toward boys will differ from that towards girls, psychological adjustment of girls ... University of California at Berkley is particularly noteworthy (Baumrind, 1966, 1967, ... a child receives and the extent to which a child's activities and behavior are controlled .... regulations, and obedience is a central educational positive value.
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Dwairy, M. (2004). Parenting styles and psychological adjustment of Arab adolescents. Transcultural Psychiatry. 41(2), 233-252. Abstract The relationship between three parenting styles (authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative) and the mental health of Arab adolescents was tested. It was hypothesized that parenting style toward boys will differ from that towards girls, psychological adjustment of girls will differ from that of boys, and that the authoritarian style applied within the authoritarian Arab society is not associated with poor psychological adjustment. The Parental Authority Questionnaire, Child Attitude Toward Parents, Lipsitt’s Self-Concept Scale for Children, Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale and The Psychological State Scale were administered to 431 Arab adolescents. Sex comparison revealed that the parenting style with regard to girls tends to be more authoritative and less authoritarian than with regard to boys. Girls scored higher than boys on identity disorder, anxiety disorder, and depression scales, while boys scored higher than girls on the behavior disorder scale. There was no significant relationship between the authoritarian parenting style and the mental health measures. A significant positive relationship exists between the authoritative parenting style and the mental health of children. Among boys, the permissive parenting style was associated with negative attitudes towards parents, lower selfesteem and increased identity, anxiety, phobia, depressive, and conduct disorders. It seems, therefore, that the effect of parenting style is culturally and gender dependent rather than universal. Keywords: Parenting style, adolescents, Arab, self concept, self esteem, anxiety.
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A number of developmental psychologists have contributed significantly to the study of parenting styles (Bigner, 1994; Shaffer, 1996). The research of Diana Baumrind of the University of California at Berkley is particularly noteworthy (Baumrind, 1966, 1967, 1991). She identified three basic styles of childrearing: Authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative. The three parenting styles differ in two particular areas of parenting: the amount of nurturing a child receives and the extent to which a child's activities and behavior are controlled (Baumrind, 1991). Parents who practice the authoritarian style emphasize their control of the child, and his/her obedience. They restrict the autonomy of the child and decide what is appropriate behavior for him/her (Baumrind, 1966). These parents favor enforced discipline, usually demanding unquestioned adherence to their wishes, and expect children to follow their orders immediately. They are the sole regulating authority in the child’s life, using punishment to control him/her, and seldom explain the reasoning behind rules and regulations. The nurturing skills of authoritarian parents tend to be low. They rarely use words of comfort, and are unlikely to demonstrate affection or to praise their adolescents. Despite the fact that these parents are convinced that they have adopted this style out of love and caring for the child, Becker (1964) found that parental hostility and control tend to disrupt conscience development in the child and to encourage his/her aggressiveness and resistance to authority. More current research suggests that this style may plant the seeds of a variety of future addictions, or result in problems in intimate relationships. Children of authoritarian parents tend to be uncooperative and to suffer from depression, low self esteem, low initiative, and difficulties in making decisions in adulthood (Baumrind, 1991; Bigner, 1994; Forward, 1989; Wenar, 1994; Whitfield, 1987). The nurturing skills of parents who adopt the permissive style tend to be moderate to high, while their control of their children is weak (Baumrind, 1991). They encourage their children’s autonomy and enable them to make their own decisions and regulate their own activities. They avoid confrontation and tend to be warm, supportive people and do not care to be viewed by a child as a figure of authority. Children raised by permissive parents have poor social skills and low self-esteem (Baumrind, 1991) and are often seen as selfish, dependent, irresponsible, spoiled, unruly, inconsiderate of other’s needs, and antisocial (Bigner, 1994; Wenar, 1994). The authoritative style is a compromise between the authoritarian and the permissive style. Parents who adopt this style tend to have good nurturing skills and exercise moderate parental control to allow the child to become progressively more autonomous (Baumrind, 1966, 1967, 1991). In this style children are not completely restricted but rather are allowed a reasonable degree of latitude in their behavior. Parents do enforce limits in various ways such as reasoning, verbal give and take, overt power, and positive reinforcements. Most western parents adopt the authoritative style of childrearing. Children of authoritative parents have high self-esteem and tend to be self-reliant, self-controlled, secure, popular, and inquisitive (Buri et al., 1988; Wenar, 1994). They manifest fewer psychological and behavioral problems than youth having authoritarian or permissive parents (Lamborn, Mants, Steinberg & Dornbusch, 1991). (For review of parental discipline, see Maccoby and Martin, 1983). Parenting styles, self-concept, self-esteem, and mental health are culturally dependent (Cheung et al. 2001; Dwairy, 1998b; Hiene, Kitayama & Lehman, 2001; Khaleque, & Rohner, 2002). Some research suggests that the influence of parenting style may differ across ethnic groups (Hill, 1995). Research among non-white cultures revealed inconsistent results regarding the effect of parenting style on children. In some studies, authoritarian as well as permissive parenting styles proved to have negative effects on the self-concept, selfesteem, and academic performance of African-Americans (Baumrind, 1972; Taylor, Hinton,
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& Wilson, 1995), and of Asian Americans (Steinberg et al., 1992). On the other hand some researchers found that the authoritarian parenting style produced the most assertive and independent African American girls (Baumrind, 1972), and was related to higher competence in a high-risk environment (Baldwin, Baldwin & Cole, 1990). In another study Steinberg et al. (1994) found that the authoritarian parenting style was more advantageous to Asian Americans than the authoritative style in terms of adjustment and academic performance. Leung et al. (1998) studied Chinese families in Hong Kong and the People’s Republic of China and found that the authoritarian parenting style effected the achievement of the children positively while the authoritative style had no effect on achievement. Chao (2001) also found the authoritative style benefits the achievement levels of first-generation Chinese immigrants in USA less than that of European Americans. Because these parenting style categories were based on western samples, Hill (1995) recommended that researchers interpret them differently when applying them to other cultures. She emphasized that, though parenting behaviors may be similar across cultures (etic), their meaning and implications for the child’s development may differ (emic). Randolph (1995) noted that the authoritarian child rearing practices may be valued in the African American community because they are associated with caring, love, respect, “protection from the streets,” and “making life easier for the child.” Tobin et al. (1989) explained that the concept of guan in Chinese means “to govern” and has very positive connotations of “caring for” and “loving.” Chao (1997) identified a Chinese parenting style called chiao shun - translated as training - which overlaps the western authoritarian style but has a different meaning for Chinese parents and children. Chao (1994) pointed out that perhaps the cross-cultural differentials effect of authoritarian parenting styles results from the fact that they have different meanings for children from different cultures. The Arabic society has been characterized as collective and authoritarian (Dwairy, 1998a). Children are expected to adhere to their parents’ and teachers’ expectations and regulations, and obedience is a central educational positive value. Regardless of the behavioral domain, disobedience is considered to be the severest offense, invoking harsh punishments, especially for girls. The space of freedom, which girls enjoy, is limited to the home or the family province where they are under direct control. In a former study, Arab parents reported their reaction to a variety of behavioral problems exhibited by their sons and daughters. According to this study, parents’ reactions to the inappropriate behavior of girls and boys were similar as long as it involved private behavior (e.g. laziness). Parents’ reactions to the inappropriate social behavior of girls in the presence of others or in public places were more oppressive than to that of boys in the same situation (Dwairy, 1997). Women as well as girls are strictly controlled and are expected to adhere completely to the paternally dictated norms of the Arabic family (Weller, Florian, & Mikulincer, 1995). Within the collective system of the Arab society, individuation of the self is limited. Arab individuals possess collective selves. Their self-concept as well as self-esteem is highly dependent on the family reputation and status and on the approval and support that the individual receives from the family (Dwairy, 2002). As a result of these psycho-cultural characteristics, many mental health issues among Arabs, such as personality and mental disorders, differ profoundly from those in the west (Dwairy, 1998b, 2002). Authoritarianism within the Arab society is not necessarily associated with the children feeling oppressed. In a study of Arab youth, the majority reported that they follow their parents’ direction in all areas of life, such as social behavior, interpersonal relationships, marriage, occupational preference, and political attitudes. Interestingly, they reported that they do not feel that they suffer from this authoritarian style and are even satisfied with this
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way of life (Hatab & Makki, 1978). In another study on the use of corporal punishment by teachers in Arabic schools, the students did not complain, seeming to accept its use as a normal part of the teacher’s duty (Dwairy, 1997). Some studies in Arab countries that are experiencing a quick cultural transition indicate that the prevalence of psychological disorders is higher in traditional authoritarian societies that are passing through rapid changes. For instance, the high prevalence of psychological disorders in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states was associated with the rapid sociocultural changes taking place in those countries (Ibrahim & Al-Nafie, 1990). In Dubai, the prevalence of psychiatric disorders was higher among those women whose attitudes differed considerably from their behavior. Prevalence of these disorders was particularly high among women who, while retaining traditional beliefs, behaved less conventionally than traditionally acceptable (Ghubash, Hamdi, & Bebbington, 1992; Ghubash & Bebbington, 1994). These Arabic cultural characteristics raise some interesting questions concerning the relationship between parenting styles and the mental health of Arab children. How does the authoritarian parenting style, when utilized in a society that considers authoritarianism to be normal, affect the mental health of children? Does this style cause the psychological damage that has been identified in the west? While many studies have addressed gender differences in terms of self-concept and self-esteem (see Calson, Uppal & Prosser, 2000), in terms of parenting styles gender differences have been relatively neglected. Buri (1991) did not include gender-based norms in his scale. Gender differences in parenting styles are of particular interest in the study of the Arabic society where gender roles are distinctive. This study examines the relationship between parenting styles (authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative) and the attitude toward parents, self-concept, self-esteem, and psychological disorders among Palestinian-Arab male and female adolescents. Two hypotheses are formulated: a) The parenting styles applied in the raising of boys will differ from that used in the raising of girls, and psychological adjustment of boys will differ from that of girls, b) The authoritarian parenting style is not associated with negative self-concept, low self-esteem, and poor psychological adjustment in their children. Method Participants Five scales were administered to 227girls and 204 boys (N=431) Palestinian-Arab adolescents in the 13-14 year old age group. The subjects were students in the eighth and ninth grades of three schools in urban areas and of another three schools in a rural area in Israel. Western readers should be aware that for historical and political reasons the social and cultural status of Arabs from urban areas in Israel is similar to that of rural Arabs. In fact, Arabic cities numbering 20000-60000 citizens are like large villages in terms of social life and their population’s status. The majority of participants in the study were members of traditional Arabic families comprising father, mother and average of 5.6 siblings. The social economic statuses of the participants were mixed in the same proportions as found among the general population of Arabs in Israel. The instruments were administered at schools by graduate students of education during the weekly educational class. The administration lasted for 50-60 minutes in each class. Participation was voluntary; however none of the students refused to participate. Seven students did not complete all of questionnaires therefore they were excluded from the sample. In accordance with Israeli rules, the consent of the school inspector and the parents’ committee was obtained.
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Instruments All instruments of this study were of the self-report type in which the adolescents reported about the parenting styles of their parents as well as about psychological variables concerning their attitudes to parents, self-concept, self-esteem, and psychological disorders. Although self-report measures were used to study family structure (Weller et al., 1995; Chao, 2001), cognitive or motivational factors may still limit the accuracy of these reports. Knowing these limitations helps us understand the results as indications of the relationship between the parenting styles as identified by the adolescents and the mental health variables they reported. This understanding limits the implications of the results and calls for further studies using other sources of information before further generalized conclusions may be drawn. 1) Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ): The PAQ is a 30-item test developed to assess parental authority or disciplinary practices from the child’s point view (Buri, 1991). It is designed to reflect the three basic parenting styles: authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative. Ten items treat each of the three parenting styles and the subjects are directed to respond to each item on a 5-point Likert scale (ranging from 1=not agree to 5=agree). Three scores are obtained reflecting the three parenting styles. The PAQ has a questionnaire pertaining to mothers and an identical one for fathers. The author reports very good two-week test-retest reliabilities that range from .77 to .92, and internal consistency with alphas that range from .74 to .87 for the subscales. The construct validity was tested by self-esteem. Self-esteem correlated inversely with authoritarianism and positively with authoritativeness, and was unaffected by permissiveness (Buri, 1991). As the Arab society is collective, so too is Arab parenting, fathers, mothers and other adults taking part in child rearing and socialization. This collective educational unit is called Ahel and is responsible for caring for and disciplining Arab children and adolescents according to the collective paternal values (Weller, Florian & Mikulincer, 1995). Within this context mothers adopt and enforce the paternal rules in the case of both boys and girls. In a previous study (Dwairy, 1997), when methods of socialization adopted by Arabic mothers and fathers were compared, only minor differences were found between the self-report of Arab mothers and fathers concerning their methods of socialization. No significant differences between mothers and fathers were found in thirteen out of fifteen methods of socialization (Dwairy, 1997). Based on these cultural features, we decided at this initial stage of research to focus on the collective parenting of Ahel and we therefore used one form pertaining to both parents, instead of one each for mothers and fathers. 2) Child Attitude Toward Parents (CAP): This scale measures the severity of problems in the child-parent relationship as viewed by the child. It consists of 25 items designed for use in assessing the severity of a child’s problem with her mother (CAM) and another 25 identical items assessing the child’s problem with the father (CAF). The items cover a wide variety of positive and negative feelings and attitudes toward each parent such as trust, enjoyment, liking and pride, on the one hand, and disgust, dislike, embarrassment, over-demanding attitude and irritation on the other. Responses to each item are on a 7-point Likert scale (ranging from 1=rarely or none of the time to 7=most or all of the time). Items are both positively and negatively worded to reduce response bias. After administration, the positively worded items are reverse-scored and then the scores are summed separately for each child-mother and child-father problem. A high score indicates a negative attitude toward parents and severe problems in the child-parent relationship. A score of 30 has been determined to be the clinical cutoff indicative of the child having severe problems with the mother or father. A score that is above 70 clearly indicates high levels of stress in the relationship and violent tendencies on the part of the child. In developing the
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scale, the cultural factor has been taken into consideration, the norms being based on 1072 students of heterogeneous cultural background including Caucasian, Japanese and Chinese Americans, and other ethnic groups. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of the scale range between .93 and .97 (Grotevant & Carlson, 1989; Hudson, 1982, 1992). The one-week test-retest correlations for CAF are .96 and .95 for the CAM (Hudson, 1992). In this study the 25 items of the scale were used but the word “parents” substituted the word “mother” or “father” (CAP) for the reasons mentioned above concerning the PAQ. 3) Lipsitt’s Self-Concept Scale for Children (LSCSC): This scale consists of 22 adjectives describing children’s feeling about themselves in a variety of functioning areas (e.g friendly, happy, brave, popular, clean, and good). The items are graded by the child on a 5-point scale (ranging from 1=not at all to 5=all of the time). Three of these adjectives (lazy, jealous, and bashful) are considered negative while the rest are positive. After the three negatively worded items are reverse-scored, the scores potentially range between 22 and 110. A high score reflects high positive self-concept (Lipsitt, 1958a). Test re-test correlations range from .73 to .91. The self-concept correlates significantly and negatively with scores on the Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale: The greater the anxiety, the lower the self-concept (Lipsitt, 1958b). 4) Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale (RSES): Rosenberg's scale is one of the most popular self-esteem scales (Rosenberg, 1965). It was originally developed to measure adolescents' global feelings of self-worth or self-acceptance, and is generally considered the standard against which other measures of self-esteem are compared. It comprises 10 items that are usually scored using a four-point response ranging from 1=strongly disagree to 4=strongly agree. A high score indicates high self-esteem. The items are face valid, and the scale is short and easy and fast to administer. One of the greatest strengths of the scale is the amount of research using it that has been conducted with a wide range of groups of varying ethnic backgrounds (Fischer, & Corcoran, 1994). Cronbach’s alphas of RSES in various samples are in the range of .77 to .88. Test-retest correlation coefficients are in the range of .85 to .88. More information concerning validity (convergent and discriminant) can be found in Blascovich and Tomaka (1991). Two bilingual psychologists who know Arabic and English very well translated the items of PAQ, CAP, LSCSC and RSES into Arabic. They made a two-way translation: one psychologist translated the items into Arabic and then the other one translated them back into English. Items that did not match the original English text were corrected and retested by a third bilingual psychologist. The final Arabic scale of PAQ was given to five other Arab psychologists who knew the Baumrind’s authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative styles very well. They served as judges and were asked to classify the items into the three parental styles. Twenty-eight of the thirty items were agreed upon by at least four judges. The other two items were rephrased so that all five judges were in agreement. All PAQ Arabic items remained equivalent to the original scale. This level of agreement between judges indicates good content validity of the questionnaire. Judging according to the face validity of the items, the attitudes and behaviors addressed in the authoritarian and permissive sub-scales seemed similar to the attitudes and behaviors that are considered as such in the Arabic society. 5) The Psychological State Scale (PSS): This scale was developed in Arabic by Hamuda and Imam (1996) to assess twentyseven psychological states among adolescents and adults in Egypt. Five items, each of which the subject is asked to endorse or reject (2=yes, 1=not sure, and 0=no), were designed to
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pertain to each state. The scores of each scale are summed. A high score indicates a psychological disorder. The PSS was developed originally to detect twenty-seven psychological disorders in a group setting. For the purpose of our study and for economic reasons, we chose to examine only six psychological states that are relevant to adolescents. We selected the items that pertain to the following psychological states: 1. Identity disorders (e.g.: I do not know who I am and what I want). 2. Generalized anxiety disorder (e.g.: While I am doing something I feel anxious). 3. Phobia (e.g.: Others notice that I am afraid of non-threatening things). 4. Depression (e.g.: I feel sad most of the time). 5. Conduct Disorder (e.g.: Using violence makes others respect me). 6. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (e.g.: I am obsessed by certain silly thoughts that I can’t stop). Factor analysis of the scale, when applied to normal and clinical Arab groups in Egypt, showed good convergence of the items into the five psychological states indicating good internal-structural validity of the scale. Comparison between the two groups revealed significant differences between the normal and clinical participants in all of the above subscales. Taking into account the fact that the number of items in each subscale is small (five items), the split-half reliability coefficients were good to moderate: The coefficient of identity disorder was .84, of generalized identity .71, of phobia .77, of depression .80, of conduct disorder .43, and of obsessive-compulsive disorder .50 (Hamuda and Imam, 1996). Results To test the reliability and the internal-structural validity of the scales after they had been translated and adopted to test the Arabs in Israel, the internal consistency and factor analyses were applied. Internal consistency The internal consistency of the scales and sub-scales was tested by Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. Except for the obsessive-compulsive disorder sub-scale, the coefficients of all the others were .65 or above (Table 1). Because of the low coefficient of the obsessivecompulsive disorder sub-scale (.33), this sub-scale was discarded. Insert table 1 here Factor analysis A principal component factor analysis was applied to PAQ and PSS. Based on the theoretical structure of PAQ an a priori three-factors solution was adopted with varimax rotation and a .30 item-factor loading criterion. The percentage of overall variance accounted for by the three factors was 43.22%. All items that comprise each parenting style matched accordingly (Table 2). In order to validate the three-factors solution, we conducted confirmatory factor analysis with an eigenvalue of 1 or above. This analysis resulted in the same three factors as reported above. Insert table 2 here Based on the theoretical structure of PSS, an a priori five-factors solution was adopted with varimax rotation and a .30 item-factor loading criterion. The percentage of overall variance accounted for by the five factors was 50.81%. To validate the five-factors solution we conducted a confirmatory factor analysis that resulted in the same five factors that have an eigenvalue greater than 1. All items of identity disorder and depression loaded on one factor and accounted for 19.06% of the variance. It seems that the items of these two sub-scales were not distinct and shared the same variance.
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Three items of the five phobia sub-scale items loaded in the second factor that accounted for 9.22% of the variance, and the other two items of the sub-scale loaded exclusively in the fifth factor that accounted for 6.15% of the variance. It seems that the phobia sub-scale comprises two different categories: the first three items indicate fearfulness of situations or things of which others are not afraid, and the other two items indicate hesitation or lack of confidence in situations of which others are not apprehensive. All five items of the conduct disorder scale loaded in the third factor and accounted for 9.11% of the variance. All five items of the anxiety disorder scale loaded in the fourth factor and accounted for 7.28% of the variance (Table 3). Insert table 3 here Gender differences To compare boys and girls we conducted multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). The scores of girls in the authoritative parenting style were higher than the scores of boys, F(1, 429) = 21.18, p
