Parenting Style and Generativity Measured in College Students and Their Parents

Abstract

The logical consistency between generativity and the authoritative parenting style led to the hypothesis that the two behavior patterns or orientations were related. Survey measurements of perceived parenting style (authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive) and generativity in 559 university students and their respective parents were compared. The authoritative parenting style correlated positively with generativity for both students and parents. Both students and mothers scored significantly higher on generativity than fathers, but no significant difference was found between students’ and mothers’ generativity. Hierarchical regression showed that students’ generativity was proximally related to their perceptions of their mothers’ authoritative parenting style, their mothers’ reports of parenting style, and their mothers’ generativity. Father’s generativity or parenting style did not make any additional contributions. The pattern of results suggested that generativity is a learned orientation and more often from mothers than from fathers. The role of maturation might not be as strong as developmental theory would suggest. Several avenues of future research were outlined.