Perceptions of parents and adolescent outcomes in Pakistan

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine associations among perceived parenting variables (warmth, parental knowledge of their child's daily activities, shame induction and autonomy-granting), and psychosocial outcomes in Pakistan, a culture about which little information is available in the psychological literature. Participants were early and late adolescent Pakistani boys (N = 156) and girls (N = 148). Girls perceived their parents as being warmer, more knowledgeable about their child's activities and whereabouts, and more autonomy-granting than did boys. Warmth and parental knowledge associated with positive outcomes for girls, but not boys. Autonomy-granting associated with positive outcomes in bivariate and multivariate correlations for both genders. In causal models, perceptions of parents influenced well-being partly through the mediators of self-denigration, positive self-image and relationship harmony, explaining up to 21% of the variance in outcomes. The results are discussed in the light of Western findings and the social context of middle-class urban Pakistan. The findings provide some support for self-determination theory, which states that autonomy-granting by parents facilitates offspring adjustment through internalization of parental values, even in non-Western cultures.