Parenting by lying in Turkey: associations with negative psychosocial outcomes and psychopathy in adulthood

Abstract

Parenting by lying—a practice whereby parents lie to their children as a means of emotional or behavioral control—is common throughout the world. This study expands upon the existing, albeit limited, research on parenting by lying by exploring the prevalence and long-term associations of this parenting practice in Turkey. Turkish university students (N = 182) retrospectively reported on their experiences of parenting by lying in childhood, their current frequency of lying towards parents, their present level of psychosocial adjustment problems, and their expression of psychopathic traits. The results found that recalling higher levels of parenting by lying in childhood was significantly and positively associated with both increased lying to parents as well as the expression of secondary psychopathic traits in adulthood. The novel findings uncovered in this paper highlight the potential long-term associations that parental lying to children may have on their psychosocial development in adulthood.

We can’t afford the candy! The influence of parenting by lying about money on mobile phone addiction and the roles of anxiety and socioeconomic status among Chinese adolescents

“…Although few parents are aware of the dangers of parenting by lying, the results of this study found a significant association between parenting by lying about money and adolescent mobile phone addiction. Along with previous studies on the negative effects of parenting by lying ( Liu and Wei, 2020 ; Setoh et al, 2020 ; Jackson et al, 2021 ; Wei and Liu, 2021 ), we consider it meaningful to draw more attention to the negative outcomes of parenting by lying. Furthermore, with the prevalence of smart phones, mobile phone addiction is increasingly developing into a major problem in both family and school education.…”

“…However, parents often lie to their children during parenting, believing that lying is acceptable in certain situations ( Heyman et al, 2009 ). Although parents may barely connect parenting by lying with any negative consequences to children, it is demonstrated to be positively associated with children’s internalization and externalization issues in adolescence and adulthood ( Santos et al, 2017 ; Liu and Wei, 2020 ; Setoh et al, 2020 ; Jackson et al, 2021 ; Wei and Liu, 2021 ). Given that mobile phone addiction is a typical problem of externalization in the digital age, we assume that parenting by lying may be positively associated with mobile phone addiction.…”

Parenting by Lying

“…Additional research conducted with Turkish college students found that almost all (96%) reported that their parents engaged in this practice ( Jackson et al, 2021). These rates are comparable to reports of Asian participants (100%; Setoh et al, 2022) but higher than those of European Americans (78%; .…”

“…1, path 2) has been supported by the existing evidence. It has been found that exposure to parenting by lying was significantly associated with poorer psychosocial outcomes, such as externalizing problems, internalizing problems, psychopathy, lying behavior, and less prosociality (e.g., Dodd & Malm, 2021;Jackson et al, 2021;Low et al, 2023). Darling and Steinberg (1993) highlighted the importance of parent-child relationships in moderating the pathway between parenting practices and child outcomes (Fig.…”

Sibling relationship quality and parental rearing style influence the development of Dark Triad traits

“…Contrasted to Factor 1 psychopathy, Factor 2 psychopathy is more strongly affected by childhood abuse (Moreira et al, 2020). A further study (Jackson et al, 2021) also found parenting by lying -i.e., controlling the child emotionally and behaviourally through lying to them -to be uniquely associated with Factor 2 psychopathy.…”