Data were collected in November 2017. 3. Parenting-Framed Messages These parenting-framed messages were developed with guidelines from previous research focusing on parenting styles and attitudes and perceptions of adolescent risky behaviors . The messages were framed with respect to either of the parent’s or caregiver whom the participant identified with. Before viewing the messages, each participant was asked to identify which parent or caregiver they will be thinking of when answering the questions. Each message differed with respect to the parenting style measured . The messages began with the following guidelines: “We are interested in understanding the observations that instantly enter your mind if your parent or caregiver was to have this conversation with you about certain behaviors. When answering these questions, please consider one of your parents or caregiver. Remember that it is your immediate impressions that we are interested in when you read the message.” Below we include the three parenting-framed messages of unhealthy eating and marijuana use. 3.1. Unhealthy Eating Messages Authoritative Parenting Style: “I wanted to have a conversation with you about unhealthy eating because I care about you. I want to make sure that we both have an equal opportunity to express our feelings to each other about unhealthy eating in a respectful matter. So, I am curious to know if you think eating unhealthy is harmful to you. Is there anything you have heard or seen in school, movies, growing racks or music about unhealthy eating? I want you to feel safe to communicate any feelings you may have towards unhealthy eating with me, I am here for you. Please know that you are in a safe place to communicate your feelings.”
Authoritarian Parenting Style: “We are having a conversation about unhealthy eating because it is harmful to you and your health. You will listen to me and do as I say, because I am your parent and my opinion about this is what matters most. So, I want you to know that eating unhealthy is very harmful to you and I do not want you to ever try it. Is there anything you have heard or seen in school, movies, or music about unhealthy eating? You need to tell me this because if you don’t you could get in a lot of trouble in school and at home.” Permissive Parenting Style: “I was wondering if it would be possible to have a conversation with you about unhealthy eating? I am not sure if you want to talk about this, do you think it would be okay? But, then again, we should have this conversation. So, I am curious to know what you think about eating unhealthy and if it is harmful to you. Is there anything you have heard or seen in school, movies, or music about unhealthy eating? If you don’t want to talk to me about this, I guess it is okay. But if you do talk to me about this I will make sure to make your favorite dinner and take you to the movies.”This measure derived from Buri and is a reliable measurement for assessing perception of parenting styles of authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive. Previous research has focused on the importance of investigating both parent and child reports of the parents’ parenting styles in order to accurately assess the typology of parenting styles across parent and child samples. The measure includes 60 items, 30 items referring to the mother, and 30 items referring to the father.
We used an adapted version of the questionnaire that measured only 30 items by changing the wording of the items to refer to “parent.” Prior to answering the questions for the PAQ, participants received an open-ended question that stated, “Please let us know which parent or caregiver you are thinking of” Then, the participant responded to the items included in the measure. Some examples of items include: “Whenever my parent told me to do something as I was growing up, he/she expected me to do it immediately without asking questions”, “My parent has always felt that what I need is to be free to make up my own mind and to do what I want to do, even if this does not agree with what he/she might want”, “As I was growing up, my parent did not allow me to question any decision he/she made”, and “As the children in my family were growing up, my parent consistently gave us direction and guidance in rational and objective ways.” Items ratings ranged from 1 to 5 .Table 2d presents the unhealthy eating zero-order correlations for the measures of attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, authoritative parenting style, authoritarian parenting style, permissive parenting style, perceived effectiveness, perceived interpretability, motivations to discuss behavior, and discussion similarity. For attachment anxiety, there was a positive correlation with perceived effectiveness of authoritarian message, perceived interpretability of authoritarian message, and motivations to discuss unhealthy eating for authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive messages, and discussion similarity of authoritarian message. In contrast, it was negatively correlated with perceived effectiveness of authoritative message.
For attachment avoidance, there was a positive correlation with discussion similarity of authoritarian message, and negative correlations with perceived effectiveness of authoritative message, motivations to discuss unhealthy eating for authoritative message, and discussion similarity of authoritative message. For perceived authoritative style of the parent, there was a positive correlation with perceived effectiveness of authoritative message and discussion similarity of authoritative and permissive message; in contrast it was negatively correlated with perceived interpretability of authoritative message and discussion similarity of authoritarian message. For the perceived authoritarian style of the parent, there was a positive correlation with discussion similarity of authoritarian message. Perceived permissive style of the parent was positively associated with perceived effectiveness of the authoritarian message, motivations to discuss authoritative message and permissive message, and discussion similarity of authoritative and permissive messages. In contrast, it was negatively correlated with perceived effectiveness of authoritative message and discussion similarity of authoritarian message.Table 2e presents the marijuana use zero-order correlations for the measures of attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, authoritative parenting style, authoritarian parenting style, permissive parenting style, perceived effectiveness, perceived interpretability, motivations to discuss behavior, and discussion similarity. For attachment anxiety, there was a positive correlation with perceived effectiveness of authoritarian message, perceived interpretability of authoritative and authoritarian messages, and motivations to discuss marijuana use for permissive message, and discussion similarity of authoritarian message. In contrast, it was negatively correlated with discussion similarity of authoritative message. For attachment avoidance, there was a positive correlation with discussion similarity of authoritarian message and negative correlations with perceived effectiveness of authoritative message, and discussion similarity of authoritative message. For perceived authoritative style of the parent, there was a positive correlation with perceived effectiveness of authoritative message and discussions similarity of authoritative and permissive messages; in contrast it was negatively correlated with perceived interpretability of permissive message and discussion similarity of authoritarian message. For the perceived authoritarian style of the parent, there was a positive correlation with discussion similarity of authoritarian message and negative correlations with discussion similarity of authoritative and permissive messages. Perceived permissive style of the parent was positively correlated with motivations to discuss marijuana use for authoritative message, and discussion similarity of authoritative and permissive messages. In contrast, it was negatively correlated with discussion similarity of authoritarian message.Overall, participants were more likely to rate the authoritative parenting-framed messages of unhealthy eating and marijuana use as higher in effectiveness, interpretability, motivations to discuss the behavior, and discussion similarity compared to the authoritarian and permissive parenting-framed messages. Initially, this study explored the associations of attachment styles and parenting styles as perceived about one’s parent . It was found that lower attachment anxiety and lower attachment avoidance were associated with higher authoritative parenting styles. Several studies have found an association between secure attachment and authoritative parenting styles, where parents who display secure attachment are likely to practice an authoritative parenting style . Whereas, lower secure attachment was associated with stronger preferences for the authoritarian-framed messages of unhealthy eating and marijuana use.
These findings converge with previous evidence of a negative relationship between secure attachment and authoritarian parenting styles . In contrast, commercial weed grow lower secure attachment did not predict evaluations of permissive parenting-framed messages of unhealthy eating and marijuana use. These seem to be consistent with associations of attachment styles and parenting styles in Study 1. The study mostly revealed a coherent pattern of significant associations of lower levels of attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance, and higher authoritative parents exhibiting greater acceptability of authoritative parenting framed messages of unhealthy eating and marijuana use compared to higher levels of attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance, and higher authoritarian and permissive parents exhibiting greater acceptability of the authoritarian and permissive parenting framed messages . The parenting styles were as or more strongly associated with positive responses to the the parenting-framed messages compared to the attachment styles. These findings highlight the potential utility of framing the messages in accordance with parenting styles and how each of the styles had parallel comparisons to their own parenting-framed message . Subsequently, this study explored the relationship of parenting-framed messages of unhealthy eating and marijuana in terms of their perceived effectiveness, perceived interpretability, motivations to discuss behavior, and discussion similarity . Importantly, participants were more likely to rate the authoritative parenting-framed messages of unhealthy eating and marijuana use as higher in effectiveness, interpretability, motivation to discuss the behavior, and discussion similarity. These effects were likely to hold for authoritative parenting-framed messages for both unhealthy eating and marijuana use, suggesting the significance of developing tools with inclusion of authoritative parenting characteristics to motivate parents to have discussions with their children about unhealthy eating and marijuana use. This directly supports the development of authoritatively-framed discussion tools implemented in Study 3, which directly incorporates the authoritative parenting-framed message used in Study 2. It further extends previous literature on the positive relationship of authoritative parenting style in motivating open communication about risky behaviors between parent and child . Strengths of the present study include its focus on a largely unexplored area of youth acceptability of newly developed parenting-framed messages to motivate discussions of unhealthy eating and marijuana use with parents. A second strength is that previous literature has not focused on the development of theory-driven discussion tools and reactions to them by youth. As a result, analyses were conducted to test for ethnic differences for message conditions, however there was no statistical significance. Limitations of this study require consideration when interpreting the results. First, the results may not be representative of all the nation or other countries, as it consisted primarily of individuals ages 18 to 20 years old attending a university in Central California. Further research is needed to assess these discussion message effects with a broader age group range, geographic location, etc. Second, the utilization of self-report on personal questions of unhealthy eating behavior and marijuana use behaviors may lead to social desirability bias in participant responses. Finally, the study focused on participant responses to hypothetical scenarios; more research can further this line of inquiry by testing whether participants would have similar responses to actual communications with parents.This chapter begins with a description of Study 3 including aims and hypotheses; discussion of Pilot Study; methods ; discussion of manipulations ; detailed list of measures; overview of statistical analyses; results, discussion, and conclusion of study. Results from Study 2 provided evidence that the authoritative parenting-framed message on talking with one’s parent about unhealthy eating and marijuana use was perceived by youth as the most effective in motivating discussions about these behaviors as compared with authoritarian and permissive parenting-framed messages. In particular, authoritative parenting style was associated with higher ratings of perceived effectiveness, perceived interpretability, motivations to discuss the behavior, and discussion similarity. These findings provided empirical justification to utilize the authoritative parenting-framed message within the context of the fuller tools that were developed in this study and administered to parents. The discussion similarity items were not tested in Study 3, as those questions were specific to youth in Study 2 with questions, such as, “If your parent were to ask you to have a discussion about unhealthy eating , how much of it would be similar to this message?”