Parental Conditional Regard

Children sometimes feel that their parents’ esteem and affection depend on them fulfilling their parents’ expectations. In the work of Carl Rogers and later work by Avi Assor, Guy Roth, and their colleagues, this experience is referred to as perceived parental conditional regard (PCR). In this experience, children perceive their parents as using a socializing practice in which parents’ affection and appreciation depend on the attainment of parentally valued outcomes or the enactment of valued behaviors. Assor, Roth, and colleagues further distinguished between two types of PCR: positive and negative. In the case of parental conditional positive regard, parents are perceived to provide more affection and esteem than usual when the child meets parents’ expectations. In the case of parental conditional negative regard, parents are ...