Investigation of the Effects of Authoritarian vs. Democratic Parental Attitudes, and Parental Attachment on Shame and Guilt by Quasi-Experimental Method
Otoriter veya Demokratik Ebeveyn Tutumunun ve Ebeveyne Bağlanma Biçiminin Suçluluk ve Utanç Duygularına Etkisinin Yarı-Deneysel Yöntemle İncelenmesi
Shame and guilt are self-conscious (Tangney & Dearing, 2002), or otherwise conceptualized, moral emotions (Haidt, Rozin, Lowery, & Imada, 1999; Menesini & Camodeca, 2008; Öztürk, 2005). The emergence of these emotions ensures the regulation of inappropriate behaviors and compliance with social norms (Bafunno & Camoca, 2013; Haidt, 2003). While shame decreases self-worth and inactivates the self (Hoffman, 1982; Lewis, 1987; Tangney, 1995), guilt leads to self-activation and motivation to repair the inappropriate behavior (Lewis, 1987).
Parents play an important role in the emergence and expression of these emotions (Kochanska, Forman, Aksan, & Dunbar, 2005; Parisette-Sparks, Bufferd, & Klein, 2015; Sheikh & Janoff-Bulman, 2010a). Guilt is negatively correlated with parental attitudes with less harshness and forgiveness (Harrison, 2012; Stuewig & McCloskey, 2005), but it is positively correlated with accepting and positive parental attitudes (Choi & Jo, 2011; İnan, 2016; Mintz, Etengoff, & Grysman, 2017; Ruckstaetter, Sells, Newmeyer, & Zink, 2017).
The democratic parental attitude is distinguished by how parents guide the child when the child behaves in an inappropriate way, without losing the parental control (Baumrind, 1966; Maccoby & Martin, 1983). However, in the authoritarian parental attitude, unconditional obedience of the child is expected (Baumrind, 1971); the child is punished, subjected to severe control, and the child’s thoughts are not taken into consideration (Baumrind, 1966, 1971; Maccoby & Martin, 1983; Schaefer & Bell, 1959).
Since the development of insecure attachment in childhood leads to feelings of rejection and insufficiency (Malatesta-Magai & Dorval, 1992), shame can be assumed to be negatively related with secure attachment to the parents. Contrarily, it can be assumed that guilt will be reduced in insecure children to maintain social relationships. Consequently, this research assumes that the attitudes of parents to an immoral act by the child (lying to the parents) will affect the feelings of shame and guilt.
Method
The authoritarian and democratic parental attitudes were manipulated through vignettes. Vignettes were prepared in which either authoritarian parental attitudes (high demand, low acceptance, involving punishment and closed communication) or democratic parental attitudes (high demand, high acceptance, warm, open communication) were described. Shame and guilt were measured in a scenario-based manner. In addition, the impact of attachment to the parents on emotions has been examined. Two quasiexperimental studies have been carried out for this purpose. A total of 143 primary school students, 72 in the first study (41 females, 31 males; Mage= 13.01, SD = .49), and 71 in the second study (37 females, 34 males; Mage= 13.67, SD = .50) participated in two studies.
Results
In the first study, attachments to the parents were obtained before the manipulation, and included in the MANCOVA as a covariant variable. According to results, attachment to mother had a significant main effect on shame, F(1, 56) = 8.24, p = .006, ɳ2 = .128; λ = .868, F(2, 55) = 4.18, p = .02. However, not any significant manipulation effect of authoritarian/ democratic parent attitude was observed. Therefore, attachments to the parents were measured after the manipulation to eradicate its priming effect in the second study. The results of the second study revealed that both insecure attachments to the mother and to the father have significant moderation effects on shame. However, according to bootstrapping of 5000 samples, only moderation effect of insecure attachment to the father is significant, B = -.07, BootSE = .03, 95% CI: [-.12, -.01]. That is, adolescence who are insecurely attached to their fathers reported more shame, when parents have democratic attitudes toward the adolescent in the vignette. A high positive correlation between guilt and shame was observed in both studies (r(70) = .70, p = .01, r(69)= .80, p = .01, respectively).
Discussion
A high positive correlation between guilt and shame which was observed in both studies is consistent with other studies (Akbağ & Erden-Imamoglu, 2010; Dost & Yağmurlu, 2006; Kugler & Jones, 1992; Murray, Ciarrocchi, & Murray-Swank, 2007; also see Zhu et al., 2017). Fathers play an important role in the development and the expression of guilt and shame (Parisette-Sparks et al., 2015). Considering the absence of fathers in the family in Turkey (Boratav, Fişek, & Eslen-Ziya, 2017; Kandiyoti, 1997) promoting the development of father-child relationship gains its significance. There is a limited research on the relationship between attachment and shame/guilt in Turkey. The effect of parental attitude on shame and guilt was studied for the first time through a quasi-experimental method by this research. Measurement of emotions on a scenario-based manner in Turkish culture can be counted as another contribution of the research. The findings may serve as a guideline for future research in this area. However, the research has some limitations. One of these is the lack of a control group, although it has an experimental manipulation (therefore, a quasi experimental research). Moreover, although shame and guilt were measured directly via self-report scales, it could be assessed by subtle ways, for e.g., via physicological and psychological indicators.