Perceived Parental Acceptance-Rejection and Personality Organization among Czech Elementary School Children

Abstract

Rohner's Parental Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire (PARQ) and Personality Assessment Questionnaire (PAQ) were administered to 228 elementary school children in South Bohemia, Czechoslovakia. Results of this study are com pared with findings obtained using the same tests on elementary school children in the Washington, D. C. metropolitan area, and in Monterrey, Mexico. Results of this comparison conform with the expectations of parental acceptance-rejection theory. That is, since Czech children score highest in parental warmth and affection, and lowest in parental hostility, neglect and undifferentiated rejection, they also score lowest in unfavorable personality traits. Comparisons of the three cultural groups make us hypothesize that the negative self-perception of school-age children is in fluenced primarily by parental rejection. Children's dependency seems to be related primarily to parental warmth whereas children's (defensive) independence seems to be influenced largely by parental hostility, neglect, and undifferentiated rejection. However, the nature of "self-protecting independence" (i.e. "defensive inde pendence") is not quite evident and needs further investigation.