Father Love and Mother Love: Contributions of Parental Acceptance to Children's Psychological Adjustment

Abstract

Research on child development increasingly includes data on both parents and from different cultures. However, the relative importance of fathers versus mothers for child adjustment is still under debate. The present review compares the contributions of perceived paternal and maternal acceptance to various child adjustment indicators among samples of families around the world. We reviewed 127 published studies that included child‐reported paternal and maternal acceptance and developmental outcomes. Regardless of the sex of parent, children benefited from perceived parental acceptance. Fathers and mothers were often found to both predict adjustment significantly to varying degrees. Paternal acceptance tended to be related to children's problem behavior and psychopathology, whereas maternal acceptance was more likely to contribute to socioemotional development. Paternal and maternal acceptance also often jointly contributed to child adjustment through their interaction with each other and with other predictors. Moreover, the link between parental acceptance and adjustment was often moderated by child gender and cultural context.

A Systematic Review of Meta‐Analyses of Research on Interpersonal Acceptance–rejection Theory: Constructs and Measures

“…Reasons for these gender differences are not clear, except to note that offspring's perceptions of parental (maternal vs. paternal) prestige and interpersonal power often moderate the relationship between perceived parental acceptance and offspring psychological adjustment (Rohner, ). These findings support a wider body of literature showing that perceived paternal acceptance often has a greater impact on children's and adults' developmental outcomes than does perceived maternal acceptance (Li & Meier, ; Parmar & Rohner, ; Rohner, ; Schwartz et al, ; Sultana & Khaleque, ; Veneziano, ). Prestige refers in IPARTheory to signs of approval, esteem, respect, or admiration that one person (e.g., a child) holds for another person (e.g., a parent).…”

The Evolution of Fathering Research in the 21st Century: Persistent Challenges, New Directions

“…Within the past 10 years, a growing body of research has focused on fathers in different parts of the world. Li and Meier () published a review of studies examining the contributions of perceived paternal and maternal acceptance to various indicators of child adjustment among samples of families from 127 studies conducted in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America; several were multinational studies. The findings revealed that both paternal and maternal acceptance predicted child outcomes.…”

“…The findings revealed that both paternal and maternal acceptance predicted child outcomes. Although studies such as those reviewed by Li and Meier () are useful for understanding the impact that fathers have on children worldwide, they say little about cultural influences on fathers. Although we do not have space to fully review this literature here, Lamb, Shwalb, and Shwalb () published an excellent volume with chapters about fathering in many parts of the world.…”

Family Processes and Children's and Adolescents' Well‐Being

“…Family factors effected youths' persistent delinquency, with sibling factors playing a larger role than maternal factors (Assink et al, ), and attachment to mothers had stronger inverse associations with delinquency than did attachment to fathers (Hoeve et al, ). Li and Meier () conducted a meta‐analysis of studies that examined children's perceptions of feeling accepted by mothers and fathers. They found that perceived acceptance by mothers and fathers were each uniquely associated with better child outcomes and that acceptance by fathers tended to be more strongly associated with fewer child behavior problems, whereas acceptance by mothers tended to be more strongly associated with better socioemotional development.…”