Authoritarian Parenting Style in Asian Societies: A Cluster-Analytic Investigation*

While the beneficial effects of authoritative parenting style have consistently been demonstrated for Caucasian samples, these effects have not always been found for Asians. It appears that adolescents who perceived their parents’ style of parenting as authoritarian are not one homogeneous group. Cluster analyses performed for adolescents’ perceived mothers’ and fathers’ authoritarian parenting style using adolescents’ self-report scores on personal adjustment and social variables as the clustering variables found similar two-cluster solutions (maladjusted and well-adjusted). External validation evidence revealed that adolescents in the maladjusted cluster had poorer attitudes towards school and teachers compared to adolescents in the well-adjusted cluster for both samples. These findings suggest that authoritarian parenting style could possibly have a different cultural meaning for Asians. ^*The authors would like to thank staff from Tampines Family Service Center for their assistance with data collection. The schools, adolescents and principals who participated in this project are also gratefully acknowledged and thanked. This research is supported by the Voluntary Welfare Organization Capability Fund grant from the National Council of Social Service, Singapore.