Parental Inconsistency: A Third Cross-Cultural Researchon Parenting and Psychological Adjustment of Children

摘要

Inconsistency in parenting is a factor that mayinfluence children's mental health. A questionnaire, mea-suring three parental inconsistencies (temporal, situational,and father-mother inconsistency) was administered toadolescents in nine countries to assess its association withadolescents' psychological disorders. The results show thatparental inconsistency varies across cultures. Temporalinconsistency is not correlated with the other two incon-sistencies. Temporal and father–mother inconsistencies,but not the situational inconsistency, were associated withadolescents' psychological disorders. The associationsbetween parental inconsistency and psychological disor-ders differed across cultures.