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Parenting Styles, Individuation, and Mental Health of Arab Adolescents

A Third Cross-Regional Research Study

Emeq Yezreel Academic College and Oranim Academic College, Israel

Mustafa Achoui

King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals

Reda Abouserie

American University in Cairo

Adnan Farah

Yarmouk University

The Psychological State Scale, Multigenerational Interconnectedness Scale, and the Parental Authority Questionnaire were administered to 2,893 Arab adolescents in eight Arab societies. In these tests, adolescents raised according to the inconsistent parenting scored lower in connectedness and higher in mental disorders than those raised according to the controlling or flexible-oriented parenting pattern. Authoritative parenting was associated with a higher level of connectedness with the family and better mental health of adolescents. A higher level of adolescent-family connectedness is associated with better mental health of adolescents. Results indicate that authoritarian parenting within an authoritarian culture does not harm the adolescents' mental health as it does within the Western liberal societies. These results give rise to the hypothesis that inconsistency in parenting and inconsistency between the parenting style and the culture cause harm to adolescents' mental health.

Key Words: parenting • connectedness • individuation • mental health • anxiety • depression • Arab • Muslim • culture

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Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, Vol. 37, No. 3, 262-272 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0022022106286924


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This Article Abstract Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Dwairy, M. Articles by Farah, A. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?