Perceived Parental Acceptance-Rejection and Children's Reported Personality and Behavioral Dispositions: An Intracultural Test

Abstract

This study provides an intracultural test of parental acceptance-rejection theory (PART) which postulates that the warmth dimension of parental behavior is related universally to the behavioral and personality disposi tions of children. The study tests PART within an American community, using self-report procedures. It asks whether perceived acceptance and rejection is related to self-reported behavior of boys and girls, as pre dicted by PART. Furthermore, it asks whether the relationship between perceived parental rejection and the reported behavioral dispositions of children varies by age and sex of the child. As postulated by PART, re sults show: that the self-reported personality and behavioral dispositions of children between the ages of eight and twelve vary directly with chil dren's perceptions of parental acceptance-rejection; and that this relation ship between perceived acceptance-rejection and children's behavior is not affected significantly by children's age or sex.