ABSTRACT
Traditionally, previous research on intergenerational transmission of parenting beliefs and behaviours has focused on mothers. However, some studies have revealed that fathers are often involved in negative parenting patterns and that they are likely to pass on these negative patterns to their children. Therefore, many researchers have called for a closer investigation of the role of fathers in families. We aimed to fill this research gap by investigating both maternal and paternal transmission effects of harsh parenting beliefs. We found a positive association between parenting beliefs of the first and second generations, even after controlling for SES and gender. Harsh parenting beliefs are still transmitted to children more than two decades later. These findings correspond with recent results on transmission processes found for mothers (Belsky et al., 2005), for fathers (Smith & Farrington, 2004), or for both (Kitamura et al., 2009; Simons et al., 1992).
