Abstract
BackgroundThe strategies that parents use to guide and discipline their children may influence their emotional health. Relatively little research has been conducted examining the association of parenting practices to depressive symptoms among Caribbean adolescents. This project examines the association of parenting styles to levels of depressive symptoms among adolescents in Jamaica, the Bahamas, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Vincent.MethodsAdolescents attending grade ten of academic year 2006/2007 in Jamaica, the Bahamas, St. Vincent, and St. Kitts and Nevis were administered the Parenting Practices Scale along with the BDI-II. Authoritative, Authoritarian, Permissive and Neglectful parenting styles were created using a median split procedure of the monitoring and nurturance subscales of the Parenting Practices Scale. Multiple regression analyses were used to examine the relationships of parenting styles to depressive symptoms.ResultsA wide cross-section of tenth grade students in each nation was sampled (n = 1955; 278 from Jamaica, 217 from the Bahamas, 737 St. Kitts and Nevis, 716 from St. Vincent; 52.1% females, 45.6% males and 2.3% no gender reported; age 12 to 19 years, mean = 15.3 yrs, sd = .95 yrs). Nearly half (52.1%) of all adolescents reported mild to severe symptoms of depression with 29.1% reporting moderate to severe symptoms of depression. In general, authoritative and permissive parenting styles were both associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms in adolescents. However, the relationship of parenting styles to depression scores was not consistent across countries (p < .05). In contrast to previous research on Caribbean parenting, caregivers in this study used a mixture of different parenting styles with the two most popular styles being authoritative and neglectful parenting.ConclusionsThere appears to be an association between parenting styles and depressive symptoms that is differentially manifested across the islands of Jamaica, the Bahamas, St. Kitts and Nevis and St. Vincent.
Highlights
The strategies that parents use to guide and discipline their children may influence their emotional health
Vincent was somewhat different from that found in Jamaica because while nearly three-quarters (72.6%) of all adolescents reported mild to severe symptoms of depression only 31.0% of students reported moderate to severe symptoms of depression
Contrary to previous research [3,50,61] this study found that Caribbean parents did not predominately utilize an authoritarian parenting style
Summary
The strategies that parents use to guide and discipline their children may influence their emotional health. Past research has suggested that parenting practices may influence adolescents’ mental health [2,3,5,6,7]. Parenting styles are largely influenced by parents’ experiences, both positive and negative, with their own parents as they themselves grew up [14]. Other factors such as prevailing cultural norms and expectations [1], religious beliefs [1], and characteristics of the children in the parent–child relationship [15] shape the dynamic and complex phenomenon of parenting
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