engleski

Mothers' and fathers' parental behaviour and adult resilience

Research in the field of resilience has significantly increased over the past 20 years which implies recognition of this concept’s importance both from theoretical and practical perspective. Although definitions of resilience can differ depending on theoretical and research perspective, each definition emphasises its desirableness in terms of individual’s characteristic (developmental outcome) and implies interactive nature of this concept. For the purposes of this study, we have defined resilience as an ability to maintain adaptive functioning and sustain (or recover) mental health despite of different life-adversities. Resilience is related to personal, biological and environmental factors. Those related to the family context are very important (especially in childhood), since attachment and close relationships play significant role in developing adaptive functioning and ability to successfully cope with adversities in childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Regarding the family context, parents have a crucial role in providing protective family environment and building children’s resilience, which is, consequently, a predictor of adult resilience. One of the important parental characteristics is their parental behaviour i.e. different aspects of interaction with child and the parenting style. Therefore, this study aims to explore the relationship between mothers’ and fathers’ parental support, restrictive control and permissiveness and adult resilience. Additionally, mothers’ and fathers’ overall and specific involvement in children-related activities in everyday family-life is also explored in the context of their relationship with resilience. This study has been conducted on the sample of 120 students of the Faculty of Teacher Education in Zagreb who have completed two instruments: The Resilience Scale for Adults (Friborg et al, 2005), a self-report inventory measuring five dimensions of adult resilience (personal strength, social competence, structured style, family cohesion and social resources) and Parental Behaviour Questionnaire (Keresteš et al, 2012) measuring seven aspects of parental behaviour of their parents (warmth, autonomy, knowledge, inductive reasoning, permissiveness, punishment, and intrusiveness. Mothers’ and fathers’ parental behaviour and involvement in children-related activities are discussed from the perspective of their relationship with specific dimensions of resilience.

adult resilience; family context; parental behaviour

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