Parental Acceptance–Rejection: a Fourth Cross-Cultural Research on Parenting and Psychological Adjustment of Children

Abstract

The parental acceptance–rejection factor was considered by Rohner as one of the major parental factors influencing children’s mental health. The Parental Acceptance Rejection Questionnaire PARQ was administered to adolescents in nine countries. The results show that parental acceptance–rejection differs across countries. Fathers were more rejecting and less accepting than mothers, and male adolescents were more likely to be rejected and less likely to be accepted than female adolescents. Parental rejection was more prevalent among parents with little education and a low family socio-economic level. Parental rejection was associated with adolescent psychological disorders and parental acceptance was associated, to a lesser extent, with better psychological adjustment. Congruently with our hypothesis, downright parental rejection is less harming to adolescents’ mental health than the inconsistent combination of rejection and acceptance.