Maternal Valuing of Conformity Links to Adolescent Attachment Status and Mother-Adolescent Interaction Behaviors Nell N. Manning, Kathleen B. McElhaney, Joseph P. Allen

Introduction Parental valuing of conformity with social rules and norms in their children has been linked to self-reported authoritarian parenting practices of children (Luster et al., 1989; Kohn, 1977), but this has not been examined for parents of adolescents. Parental valuing of conformity is also significantly correlated with poor educational outcomes during the early school years, but its relationship with adolescent educational outcomes is unexamined (Schaefer & Edgerton, 1985). The link between socio-economic status and parenting values is well established. Lower-SES parents are more likely to value conformity in their children than middle-class parents, who value self-direction more highly (Kohn, 1963, 1977, 1979; Schaefer & Edgerton, 1985; Wright & Wright, 1976). However, the influence of conformity values on parental behavior and child outcomes, over and above their link with SES, has not been examined.

Introduction: Theoretical Approaches to Understanding Conformity According to Loevinger’s theory of ego development (1976), conformity is a stage of maturity in which individuals restrain their impulses by identifying strongly with a group and adhering strictly to that group’s norms and rules. Conformists tend to: value niceness and helpfulness judge right or wrong according to rules, not consequences see external aspects of behavior, but have undifferentiated concepts of and limited interest in internal states and feelings Perceive group, but not individual, differences Accordingly, mothers who value conformity in their adolescents would be expected to undermine their teens’ autonomy and fail to attend warmly to their adolescents’ individual needs. Other developmental theories feature a stage characterized by rigidity or conformity that contrasts with more flexible and adaptive styles, e.g., conventional vs. post-conventional moral development (Kohlberg, 1976) and ego control vs. resiliency (Block, 2002).

Questions Asked: In the current study, we ask: is mothers’ valuing of conformity in their adolescents related to: Mother-teen interaction behavior? Security of attachment and ego development in adolescents? Adolescent interaction behavior with peers? Adolescent academic performance?

Method Participants Multi-method, multi-reporter data were collected from a sample of 180 adolescents, their mothers (n=158), and closest same sex friends (n=165). Adolescents were recruited through a public middle school in the Southeastern United States when they were originally in the 7 th or 8 th grade, n=97 and n=83 respectively Mean age at time of first measurement = 13.4, sd % of the sample were male 38% minority Median family income $40,000-60,000/yr

Method Parenting Values Questionnaire (Schaefer and Edgerton, 1985; Kohn, 1977) presents mothers with a list of commonly desired behaviors for children and adolescents and asks them to rank these behaviors according to importance. The valuing of conformity scale includes items such as, “I hope my adolescent will have good manners.”... keep him or herself neat and clean.”... obey parents and teachers.” Higher scores represent a greater valuing of conformity. Childhood Report of Parental Behavior Inventory (Schaefer, 1965): Maternal psychological control captures the perception of the degree to which the parent uses guilt, anxiety, love withdrawal or other psychological methods to control the adolescent's behavior. Supportive Behavior Coding System (Allen et al., 1999): Mother’s warmth with teen (valuing and given emotional support) and mother’s attention to teen (engagement and accuracy in understanding the teen’s difficulty).

Method Autonomy and Relatedness Coding System (Allen, et al., 1998): Adolescents and their mothers discussed an area of disagreement (e.g., grades, chores, siblings, curfews). Adolescents and their best friends participate in a hypothetical disagreement task (Allen, Porter, & McFarland, 2003). Mothers’ inhibiting of adolescent autonomy scale captures the extent to which the mother inhibits productive discussion of an issue by making a statement she does not mean (e.g., by pretending to agree); pressuring the adolescent to agree; and overpersonalizing, or focusing on the qualities of the other person rather than his or her ideas. Adolescents’ positive relatedness with mother scale captures the extent to which the teen asks questions of the mother, validates the mother’s ideas, and is engaged with the mother during the disagreement Adolescents’ displaying of autonomy with best friend scale captures the extent to which the teen confidently presents reasoned arguments to promote his ideas Adolescents’ avoidance with best friend captures the extent to which the teen avoids or shies away from conflict with his best friend.

Method Adult Attachment Interview (Main & Goldwyn, 1998) and AAI Q-set (Kobak et al., 1993): Attachment security reflects the overall degree of coherence of discourse, the integration of episodic and semantic attachment memories, and a clear objective valuing of attachment. Sentence Completion Task (Hy & Loevinger, 1996): Teen’s ego development was coded from teens’ responses to open-ended sentences such as “I feel sorry... “. Responses are correlated with 7 stages of ego development. Academic GPA: the teen’s unweighted 8 th -grade GPA obtained from school records. Sociometric Status: Popularity is calculated from the number of nominations received from same-age peers (Coie, 1982). Analyses: Gender and family income were included as covariates in all hierarchical regression analyses that follow.

Results: Maternal conformity, teen attachment orientation and teen ego development Note. *** p <.001, ** p ≤.01, * p <.05. N=160. Maternal valuing of conformity is uniquely and negatively related to both adolescent security of attachment and to adolescent ego development.

Results: Maternal conformity and observed maternal warmth and attention with teen Note. *** p <.001, ** p ≤.01, * p <.05. N=158. Maternal valuing of conformity is negatively related to how much attention mothers pay to their teens’ individual concerns, but not to how much warmth they exhibit with them.

Results: Maternal conformity and observed maternal undermining of teen’s autonomy Note. *** p <.001. ** p ≤.01. * p <.05. N=152. Maternal valuing of conformity is uniquely and positively related to mothers’ use of psychological control and to their observed inhibiting of autonomy during conflict with their adolescents.

Results: Maternal conformity and teens’ observed relatedness with mother Note. *** p <.001. ** p ≤.01. * p <.05. N=155. Maternal valuing of conformity is negatively related to teens’ degree of relatedness with their mothers.

Results: Maternal conformity and teen’s observed autonomy with best friend Note. *** p <.001. ** p ≤.01. * p <.05. N=165. Maternal valuing of conformity is negatively related to teens’ display of autonomy with their best friends.

Results: Maternal conformity and teen’s observed avoidance with best friend Note. *** p <.001. ** p ≤.01. * p <.05. N=165. Maternal valuing of conformity is positively related to teens’ avoidance of conflict with their best friends.

Results: Maternal conformity and teen popularity Note. *** p <.001. ** p ≤.01. * p <.05. N=170. Maternal valuing of conformity is negatively related to teens’ popularity with school- aged peers.

Results: Maternal conformity and teen academic performance Note. *** p <.001. ** p ≤.01. * p <.05. N=129. Maternal valuing of conformity is not related to teens’ academic performance.

Summary of findings Mothers who highly value conformity in their adolescents are more likely to: Undermine their teen’s autonomy during mother-teen conflict Have teens who are less positively related to them during conflict Pay less attention to their teens’ specific concerns or requests for support Adolescents of mothers who value conformity highly are more likely to: Have lower levels of attachment security and ego development Display lower levels of autonomy in interaction with their peers Be less popular with their peers Contrary to expectations, maternal valuing of conformity was not found to be related to: Warmth (or lack thereof) shown by the mother to the teen Adolescent academic outcomes

Discussion Maternal valuing of conformity in adolescents is linked not only with markers of low-SES but with relationship patterns and teen outcomes over and above the effects of SES. It is strongly linked to undermining and unrelated patterns in mother-teen interactions and to teens’ dependent patterns of interaction with close peers. In addition, maternal valuing of conformity is linked, over and above SES, to adolescents’ intrapsychic development and functioning, including their state of mind with regard to attachment. If valuing conformity reflects a lack of intrapsychic development in mothers, this lack of development appears to be transferred to their adolescents.

Discussion Contrary to expectations, maternal valuing of conformity was not linked to mothers’ demonstrating a lack of warmth for their teens. This suggests that valuing of conformity might not be a marker of authoritarian parenting per se. Some conforming mothers are warm toward their adolescents; these mothers, however, do not pay close attention to their teens’ individual needs. Thus, a pattern of indifferent parenting might be suggested by these data. Also contrary to expectations, teens’ academic performance was not linked to maternal valuing of conformity, as it has been in studies with young children. It may be the case that patterns of teen outcome related to maternal conformity might lie mainly in the social realm. Causality is not implied by any of these data; all are correlational. Longitudinal analyses are needed. The relationship of fathers’ valuing of conformity to interaction patterns and teen outcomes also needs to be examined.

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Acknowledgements I would like to thank the William T. Grant Foundation, Spencer Foundation, and National Institute of Mental Health for funding provided to Joseph Allen, Principal Investigator, for the conduct and write-up of this study. A copy of this poster and other publications on related topics is available at Address correspondence to: Nell N. Manning University of Virginia, Dept. of Psychology P.O. Box Charlottesville, VA