Parenting styles and adolescence: Parents' perceptions on closeness to their adolescents

Abstract

Different styles of parenting create different bonds and relationships with children, and this affects the parent-child relationship of intimacy and closeness (Bush & Peterson, 2013). The three parenting styles that will be examined in this study are authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive. The definition of closeness in this study will be defined as the emotional bond and connection between individuals. This research paper strives to obtain data on parents’ perception of closeness to their adolescent child based on their different parenting styles. Specifically, what parenting style fosters a stronger sense of closeness between a parent and their child during adolescence. It is insightful to understand how parents who practice different parenting style perceive the level of closeness to their child to be. This information is also crucial for understanding the impacts of parenting approaches on the quality of parent-adolescent relationships (Bush & Peterson, 2013). One limitation of this study is that the perception of closeness will be investigated only from the point of view of the parents. Participants who practice different parenting styles and have adolescent children will answer target questions through the use of an interview guide. The results were analyzed using qualitative measures to extract patterns and key findings. They determined that parents who exercise authoritative styles of parenting report higher perceptions of closeness to their adolescent when compared to other parenting styles.