Semester

Fall

Date of Graduation

2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

PhD

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Committee Chair

Amy Gentzler

Committee Member

JoNell Strough

Committee Member

Michelle Roley Roberts

Committee Member

Vaishali Raval

Abstract

Prior research literature has often found parental behavioral control to have mixed associations with varied adolescent outcomes (Bean et al., 2006; Finkenauer et al., 2005). However, a relatively lesser explored topic of research focusses on the domain specificity of this kind of control and its association with internalizing and externalizing behaviors in sample of Indian and Indian American parents (Arim et al., 2010). The current study adds to the limited literature by emphasizing the five domains of control (e.g., moral, conventional, prudential, personal and overlapping) based on the social cognitive domain theory and explores their association with adolescent adjustment outcomes in a non-WEIRD sample of interest. Thus, the present study had two important aims: 1) to examine the mean differences in parental behavioral control across the five domains between Indian and Indian American parents 2) to test the associations of the domain specific parental behavioral control to adolescent internalizing and externalizing symptoms in the two cultural groups.

This parent report study consisted of a sample of 233 mothers and fathers belonging to two different cultural groups (N= 114, Mage = 41.83 years, SD = 3.87; Indian Americans) (N = 119, Mage = 44.50 years, SD = 4.62; Indian Parents). The current study was IRB (Institutional Review Board) approved, and the data was collected using varied different methods (e.g., word of mouth, Amazon Mechanical Turk). For the domain specific parental behavioral control, the parents reported on the adapted version Domain Specific Parental Behavioral Control Scale (DSBCS, Arim et al., 2010), while the internalizing and externalizing behaviors were assessed using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL 6-18 years, Parent Report Version; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001).

The preliminary result analyses involved conducting a multigroup Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) of the adapted version of the Domain Specific Parental Behavioral Control Scale (Arim et al., 2010). None of the model fit indicators reached the acceptable criteria cut off and a good model fit could not be achieved. For the primary analyses, the first aim of the study (i.e., assessing the mean differences across the five domains of control between the two groups) was examined using Independent samples t-tests. Contrary to the hypotheses, the Indian American Parents reported significantly higher levels of domain specific behavioral control across the moral, conventional, personal and overlapping domains than the Indian Parents, while there were no significant mean differences between the two groups for the prudential domain of control. The second research aim (i.e., testing the association of the domains of control with adolescent adjustment outcomes) was examined using multigroup Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The SEM analyses were conducted both in the manifest and the latent variable frameworks and both the individual and combined models were examined to test these associations. The results of the manifest variable individual models coincided with the results of the latent variable individual models. For the Indian American group, higher levels of control in the prudential domain was associated with lower levels of internalizing and externalizing behaviors. For the Indian group, none of the domains of control were found to be significantly associated with the two adjustment outcomes. With reference to covariates, for the Indian Americans living in urban cities was associated with higher levels of internalizing and externalizing behaviors and for both the Indian and Indian Americans, higher levels of parental warmth was associated with lower levels of internalizing and externalizing behaviors. The models were also conducted in the combined framework using manifest and latent variables. The results of the combined models in the manifest variable framework were slightly different than the latent variable framework. For the Indian American group, higher levels of control in the prudential domain was linked with lower levels of externalizing but not internalizing behaviors. For the Indian group, none of the domains of control were associated with the two adjustment outcomes. With reference to covariates, living in urban locations were associated with higher internalizing and externalizing behaviors for the Indian American parents, while for both the Indian and Indian American Parents, higher levels of parental warmth was associated with lower levels of internalizing and externalizing behaviors. In addition to the above-mentioned primary analyses, tests of measurement invariance using the five latent variables of domain specific behavioral control were also conducted. All the five latent variables passed the configural test of invariance however, the domains of moral, conventional and prudential domains only partially passed the metric and scalar test of invariance after relevant modifications. Furthermore, the latent variables of personal and overlapping domains even after relevant modifications could not pass the metric and scalar test of invariance. Thus, any kind of prediction made from these variables (i.e., personal and overlapping) could not be trusted and were considered with a word of caution.

Overall, the current study is an important addition to the literature as it expands the research on South Asian populations by including a relatively lesser explored sample of interest (i.e., Indian and Immigrant Indian Americans) and also tests the associations of the five domains of parental behavioral control in a sample other than WEIRD Populations (Arim et al., 2010; Wong et al., 2022). As a recommendation for future research, the study also highlights the need to include both parent and adolescent perspectives and explores the possibility of constructing a newer domain specific parental control measure that is equitable across the two cultural groups (Luo et al., 2020; Protzko, 2025).

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