Abstract

This study investigated attributes of power in the parent-child relationship. This concept was examined in three domains of conflict: personal, conventional, and prudential. Forty-one children (20 boys, 21 girls) ranging from seven to 12 years ( M = 10.12, SD = 1.42) and their mothers from a middle-class background participated in this study. This research assessed parents and children's perceptions of the types and level of power (French & Raven, 1959) through an interview consisting of 12 conflict-provoking situations. The dyad completed the Parent-Child Relationship Questionnaire (PCRQ; Furman & Giberson, 1995) and mothers completed the Parental Authority Questionnaire-Revised (PAQ-R; Reitman et. al., 2002), Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC-2; Reynolds & Kamphaus, 2004), and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MC-SD; Strahan & Gerbasi, 1972). Results show that in the personal domain, children were rated as having more power, and in both the conventional and prudential domains, mothers were rated as having more power. Children of mothers with an authoritarian parenting style rated the mother as having more power in the personal, conventional, and prudential domains, while mothers rated themselves as having more power in the prudential domain. Permissive parenting was related to children rating themselves as having more power in the prudential domain. For types of power, mothers used more coercive and information power than their children, whereas children used more legitimate and sneaky power. This research may aid in parents' understanding that use of power could differ across domains.