Parenting by Lying Across Cultures: Evidence from Turkey

What is it about?

This study examined parenting by lying—when parents lie to their children as a way of influencing their behaviour or emotions—among 182 university students in Turkey. Participants reported whether they remembered their parents telling them different types of lies during childhood, including lies about eating, misbehaviour, money, and leaving or staying. They also reported how often they currently lied to their parents and completed measures of psychological adjustment and psychopathic traits. Parenting by lying was very common: 96% of participants recalled experiencing at least one type of parental lie. Adults who recalled experiencing a greater number of types of parenting by lying also reported lying to their parents more often. In turn, more frequent lying to parents was associated with greater internalizing problems, externalizing problems, and both primary and secondary psychopathic traits. Greater recalled exposure to parenting by lying was not directly associated with internalizing problems, externalizing problems, or primary psychopathic traits. However, it was associated with higher levels of secondary psychopathic traits, which include characteristics such as impulsivity, difficulty tolerating frustration, and a focus on short-term goals. Parenting by lying was associated with these traits both directly and indirectly through more frequent lying to parents.

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Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Previous research on parenting by lying had primarily been conducted in North American and East Asian countries. Finding similar associations in Turkey suggests that the relationship between experiencing parental lying and later lying to parents may extend across different cultural contexts. The findings also raise the possibility that children may learn from observing their parents that lying can be an effective way to achieve goals or deal with difficult situations. However, the findings do not show that parents lying to their children causes these later outcomes. The study relied on adults remembering experiences from childhood, and all of the variables were measured at one point in time. In addition, the measure of secondary psychopathic traits had relatively low reliability in this sample. Longitudinal research following parents and children over time is therefore needed to determine whether and how parenting by lying contributes to later behaviour and adjustment.