C‘hddAhuse & Negkcf, Vol. 16. pp. 239-249. Printed I” the U.S.A. All nghts reserved.
1992
0145.2134/92 $5.00 + .OO Copyright 0 1992 Pergamon Press Ltd.
PARENTING DIFFICULTIES AMONG SURVIVORS OF FATHER-DAUGHTER
ADULT INCEST
PAMELAM.COLE National Institute of Mental Health
CHRISTIWOOLGERANDTHOMASG.POWER University of Houston
K.DANIELLESMITH National Institute of Mental Health
Abstract-Women with a history of father-daughter incest as children often report difficulty in parenting their own children. This study examined the self-reported parenting experience and practices of women who were incest victims as children. Since many incest victims are also children of alcoholics, we compared their reports of parenting with those of women whose fathers were alcoholic but not sexually abusive, and to women who had no known risk during their childhood. The findings were that incest survivors reported significantly less confidence and less sense of control as parents than nomisk mothers. In addition, they reported significantly less support in the parental partnership with their spouses, and reported being less consistent and organized, and making fewer maturity demands on their children. The findings are discussed in terms of the incest survivor’s sense of inefficacy and loss of control, the potential ofthe marital relationship to buffer the adverse effects ofgrowing up in the dysfunctional, incestuous family, and future research directions. Key Words--Incest,
Parenting, Adult survivors, Self-reporting.
INTRODUCTION A COMMON CONCERN among adults in therapy who were incest victims as children is their relationship with their own children. Although not the focus of research on longterm effects, several authors have mentioned these concerns in their clinical discussions (e.g., Butler, 1978; Herman, 1981; Steele & Alexander, 1981). These clinicians have alluded to feelings of inadequacy, lack of appropriate role models, and a tendency to set high standards and to fail to meet them. In an exploratory study of parenting attitudes among women who were sexually abused as children, Cole and Woolger (1989a) found that both incest victims and those abused by unrelated men had similar child-rearing attitudes regarding nurturance and control of their
Presented in part at the Conference on Human Development, Richmond, Virginia, May 1990. Received for publication August 6, 1990; final revision received April 2, 199 I ; accepted April 3, 199 I. Requests for reprints may be sent to Pamela M. Cole, Laboratory of Developmental 15K, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892. 239
Psychology, NIMH, Building
240
P. M. Cole, C. Woolger, T. G. Power, and K. D. Smith
children, but that the incest victims had more stringent attitudes toward autonomy promotion. That is, their responses reflected a high interest in their children becoming self-sufficient as early as possible. Although relatively higher scores on autonomy promotion are regarded as positive attributes in the developmental literature on normative parenting, an examination of the incest victims’ responses indicated an extreme attitude. The finding was interpreted as a possible indication of incest victims distancing themselves from the demands of parenting. In our clinicial experience, mothers with a history of incest often reported positive attitudes toward child-rearing but often seemed hostile, resentful, and jealous when describing actual parenting situations. For us, this raised the question of whether the central problem among incest victims is coping with the emotional demands of parenting rather than an attitudinal problem (Cole & Woolger, 1989b). Most incest victims declare that they do not want to repeat the mistakes of their own parents and seem to endorse the basic values of warmth and reasonable control in their expectations of good parenting. However, given the effects of incest on their own ability to regulate emotion, these women may find it especially difficult to cope with the emotional demands that all children place on all parents. In these moments, incest victims may have a tendency to flee from the feelings of inadequacy and confusion that child-rearing evokes in them and be unable to modulate their feelings in the ways that mothers typically do. Thus, they feel overwhelmed and inadequate, blaming themselves for being poor parents and their children for being difficult. Feelings of confidence are an important aspect of successful parenting. Although some parents who are unskilled may feel confident (Fuller, 1987), feelings of confidence and adequacy have been associated with competence in mother-child interactions (Benedek, 1959; Davis, 1990; Shea & Tronick, 1988). Feelings of lack of confidence and worry about self as a parent have been reported by physically abusive mothers (Steele & Pollock, 1968; Trickett & Susman, 1988). Benedek ( 1959) suggested that confidence in one’s own parenting is a protection against the inevitable frustrations of parenting. The purpose of the present study was to examine the quality of the parenting experience, as well as parenting practices, of mothers with a history of father-daughter incest. Two comparison groups were included. Because many incest victims are also children of alcoholics, a group of mothers who were children of alcoholic fathers, but not sexually abused, were included as a risk comparison group. Many studies find that a majority of incest victims report concerns about their fathers’ alcohol use. The effects of growing up in an alcoholic family can be adverse and wide-ranging (Murray, 1989; Plant, Orford & Grant, 1989) and may produce negative intergenerational effects that influence the adult child’s parenting of her own children. By including a nonincest, children of alcoholics group, the unique contribution of incest to later parenting difficulties, over and above the contribution of growing up with an alcoholic parent, can be examined. Finally, a group of mothers with no known childhood risks provided a nonrisk comparison group. It was expected that incest victims would experience more dissatisfaction in their roles as parents than the nonrisk group, in part because of the impact of incest on their own emotion regulation skills (Cole & Woolger, 1989b). Their intentions to be better parents than their own parents are sabotaged in the actual moments of parenting when strong emotions are aroused. In these moments, the incest victim is at a loss to cope with her intense emotion and this may lead to inability to execute intentions to be understanding and firm. Consequently, the incest victim comes to feel overwhelmed and inadequate as a mother. In this study, we assessed experiential aspects of parenting, as well as parenting practices, to ascertain whether feelings of inadequacy would relate to any specific aspect of parenting style. We expected that incest victims would report less confidence and more feelings of being out of control as parents than the other two groups. Because they aspire to be warm, firm parents, we did not predict group differences between incest victims and other mothers on self-report
Incest and parenting
241
measures of nurturance and discipline. We did expect that some self-reported parenting practices would reveal difficulties incest victims encounter when feeling inadequate as parents, for example, consistency, organization, and structure in daily household life. In addition, we expected a relationship between the quality of the marital experience and the parenting experience, because of the general impact incest has on the development of relationships. For this reason, we examined the victim’s beliefs about the role of her spouse as a partner as well as her personal parenting experience. Cole and Woolger ( 1989a) found that parenting problems among sexual abuse victims were related to whether the father was the perpetrator and the quality of the relationship with the mother. In the present study, we investigated the perceived quality of life in the family of origin to explore whether specific dimensions of that family life (e.g., degree of conflict, lack of cohesion, degree of organization) are related to incest victims’ difficulties in parenting their own children.
METHOD Subjects
The two risk groups, women who were father-daughter incest victims and those who were children of alcoholic fathers, were recruited through public notices of workshops targeted on a variety of issues relevant to these groups (e.g., coping with depression, relationship issues). Interested participants called a university clinic; their questions were answered and a brief screening interview was conducted. Over the phone, the research project was described so workshop attendees were aware of both the research and service purposes of the workshops. All eligible candidates pa~icipated. The nonrisk group was recruited through university classes since the majority of women from the risk group had been in or had completed college. The recruitment was restricted to upper class and graduate courses to avoid differences in the ages of the groups. Only women who were mothers of children between the ages of 2- 14 years were included. The result was a sample of 20 women whose fathers were incestuous and alcoholic, 25 women whose fathers were alcoholic only, and 39 women whose fathers presented no known problems. Only 5 women reported being sexually abused by a father who did not have problems with alcohol use. Since there were too few to create a separate group, these women’s data were excluded from the analyses. Demographic comparisons, using x2 analyses and t-tests, were conducted to ascertain the comparability of the groups. The groups were predominantly white, Christian, middle income, with at least some college education. The majority were married at the time ofthe study and the group had an average of 2.2 (SD = 1.1) children. Mothers selected one of their children for the focus of their answers on the parenting measures. The average age of this target child was 9.0 years (SD = 3.7) and 54.7% selected a son and 45.3% selected a daughter. The majority (90.6%) selected a biological child and the rest selected an adopted child (6.3%) or stepchild (3.2%). There were no differences between the three groups on any demographic characteristic (all p values > .15; see Table 1). The incest group was an average age of 6.9 years (SD = 3.8) at the time oftheir fathers’ first overt sexual activity, and 14.6 years (SD = 3.2) at the last time. The average duration of the incestuous relationship was 7.6 years (SD = 3.9). The women were not given a definition of incest but the group defined itselfwithin all acceptable definitions. All participants had experienced at least fondling of genital areas, and most reported attempted (32%) or actual (36%)
P. M. Cole, C. Woolger, T. G. Power, and K. D. Smith
242
Table 1. Demographic
Characteristics
of Incest, Alcohol, Children
and Nonrisk Mothers
Incest (n = 20)
ACOA
Nomisk
Cn = 25)
(n = 38)
36.7 12.1
24.1 6.3
16.5 3.8
5.1 15.2 13.9 15.2
8.9 11.4 7.6 2.5
6.3 1.6 5.1 1.3
21.8 3.8 23.1
10.3 5.1 15.4
6.4 2.6 11.5
44.3 5.1 36.9 9.2 2.3
24.5 5.9 35.2 9.1 2.4
14.7 5.6 35.3 8.1 1.8
Race % White % Nonwhite Education % High School % Some College % College Degree % Graduate Degree Occupation % Housewife % Unskilled % Skilled/Prof Marital Status % Married % Unmarried Maternal Age Target Child Age Number of Children
and Their
P< NS
NS
NS
NS
NS NS NS
N&e. Categorical variables were analyzed using chi-square analyses, and continuous variables were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance. NS = not significant.
intercourse. These characteristics suggest that the incest sample was similar to those in other nonclinical and nonwelfare samples. Parental alcohol use was assessed using the Children of Alcoholics Screening Test (CAST) (Jones, 1982), a measure designed to assess children’s concerns about each of their parents’ alcohol use. On the basis of this instrument, the incest and alcoholism groups did not differ in their concerns about parental alcohol use. Both groups endorsed an average of 75% of the items, indicating a high degree of concern about alcohol use and perceptions that their fathers’ alcohol use interfered with his functioning. Women who described themselves as adult children of alcoholics were screened out of the nonrisk group; therefore, this group reported very low scores on the CAST. An analysis of variance and follow-up t-test comparisons confirmed that the risk groups differed significantly from the nonrisk group, but not from each other: F(2, 77) = 113.85, p < .OOOl(incest M = 20.1, SD = 7.5; alcoholic only A4 = 20.8, SD = 6.5; nonrisk A4 = 1.6, SD = 4.0). Procedures
Women who were interested in participating in the study selected a workshop that they would like to attend. They were then mailed a packet of questionnaires to be returned on the day of the workshop. The packet included two parenting measures: Family Experiences Questionnaire (FEQ) (Frank, Hole, Jacobson, Justkowski & Huyck, 1986) is a 133-item instrument with a 4-point rating (strongly disagree to strongly agree) developed from parenting experience interviews. The measure yields 11 scales under two general factors: (a) the mother’s experience of her spouse’s contribution to the parental partnership and (b) her personal experience as a mother. The five parental partnership scales are: l
l
General Parenting Alliance-overall relation to parenting; Shared Responsibility-experience sponsibilities of parenting;
support and partnership within the marital dyad in of equality within the marital dyad in shouldering re-
Incest and parenting l l l
Denigration by Spouse-experience Discipline Conflict-disagreement Positive Problem-Solving-open rearing.
243
of criticism by spouse; between partners regarding child-rearing practices; communication between partners regarding child-
The 6 parent-child scales are: l l l l
l l
Confidence-sense of efficacy as a parent; Undercontrol-sense of lack of control over one’s own feelings related to parenting; Overcontrol-feelings of the need to control one’s children; Self-Gratification-pleasure in parenting derived from getting one’s own needs met through children; Role-Gratification-pleasure in parenting derived from the social role; Child-Gratification-pleasure in parenting derived from child’s needs being met.
A twelfth scale, Conventionality, is included to assess conformist attitudes that might challenge the validity of the responses. Norms, based on a sample of 1149 parents, are available from the author of the FEQ who is developing reliability and validity data. Preliminary data indicated concurrent validity with parenting stress (Frank et al., 1991) and the parenting alliance and denigration of spouse scales correlate with marital dissatisfaction (Floyd & Zmich, in press). Due to the lack of measures focused on self-confidence and feelings of control in parenting, the FEQ was selected as an appropriate, face valid instrument focusing on dimensions of clinical interest. In this sample, the internal consistency of the scales was high with alphas ranging from .80 to .89. The Parenting Dimensions Inventory (PDI) @later & Power, 1987) is a self-administered parenting questionnaire with 10 scales based on three parenting factors: (a) supportiveness (responsiveness, nurturance, and nonrestrictiveness), (b) structure (organization, consistency), and (c) control (maturity demands and different types of discipline practices, such as consequences, physical punishment, yelling, and reasoning). The instrument has demonstrated reliability (alpha coefficients ranging from .54 to .82 with a mean of .72), and a goodness-of-fit for confirmatory factor analysis ranging from 0.91 to 1.00 (average 0.96) across different samples. (Further details can be attained from the third author.) The Family Environment Scale (FES) (Moos & Moos, 1981) is a frequently used instrument for assessing quality of family life that has demonstrated extensive reliability and validity. For this study, 4 of the 10 FES scales were used: Cohesion, Conflict, Organization, and Control. Items were rephrased to reflect past tense. Participants also completed the Children’s Experiences Questionnaire, designed by the authors, to provide information on experiences with any form of child sexual abuse, and alcoholism or other forms of parental psychopathology. This measure was administered at the beginning of the workshop, rather than sent home, in order for staff to monitor any adverse reactions to responding to these questions. Although some negative emotions were displayed, no adverse reactions occurred. Consent procedures were conducted individually when women arrived for the workshop. They completed the Children’s Experience Questionnaire, and then the workshop began. After the workshop, there was time for a debriefing. Referrals were offered to women who were interested. All participants were able to complete the workshop. RESULTS Group D@erences in Quality of Family of Origin Life In order to compare the quality of life experience among the three groups, the FES scales were submitted to a separate one-way (Group) MANOVA that yielded a significant aggregate
244
P. M. Cole, C. Woolger, T. G. Power, and K. D. Smith Table 2. Means and Standard Deviations for Incest, Alcohol, and Nonrisk Mothers for Family of Origin Scales (FES)
Cohesion
M
SD Conflict Organization Control
M SD M SD M SD
Incest (n = 20)
ACOA (n = 25)
(n = 38)
Nonrisk
12.9 11.3 71.3 7.1
22.0 18.9 68.0 12.3
46.0 22.6 50.3 13.6
,000 1
42.0
41.9
55.6
,002
16.8 68.9
13.8 66.1
,024
8.8
12.0
12.0 61.0 11.0
P
1992
0145.2134/92 $5.00 + .OO Copyright 0 1992 Pergamon Press Ltd.
PARENTING DIFFICULTIES AMONG SURVIVORS OF FATHER-DAUGHTER
ADULT INCEST
PAMELAM.COLE National Institute of Mental Health
CHRISTIWOOLGERANDTHOMASG.POWER University of Houston
K.DANIELLESMITH National Institute of Mental Health
Abstract-Women with a history of father-daughter incest as children often report difficulty in parenting their own children. This study examined the self-reported parenting experience and practices of women who were incest victims as children. Since many incest victims are also children of alcoholics, we compared their reports of parenting with those of women whose fathers were alcoholic but not sexually abusive, and to women who had no known risk during their childhood. The findings were that incest survivors reported significantly less confidence and less sense of control as parents than nomisk mothers. In addition, they reported significantly less support in the parental partnership with their spouses, and reported being less consistent and organized, and making fewer maturity demands on their children. The findings are discussed in terms of the incest survivor’s sense of inefficacy and loss of control, the potential ofthe marital relationship to buffer the adverse effects ofgrowing up in the dysfunctional, incestuous family, and future research directions. Key Words--Incest,
Parenting, Adult survivors, Self-reporting.
INTRODUCTION A COMMON CONCERN among adults in therapy who were incest victims as children is their relationship with their own children. Although not the focus of research on longterm effects, several authors have mentioned these concerns in their clinical discussions (e.g., Butler, 1978; Herman, 1981; Steele & Alexander, 1981). These clinicians have alluded to feelings of inadequacy, lack of appropriate role models, and a tendency to set high standards and to fail to meet them. In an exploratory study of parenting attitudes among women who were sexually abused as children, Cole and Woolger (1989a) found that both incest victims and those abused by unrelated men had similar child-rearing attitudes regarding nurturance and control of their
Presented in part at the Conference on Human Development, Richmond, Virginia, May 1990. Received for publication August 6, 1990; final revision received April 2, 199 I ; accepted April 3, 199 I. Requests for reprints may be sent to Pamela M. Cole, Laboratory of Developmental 15K, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892. 239
Psychology, NIMH, Building
240
P. M. Cole, C. Woolger, T. G. Power, and K. D. Smith
children, but that the incest victims had more stringent attitudes toward autonomy promotion. That is, their responses reflected a high interest in their children becoming self-sufficient as early as possible. Although relatively higher scores on autonomy promotion are regarded as positive attributes in the developmental literature on normative parenting, an examination of the incest victims’ responses indicated an extreme attitude. The finding was interpreted as a possible indication of incest victims distancing themselves from the demands of parenting. In our clinicial experience, mothers with a history of incest often reported positive attitudes toward child-rearing but often seemed hostile, resentful, and jealous when describing actual parenting situations. For us, this raised the question of whether the central problem among incest victims is coping with the emotional demands of parenting rather than an attitudinal problem (Cole & Woolger, 1989b). Most incest victims declare that they do not want to repeat the mistakes of their own parents and seem to endorse the basic values of warmth and reasonable control in their expectations of good parenting. However, given the effects of incest on their own ability to regulate emotion, these women may find it especially difficult to cope with the emotional demands that all children place on all parents. In these moments, incest victims may have a tendency to flee from the feelings of inadequacy and confusion that child-rearing evokes in them and be unable to modulate their feelings in the ways that mothers typically do. Thus, they feel overwhelmed and inadequate, blaming themselves for being poor parents and their children for being difficult. Feelings of confidence are an important aspect of successful parenting. Although some parents who are unskilled may feel confident (Fuller, 1987), feelings of confidence and adequacy have been associated with competence in mother-child interactions (Benedek, 1959; Davis, 1990; Shea & Tronick, 1988). Feelings of lack of confidence and worry about self as a parent have been reported by physically abusive mothers (Steele & Pollock, 1968; Trickett & Susman, 1988). Benedek ( 1959) suggested that confidence in one’s own parenting is a protection against the inevitable frustrations of parenting. The purpose of the present study was to examine the quality of the parenting experience, as well as parenting practices, of mothers with a history of father-daughter incest. Two comparison groups were included. Because many incest victims are also children of alcoholics, a group of mothers who were children of alcoholic fathers, but not sexually abused, were included as a risk comparison group. Many studies find that a majority of incest victims report concerns about their fathers’ alcohol use. The effects of growing up in an alcoholic family can be adverse and wide-ranging (Murray, 1989; Plant, Orford & Grant, 1989) and may produce negative intergenerational effects that influence the adult child’s parenting of her own children. By including a nonincest, children of alcoholics group, the unique contribution of incest to later parenting difficulties, over and above the contribution of growing up with an alcoholic parent, can be examined. Finally, a group of mothers with no known childhood risks provided a nonrisk comparison group. It was expected that incest victims would experience more dissatisfaction in their roles as parents than the nonrisk group, in part because of the impact of incest on their own emotion regulation skills (Cole & Woolger, 1989b). Their intentions to be better parents than their own parents are sabotaged in the actual moments of parenting when strong emotions are aroused. In these moments, the incest victim is at a loss to cope with her intense emotion and this may lead to inability to execute intentions to be understanding and firm. Consequently, the incest victim comes to feel overwhelmed and inadequate as a mother. In this study, we assessed experiential aspects of parenting, as well as parenting practices, to ascertain whether feelings of inadequacy would relate to any specific aspect of parenting style. We expected that incest victims would report less confidence and more feelings of being out of control as parents than the other two groups. Because they aspire to be warm, firm parents, we did not predict group differences between incest victims and other mothers on self-report
Incest and parenting
241
measures of nurturance and discipline. We did expect that some self-reported parenting practices would reveal difficulties incest victims encounter when feeling inadequate as parents, for example, consistency, organization, and structure in daily household life. In addition, we expected a relationship between the quality of the marital experience and the parenting experience, because of the general impact incest has on the development of relationships. For this reason, we examined the victim’s beliefs about the role of her spouse as a partner as well as her personal parenting experience. Cole and Woolger ( 1989a) found that parenting problems among sexual abuse victims were related to whether the father was the perpetrator and the quality of the relationship with the mother. In the present study, we investigated the perceived quality of life in the family of origin to explore whether specific dimensions of that family life (e.g., degree of conflict, lack of cohesion, degree of organization) are related to incest victims’ difficulties in parenting their own children.
METHOD Subjects
The two risk groups, women who were father-daughter incest victims and those who were children of alcoholic fathers, were recruited through public notices of workshops targeted on a variety of issues relevant to these groups (e.g., coping with depression, relationship issues). Interested participants called a university clinic; their questions were answered and a brief screening interview was conducted. Over the phone, the research project was described so workshop attendees were aware of both the research and service purposes of the workshops. All eligible candidates pa~icipated. The nonrisk group was recruited through university classes since the majority of women from the risk group had been in or had completed college. The recruitment was restricted to upper class and graduate courses to avoid differences in the ages of the groups. Only women who were mothers of children between the ages of 2- 14 years were included. The result was a sample of 20 women whose fathers were incestuous and alcoholic, 25 women whose fathers were alcoholic only, and 39 women whose fathers presented no known problems. Only 5 women reported being sexually abused by a father who did not have problems with alcohol use. Since there were too few to create a separate group, these women’s data were excluded from the analyses. Demographic comparisons, using x2 analyses and t-tests, were conducted to ascertain the comparability of the groups. The groups were predominantly white, Christian, middle income, with at least some college education. The majority were married at the time ofthe study and the group had an average of 2.2 (SD = 1.1) children. Mothers selected one of their children for the focus of their answers on the parenting measures. The average age of this target child was 9.0 years (SD = 3.7) and 54.7% selected a son and 45.3% selected a daughter. The majority (90.6%) selected a biological child and the rest selected an adopted child (6.3%) or stepchild (3.2%). There were no differences between the three groups on any demographic characteristic (all p values > .15; see Table 1). The incest group was an average age of 6.9 years (SD = 3.8) at the time oftheir fathers’ first overt sexual activity, and 14.6 years (SD = 3.2) at the last time. The average duration of the incestuous relationship was 7.6 years (SD = 3.9). The women were not given a definition of incest but the group defined itselfwithin all acceptable definitions. All participants had experienced at least fondling of genital areas, and most reported attempted (32%) or actual (36%)
P. M. Cole, C. Woolger, T. G. Power, and K. D. Smith
242
Table 1. Demographic
Characteristics
of Incest, Alcohol, Children
and Nonrisk Mothers
Incest (n = 20)
ACOA
Nomisk
Cn = 25)
(n = 38)
36.7 12.1
24.1 6.3
16.5 3.8
5.1 15.2 13.9 15.2
8.9 11.4 7.6 2.5
6.3 1.6 5.1 1.3
21.8 3.8 23.1
10.3 5.1 15.4
6.4 2.6 11.5
44.3 5.1 36.9 9.2 2.3
24.5 5.9 35.2 9.1 2.4
14.7 5.6 35.3 8.1 1.8
Race % White % Nonwhite Education % High School % Some College % College Degree % Graduate Degree Occupation % Housewife % Unskilled % Skilled/Prof Marital Status % Married % Unmarried Maternal Age Target Child Age Number of Children
and Their
P< NS
NS
NS
NS
NS NS NS
N&e. Categorical variables were analyzed using chi-square analyses, and continuous variables were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance. NS = not significant.
intercourse. These characteristics suggest that the incest sample was similar to those in other nonclinical and nonwelfare samples. Parental alcohol use was assessed using the Children of Alcoholics Screening Test (CAST) (Jones, 1982), a measure designed to assess children’s concerns about each of their parents’ alcohol use. On the basis of this instrument, the incest and alcoholism groups did not differ in their concerns about parental alcohol use. Both groups endorsed an average of 75% of the items, indicating a high degree of concern about alcohol use and perceptions that their fathers’ alcohol use interfered with his functioning. Women who described themselves as adult children of alcoholics were screened out of the nonrisk group; therefore, this group reported very low scores on the CAST. An analysis of variance and follow-up t-test comparisons confirmed that the risk groups differed significantly from the nonrisk group, but not from each other: F(2, 77) = 113.85, p < .OOOl(incest M = 20.1, SD = 7.5; alcoholic only A4 = 20.8, SD = 6.5; nonrisk A4 = 1.6, SD = 4.0). Procedures
Women who were interested in participating in the study selected a workshop that they would like to attend. They were then mailed a packet of questionnaires to be returned on the day of the workshop. The packet included two parenting measures: Family Experiences Questionnaire (FEQ) (Frank, Hole, Jacobson, Justkowski & Huyck, 1986) is a 133-item instrument with a 4-point rating (strongly disagree to strongly agree) developed from parenting experience interviews. The measure yields 11 scales under two general factors: (a) the mother’s experience of her spouse’s contribution to the parental partnership and (b) her personal experience as a mother. The five parental partnership scales are: l
l
General Parenting Alliance-overall relation to parenting; Shared Responsibility-experience sponsibilities of parenting;
support and partnership within the marital dyad in of equality within the marital dyad in shouldering re-
Incest and parenting l l l
Denigration by Spouse-experience Discipline Conflict-disagreement Positive Problem-Solving-open rearing.
243
of criticism by spouse; between partners regarding child-rearing practices; communication between partners regarding child-
The 6 parent-child scales are: l l l l
l l
Confidence-sense of efficacy as a parent; Undercontrol-sense of lack of control over one’s own feelings related to parenting; Overcontrol-feelings of the need to control one’s children; Self-Gratification-pleasure in parenting derived from getting one’s own needs met through children; Role-Gratification-pleasure in parenting derived from the social role; Child-Gratification-pleasure in parenting derived from child’s needs being met.
A twelfth scale, Conventionality, is included to assess conformist attitudes that might challenge the validity of the responses. Norms, based on a sample of 1149 parents, are available from the author of the FEQ who is developing reliability and validity data. Preliminary data indicated concurrent validity with parenting stress (Frank et al., 1991) and the parenting alliance and denigration of spouse scales correlate with marital dissatisfaction (Floyd & Zmich, in press). Due to the lack of measures focused on self-confidence and feelings of control in parenting, the FEQ was selected as an appropriate, face valid instrument focusing on dimensions of clinical interest. In this sample, the internal consistency of the scales was high with alphas ranging from .80 to .89. The Parenting Dimensions Inventory (PDI) @later & Power, 1987) is a self-administered parenting questionnaire with 10 scales based on three parenting factors: (a) supportiveness (responsiveness, nurturance, and nonrestrictiveness), (b) structure (organization, consistency), and (c) control (maturity demands and different types of discipline practices, such as consequences, physical punishment, yelling, and reasoning). The instrument has demonstrated reliability (alpha coefficients ranging from .54 to .82 with a mean of .72), and a goodness-of-fit for confirmatory factor analysis ranging from 0.91 to 1.00 (average 0.96) across different samples. (Further details can be attained from the third author.) The Family Environment Scale (FES) (Moos & Moos, 1981) is a frequently used instrument for assessing quality of family life that has demonstrated extensive reliability and validity. For this study, 4 of the 10 FES scales were used: Cohesion, Conflict, Organization, and Control. Items were rephrased to reflect past tense. Participants also completed the Children’s Experiences Questionnaire, designed by the authors, to provide information on experiences with any form of child sexual abuse, and alcoholism or other forms of parental psychopathology. This measure was administered at the beginning of the workshop, rather than sent home, in order for staff to monitor any adverse reactions to responding to these questions. Although some negative emotions were displayed, no adverse reactions occurred. Consent procedures were conducted individually when women arrived for the workshop. They completed the Children’s Experience Questionnaire, and then the workshop began. After the workshop, there was time for a debriefing. Referrals were offered to women who were interested. All participants were able to complete the workshop. RESULTS Group D@erences in Quality of Family of Origin Life In order to compare the quality of life experience among the three groups, the FES scales were submitted to a separate one-way (Group) MANOVA that yielded a significant aggregate
244
P. M. Cole, C. Woolger, T. G. Power, and K. D. Smith Table 2. Means and Standard Deviations for Incest, Alcohol, and Nonrisk Mothers for Family of Origin Scales (FES)
Cohesion
M
SD Conflict Organization Control
M SD M SD M SD
Incest (n = 20)
ACOA (n = 25)
(n = 38)
Nonrisk
12.9 11.3 71.3 7.1
22.0 18.9 68.0 12.3
46.0 22.6 50.3 13.6
,000 1
42.0
41.9
55.6
,002
16.8 68.9
13.8 66.1
,024
8.8
12.0
12.0 61.0 11.0
P
