The relationship between parents’ child-rearing attitudes and adolescents’ self-perception

Adolescence is a critical phase for personality development. Although numerous factors influence adolescent development, parenting styles and practices are also recognised to significantly impact healthy development. Thus, the main problem of this study is to determine whether there is a relationship between parental child-rearing attitudes and self-perception of adolescents.

The research utilised a quantitative correlational research design. Following ethics committee approval, it was conducted between January and June 2025 across four secondary schools in Ankara, Türkiye. The study involved 416 volunteer adolescents and their respective parents.

Data collection instruments included “Personal Information Forms”, “Parent Attitude Scales Form C” and “Self-Perception Scale for Adolescents”. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation analysis and multiple linear regression. The findings indicated that the participating adolescents had high levels of self-perception and that their parents predominantly exhibited an authoritative parenting style.

Furthermore, the analysis revealed that the family self-perception levels of adolescents were notably high. The regression analysis results showed that authoritative parenting style also has a statistically significant effect on both adolescents’ self-perception and its subdimensions (i.e., general, physical, academic, social, and familial domains). Consequently, it can be concluded that the authoritative parenting style has a positive and significant impact on adolescents’ self-perception, and that those whose parents exhibit this style are more likely experience substantial and meaningful improvements in their self-perception.

This result shows that, as the number of authoritative parents increases, more adolescents will grow up with high self-perceptions. We would like to thank the adolescents and their parents who volunteered to take part in our study. Gülhane Health Sciences Faculty, Department of Child Development, University of Health Sciences, Ankara, Turkey University of Health Sciences(graduated), Child Development Specialist, Bursa, Turkey The authors declare no competing interests.

The study was carried out following the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and the Spanish Society of Psychology. The ethics committee approval of the study was obtained with the decision of the Health Sciences University Gülhane Scientific Research Ethics Committee dated 07.01.2025 and numbered 2025-01. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.