Relationship between Parenting Style and High School Students’ Anxious Thoughts: A Case Study in Iran

Abstract

Parenting styles are variables that affect their children’s anxious thoughts. The present study aimed to examine the relationship between parenting styles with anxious thoughts of the students in selected high schools of Mashhad, Iran. A quantitative methodology in form of a correlational design was employed in this research, which comprised two main variables including parenting styles and Iranian teenagers’ anxious thoughts. To address the research objective, 180 teenagers who were students at some schools in Mashhad, Iran, and their parents, completed the study questionnaires which included Baumarind parenting styles Scale (1971) and the Anxious Thoughts Inventory (AnTI) designed by Wells (1994). The analysis of the data obtained from implementing the questionnaires was performed through SPSS25 software in two sections: descriptive and inferential (Pearson Correlation Coefficient and regression analysis, i.e. ANOVA). The results showed that there was a significant relationship between anxious thoughts and the three parenting styles. Also, the relationship between the authoritarian parenting style and the symptoms of anxious thoughts (r = -0.731) is significant in a negative way. On the other hand, it is observed that there is a positive correlation between authoritarian parenting style and anxious thoughts (r = 0.511). Finally, it is seen that there is a positive correlation between permissive parenting style and anxious thoughts (0.461), (p</01). It can be concluded that parenting styles can strongly predict anxious thoughts and determine 0.544 of variances of the anxious thoughts.