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Panel information
Panel 14. Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Abstract

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Although parents encourage their children to be honest, they often tell their children lies — a behavior known as parenting by lying—to regulate children’s emotions and behaviors (Heyman et al., 2009). Experiencing parenting by lying as a child has been associated with negative psychosocial outcomes in emerging adulthood (Setoh et al., 2024). Little work, however, has examined how parenting by lying relates to other controlling parenting behaviors that have also been linked to negative psychosocial outcomes in the same period. One behavior of particular interest is overparenting, characterized by excessive, age-inappropriate involvement in a child’s life (Cui et al., 2022). Overparenting has been consistently related to negative outcomes for emerging adults, particularly higher rates of internalizing behaviors, or negative psychosocial thoughts and behaviors towards oneself (Zhang & Ji, in press). We propose that one facet of overparenting could be lying to one’s child to control their behavior and encourage compliance (i.e., parenting by lying), which in turn could promote internalizing problems, such as feelings of guilt or shame (Setoh et al., 2019). To date, however, no study has examined links between overparenting and parenting by lying. The goal of the current study was to examine whether parenting by lying mediated relations between overparenting and internalizing symptoms. Additionally, we examined whether this mediation model—specifically the links between overparenting and parenting by lying—would be influenced by child gender, given evidence that parental motivations for disclosing or withholding information vary by child gender (Dolgin, 1996).

In the current study, participants [N = 324 emerging adults18-21 years-old (Mean age = 18.75y, SD = 0.89y; 245 women, 74 men, 3 non-binary or other, and 2 who did not wish to disclose ; 51.5% Hispanic/Latino] completed self-reports of parental lying, overparenting, and internalizing behaviors. Participants completed the Parenting by Lying Scale (Heyman et al., 2013), the Helicopter Parenting Instrument (Odenweller et al., 2014), and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997). Zero-order correlations revealed significant relations between all three measures (rs ranging from .23 to .31, ps<.001).

To test our hypotheses, we examined a first-stage moderated mediation model, in which we tested whether the relation between overparenting and internalizing symptoms was mediated by parenting by lying and whether the strength of this indirect effect was moderated by child gender. We found a significant moderated mediation effect (b=-.015, SE=.0081, 95% CI [-.0334, -.0024]; Figure 1), such that the indirect effect of overparenting on internalizing symptoms through parenting by lying was significantly stronger for daughters (b=0.013, 95% CI [.0036, .025]) than sons (b=-.0019, 95% CI [-.0124, .0064]). The relation between overparenting and parenting by lying was significant for daughters (b=.10, SE=.016, p<.001) but not sons (b=-.014, SE=.03, p=.64; Figure 2).

Together, these results indicate that parenting by lying may be an important mechanism by which controlling parenting styles exert effects on child well-being, but that this relationship may be particularly salient for girls. Future research should employ longitudinal designs and parent-report measures in order to identify the specific factors driving the current findings.

Author information

Author	Role
Sahaj Kaur, Texas State University	Presenting author
Emma Bulut, Texas State University	Non-presenting author
Jennifer M. Clegg, Texas State University	Non-presenting author
Katherine Rice Warnell, Texas State University	Non-presenting author

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