Parenting Profiles versus Parenting Factors and Adolescents’ Psychological Disorders

The association between parenting and child’s psychological states has been studied mainly according toBaumrind’s model of authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive parenting styles or according to Rohner’sacceptance-rejection theory. This study, in contrast, rests on the assumption that since parenting is a complex anddynamic process, it is better studied in terms of parenting profiles comprising several factors than via one or twoparenting factors. We administered a questionnaire measuring seven parenting factors that cover various styles ofacceptance and control to 975 male and female adolescents together with a scale of psychological states. Ourresults show that the associations between a parenting factor and psychological states depend on the presence orabsence of other parenting factors, thereby justifying the use of parenting profiles rather than parenting factors.The psychological states were associated with the style of control and the parenting profile rather than with thelevel of control. Two paternal and three maternal parenting profiles were detected, each associated with differentlevels of psychological states. The profile characterized by high acceptance, rational parenting, andloving-control parenting, and by low compassion evoking, love withdrawal, inconsistent parenting, andauthoritarian parenting was associated with better psychological states. The data were analyzed according toparents’ and adolescents’ sex and internalized and externalized psychological states. To learn more about parentalprofiles and psychological states, further research in different cultures is needed.