Evaluating the multiple forms approach to control.


 

The multiple-forms approach used in contemporary theory and research on parental control has some important strengths. Most notably, it captures the complexity of parents’ role in socializing children. On the one hand, it is necessary for children to form their own interests, skills, and identities. The multiple-forms approach acknowledges that parental pressure, intrusiveness, and domination assault children’ individuality; there is thus a strong rationale for believing that when parents are coercive, they undermine children’s psychological development. On the other hand, as developing members of society, children also need to acquire behaviors that are appropriate and acceptable in their cultural contexts, and they require guidance toward such ends. Because parenting that includes firm enforcement, supervision, and behavioral control is likely to provide children with guidance, it is important to children’s development. The multiple-forms approach makes explicit what was implicit in early writings: Parents cannot allow children to go unrestricted, even while fostering their initiation and considering their input. Clearly, distinguishing between these two dimensions of parenting is imperative. However, the current manner of doing so has several significant drawbacks. First, because scholars apply the label of parental control to such a wide variety of parenting, the multiple-forms approach creates ambiguity in terms of the conclusions drawn. In fact, some investigators have described the body of research on parental control as yielding inconsistent findings when this is not the case. Second, the multiple-forms approach conflates dimensions of parenting with the target (e.g., children’s thoughts vs. behavior) of parenting. When parenting dimensions have nonequivalent targets, important realms of children’s experience at which parenting is directed are excluded. In addition, examining different dimensions with regard to different targets makes it difficult to examine interactions between dimensions. Third, because it is not tied to broader theories of development, the multiple-forms approach lacks a link to the basic mechanisms by which parents shape children’s development. Because of these drawbacks, although much is known about the effects of parents’ control on children, little is known about the processes that underlie such effects or how children may contribute to them.

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