The impact of authoritative, permissive and authoritarian behavior of parents on self-concept, psychological health and life quality

Abstract

The current study compared the effect of parenting style on self-concept, psychological health and quality of life  of children with authoritative, permissive and authoritarian parents. In order to do this, parenting style questionnaire  was first given to 180 parents of high school students in Iran. Then, based on this questionnaire, the parents were divided into authoritarian, permissive and authoritative. Following this, 30 children from authoritarian, 29 from permissive and 32 children from authoritative parents were selected. Then, the general health questionnaire, self-esteem questionnaire and quality of life questionnaire were administrated on these subjects after taking their consent. One way ANOVA, multiple comparisons of means and correlations were used to analyze the data. The results showed that there was a significant impact of parenting style on mental health. This means that children raised by authoritative parenting style had better mental health than children raised by authoritarian and permissive parenting styles. In addition, there was a significant impact of parenting style on self-esteem. This means that children raised by authoritative parenting style had better self-esteem than children raised by authoritarian and permissive parenting style. Finally, there was a significant impact of parenting style on quality of life. This means that children raised by authoritative parenting style had better quality of life than children raised by authoritarian and permissive parenting styles.