Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Journal Club
  • Published:

Development

Emphasizing children’s agency in parental socialization

Nature Reviews Psychology volume 2, page 133 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Parental socialization refers to the process by which parents influence their children’s development. Research on parental socialization varies in its position on the continuum between a universal and a relativistic view of parenting’s effects. A universal view holds that a given parenting behaviour has the same effects for all children. By contrast, a relativistic perspective holds that moderating variables such as culture and personality can buffer or magnify the effects of parenting.

In 2015, Soenens and colleagues applied the principle of universalism without uniformity to reconcile the universal and relativistic perspectives. This principle emphasizes children’s individual differences, such as their interpretations and appraisals of parenting, in shaping the effects of parental socialization, while also considering children’s universal psychological needs.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

Original article

  • Soenens, B. et al. Let us not throw out the baby with the bathwater: applying the principle of universalism without uniformity to autonomy-supportive and controlling parenting. Child Dev. Perspect. 9, 44–49 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Education and Child Studies, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands

    Dan Gao

Authors
  1. Dan Gao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dan Gao.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Gao, D. Emphasizing children’s agency in parental socialization. Nat Rev Psychol 2, 133 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-023-00162-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-023-00162-3

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing