Gender Differences in Parenting Styles and their effect on Emotional Regulation Difficulties in Adolescents

Abstract

This study investigated gender differences in parenting styles and the effect of parenting styles on emotional regulation difficulties of adolescents in the age range of 18 to 23 years. This study used Convenience Sampling technique to select 151 participants. It analyzed how gender influence parenting styles and how distinct parenting approaches—authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative—influenced emotional regulation difficulties among adolescents. The key findings demonstrate that authoritative and permissive parenting styles negatively predict emotional regulation difficulties whereas authoritarian parenting enhanced these difficulties. Furthermore, significant gender disparities in parenting styles were found, with fathers showing higher means on authoritarian whereas mothers on authoritative and permissive parenting styles.