPC perceived at age 16 predicted attachment anxiety at age 18, which then predicted jealousy at age 22. Both mothers' and fathers' models show significant mediational paths, although only mothers' mediational paths remain significant when entered together with fathering in the model. The paths were significant regardless of the gender of the adolescents. The results suggest that adolescents of psychologically controlling parents may experience compromised attachment security during early emerging adulthood and carry that insecure attachment into their romantic relationships later in emerging adulthood. We discuss the implications for interventions and policy‐making.

We examine if psychological intimate partner violence (pIPV) is predicted by parental psychological control (PPC) via insecure attachment. Our results analyzing longitudinal data from the Child Development Project show that PPC perceived at age 16 predicts insecure attachment at age 18, which then predicts pIPV at age 24. Moreover, the paths with attachment anxiety are consistently significant while ones with attachment avoidance are not. Further, all the paths are significant regardless of the gender of the adolescents and parents, which indicates that PPC is detrimental regardless of the gender of the adolescents or parents. Lastly, PPC perceived at age 16 does not directly predict pIPV at age 24, which suggests that social learning theory of aggression ( Bandura, 1978 ) may not explain the association from PPC to pIPV. Our results suggest that research and practice would benefit by considering PPC as an antecedent of pIPV via insecure attachment from adolescence to emerging adulthood.

We examined the relationship among perceived parental psychological control (PPC), self‐concept, and empathy, from adolescence to emerging adulthood. Child Development Project longitudinal data analyses indicate that, when adolescents notice PPC at age 13, they have poor self‐concept (less competence) at age 16, and they show less empathic concern (EC) toward others at age 24. The indirect effects of self‐concept at age 16 are significant for EC, but not for perspective taking (PT). Moreover, perceived PPC at age 13 does not directly predict their EC at age 24, but it does their PT at age 24, and these results were found regardless of the gender of the parents and adolescents. Our results shed light on poor self‐concept in adolescence as a mechanism by which PPC impairs healthy emotional development from adolescence to emerging adulthood.

We examined the relationship of perceived parental psychological control (PPC) to aggression and whether this relationship could be accounted for by indirect effects through need satisfaction and motivation for revenge. In our mediation models with need satisfaction, perceived PPC consistently shows indirect effects on aggression via the relatedness component of need satisfaction in all models, but not via the autonomy and competence components. Further, in a mediation model with vengeance only, psychologically controlled children reported greater motivation for revenge, which then predicted more aggression. In path models with the three needs and vengeance added in the later step, indirect effects through first thwarted need satisfaction and vengeance are significant, and the indirect effect via relatedness is most consistently significant. The results suggest that perceived PPC thwarts need satisfaction and motivates people to yearn for revenge, which facilitates aggression. Our findings can shed light on the mechanisms through which PPC facilitates aggression.