The Role of Parenting Styles in the Transmission of Values to Adolescents

Abstract

Introduction and Aim: Family is considered the most important context for socialization and plays a fundamental role in shaping adolescents’ values, attitudes, and behaviors. The present study aimed to investigate the role of parenting styles in the transmission of values to adolescent children and to explain this process based on Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory.

Methodology: This study employed a causal-comparative design. The statistical population consisted of adolescents aged 12 to 15 years and their parents in Islamshahr, Iran. Using multistage cluster sampling, four schools were randomly selected. After screening the Baumrind Parenting Styles Questionnaires, 60 authoritative families, 58 authoritarian families, and 53 permissive families were selected as the final sample. Parents completed Baumrind’s Parenting Styles Questionnaire, while both parents and adolescents separately completed the Schwartz Values Survey. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficients, multivariate analysis of variance, and Tukey post hoc tests.

Findings: The findings revealed significant differences among adolescents from authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive families in their value systems. Adolescents from authoritative families obtained significantly higher scores in benevolence, universalism, security, conformity, traditionalism, and achievement compared with the other groups, whereas adolescents from permissive families scored higher in hedonism and stimulation. Significant correlations were also found between fathers’ and mothers’ value systems in authoritative families, particularly in conformity and traditionalism. Moreover, the strongest correlations between parents’ and adolescents’ values in authoritative families were observed in conformity and traditionalism.

Conclusion: The results demonstrated that authoritative parenting provides a more effective context for the transmission and internalization of values in adolescents compared with authoritarian and permissive parenting styles. Based on Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, parent-adolescent dialogue, emotional support, scaffolding, and reciprocal interactions in authoritative families facilitate mutual understanding, internalization of values, and stronger adolescent commitment to social and moral values.