Study Finds that Conservative
Protestant Parents are Not AbusivePrinceton, NJ - A new study reported in Social Forces (Vol. 79(1) September:265-290.) finds that conservative Protestant parents are less likely to report yelling at their children. The study, authored by W. Bradford Wilcox of the Center for Research on Child Wellbeing at Princeton University and John P. Bartkowski of the Sociology Department at Mississippi State University, casts doubts on previous assertions that conservative Protestant parents are abusive and authoritarian.
"We know that conservative Protestant parents value obedience from their children more than most parents and that they are more likely to spank their children," said Wilcox. "In the 1990s, a number of scholars took this pattern to mean that these parents were abusive and authoritarian. This study, however, adds to a growing body of evidence that suggests that conservative Protestant parents have a distinctive neotraditional style of parenting that combines a strict but controlled approach to discipline with a warm and expressive approach to everyday parent-child interaction."
In 1991, Donald Capps, a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, gave a presidential address to the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion charging that conservative Protestant parenting was abusive. Capps asserted that conservative Protestant parents "have taken [the] injunction to break the child's will as a mandate to inflict severe physical punishment...sometimes before the child is even able to crawl." Capps further charged that mixing religious imagery with such harsh discipline can lead to the "traumatizing of children." More recently, the noted University of Washington family therapist John Gottman claimed that religious conservatism is pushing parents toward "authoritarian parenting in childrearing patterns of discipline." However, the assertions made by Capps, Gottman, and other critics of conservative Protestant childrearing have been directly challenged in a series of research studies conducted by Wilcox, Bartkowski, and Christopher G. Ellison in the Sociology Department at the University of Texas-Austin.
In 1998, Wilcox published an article in the American Sociological Review indicating that conservative Protestant parents were more expressive with their children in ordinary parent-child interactions. His study found that conservative Protestant parents were more likely to report praising and hugging their children than other parents.
The study reported in Social Forces finds that parents affiliated with conservative Protestant churches, as well as parents who hold a literal view of the Bible, are less likely to yell at their children than other parents. Their findings are derived from a representative survey of more than 4000 American parents (the National Survey of Families and Households sponsored by the University of Wisconsin). The results hold for parents of preschoolers and for parents of school-age children. The results are particularly significant because high rates of parental yelling are usually associated with abusive parenting and negative developmental outcomes among children, including antisocial behavior and emotional problems.
"This study challenges negative and inaccurate depictions of conservative Protestant parents. Conservative Protestant caregivers value parental authority and firm disciplinary standards in the home. At the same time, these parents engage in many forms of compassionate childrearing, which includes less yelling," said Bartkowski. "Best-selling conservative Protestant childrearing manuals sold through Christian bookstores bring together themes of parental authority with elements of compassionate childrearing."
Moreover, the results show that conservative Protestant parents do not exhibit the pattern of behavior associated with abusive parenting-a pattern that encompasses high rates of corporal punishment, low levels of parental affect, and high rates of yelling. Previous work by Ellison and Bartkowski indicates that conservative Protestant parents are more likely to use corporal punishment. But this study, along with Wilcox's 1998 study, suggests that the conservative Protestant parenting style cannot be characterized as abusive and authoritarian because this parenting approach is high on parental affect and low on parental yelling. Wilcox and Bartkowski call this a "neotraditional" approach because it incorporates progressive elements-a warm, expressive approach to everyday parenting-and traditional elements-a puritanical stress on a controlled, disciplinary style.
The two articles mentioned above can be viewed at
http://www.opr.princeton.edu/faculty/wbwilcox.html
Contact InformationW. Bradford Wilcox, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing
Princeton University Office: (609) 258-6977
Home: (609) 921-8242
wbwilcox@oprmail.princeton.eduJohn P. Bartkowski, Sociology Department
Mississippi State University Office: (662) 325-8621
Home: (662) 324-7360
Bartkowski@Soc.MsState.Edu
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