Refining our understanding of parental conditional regard

Abstract

Parental conditional regard is a socialization strategy in which children perceive variations in affection depending on whether they meet prescribed standards of achievement. This form of parenting is considered psychologically controlling and interferes with children’s healthy development. There are two distinct types of parental conditional regard: Withdrawal of affection after failure (conditional negative regard) and increase of affection after success (conditional positive regard). This thesis explored whether the two facects are distinct and independent strategies, such that some children only experience the one or the other parental reaction. This investigation allowed for the examination of the combined and isolated effects of these strategies and provided a rigorous test to determine whether both strategies are psychologically controlling on their own. Additionally, the thesis addressed the issue of whether parents use parental conditional regard to proactively pursue socialization goals or whether it results from unintended parental reactions (reactive). In doing so, this thesis explored the possibility of an anger-driven, impulsive form of conditional negative regard. The findings have implications for the definition and measurement of conditional regard and, ultimately, determine how interventions should address conditional regard.