Pergamon zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA Person. in&id. Diff: Vol. 23, No. 2, pp. 211-282, 1997 c(‘ 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved Printed in Great Britain PII: SO191-8869(97)00033-O 0191-8869/97 $17.00+0.00 PARENTING AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY: DIFFERENCES IN FAMILY MEMBERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF PARENTAL REARING STYLES Coby Gerlsma,‘* Tom A. B. Snijders2 Marijtje A. J. van Duijn2 and Paul M. G. Emmelkamp’ ‘Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Groningen, P.O. Box 30.001, 9700 RB Groningen and 2Department of Statistics and Measurement Theory, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands (Recrioed 19 October 1996) Summary-Psychiatric patients generally report more adverse recollections of their parents’ rearing behav- iour than individuals from the general community. It is, however, as yet unclear whether we can infer from this finding that the families of psychiatric patients differ from the families of healthy controls, that is, whether patients’ adverse views are shared by their family members. This issue bears on the construct validity of reports about parental rearing styles: should these reports be interpreted to reflect characteristics of the family, of the parent, of the parentchild relationship, or of the individual providing the reports? In this study, patterns of agreement and variability within families with regard to recalled parental behaviour were analysed in order to examine this aspect of the validity of parental representations. We examined whether families of psychiatric patients report less favourable parenting styles than families of healthy controls. Furthermore, we examined the level of agreement between all family members participating in the study, between the two members reporting on the same parentxhild relationship, between parents, and between siblings. Finally, we examined what factors might be accountable for differences of opinion between family members. Results suggested that perceptions of parental rearing styles are primarily tales by individuals, and to a much smaller extent tales about families, parents or relationships. The implications of these findings for research with regard to the relationship between parental rearing behaviour and adult psychopathology are discussed. 10 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd INTRODUCTION Families are often thought to exert a powerful influence on psychosocial development, for better or for worse. Among the many dimensions around which family life revolves, parental rearing behav- iour is traditionally regarded as one of the key issues to be considered when the offspring’s devel- opment deviates from what is expected or preferred. Studies investigating the relationship between parental rearing styles and adult psychopathology generally have to rely on self-report data, i.e. the individual’s subjective and usually retrospective perception of parental behaviour. Compared to individuals from the general community, psychiatric patients usually recall their parents’ behaviour as having been less affectionate, and more rejecting and overprotecting (e.g. Blatt & Homann, 1992; Burbach & Borduin, 1986; Gerlsma, Emmelkamp & Arrindell, 1990; Parker, 1988). These differences appeared also in the comparison of recovered patients with healthy controls (reviewed in Gerlsma rt zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPON al., 1990). Furthermore, memories of par- enting proved to be highly stable in time, even when the individual experienced substantial (that is, clinically relevant) changes in well-being and negative affect between measurement occasions (reviewed in Brewin, Andrews & Gotlib, 1993; Gerlsma, 1994). While the difference in recalled parental rearing styles between psychiatric patients and their healthy counterparts appears to be consistent and stable, there is no clarity as to its interpretation: to what extent does it allow the conclusion that the parenting styles prevalent in families of patients and healthy controls differ? Memories of parenting may be interpreted as reflections of actual parental behaviour (e.g. Brewin et al., 1993; Parker, 1989) or as reflections of the ‘phenomenological impact’ of parental behaviour (Arrindell, Emmelkamp, Brilman & Monsma, 1983; Gerlsma et al., 1990; Gerlsma, 1994) a label which aims to convey that memories are based on both true events *To whom all correspondence should be addressed. 271