Maternal and paternal parenting and child prosocial behavior: A meta-analysis using a structural equation modeling design

Lisa van der Storm*, Caspar J. van Lissa, Nicole Lucassen, Katrien O.W. Helmerhorst, Renske Keizer

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

22 Citations (Scopus)
70 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The current meta-analysis examined and compared the relative associations of maternal and paternal parenting behavior with children’s prosocial behavior from 29 studies. In total 502 effect sizes (N = 14,627) were subjected to Meta-Analytic Structural Equation Modeling. Controlling for the other parent, both maternal and paternal parenting behavior showed small positive pooled associations with children’s prosocial behavior (r father =.10 and r mother =.12). The partial effect sizes for paternal and maternal parenting did not differ significantly from each other and were significant regardless of parenting dimension, study design (concurrent versus predictive) and average sample age (pre-adolescence versus adolescence). High levels of paternal and maternal warmth and positive control, and low levels of paternal and maternal harshness were associated with more prosocial behavior in children.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-37
Number of pages37
JournalMarriage and Family Review
Volume58
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 21 May 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research to R.K. under Grant (NWO MaGW VIDI; number 452-17-005) and to C.v.L. (NWO MaGW VENI; number 191 G.090); and by the European Research Council to R.K. (ERC StG; number 757210).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

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