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The Moderating Role of Parental Power and Prestige on the Relationship Between Remembered Parental Acceptance and Psychological Adjustment Among Young Greek Adults

Cross-Cultural Research: The Journal of Comparative Social Science

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Abstract

This article explored the effects of perceived maternal and paternal acceptances, parental power, and parental prestige on young adults’ psychological adjustment. The sample consisted of 252 university students (24% men) with a mean age of 20.74 years on the island of Crete, Greece. Measures used were the adult versions of the Parental Acceptance–Rejection Questionnaire for mothers and fathers, youth version of the Parental Power–Prestige Questionnaire, and adult version of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire. Men perceived their fathers to be significantly less accepting but more powerful than did women. For both men and women, perceived maternal and paternal acceptances were significantly correlated with psychological adjustment. Moreover, parental prestige was positively correlated with men’s psychological adjustment, but parental power was negatively correlated with women’s psychological adjustment. Furthermore, women’s (but not men’s) remembrances of paternal acceptance in childhood were positively correlated with both parental power and parental prestige. Results of hierarchical regression analyses revealed that remembered maternal acceptance and the composite variable parental power–prestige were uniquely and positively associated with men’s psychological adjustment. Moreover, perceived parental power was uniquely but negatively associated with men’s adjustment. For women, however, both remembered maternal and paternal acceptances were unique predictors of psychological adjustment. Neither parental power nor prestige moderated the relation between perceived acceptance and psychological adjustment for women, but parental power did moderate this relationship for men.