MetaTOC stay on top of your field, easily

Do Mothers' and Fathers' Authoritative and Authoritarian Parenting Interact? An Exploration on Schooling Aspects With a Singapore Adolescent Sample

,

Youth & Society

Published online on

Abstract

Our study sought mainly to examine interactions between mothers’ and fathers’ authoritative and authoritarian parenting. A total of 284 adolescents (mean age 13.5) from 2 Singapore schools contributed self-report data on their parents’ parenting and various schooling aspects. Prior to testing for interactions, adolescents with two authoritative parents were found to have greater interest in schooling and mastery goals than those with two authoritarian parents. In addition, fathers’ parenting style contributed unique variance beyond mothers’ for three aspects. Regarding interactions, five emerged, three involving mothers’ and fathers’ authoritative parenting and suggesting that authoritative parenting is particularly amenable to moderation. Overall, the five interactions point to the possibility that fathers’ contributions are obscured if mothers are excluded and that authoritarian parenting can have positive effects in specific instances, although gender also needs to be considered. These results elucidate erstwhile obscured processes when interactions are not taken into account.