Journal of Moral Education

Vol. 39, No. 4, December 2010, pp. 491–509

Parenting and adolescents’ values and

behaviour: the moderating role of
temperament
Laura M. Padilla-Walker* and Larry J. Nelson
Brigham Young University, USA
Journal
10.1080/03057240.2010.521385
CJME_A_521385.sgm
0305-7240
Original
Taylor
402010
39
laura_walker@byu.edu
LauraPadilla-Walker
00000December
and
&ofArticle
Francis
Moral
(print)/1465-3877
Francis
Education
2010 (online)

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of parenting and adolescent fearfulness on
adolescents’ pro-social values and pro-social and antisocial behaviour. A total of 134 adolescents
(M age = 16.22, 72 girls, 62 boys) responded to questions regarding their own fearfulness, pro-
social values and pro-social and antisocial behaviour, as well as their perceptions of maternal
attachment and maternal appropriateness. Results revealed few main-effect findings, most notably
a negative relation between attachment and antisocial behaviour. However, findings pointed to
several multiplicative relations as a function of parenting, adolescent fearfulness, and child gender,
including: (1) maternal appropriateness was more important for boys than for girls, (2) maternal
attachment was related to greater importance of pro-social values and higher pro-social behaviour
for boys low on fear and (3) maternal appropriateness was related to lower antisocial behaviour for
boys low on fear. The discussion focuses on the importance of examining the multiplicative rela-
tions between parenting and adolescent temperament and the implications of this for both educa-
tors and parents.

Introduction
Research has found that parental socialisation promotes positive moral development
(Kochanska, 1997; Hoffman, 2000) and serves as a protective factor against antisocial
behaviour during adolescence (Baumrind, 1991). Research also suggests the impor-
tance of examining the child’s individual temperament as a factor in determining posi-
tive and negative outcomes in both childhood and adolescence (Rothbart & Ahadi,
1994). Although effective socialisation by both parents and educators may differ as a
function of the child’s temperament (Hoffman, 1983; Kochanska, 1995, 1997), few
studies have examined the goodness-of-fit between parenting and temperament during
adolescence. Further, even fewer studies have examined the interaction between
parenting and temperament on adolescents’ pro-social development. Adolescence is a
period during which both pro-social (Eisenberg & Morris, 2004) and antisocial (Zapert

*Corresponding author: 2097 JFSB, School of Family Life, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT
84602, USA. Email: laura_walker@byu.edu
ISSN 0305-7240 (print)/ISSN 1465-3877 (online)/10/040491–19
© 2010 Journal of Moral Education Ltd
DOI: 10.1080/03057240.2010.521385
http://www.informaworld.com
492 L. M. Padilla-Walker and L. J. Nelson

et al., 2002) behaviour increases and is therefore an important developmental period

in which to examine possible correlates of both positive and negative development.

Maternal attachment
As noted, researchers have found that maternal support and attachment promote
positive outcomes and serve as protective factors against adolescents’ antisocial
behaviour (Baumrind, 1991; Lamborn et al., 1991). In addition, research suggests
that attachment plays an important role in promoting children’s pro-social behaviour
and internalisation of values (Bretherton et al., 1997; Kochanska, 1997). A recent
study highlighted the importance of a positive parent–child relationship and
suggested that attachment moderated the relation between parental responsiveness
and early conscience development, such that responsiveness was only related to posi-
tive outcomes for children who were securely attached (Kochanska et al., 2004).
Despite an increased desire for autonomy during adolescence, adolescent autonomy
is most aptly achieved in the context of a secure parent–adolescent relationship.
Indeed, research suggests that adolescents with a secure maternal attachment have
fewer internalising and externalising problems and more secure peer relationships
than do adolescents with an insecure attachment (Allen & Land, 1999; Buist et al.,
2004). Although research suggests that attachment promotes early conscience devel-
opment and internalization of values in young children (Bretherton et al., 1997) there
has been little research examining the role of maternal attachment on pro-social
development during adolescence.

Appropriateness of maternal reactions

Another aspect of parenting that becomes salient during adolescence is maternal
appropriateness, or adolescents’ perceptions of how well the maternal reaction fits
the situation (Wyatt & Carlo, 2002; Padilla-Walker & Carlo, 2006; Padilla-Walker,
2008). Highlighting the active role of the child in the socialisation process, Grusec
and Goodnow (1994) suggested that how appropriately parents are perceived as
responding to any given situation is essential to whether or not adolescents will
choose to accept parental socialisation messages. For example, research has found
that adolescents’ perceptions of appropriate parental reactions (Wyatt & Carlo,
2002) and domain-appropriate parental discipline (Padilla-Walker, 2008) were
related positively to adolescents’ pro-social behaviour and negatively to adolescents’
antisocial behaviour, even after controlling for parental discipline. This suggests that
appropriateness may be a more important predictor of adolescent outcomes than
parenting practices alone, especially during adolescence when issues of fairness
become more salient. Although there is a growing body of research supporting the
importance of adolescents’ perceptions of domain-appropriate parental reactions,
more research is needed on how this aspect of parenting functions in relation to more
commonly measured aspects of parenting, as well how the importance of appropri-
ateness varies as a function of characteristics of the child.
 Parenting and adolescent temperament 493

Temperamental fearfulness
Research on the role of temperament and emotion on pro-social behaviour tends to
focus on moral emotions such as empathy, sympathy, shame and guilt as factors that
promote pro-social development (Eisenberg, 2000). There has been much less
research examining the role of temperamental fearfulness, or feelings of anxiety or
worry due to anticipation of potentially painful or threatening situations (Rothbart
et al., 2001), on pro-social values and pro-social behaviour, and what little work has
been done was conducted with younger children rather than adolescents. In regard
to pro-social values, research suggests that the more opportunities children are given
to participate in pro-social behaviour, the more likely they are to see the benefit of
their work and to consider pro-social values as important (see Carlo et al., 2005). If
this is the case, it is possible that children who are too inhibited to act pro-socially
might not have the experiences that lead to high levels of pro-social values. In regard
to pro-social behaviour, the extant research suggests that children who are fearful
experience greater empathic concern (Rothbart et al., 1994), but in turn are too
inhibited to act upon that concern (Eisenberg et al., 1996), resulting in lower levels
of pro-social behaviour. Taken together, there is conceptual and empirical evidence
that fearfulness in children may be negatively linked to pro-social values and behav-
iour, but we are unaware of any research examining the relation between tempera-
mental fearfulness and pro-social values and behaviour during adolescence.
In relation to antisocial behaviour, research on young children suggests that
temperamental fearfulness may serve as a protective factor against later aggression
and antisocial behaviour (Rothbart et al., 1994). However, research on fearfulness
has been scarce during adolescence, in part because fear is often examined as part of
the larger construct of ‘negative reactivity’ or ‘negative emotionality’, along with anxi-
ety, sadness, irritation and shyness (Capaldi & Rothbart, 1992). Negative reactivity
in adolescence has been found to be related to lower levels of problem behaviour in
some studies (Kochanska, 1993; Rothbart et al., 1994) but related to higher levels of
problem behaviour in others (Krueger et al., 1994; Sher & Trull, 1994). These mixed
findings underscore the need to look at how the specific aspects of temperament that
make up ‘negative reactivity’ (e.g. fearfulness) may be linked to antisocial behaviour.
Hence, based on research suggesting the importance of temperamental fearfulness in
younger children (Kochanska, 1993, 1995, 1997) and the dearth of research in
adolescence examining the links between fearfulness, specifically and antisocial
behaviour, the current study examined temperamental fearfulness independently
from other aspects of negative emotionality.

Interaction between temperamental fearfulness and parenting

Although adolescents’ level of temperamental fearfulness may impact both pro-social
and antisocial behaviour, it is also important to determine how temperament may
moderate the impact of parenting on adolescent behaviour, which was the focus of
the current study. Research with young children has found few main effects of
494 L. M. Padilla-Walker and L. J. Nelson

temperamental fearfulness after children pass toddler age (Kochanska, 1997), but
suggests that these main effects may be replaced with multiplicative effects of parental
socialisation and fearfulness (Kochanska, 1993, 1997). In a study examining the
interactive effect of parental socialisation and child fearfulness on early conscience
development, Kochanska (1997) found that for children who were relatively fearful,
induction (i.e. gentle discipline that encourages children to focus on the feelings of
others) promoted compliance and early conscience development. However, for chil-
dren who were relatively fearless and did not readily respond to gentle discipline, a
secure parent–child attachment was found to be an important predictor of conscience
development.
These findings have important implications for the socialisation of young children,
but relatively few studies have examined temperament as a moderator of the impact
of parenting on adolescent outcomes. The work that does exist has focused on
aspects of temperament such as positive emotionality (Wills et al., 2001), anger and
sociability (Carlo et al., 1998) and negative affectivity (Stice & Gonzales, 1998).
These studies point to the role that temperament may play in moderating the impact
of parenting on adolescent outcomes. For example, Carlo et al. (1998), found that
antisocial behaviour was low when parental support was high and adolescent anger
and sociability were low. Hence, it is possible that fearfulness (high or low levels of
it) may play a role in the link between parenting and both pro-social values and pro-
social and antisocial behaviour. Indeed, if being relatively fearful or fearless is a risk
factor for adolescents’ positive development, it is possible that parenting will be more
important for adolescents who are at greater temperamental risk (i.e. either relatively
fearful or relatively fearless). However, because we are unaware of any research
directly examining the interactive effect of parenting and adolescent fearfulness, we
explored these associations in the current study.

Gender differences
Another important purpose of the study was to explore for potential gender
differences in these associations. There are several reasons why gender may play an
important role in the links between parenting, adolescent fearfulness and adolescents’
pro-social values and pro-social and antisocial behaviour. First, in the research exam-
ining fearfulness in social settings, researchers have not found significant gender
differences in the frequency of various withdrawn behaviours (Coplan et al., 1994,
2001; Coplan & Rubin, 1998), but they have found gender differences in the
outcomes associated with the display of these behaviours. In particular, withdrawn
behaviours have been shown to have more maladaptive outcomes for boys than for
girls throughout childhood (e.g. Nelson et al., 2005) and adolescence (Morison &
Masten, 1991). While social fearfulness is not completely synonymous with the
temperamental fearfulness being examined in this study, this body of research
suggests that a component of fear (i.e. social fearfulness) has greater psychological
costs for males than females and therefore suggests that exploring for gender differ-
ences in the current examination of fear is needed.
 Parenting and adolescent temperament 495

Second, gender socialisation literature suggests that females are particularly

attuned to relationships and the ethics of caring (Gilligan, 1982; Huston, 1983;
Miller, 1986), and research consistently finds that females self-report more pro-social
behaviours than do males (Eisenberg & Fabes, 1998). In addition, research suggests
that adolescent boys and girls have potentially different relationships with their
parents during adolescence (Steinberg & Silk, 2002) and that these differences vary
as a function of the aspect of parenting being assessed (Leaper, 2002). Thus, it is
possible that the relationship that girls have with their mother will influence the
proposed associations differently than it will for boys. Taken together, these two
bodies of literature underscore the need to examine gender differences in the links
between parenting, adolescent fearfulness and adolescents’ pro-social values and pro-
social and antisocial behaviour.

Hypotheses and summary

Based on existing research, we expected adolescents’ perceptions of maternal
attachment (Baumrind, 1991; Bretherton et al., 1997) and appropriateness
(Padilla-Walker, 2008) to be positively related to pro-social values and behaviour
and negatively related to antisocial behaviour. Based on research suggesting few
direct effects of temperamental fearfulness past childhood (Kochanska, 1997), we
did not expect consistent main effects of fearfulness. Based on research by
Kochanska (1995, 1997) suggesting the importance of attachment for relatively
fearless children, we expected that maternal attachment would be related to posi-
tive outcomes for relatively fearless adolescents. Given that maternal appropriate-
ness also taps into the overall quality of the parent–child relationship and has
been found to be uniquely and directly negatively related to antisocial behaviour
(Padilla-Walker, 2008), we also explored the possibility of the importance of
maternal appropriateness for relatively fearless adolescents, especially in relation to
antisocial behaviour. Kochanska also suggested the importance of gentle disci-
pline for relatively fearful children. Given that maternal appropriateness is a
reflection of domain-appropriate parental discipline, we explored the possibility
that maternal appropriateness would be related to positive outcomes for relatively
fearful adolescents. In addition, given differential parenting (Steinberg & Silk,
2002) and differences in behavioural outcomes (e.g. Eisenberg & Fabes, 1998;
Galambos, 2004) as a function of adolescent gender, we explored possible gender
differences in the relations between parenting and temperament on adolescent
outcomes.
In summary, the purpose of the current study was to examine the impact of parent-
ing (e.g. maternal attachment and appropriateness) and adolescent fearfulness on
adolescents’ pro-social values and pro-social and antisocial behaviour. Given the
dearth of research on this topic, we felt it important to examine this topic in an
attempt to provide knowledge that could be useful to both parents and educators.
Although the current study directly assessed parents as socialisation agents of
adolescents’ development, these constructs have important implications for moral
496 L. M. Padilla-Walker and L. J. Nelson

educators as well, who also play an important role in the socialisation of adolescents’
pro-social and antisocial development. For example, the concept of appropriateness
also has relevant application for educators, as researchers have noted the importance
of teachers responding in a domain-appropriate fashion following student transgres-
sion (Nucci, 1984; Killen et al., 1994). Further implications will be expanded upon
in the discussion.

Methods
Participants
A total of 134 adolescents who attended a public high school in a mid-sized commu-
nity in the Midwest region of the USA participated in the study. There were slightly
more girls (n = 72) than boys (n = 62) and adolescents ranged from 14–18 years
of age (M age = 16.22, SD = 1.27). The majority of adolescents were European
American (84%), with 5% Asian American and 7% from other ethnic groups. Of
adolescents, 68% reported living with both of their parents and 60% estimated a
yearly household income of $45,000 or above.

Procedure
All teachers at a local high school were given letters requesting that they allow their
students to participate in the study. Of the 45 teachers who agreed to participate,
eight classrooms were randomly selected (using a random numbers list) to complete
the study. Of the 140 students selected, 134 were granted parental consent and
agreed to participate. Researchers administered questionnaires to the students at
school during class and the questionnaire packet took approximately 30 minutes to
complete.

Measures
Adolescents completed a number of demographic questions, including questions
about age, gender, estimated family income and race. Adolescents also completed
measures assessing maternal attachment, the appropriateness of maternal parenting
practices and measures of their own fearfulness, pro-social values and pro-social and
antisocial behaviour.

Maternal attachment. Maternal attachment was assessed using the Inventory for
Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA: Armsden & Greenberg, 1987). Adolescents
responded to 12 items regarding maternal attachment on a five-point Likert-type
scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (always). Sample items include, ‘If my mother
knows something is bothering me, she asks me about it’ and ‘My mother encourages
me to talk about my difficulties’. Responses were averaged with higher scores indi-
cating adolescent perceptions of higher levels of maternal attachment (α = .90).
 Parenting and adolescent temperament 497

Maternal appropriateness. Appropriateness was assessed using a slight adaptation of

an open-ended measure of appropriateness used by Padilla-Walker and Carlo
(2004). Adolescents were asked to report on how their mother would typically
respond to 16 hypothetical situations, basing their responses on interactions with
their mother in the last six months. Example items include, ‘How would you expect
your mother to respond if she found out you lied to her?’ and ‘How would you
expect your mother to respond if she found out you had been drinking or smoking?’
After each hypothetical situation, adolescents were asked to rate how appropriate
they thought their mother’s reaction was in that situation on a five-point Likert-type
scale ranging from 1 (very inappropriate) to 5 (very appropriate). The 16 appropri-
ateness ratings were averaged to create an overall appropriateness score, with higher
scores indicating adolescent perceptions of higher levels of maternal appropriateness
(α = .91).

Adolescent fearfulness. Adolescent fearfulness was assessed using an adaptation of the

fearfulness subscale of the Children’s Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ: Rothbart et al.,
2001). Based on items from the Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire
(EATQ; Capaldi & Rothbart, 1992), items were adapted slightly to be more appro-
priate for adolescents. Sample items include, ‘I am afraid of being home alone’, ‘I am
afraid when entering a darkened room at night’ and ‘I get nervous when I am walking
alone.’ Adolescents rated 11 items on a five-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1
(extremely untrue) to 5 (extremely true). Responses were averaged, with higher
scores representing higher levels of adolescent fearfulness (α = .80).

Importance of pro-social values. Pro-social values were measured using the Values in
Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS: Peterson & Seligman, 2004). The measure
was slightly adapted to fit the goals of the current study by using four questions each
from the honesty, kindness and fairness subscales (12 items in total). To assess the
importance of personal values, adolescents were asked to report on the importance of
positive values by rating each statement (e.g. ‘It is important for me to be honest’, ‘It
is important for me to voluntarily help strangers in need’, ‘It is important for me to
treat everyone fairly’) on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
Responses were averaged, with higher scores indicating greater importance of pro-
social values (α = 88).

Pro-social and antisocial behaviour. Pro-social behaviour was assessed using a scale
developed by Rushton et al. (1981). Ten items (out of 20) regarding the frequency
of adolescents’ pro-social behaviour (e.g. ‘I have done volunteer work for charity’,
‘I have helped someone who needed my help, even when it was inconvenient to me’,
‘I have comforted someone who was very upset’) considered most relevant for the
present age group were rated on a five-point scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (very
often). Responses were averaged, with higher scores indicating higher frequency of
pro-social behaviour (α = .82).
498 L. M. Padilla-Walker and L. J. Nelson

Antisocial behaviour was assessed using the Youth Version of the Child Behavior
Checklist (Achenbach, 1991). Nine items regarding delinquent behaviour (e.g.
‘I cut classes or skip school’, ‘I tease or am mean to others’, ‘I use alcohol or drugs’)
were rated on a five-point scale ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (very often). Responses
were averaged, with higher scores indicating higher frequency of antisocial behav-
iour (α = .84).

Results
Descriptive statistics, gender differences and correlations
We conducted a number of correlational analyses to determine if demographic vari-
ables (e.g. age, income) were related to any of the variables of interest and found no
statistically significant relations. We also conducted a number of univariate analyses
of variance (ANOVAs) to determine whether variables of interest differed as a func-
tion of child gender. Of the six ANOVAs conducted, three were statistically signifi-
cant and one was marginally significant. Table 1 presents the means and standard
deviations of the primary variables as a function of gender. Results suggest that girls
reported higher fearfulness, F(1, 132) = 23.93, p < .001, importance of pro-social
values, F(1, 132) = 12.31, p < .001, and pro-social behaviour, F(1, 132) = 10.21, p <
.01, than did boys.
Table 1 also presents correlations among the primary variables of interest,
conducted separately for boys and girls. Most notable for girls was that only 4 of the
15 correlations were significant, with maternal attachment negatively related to anti-
social behaviour as the only relation that emerged between parenting and adolescent
outcomes. Most notable for boys was that 10 of the 15 correlations were significant

Table 1. Correlations and descriptive statistics among primary variables

1 2 3 4 5 6 M (SD)

1. Maternal – .49*** .18 .31** .23+ −.31** 3.70 (.73)

attachment
2. Maternal .63*** – .15 .42*** .33** −.44*** 3.83 (.58)
appropriateness
3. Adolescent −.01 .18 – .16 .12 −.23**** 2.12 (.57)
fearfulness
4. Importance of pro- .13 .06 .02 – .64*** −.38** 3.65 (.69)
social values
5. Pro-social .07 −.05 −.08 .57*** – −.14 3.01 (.78)
behaviour
6. Antisocial −.33** −.15 .00 −.35** −.04 – 2.24 (.82)
behaviour
M (SD) 3.54 (.89) 3.89 (.61) 2.68 (.72) 4.01 (.49) 3.39 (.57) 2.01 (.59)

Notes: Values below the diagonal are for girls, values above the diagonal are for boys.
*p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001, **** p < .06.
 Parenting and adolescent temperament 499

(2 only marginally), with maternal attachment and appropriateness positively related

to importance of pro-social values and behaviour (marginally for attachment) and
negatively related to antisocial behaviour.

Hierarchical regression analyses predicting adolescent outcomes

We conducted a series of hierarchical multiple regression analyses to assess the main
effects and hypothesised interactions of adolescent gender, maternal attachment,
maternal appropriateness and fear on adolescents’ importance of pro-social values,
pro-social behaviour and antisocial behaviour. For each regression analysis, gender
of the adolescent was entered in the first step, the main effects of maternal attach-
ment, maternal appropriateness and adolescent fearfulness were entered in the
second step, the five, two-way interaction terms (gender x attachment, gender x
appropriateness, gender x fear, attachment x fear and appropriateness x fear) were
entered in the third step and the two, three-way interaction terms (gender x attach-
ment x fear and gender x appropriateness x fear) were added in the fourth step. The
scores on the predictors were centred prior to analyses in order to reduce collinearity
formed by the interaction terms. In order to examine the interactions between
variables, we calculated simple regression slopes for each predictor with values corre-
sponding to one standard deviation above the mean and one standard deviation
below the mean of adolescent fearfulness (Aiken & West, 1991). We then tested the
significance of the simple regression slopes.

Importance of pro-social values. Self-reported importance of pro-social values was

the criterion variable in the first analysis presented in Table 2. At Step 1, gender
accounted for a statistically significant proportion of variance, F(1, 132) = 12.31, p
< .001, and was positively related to importance of pro-social values (girls had the
higher coded value). At Step 2, maternal attachment, maternal appropriateness and
fear produced a .07 increase in the proportion of variance, F∆ (3, 129) = 3.30, p <
.05, although none of the variables added in Step 2 were independently related to
importance of pro-social values (appropriateness was marginally and positively
related to pro-social values). At Step 3, the two-way interactions produced a .07
increase in the proportion of variance, F∆(5, 124) = 2.19, p = .06, with the
interaction between gender and maternal appropriateness negatively related to pro-
social values. Follow-up analyses revealed that maternal appropriateness was
positively related to importance of values for boys (β = .34, t = 2.50, p < .01), but
not for girls (β = −.04, t = −.26, ns.). At Step 4, the three-way interactions produced
a .03 increase in the proportion of variance, F∆(2, 122) = 2.65, p = .07, with the
interaction between gender, maternal attachment and adolescent fearfulness posi-
tively and significantly related to importance of pro-social values. Test of the simple
slopes indicated that maternal attachment was related significantly to adolescent
boys’ pro-social values at −1 standard deviation of fearfulness, β = .40, t = 3.16, p <
.01. In other words, for boys who were low on fear, pro-social values were higher
500 L. M. Padilla-Walker and L. J. Nelson

Table 2. Adolescent gender, maternal attachment, maternal appropriateness and adolescent

fearfulness regressed on adolescents’ importance of pro-social values, pro-social behaviour and
antisocial behaviour

Importance of Pro-social Antisocial

Variable entered pro-social values behaviour behaviour

Step 1: β β β
Gender (A) .29*** .27** −.16+
Multiple R2 .09*** .07*** .03+
Step 2:
Maternal attachment (B) .10 .09 −.21*
Maternal appropriateness (C) .17+ .09 −.17
Adolescent fearfulness (D) .05 .00 −.07
Multiple R2 .15*** .10** .15***
Step 3:
A×B .04 .12 −.21
A×C −.32* −.44** .32*
A×D −.13 −.18 .21
B×D −.14 −.24* .15
C×D −.03 .22**** .07
Multiple R2 .22*** .19*** .24***
Step 4:
A×B×D .41* .46* −.04
A×C×D −.07 −.21 −.34*
Multiple R2 .25*** .23*** .27***

Notes: All beta weights are standardised; *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001,**** p < .06.

when maternal attachment was high. The simple slope at +1 standard deviation was
not significant for boys and the interaction was not significant for girls.

Pro-social behaviour. Adolescents’ report of the frequency of pro-social behaviour

was the criterion variable in the second analyses presented in Table 2. At Step 1,
gender accounted for a statistically significant proportion of variance, F(1, 132) =
10.21, p < .01, and was positively related to pro-social behaviour (girls had the
higher coded value). At Step 2, maternal attachment, maternal appropriateness, and
fear produced a .03 increase in the proportion of variance, F∆(3, 129) = 1.22, ns. At
Step 3, the two-way interactions produced a .09 increase in the proportion of vari-
ance, F∆(5, 124) = 2.85, p < .05, with the interaction between gender and appropri-
ateness negatively related to pro-social behaviour and the interaction between
maternal attachment and adolescent fearfulness negatively related to pro-social
behaviour. The two-way interaction between gender and appropriateness revealed
that appropriateness was positively related to pro-social behaviour for boys, β = .27,
t = 1.92, p < .05, but not for girls, β = −.14, t = −.86, ns. Simple slope analysis of the
 Parenting and adolescent temperament 501

two-way interaction between maternal attachment and adolescent fearfulness

revealed that maternal attachment was related significantly to adolescents’ pro-social
behaviour at −1 standard deviation of fearfulness, β = .26, t = 2.49, p < .01. In other
words, for adolescents who were low on fear, pro-social behaviour was higher when
maternal attachment was high. The simple slope at +1 standard deviation was not
significant. At Step 4, the three-way interactions produced a .04 increase in the
proportion of variance, F∆(2, 122) = 2.95, p < .05, with the three-way interaction
between gender, maternal attachment and adolescent fearfulness positively related
to pro-social behaviour. Test of the simple slopes indicated that maternal attach-
ment was related significantly to adolescent boys’ pro-social behaviour at −1 stan-
dard deviation of fearfulness, β = .34, t = 2.55, p < .01. In other words, for boys who
were low on fear, pro-social behaviour was higher when maternal attachment was
high. The simple slopes at +1 standard deviation were not significant for boys and
the interaction was not significant for girls.

Antisocial behaviour. Adolescents’ reports of the frequency of antisocial behaviour

was the criterion variable in the third analyses presented in Table 2. At Step 1, gender
did not account for a statistically significant proportion of variance, F(1, 132) = 3.45,
ns. At Step 2, maternal attachment, maternal appropriateness and fear produced a
.12 increase in the proportion of variance, F∆(3, 129) = 6.03, p < .001, with maternal
attachment negatively related to antisocial behaviour. At Step 3, the two-way inter-
actions produced a .09 increase in the proportion of variance, F∆(5, 124) = 3.01, p
< .05, with the interaction between gender and maternal appropriateness positively
related to antisocial behaviour. Follow-up analyses revealed that appropriateness was
negatively related to antisocial behaviour for boys (β = −.37, t = −2.78, p < .01), but
not for girls, (β =.10, t =.69, ns.). At Step 4, the three-way interactions produced a
.03 increase in the proportion of variance, F∆(2, 122) = 2.54, p = .056, with the inter-
action between gender, maternal appropriateness and adolescent fearfulness nega-
tively and significantly related to antisocial behaviour. Test of the simple slopes
indicated that maternal appropriateness was related significantly to adolescent boys’
antisocial behaviour at −1 standard deviation of fearfulness, β = −.50, t = −4.29, p <
.001. In other words, for boys who were low on fear, antisocial behaviour was lower
when maternal appropriateness was high. The simple slopes at +1 standard deviation
were not significant for boys and the interaction was not significant for girls.

Discussion
The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of parenting (i.e. maternal
attachment and appropriateness) and adolescent fearfulness on adolescents’ pro-
social values and pro-social and antisocial behaviour. Surprisingly, results revealed
few significant main effects, with the most notable being a negative relation between
attachment and antisocial behaviour. However, findings pointed to several multipli-
cative relations as a function of parenting, adolescent fearfulness and child gender.
502 L. M. Padilla-Walker and L. J. Nelson

For pro-social values and behaviour, significant interactions revealed that (1) mater-
nal appropriateness was positively related to the importance of values and pro-social
behaviour for boys but not for girls and (2) for boys who were low on fear, pro-social
values were higher when maternal attachment was high. For antisocial behaviour,
findings showed that appropriateness was negatively related to antisocial behaviour
for boys but not for girls and, more specifically, the three-way interaction suggested
that it was boys who were low on fear for whom antisocial behaviour was lower when
maternal appropriateness was high.

The role of maternal attachment and appropriateness

A secure parent–child attachment has been found to be a protective factor against
internalising (e.g. depression) and externalising (e.g. aggression, disruptive behav-
iour) behaviour in both childhood (e.g. Suess et al., 1992) and adolescence (e.g.
Kobak et al., 1991; Allen et al., 1998). In the current study, a main effect was found
linking higher attachment with less antisocial behaviour for both boys and girls.
Given the notion that girls tend to place greater emphasis on relationships than do
boys (Gilligan, 1982; Huston, 1983; Miller, 1986), it is not entirely surprising that a
positive parent–child relationship appears to be sufficient to lessen the likelihood of
girls engaging in antisocial behaviour (e.g. skipping school or teasing others).
However, because the results hold for boys as well, it reiterates just how important
the parent–child relationship is in deterring antisocial behaviour during adolescence.
Surprisingly, the current study found no main effect of maternal appropriateness
although it was marginally, and positively, related to pro-social values. However,
when examining the interaction between appropriateness and gender, results consis-
tently revealed a link between maternal appropriateness and positive outcomes for
boys. The lack of main-effect findings is not consistent with past research on appro-
priateness (Wyatt & Carlo, 2002; Padilla-Walker, 2008) and while a larger sample
may have detected findings (especially possible given the trend approaching signifi-
cance for pro-social values), it may also be that past research has not considered
appropriateness and maternal attachment simultaneously. Although it is possible that
these two constructs conceptually overlap to some degree (indeed, attachment and
appropriateness were correlated in the current study), past research has consistently
examined domain-appropriate parental discipline as a construct conceptually sepa-
rate from attachment (Grusec & Goodnow, 1994; Smetana, 2006; Padilla-Walker,
2008) and the current results suggest unique contributions and patterns of relations
for maternal attachment and maternal appropriateness, necessitating future research
to more clearly tease these two constructs apart. This would be especially important
given that it appears appropriateness may play a particularly salient role for boys (a
point we will return to below). Finally, also to be discussed below, results revealed
that appropriateness appears to play a particularly important role for children with
certain temperamental characteristics, which simply underscores the complexity (i.e.
captured better in interactions than main effects) of parent–child relationships,
especially during adolescence.
 Parenting and adolescent temperament 503

The role of adolescent temperament

The other important result regarding main effects was the lack of significant findings
regarding fearfulness and either pro-social values, pro-social behaviour or antisocial
behaviour. It is not customary to elaborate on non-significant findings because they
may simply be due to small sample size and therefore the lack of statistical power
needed to identify differences. However, we feel it is worth noting that the non-
significant relation between fear and any of the outcome variables is consistent with
past research. Specifically, Kochanska (1997) also failed to find main effect differ-
ences for fearfulness in her longitudinal work in early childhood. Similarly, our
results showed that fearfulness interacted with parenting, but had no direct impact
on adolescent outcomes.
Indeed, one of the most notable results of this study was the role that temperament,
particularly fearfulness, played in the association between parenting and both pro-
social and antisocial outcomes. It has long been posited that both temperament and
parenting may be important contributors to pro-social behaviour. For example,
sociability and emotionality are believed to be two particular temperamental predis-
positions that predict subsequent pro-social behaviour (e.g. Matthews et al., 1981;
Buss & Plomin, 1984; Eisenberg & Fabes, 1998). However, few empirical studies
have examined how fearful temperament and parenting may be linked to pro-social
behaviour or values. The results of the current study addressed these gaps in the liter-
ature by contributing to the growing evidence that temperament acts as a moderator
between parenting and adolescent outcomes, including pro-social outcomes.
First, high maternal attachment was related to greater importance of pro-social
values (R2-change on this step was marginally significant) and higher pro-social
behaviour for boys lower on fear, which extends work done with younger children.
For example, Kochanska (1997) speculated that something more than gentle disci-
pline is needed for relatively fearless children because they do not respond to trans-
gressions with the same internal discomfort. Instead, Kochanska believes that
parental attachment (i.e. ‘a mutually positive, responsive, binding and cooperative
orientation between the parent and child’ [p. 229]) will foster responsiveness in the
child that leads to the acceptance of parental values. While the present study was
unable to determine if this is indeed the process that was at work, it does build upon
the work of Kochanska by showing that fearless (relative to their peers) adolescent
boys who had a strong attachment with their parents tended to have higher pro-social
values and behaviour than did boys who reported lower levels of maternal attach-
ment. The implications for parents with relatively fearless boys (or educators who
work with relatively fearless boys) may be that engendering responsiveness via a
strong relationship may be a more effective approach than trying to exert control or
arouse emotions through discipline.
Another multiplicative relation found in this study demonstrated the role that
temperament, particularly fearfulness, played in the association between parenting
and antisocial behaviour. Specifically, results showed that boys who were low on fear
engaged in less antisocial behaviour when maternal appropriateness was high. In
504 L. M. Padilla-Walker and L. J. Nelson

other words, if fearless boys perceived their mothers’ reactions to fit the situation,
then they were less likely to engage in antisocial behaviour. It is important to reiterate
that, unlike attachment, there were no multivariate main effects for appropriateness
when examining antisocial behaviour (although appropriateness was negatively
correlated with antisocial behaviour bi-variately). While past research has found that
the domain-appropriateness of parental discipline is uniquely and directly negatively
related to antisocial behaviour (and only indirectly related to pro-social behaviour:
Padilla-Walker, 2008), past studies did not take temperament into account. Thus,
the current study adds to existing research by suggesting that the relation between
appropriateness and antisocial behaviour might be particularly salient for boys low
on fear.
The context for much antisocial behaviour tends to elicit fear in most adolescents
(e.g. fear of getting caught if cutting class, telling a lie or breaking the law) and, there-
fore, serves as a significant compass as to what is right or wrong and may conse-
quently be a deterrent to engaging in the act. However, because adolescent boys
lower on fear are not as reactive (again, compared to their peers) to fear-inducing
situations, they may rely on different cues to deter them from engaging in antisocial
behaviour. For example, as proposed by Grusec and Goodnow (1994), it is possible
that adolescents whose parents are consistently perceived as responding appropri-
ately are deterred from antisocial behaviour as a result of having internalised parental
socialisation messages, which Grusec and Goodnow claim is fostered by parental
appropriateness. The current study adds to this by suggesting this process may be
particularly important for adolescent boys who are lower on temperamental fearful-
ness. This further underscores the unique importance of parents responding appro-
priately to their children’s behaviour and necessitates future research to more
carefully explore the specific mechanisms involved in this complex process.

The role of the gender of the adolescent

It is important to add a concluding note on the findings regarding gender and fear-
fulness. It is evident that nearly all of the multiplicative findings regarding parenting,
fearfulness and outcomes pointed towards boys, especially boys low on fear. The
literature regarding social fearfulness has repeatedly found socially fearful boys to be
at risk (e.g. Morison & Masten, 1991; Coplan et al., 2001; Nelson et al., 2005). Thus,
it is interesting to note that results of the current study point to the importance of the
parent–child relationship for boys low on fear. For reasons outlined above, it is possi-
ble to see why attachment and, particularly, appropriateness may play such an impor-
tant regulating role for boys. However, these findings are not meant to suggest that
the parent–child relationship does not matter for fearful boys or girls in general. It
simply points to the need for future research to examine other aspects of parenting
that may have more of a direct association with the behaviour of fearful boys and girls
(e.g. parental intrusiveness, see Burgess et al. [2005] for a complete review). Thus, it
will be important to build on this in future work that examines other aspects of both
temperament and parenting, as well as other outcomes (e.g. internalising behaviour)
 Parenting and adolescent temperament 505

that might better tap into the interactive processes that are important for girls and
fearful adolescents in general.

Implications for moral education

Although the current study focused on parenting and adolescent temperament, there
are important implications from the current research for educators as well. In the last
20 years or so, it has been particularly salient for educators that, overall, boys are
struggling in school and are underperforming girls in a number of areas. For example,
boys tend to have a more negative attitude toward school (Darom & Rich, 1988), are
more disruptive during school (DeZolt & Hull, 2001) and are more likely than girls
to drop out of school (US National Center for Education Statistics, 2005). This
phenomenon has been attributed to a number of different sources, including pressure
placed on boys by peers (Pollack, 1998) and general bias towards boys in the school
system (DeZolt & Hull, 2001). Whatever the causes of these outcomes for boys, find-
ings from the current study suggest a few possible strategies for teachers that might
be particularly relevant. For example, teachers’ domain-appropriate discipline and
behaviour might be important in fostering positive outcomes for boys, as supported
by a small body of existing research (Nucci, 1984; Killen et al., 1994). This research
suggests that children and adolescents have clear preferences for how teachers
respond to transgressions (Killen et al., 1994) and that the teacher’s appropriateness
is related to the adolescent’s positive feelings toward the teacher (Nucci, 1984).
Thus, appropriateness, in addition to child temperament, should be examined as a
factor in moral education promoted by both parents and other socialisation agents,
such as teachers. In addition, the current study supports the importance of a strong
relationship between mothers and children in promoting positive and protecting
against negative outcomes and suggests that this relationship is particularly important
for boys who are at temperamental risk. This pattern may also hold true for educators
and suggests that teachers who are faced with difficult students, or students with
special challenges or risks, should focus on the relationship as a means of promoting
compliance and cooperation. This is consistent with existing research suggesting the
importance of the teacher–child relationship in fostering achievement (O’Connor &
McCartney, 2007) and suggests that future research on attachment, appropriateness
and adolescent fearfulness in relation to educators and academic outcomes is
certainly warranted.

Limitations and future directions

There were a number of limitations to this study. First, while the discussion of the
findings speculated about the causal direction of the relations, the correlational
design of the study precludes causal conclusions from being made. Future work
should attempt to address the issue of direction of effects by examining these research
questions longitudinally. Second, the current study was based solely on a single
reporter—the adolescent. While the child’s perception of the parenting s/he receives
506 L. M. Padilla-Walker and L. J. Nelson

is important in helping explain her or his own beliefs and behaviour, future work
should attempt to incorporate observational measures and multiple informants.
Third, the current study focused only on adolescents’ perceptions of the maternal
relationship. It will be essential for future research to examine adolescents’ percep-
tions of both maternal and paternal attachment and appropriateness, as these aspects
of parenting may be differentially related to adolescents’ positive outcomes as a func-
tion of the gender of the parent. Finally, the sample lacked ethnic and socio-
economic diversity. Future work should examine these relations within a larger and
more diverse population.
Despite these limitations, this study makes several unique contributions to our
understanding of parent–child relationships in adolescence. In particular, the find-
ings from this study have several important implications for our understanding of
the link between parenting, temperament and the development of pro-social values,
pro-social behaviour and antisocial behaviour. First, results suggest that warm,
nurturing parenting may protect adolescents, regardless of how fearful they are,
against antisocial behaviour. Second, findings highlight the importance of examin-
ing interactions between parenting and adolescent temperament. Specifically, for
boys who were low on fear, pro-social values and behaviour were higher when
maternal attachment was high and antisocial behaviour was lower when maternal
appropriateness was high. These findings are consistent with research that suggests
different pathways to adolescents’ pro-social and antisocial behaviour (e.g. Padilla-
Walker, 2007; Padilla-Walker & Carlo, 2007) and suggest that parenting may be
especially important for adolescents, boys in particular, who are at temperamental
risk due to their relatively fearless nature. In addition, this study may have important
implications for teachers and educators, who should also consider the moderating
role of the child’s temperament.

Acknowledgements
The data for this project were gathered while the first author was at the Department
of Psychology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln. The authors appreciated the coop-
eration of the teachers, staff and students of Lincoln Southeast High School, espe-
cially Rob McEntarffer.

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