Examining the association between parenting styles and emotional wellbeing in the Maltese context

Abstract

Researchers have become increasingly interested in the effects of the parent-child relationship on children’s development, specifically, on the children’s experience and expression of emotion, and the research carried out in this study intends to contribute to this interest. The study will examine the association between the different styles of parenting, and how they affect people’s emotional wellbeing. 73 participants filled in a questionnaire that measured the style of parenting they experienced while growing up, based on the Parenting Style Four Factor Questionnaire (PS-FFQ), and their emotional wellbeing, based on the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS). Results showed that those who experienced authoritative parenting have a higher emotional wellbeing score than those who experienced authoritarian or permissive parenting styles while growing up. It suggests that parenting styles that are too controlling and emotionally cold or emotionally warm but too lax, have negative implications for individuals’ emotional wellbeing later on in life.