Reimagining Baumrind’s Parenting Archetypes: Affective Outcomes of Communication During Parental Control Assertions in Black Children

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to gain further understanding of the relationship between communication during a parental control assertion interaction and affective outcomes in black children. To investigate this relationship 310 participants who identified as African-American/Black, and were between the ages of 18 and 25 years, completed a questionnaire on the online platform Prolific. Participants were shown 4 vignettes with different ways of communicating immovable autonomy boundaries and responded to questions about how they would feel in the situation. The results show that black children have the best affective outcomes when the parent communicates a combination of emotional and practical reasons for an autonomy boundary. Additionally, any reason provided by the parent is better than none because black children have the worst affective outcomes when the parent provides no reasons for the autonomy restriction. Finally, there is no significant difference between a practical or emotional response.