A comparison of the Circumplex Model of Family Functioning and Maccoby and Martin's parenting typologists

Abstract

The fields of family studies and child development share many similar concepts, yet the relationship between the two is rarely tested. This study is an exploratory examination of the conceptual similarities between the Circumplex Model of Family Functioning (Olson, Sprenkle, & Russell, 1979) and the Maccoby and Martin (1983) model of parenting typologies. Adaptability in the Olson model is conceptually similar to the demandingness/control dimension described by Maccoby and Martin, while cohesion is conceptually similar to the warmth-hostility dimension. It was hypothesized that each parenting type would exhibit specific family functioning styles.

Participants were recruited through ten area day care centers. Thirty-five mothers and twenty-four fathers participated. Self-report and observational methods were used. Parents were administered FACES III and the PARI at group meetings at the respective centers. Seventeen families agreed to participate in an at-home session, where two observational game-tasks, the Guess the Rules game to measure adaptability and the Kvebaek Family Sculpture Task to measure cohesion, were completed.

Analysis of variance, correlation coefficients, and chi-square statistics were used to test the hypothesized relationships. Two anomalous findings occurred: almost half the parents described their families as chaotic and over half the parents were typed as uninvolved. These findings influenced the results. The results suggest some support for the conceptual similarities between the models. Correlations between the FACES and PARI subscales were low but significant, suggesting adaptability and authoritarian control, as well as cohesion and hostility-rejection are related. ANOVA results suggested that the parenting group means for the FACES subscale scores were significantly different, and in directions that support the model. Parents who described themselves as permissive perceived themselves as the most adaptable and parents who perceived themselves as uninvolved perceived their families as the least cohesive.