Importance of Parenting in the Development of Self-Control in Boys and Girls: Results From a Multinational Study of Youth

The study focused on the relationship between gender and self-control, assessed the contribution of various parenting strategies to the development of self-control in males and females, and gauged the importance of parenting as an explanation for the established gender gap in self-control. Overall, the results suggest that the development of self-control is a complex process likely affected by multiple factors, some of which may be culture-specific. Supporting self-control theory across all country clusters, males demonstrated lower levels of self-control than females. Furthermore, parenting strategies had a modest effect on self-control in both male and female groups in all cultural contexts; however, the statistically significant differences in the parenting of sons and daughters was limited to post-Socialist, Mediterranean, and Western countries; and in these regions, the contribution of gendered parenting to the gender gap in self-control was minimal. OLS regression was used to evaluate these causal links. (Publisher abstract modified)