Situating Parenting in the Broader Context of Child Development.

Distinguishing between control and structure, rather than different forms of control, has a third benefit: It moves toward the creation of a model of parenting that is linked to broader theories of children’s development. In doing so, it leads to a more integrative understanding of children’s development, allowing for the identification of the mechanisms by which parenting shapes children. In the context of self-determination theory, Grolnick et al. made the case that control and structure are two important dimensions of parenting because they tie into two basic human needs whose fulfillment is essential for children’s positive psychological functioning. Although the multiple-forms approach was not originally based on such a framework, investigators have begun to focus on how different forms of what has been considered control may ‘‘meet the basic requirements for healthy development’’. In this vein, similar to investigators working in the framework of self-determination theory, Barber and colleagues argued that children require, among other things, psychological autonomy, the need for which is met when children are permitted to experience, value, and express their own thoughts and emotions. Barber and colleagues also stress that children require regulation, which parents provide by setting consistent limits on children’s behavior. This suggests that children have a need to be ‘‘controlled,’’ which at least appears at odds with the generally recognized need for autonomy. An alternative manner of thinking about this issue is that children have a need not for regulation but for competence, which is critical to their healthy psychological development as postulated in self-determination theory as well as other theories. Competence is ‘‘a pattern of effective performance in the environment’’as well as the abilities that provide the potential for such a pattern. Parental structure facilitates the development of competence among children as it not only conveys to children the standards for competence but provides them with feedback about their progress in meeting such standards; in contrast, when parents create a chaotic Child Development Perspectives, environment, they undermine children’s competence by failing to provide such support. Situating parenting in a broader theory of children’s development is critical to moving the understanding of the role of parents in children’s psychological functioning forward along two lines. First, it has the potential to identify the mechanisms by which parenting shapes children’s development, an issue that investigators studying discipline have addressed but that has received less attention from investigators studying other realms of parenting outside the context of self-determination theory. To the extent that controlling parenting hinders healthy psychological development in children, it should do so in part by disrupting feelings of autonomy. Evidence from initial investigations of the mechanisms underlying the role of controlling parenting in children’s psychological functioning is consistent with this notion. Children’s development of competence may underlie the effects of parental structure. Indeed, parental structure is associated with children’s actual, as well as perceived, competence in the academic domain, which may be why it has positive effects on children’s development. Of course, parental control may also undermine the development of children’s competence—for example, by not providing them with the opportunity to solve problems on their own. Our argument is not that parental structure (vs. control) uniquely affects children’s competence but that this is one mechanism by which it does so. Second, understanding the underlying mechanisms provides a useful framework for elucidating how children contribute to the socialization process. In this vein, Pomerantz et al. have argued that for a variety of reasons, children come to their interactions with parents varying in the extent to which they experience themselves as competent (e.g., as possessing the ability to do well in school). The less children experience themselves as competent, according to these investigators, the more they may need their parents to provide such experiences (such as by providing structured assistance with homework). Consequently, parenting matters more for such children because parenting that may undermine children’s competence has heightened negative effects on them, whereas parenting that may facilitate it has heightened positive effects. Just as parental control and structure may be key dimensions of parenting that shape children through their provision of autonomy and competence, children’s autonomy and competence may be key characteristics that contribute to the socialization process by shaping the effects of such dimensions of parenting on children’s subsequent psychological development.