Parenting Styles of Adolescents’ Parents in Kandy District, Sri Lanka: An Exploratory Analysis

Abstract

This research examines parenting styles of adolescents’ parents in Kandy District, Sri Lanka to understand the various individual and cultural factors that shape parenting practices in this context. Based on surveys with 120 participants as well as in-depth interviews with 16 of the initial participants, the study highlights four main themes and subthemes that reveal how parents’ childhood experiences, cultural preferences, and role models shape their parenting practices. The results indicate that authoritative and permissive parents tend to have positive childhood experiences, positive relationships with their own parents in their childhood, and positive role models that have influenced their parenting practices. Authoritarian and uninvolved parents, on the other hand, report mostly negative childhood experiences with their own parents and fewer positive role models. Cultural preferences also vary within the four main parenting styles. For example, authoritative parents report more preference to apply what they perceive as both Eastern and Western cultural elements regarding parenting compared with other parenting styles. Authoritarian parents report using corporal punishment more than other study participants who represent the other parenting styles. The study concludes that more parenting styles-focused research regarding these factors is needed globally and in the Sri Lankan context.