Pancultural Associations Between Perceived Parental Acceptance and Psychological Adjustment of Children and Adults

Abstract

This meta-analysis tests the pancultural generalizability of two central postulates drawn from parental acceptance-rejection theory (PARTheory). The meta-analysis is based on 66 studies involving 19,511 respondents from 22 countries on five continents. All studies used the child and adult versions of the Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaires for Mothers and for Fathers as well as the child and adult versions of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire. Results of analyses showed that the mean unweighted and weighted effect sizes of correlations between perceived maternal and paternal acceptance with offspring’s psychological adjustment were significant for both children and adults across all cultures studied. The results also showed that the mean weighted effect size of the correlation between paternal acceptance and psychological adjustment was significantly stronger than the mean weighted effect size of the correlation between maternal acceptance and psychological adjustment for children (but not for adults).