Agnieszka Szymańska

Parental Control and Discipline

The differences in parental control distribution were explored (which was conceptualized as teaching children's rules) and the demand of immediate obedience. PAiNK scalę was used to assess the level of parental control and discipline. The sample consisted of two groups of preschool children's parents. Children were 4 to 6 years old. The whole sample consisted of 204 people, 51 mothers and 51 fathers of „difficult" children and 51 fathers and 51 mothers of well-behaved children. The research was carried out in Poland's three big cities: Warsaw, Cracow and Częstochowa.
Hypotheses were presented that parents of "difficult" children would achieve higher scores in demanding immediate obedience, parents of well-behaved children would achieve higher scores in parental control. Two way multivariate Analysis of Yariance (MANOYA) confirmed research hypotheses: the distribution of parental control differs in both groups. Ań interaction effect between parental role and upbringing difficulty for obedience demanding yariable was discovered. Outcomes demonstrate crucial role of explanations and time in assimilating rules.

Difficulty in upbringing situation as experienced by parent and child’s representation in parent’s mind: model of the phenomenon

The purpose of the analysis was to verify a model which included connections among variables crucial to the child’s upbringing process. These variables were: the discrepancy between the parental goal and child’s actual state, the difficulty experienced by the parent (which following Gurycka [1990] is understood as psychological stress) and the child’s representation in the parent’s mind. It was hypothesized that the discrepancy between the parental goal and child’s actual state might determine the diffi culty experienced by the parent. What is more, this difficulty experience might start the process of shaping the child’s negative representation in the parent’s mind.
The purpose of the analysis was to discover connections among the constructs in the net of common relations. A structural equation model was used for this purpose. The calculations were conducted with the help of the IMB AMOS program.
The research was conducted on a sample of 100 people, parents of children aged 3 to 10 . The results obtained confirm the suggested connections among the variables. The results confirm the good fit of the model.

Body image, stress, and self-regulation among fitness participants in adolescence and early adulthood

The aim of this study was to analyze the link between body image, self-regulation and stress in late adolescence and early adulthood on the basis of Personality Systems Interaction Theory by J. Kuhl. The subjects of the study were people attending fi tness clubs and gyms (N = 29) and those who did not pursue any physical activity (N = 29). Body image was assessed by means of the “body and self-esteem” scale from the Eating Disorder Cognition Questionnaire (FEDK, Legenbauer, Vocks, and Schütt-Strömel, 2007), self-regulation was assessed by means of the Action Control Scale (ASC 90, Kuhl, 1994a; 2001), and stress bymeans of the “demands” and “threats” scales from the Volitional Component Questionnaire (Kuhl, Furmann, 1998).
Analyzes showed that there are no differences between adolescents and young adults in body image, self regulation, and stress level. It was found that the physically active group has a negative body image in comparison with the physically inactive group. However, there is a relationship between body dissatisfaction, state orientation subsequent to failure, and stress (demands). A mediation analysis additionally showed that stress was an important mediator between action control and body image.