The power of authoritative parenting: A cross national study of effects of exposure to different parenting styles on life satisfaction
Abstract The impact of authoritative, permissive, and authoritarian parenting styles on life satisfaction was analysed on the basis of survey data from national representative samples of young people between the ages of 14 and 29 in ten countries of Southeast Europe. The results, based on multiple linear regression analysis and two step cluster analysis, showed that in each of the ten countries observed, being exposed to more authoritative parenting during elementary school was strongly correlated with higher levels of life satisfaction during the period of youth. While the other two types of parenting were weakly and inconsistently correlated to life satisfaction across the ten countries, analysis of the effects of specific combinations of parenting styles showed that the pure authoritarian parenting style had a substantial negative impact on life satisfaction in each of the ten countries observed. Overall, the results of our study offer very strong support for the notion that, even from a wider cross national perspective, exposure to an authoritative parenting style during childhood is conducive to higher levels of life satisfaction in later years. Our results also suggest that even the effects of both permissive and authoritarian styles tend to be positive, as long as these styles are combined with the authoritative one. Thus, when it comes to exposure to different parenting styles during childhood, lack of authoritative parenting was identified as the most important factor in lower life satisfaction among young people.