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Repressive coping and self-reports of parenting
L B Myers1, C R Brewin, D A Winter
1Department of Psychiatry & Behavioural Sciences, University College London, UK.
Objectives:
To investigate whether women who possess a repressive coping style (repressors) self-report more positive judgments of their childhood on questionnaire and repertory grid measures compared with non-repressors.
Design:
Repressors (low anxiety-high defensiveness) were compared with a composite group of non-repressors, containing some low anxious (low anxiety-low defensiveness), some high anxious (high anxiety-low defensiveness), some defensive high anxious (high anxiety-high defensiveness) and some non-extreme scorers.
Methods:
Participants completed the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI; Parker, Tupling & Brown, 1979) and a 10 x 10 repertory grid, Self-Identification Form.
Results:
On the PBI, repressors scored significantly higher than non-repressors on paternal care and significantly lower on paternal overprotection. There were no group differences for maternal measures. On the repertory grid, repressors compared with non-repressors perceived (a) themselves as significantly closer to their father, a woman they like, and their ideal partner, and significantly further from a woman they dislike, and a man they dislike; and (b) their father as significantly closer to a woman they like, a partner/person they admire, and an ideal partner. In addition, repressors were significantly tighter on construing than non-repressors.
Conclusions:
The results supported the hypothesis that repressors would rate their interactions with their fathers more positively than non-repressors when allowed to do so on self-report measures.