What Makes Parents Sound Controlling? Exploring Individual Differences in Autonomy Support, Psychological Control, Authoritarianism, and Stress

Objective. When parents communicate with their children, their tone of voice plays a vital role in shaping their children’s emotional and motivational reactions. Understanding why some parents use their voice differently from others, whether due to stable individual traits or situational factors, can provide insights into how parenting practices are expressed and how they affect children. This study investigates how individual differences in parents” characteristics, including autonomy support (supporting child choice and volition), psychological control (parenting through pressure, guilt, or coercion), authoritarian attitudes (beliefs that children should be obedient, respect, authority, and follow rules without negotiation), and stress levels, influence parents” vocal behavior during interactions with their children. Design. Using two samples of Dutch- (N = 210) and English-speaking mothers and fathers (N = 169), we analyzed acoustic properties of speech (i.e. pitch, amplitude, speech rate, and voice quality), during simulated parenting scenarios. Results. Mothers who reported higher levels of psychological control consistently articulated harsher-sounding voices. Mothers and fathers high on authoritarianism spoke more slowly than parents low on authoritarianism, whereas stress showed less consistent associations with vocal behavior. Conclusions. These findings highlight the role of differences in parenting practices, personality traits, and stress in the prediction of parental prosody in parent-child interactions.