Parenting Adolescents in an Increasingly Diverse World: Links to Adolescents’ Psychopathology

Abstract

Studies in Europe and North America have shown a strong impact of a negative parenting style (such as psychological control, separation anxiety and a lack of support) on adolescents’ health. Western societies are increasingly becoming more ethnically diverse and we need more information about these links in the majority world. This overview focuses on the impact of cultural factors and parental rearing style on adolescent health including studies from all over the world. A universal finding was the strong impact of such negative parenting behaviour on depression, anxiety, and body complaints on boys and girls in diverse countries of the majority world. The impact was stronger for mothers’ parenting than for fathers’ and differed with respect to the gen-der of the child. Girls from step parent families and sons from mother-headed family were particularly sensitive to a negative parenting style. The universal findings call for joint prevention and interventions approaches.