In plain language
How does the way teenagers see their parents' style — authoritative (warm but with clear rules), authoritarian (strict but cold), or permissive (warm but with few demands) — relate to their psychological well-being as they move through high school? This study followed 884 Australian students from the Wollongong Youth Study over four years, from Grade 7 (average age 12) to Grade 10, measuring their hope, self-esteem, and Eysenck's psychoticism trait (a marker of poor adjustment and antisocial tendencies) each year.
Adolescents who perceived their parents as authoritative consistently reported the highest hope and self-esteem and the lowest psychoticism of the three groups, and an authoritative perception in Grade 7 still significantly predicted better scores on all three well-being measures in Grade 10. Teens who saw their parents as authoritarian had the lowest self-esteem, while those who saw their parents as permissive reported the highest psychoticism and the lowest hope. A permissive perception had no significant predictive effect on any outcome four years later, whereas an authoritarian perception predicted lower hope and slightly higher psychoticism.
The study also tracked general developmental trends: hope and self-esteem declined across the four years for all groups, and psychoticism rose — consistent with adolescence being a challenging, stressful period. The findings reinforce a large body of research suggesting that parenting combining warmth with structure gives young people the best psychological foundation for navigating those years.
Key findings
- Adolescents who perceived their parents as authoritative had higher mean hope and self-esteem and lower psychoticism than peers who perceived their parents as permissive or authoritarian, across all four years.
- Perceived authoritative parenting in Grade 7 significantly predicted higher hope, higher self-esteem, and lower psychoticism in Grade 10; authoritarian perception predicted lower hope and somewhat higher psychoticism; permissive perception had no significant long-term effect.
- Adolescents who perceived their parents as permissive reported the highest psychoticism and the lowest hope of the three groups; those with authoritarian perceptions reported the lowest self-esteem.
- Across all parenting groups, hope and self-esteem declined significantly and psychoticism increased over the four years, consistent with adolescence being a stressful developmental period.
- Hope, self-esteem, and psychoticism were significantly intercorrelated in every parenting group, with hope and self-esteem positively related and both negatively related to psychoticism — relationships that strengthened over time.
- The sample comprised 884 students followed annually from 2003 (mean age 12.30) to 2007 (mean age 15.43) in the Wollongong Youth Study.
How to cite
APA
Shahimi, F., Heaven, P. C. L., & Ciarrochi, J. (2013). The interrelations among the perception of parental styles and psychological well-being in adolescence: A longitudinal study. Iranian Journal of Public Health, 42(6), 570–580.
BibTeX
@article{shahimi2013interrelations,
author = {Shahimi, Farnaz and Heaven, Patrick C. L. and Ciarrochi, Joseph},
title = {The Interrelations among the Perception of Parental Styles and Psychological Well-Being in Adolescence: A Longitudinal Study},
journal = {Iranian Journal of Public Health},
year = {2013},
volume = {42},
number = {6},
pages = {570--580}
}
Related work
- All publications by Joseph Ciarrochi (searchable, with free PDFs)
- Process-Based Therapy & Idionomic Analysis
Author: Joseph Ciarrochi (ORCID 0000-0003-0471-8100). Free copy hosted with permission for scholarly use. Please cite the published version.