Maternal Psychological Control and Children's Sociobehavioral Adjustment Problems in European American, African American, and U.S. Mexican Families

Much of the research indicating that U.S. parents’ use of psychological control is connected to adverse child outcomes overlooks the specific dimensions of psychological control, relies on self-report measures and excludes ethnic and racial minorities. This observational study takes a step towards identifying the links between mothers’ use of guilt and shame inductions and children’s externalizing behaviors and social adjustment problems within European American, African American and U.S. Mexican families. A total of 436 children (49% female, Mage = 10.51 years) and their mothers from low-income households, representing these distinct ethno-racial groups, engaged in discussions on three conflict topics. Maternal guilt and shame inductions during conflict conversations were coded, and mothers completed measures of externalizing behaviors and social adjustment problems. Results showed that maternal shame induction was related to both externalizing behaviors and social adjustment issues, while guilt induction was related solely to externalizing behaviors. However, no significant differences were found across the ethno-racial groups in how guilt and shame inductions were related to children’s social and behavioral adjustment. These results highlight that two components of psychological control, guilt and shame inductions, are related to child outcomes in different ways and underscore the pervasive challenges that maternal psychological control presents for child development across ethno-racial backgrounds. This observational study examined the associations between maternal guilt and shame inductions and child outcomes within African American, U.S. Mexican, and European American families. Maternal shame inductions were positively associated with both externalizing behaviors and social adjustment problems. Maternal guilt inductions were positively associated with externalizing behaviors only. The associations between maternal guilt and shame inductions and children’s social and behavioral problems did not differ significantly across ethno-racial groups.