Abstract
Parenting styles are said to have profound impact on child’s development. However, these are largely influenced by culture and its philosophy. The present study aimed to develop a valid and reliable scale for measuring perceived parenting styles for Pakistani culture. In Phase-I of the study, phenomenological approach was used to explore parenting styles from 60 adolescents. The recorded verbatim of participants resulted into a list of 66 items which were further validated in Phase-II by 8 school psychologists. The final list of 60 items was converted into a self-report measure (i.e., Parenting Styles Scale for Adolescents) and in Phase-III, a try out study was conducted to determine user friendliness and comprehension of items on a sample of 30 students. Lastly, in Phase-IV, 473 students (49% boys and 51% girls) selected through multistage sampling were given the newly developed measure along with the Attachment Questionnaire for Children (Muris, Mesesters, van Melick, and Zwambag, 2001) to measure construct and concurrent validity. Exploratory Factor Analysis resulted into four factors namely Caring, Affectionate, Controlling, and Punitive Parenting Styles. The scale showed high internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and concurrent validity. Results are discussed in terms of cultural implications and gender differences.
Keyword(s)
Parenting styles, adolescents, Gender, emotional, behavior problems