The doctoral dissertation entitled »Encouragement of Psychosocial Development and its Relation to Parenting Styles in the Scope of Relational Family Therapy« explores the link between psychosocial development and parenting styles and the promotion of psychosocial development within the therapy process, following the paradigm of relational marriage and family therapy. The theoretical part relates to the following findings:
* Personality development takes place in terms of 8 stages and phases according to Erikson.
* Parental parenting styles are important in terms of facilitating an understanding of the internal constructs of primary relationships, which are crucial for the analysis of the underlying affect.
* Attachment, the partner relationship, the family environment and the dynamics within it are other important factors that contribute to the psychosocial development of the individual.
* RMFT takes a holistic view of the individual, which means that it looks at his or her personality, experience and functioning. Relationships are a key segment for analysing the psychological structure of an individual. Promoting psychosocial development within a relational marriage and family therapy paradigm thus serves as the foundation for the second part of the research.
The research part of the thesis contains two quantitative parts.
The first part of the research involved 502 participants included in the general part, in which the relationship between the psychosocial development of the individual and primary parenting is explored. Two questionnaires were used, one of which measures three parenting styles: permissive, authoritarian and authoritative (Parental Authority Questionnaire for the Mother's and Father's Parenting Style-PAQ) by J. R. Buri (1991). The second questionnaire refers to the stages of psychosocial development according to two authors, Wessman and Ricks (1966; after Lamovec 1994).
When tracing the mother's and father's parenting styles (authoritarian, permissive or authoritative) in relation to the stages of psychosocial development and the specific characteristics of each stage, we found that for the individual, who has been exposed to an authoritarian parenting style by his/her mother is more likely to have difficulty in passing through each developmental stage and to face more mistrust, shame, doubt, guilt in early childhood, role diffusion in puberty and isolation in young adulthood. Individuals with a permissive parenting style are more likely to experience more mistrust, guilt, inferiority, role diffusion and isolation in the young adult phase of psychosocial development.
Individuals with an authoritarian parenting style of the father are more likely to have difficulties in the transition between the different stages of psychosocial development. Individuals with a permissive parenting style are more likely to develop increased trust in early childhood, but at the same time are more likely to develop feelings of mistrust, shame, doubt, inferiority, role diffusion, isolation and increased initiative as well as guilt in the locomotor-genital phase. There is a trend for individuals with an authoritative parenting style to have an optimal transition in the oral-sensory phase, which means that there is a potential for easier development of trust with a reduced sense of guilt and an easier transition through puberty.
The second part of the quantitative research involved 86 participants divided into two groups of 43. The first group was included in the relational and family therapy process, while the second group did not receive any treatment. In this part of the PhD thesis, we investigate the promotion of psychosocial development within the therapeutic process of relational and family therapy in individuals involved in a continuous weekly process of twelve sessions advocated by the model. The study found that from the beginning to the end of the therapeutic process, psychosocial development improved significantly across the phases measured by the Psychosocial Development Questionnaire by the authors Wessman and Ricks (1966; adapted from Lamovec 1994), with the exception of the young adult phase, where there were no statistically significant or perceived changes. Individuals who were not involved in the therapy process had similar psychosocial development scores at baseline and at the end of the measurement, whereas individuals who were involved in the relational marriage and family therapy process had significantly lower psychosocial development than the control group at baseline, but this development levelled off or even improved after the process. A comparison between the RMFT group and the control group shows statistically significant differences, except for the young adult personality period. The RMFT group outperformed the control group in terms of promoting psychosocial development, after having lagged far behind at the beginning of the process. This suggests that relational marriage and family therapy processes and promotes psychosocial development in most stages or in most psychosocial domains.
Interpretation of the results of the first part of the study shows statistically significant associations between parenting styles and psychosocial development, with participants experiencing authoritative and permissive approaches in early childhood having the best chance of ensuring optimal psychosocial development. In the second part, we find statistically significant differences between the beginning and end measurements for the individuals who received RMFT, which means that the effect of the therapeutic approach in promoting the psychosocial development of the individual involved in the RMFT process is detected. The RMFT group and the control group differ significantly in terms of the parenting style - authoritarian and permissive mothering - and we note that these two parenting styles are represented in a significantly higher proportion in the group involved in the RMFT process. The RMFT group is at a lower level of psychosocial development at the first measurement, but catches up with the control group at all levels of psychosocial development at the second measurement. At the end of the second measurement, the RMFT group shows a greater discrepancy with the control group in the muscular-anal, the locomotor-genital, and the puberty stages - in the dimension of role diffusion, and in the young adulthood stage - in the dimension of isolation.
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