Effects Of Parental Criticism On Spousal Communication

Amy Benitez

Final Essay

COMM 4360

Intro/Thesis: "How does parental criticism affect spousal communication?” Parents are a child’s first teacher; making their communications the most influential in how a child learns to communicate with others. Children are often affected into their adult life by the interactions they have with the environment around them. Positive parenting creates the personality traits that are involved in functional social skills. For this paper we will look at how parental criticism affects communications outside the parent-child relationship, specifically spousal communication. The research available for the subject of parental criticism’s influence on spousal communication is limited, for this paper it

For some parents the purpose of criticism is to correct certain aspects they find unacceptable in their child. These criticisms can vary in degrees of intensity and long term effects. Although the intention is not always to damage the child, the child’s perception of the criticism is that they are either a bad person or aren’t good enough creating an inner dialogue that is damaging to a child’s psyche. The outcomes of these perceptions can cause the long term psychological and emotional damage resulting in communicative difficulties within relationships long after childhood. Malik, Sikander, & Iftikhar(2015) describe the impact of parenting on a child stating the future of the child is influenced by his past, as parents, we must work hard in those magnificent first few years of learning to interact with one another with more than just

Lomanowska, Boivin, Hertzman,& Fleming(2017) explain parenting is considered to be the cornerstone of early socio-emotional development and an adverse parenting style is associated with adjustment problems and a higher risk of developing mood and behavioral disorders. There are four parenting styles which include authoritative, authoritarian, rejecting-neglecting and permissive. Authoritative parenting is supportive and responsive with high expectations; communication within this style of parenting is bidirectional, authoritarian parenting has high expectations with little warmth and no opportunity for communication between parent and child. Rejecting-neglecting parents are often with self-absorbed in that they are more concerned with their own needs than their children; they are not responsive or supportive of their children. In findings from a study of juvenile offenders by Lamborn, Mounts, Steinberg & Dornbusch (1991), they( juvenile offenders) describe their parents as authoritative are more psychosocially mature, more academically competent, less prone to internalized distress, and less likely to engage in problem behavior than their peers, whereas those who describe their parents as neglectful are less mature, less competent, and more troubled. This study is helpful in measuring outcomes for adolescents from one the four parenting