Retrospective Parent-Child Relationship and Effects On Adult Resilience

Introduction: Parent-child relationships during a child's adolescent years may have a significant impact on many outcomes later in the child's life. Quality of parent-child relationships, as well as parents' household rules and expectations as experienced during adolescence might operate as earlier-life influences on adult-stage resilience.  Parental expectations passed down from parents to their children may thus influence the development of resilience.

Methods: This study examined a subset of 258 male participants: drug users, community residents and leaders.  Each participant received an in-depth interview using the “Your Life's Journey” structured interview and the “Platica” semi-structured interview that included focus questions on cognitive, affective, behavioral and reflective ways of responding to a difficult life problem.  One of the outcome measures was the 25-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (α= .95), and the other was a post-interview clinical rating of resilience (a six-point single item rating). Four-item scales of parental expectations (α= .78) and of maternal expectations (α= .70) examined parental expectations regarding: (a) obeying household rules, (b) respecting parents and elders, (c) doing well in school (get As), and (d) being a good citizen.  The reliability of the participant’s memory was assessed at the end of the interview with a 6-point single-item rating of reliable memory.

Results: Data were analyzed using hierarchical regression model analyses. These analyses examined retrospective autobiographical accounts from late adolescence regarding pro-social expectations from the participant’s father and mother, and the participant’s willingness to comply with each parent’s expectations, all as predictors of resilience in adulthood.  The final reduced model consisted of the predictors of resilience, with these being: drug user group (a control variable) (b= -.32, p< .001), father’s expectations (b= .13, p < .05), although not mother’s expectations (b= .10, p > .05).  In this final model, R² = .140, F(3, 256)= 13.77, p < .001.   

Conclusions: Influence of family dynamics recalled through retrospective autobiographical self-reports identified father’s expectations in late adolescence, as predictors of adult stage resilience scale scores.  These results suggest the potential influences of paternal expectations in late adolescence on resilience in adulthood.