Historical Changes in Parenting: Separating Fact from Fiction

Objectives

The central question guiding this special collection is whether and how parenting has changed over the past decades. Parents today face quite a few (mostly negative) stereotypes about their parenting skills and experiences. For instance, parents are said to be more often overinvolved in their children’s lives (thereby displaying helicopter parenting) and have been characterized as more insecure and having a higher level of stress as compared to parents from previous generations. Although it is common in both popular media and scientific literature to assume historical or generational changes in parenting , there is surprisingly little empirical evidence for such generational differences.

Thus, for this special collection, we call for quantitative studies that compare different generational cohorts of parents in terms of parenting styles (e.g., authoritative, permissive, and authoritarian parenting), parenting dimensions (e.g., warmth, structure, autonomy-support, and psychological control), or parenting practices (e.g., monitoring, physical punishment, and time-out). Also of relevance are studies dealing with historical changes in parenting beliefs (e.g., parenting goals, ideals, or ideologies), cognitions (e.g., parenting self-efficacy and perceptions of social expectations for parenthood), and/or experiences (e.g., parenting stress, parental satisfaction, and parental burnout).

Methodologically, we particularly call for studies with a cross-temporal design, comparing parents (and/or children) of similar age but from different cohorts (see Trifan et al., 2014 for an example). Cross-temporal meta-analysis, where data on parenting are retrieved from available literature and correlated with the year of data collection (see Curran & Hill, 2022 for an example), can also yield relevant information for this special collection. In addition to merely describing historical changes in parenting, contributions can also aim to examine variables that play an intervening (i.e., mediating or moderating) role in historical changes (such as SES or cultural background; see Ryan et al., 2016 for an example) and consequences of historical changes in parenting for changes in youths’ mental health, behavior, or personality (see Collishaw et al., 2012 and Kreski et al., 2023 for examples).

Both short-term comparisons of cohorts (e.g., with an interval of 5 years between cohorts) and long-term comparisons (e.g., with an interval of 10 years or more) will be considered. Longitudinal studies (i.e., studies with a cohort-sequential design) are especially welcome for this special collection. Lastly, in addition to the quantitative studies we seek for this collection, systematic reviews conducted with established methodology (e.g., PRISMA) or studies using a quantitative (meta-analytic) approach will also be considered.

In sum, using quantitative approaches, studies considered for this special collection:

1. Explore/examine generational changes (or stability) in parenting during the last decades.

2. Elucidate potential mechanisms of historical changes in parenting, attending for instance to the role of socio-demographic changes in family structure (e.g., single parenthood and divorce), families’ economic situation, and cultural background.

3. Examine consequences of generational changes in parenting on youths adjustment. For example, multiple studies have documented increases in depression and anxiety among youth; how and in what ways might these changes correspond to possible shifts in parenting practices over time?

Types of Manuscripts considered

1. Empirical studies with a cross-temporal or cohort-sequential design

2. Cross-temporal meta-analyses

3. Systematic reviews conducted using established methodology (e.g. PRISMA, Cochrane)

(Note, qualitative manuscripts, qualitative meta-syntheses, or opinion pieces are not eligible for this call).

Implications for Research and Practice

1. To separate the myths from the facts about historical changes in parenting. This is important to provide a more accurate and balanced picture of trends in parenting, thereby countering or contextualizing negative stereotypes, and avoiding the risk of parent blaming.

2. To complement the description of generational changes with a deeper understanding of the mechanisms behind generational changes in parenting and their implications for children’s development.

3. To identify specific needs among today’s generations of parents. The identification of such generation-specific needs can inform parenting prevention and intervention efforts.

Planned Timeline

Issue call for papers in Q1/Q2 of 2024

Review manuscripts on a rolling basis (Q3-Q4, 2024)

Publish special section papers (5 minimum) in Q1/Q2 of 2025.

Commentaries

Action Editors Soenens and Shapiro to collaborate on opening and closing commentaries for the special section.

References

Collishaw, S., Gardner, F., Maughan, B., Scott, J., & Pickles, A. (2012). Do historical changes in parent–child relationships explain increases in youth conduct problems? Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 40, 119-132.

Curran, T., & Hill, A. P. (2022). Young people’s perceptions of their parents’ expectations and criticism are increasing over time: Implications for perfectionism. Psychological Bulletin, 148(1-2), 107.

Kreski, N. T., Riehm, K. E., Cerdá, M., Chen, Q., Hasin, D. S., Martins, S. S., ... & Keyes, K. M. (2023). Parenting practices and adolescent internalizing symptoms in the United States, 1991–2019. Journal of Adolescent Health, 72(2), 189-196.

Ryan, R. M., Kalil, A., Ziol-Guest, K. M., & Padilla, C. (2016). Socioeconomic gaps in parents' discipline strategies from 1988 to 2011. Pediatrics, 138(6), e0720-e0720.

Trifan, T. A., Stattin, H., & Tilton‐Weaver, L. (2014). Have authoritarian parenting practices and roles changed in the last 50 years? Journal of Marriage and Family, 76, 744-761.