Guilt Trips and Love Withdrawal: Does Mothers’ Use of Psychological Control Predict Depressive Symptoms Among African American Adolescents?*

• Author: Crysta L. Pikes,Jelani Mandara
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3729.2008.00526.x
• Published date: 01 December 2008
• Date: 01 December 2008

Guilt Trips and Love Withdrawal: Does Mothers’ Use of

Psychological Control Predict Depressive Symptoms

Among African American Adolescents?*

Jelani Mandara Crysta L. Pikes**

Abstract: This study examined the effects of maternal psychological control on the depressive symptoms of 152

lower socioeconomic status African American adolescents. After controlling for the effects of other parenting practi-

ces, psychological control had a strong positive relationship with girls’ depressive symptoms, but none for boys, even

though the 2 groups reported the same levels of psychological control. As predicted, girls’ sense of control and

agency completely mediated the effects of psychological control. Those who reported higher levels of psychological

control reported lower self-control and higher depressive symptoms. It was concluded that girls are probably more

aware of the covert messages and more concerned for their mother’s feelings than are boys. Thus, girls may be more

willing than boys to sacrifice their own identity; however, there may be psychological consequences for their sacrifice.

Key Words: adolescent mental health, African American families, depression, parenting, psychological control.

Parental psychological control involves the use of

parenting strategies such as love withdrawal, psycho-

logical intrusiveness, and guilt induction to control

children’s behavior (Barber & Harmon, 2002;

Smetana & Daddis, 2002). As opposed to direct

forms of behavioral control such as monitoring of

adolescent whereabouts, psychological control is

more covert and manipulative. Previous studies with

European Americans have shown that psychological

control is related to adolescent well-being (Barber,

2002), but the findings have not been as clear

among the few studies that included African Ameri-

can youth (Bean, Barber, & Crane, 2006). One

problem with previous studies may be that they

assumed the cultural significance of various compo-

nents of the psychological control construct were the

same in African Americans and European Americans

(Krishnakumar, Buehler, & Barber, 2004). Further-

more, previous studies have rarely examined gender

differences among African American youth. The

purpose of the current study was to assess the effects

of psychological control on the psychological well-

being of African American adolescents using a modi-

fied version of traditional measures and assessing the

moderating effects of gender. A further purpose was

to test the underlying hypothesis that psychological

control relates to the psychological well-being of

adolescents because it is associated with a reduction

in their sense of agency or self-control.

The concept of parental control has always been

controversial in parenting research (Baumrind,

1971; Grolnick, 2003). Implicit in early debates was

the notion that parental control and parental sup-

port were at opposite ends of a continuum. How-

ever, a series of scale construction and factor analytic

studies has shown that not only are parental support

and parental control two relatively orthogonal

dimensions of parenting but parental control is also

more complex and multidimensional than previ-

ously thought (Barber, Olsen, & Shagle, 1994;

*This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (1R03-HD048556) to J.M.

**Jelani Mandara is an assistant professor in the Program of Human Development and Social Policy at Northwestern University, 2120 Campus Drive, Evanston,

IL 60208 (j-mandara@northwestern.edu). Crysta L. Pikes is in the Department of Psychology at Hampton University, Hampton, VA 23668 (crysta.pikes@pipeline.

hamptonu.edu).

Family Relations, 57 (December 2008), 602–612. Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Copyright 2008 by the National Council on Family Relations.

A Publication of

the National Council on

Family Relations