Parenting, parent-child-relationship, and life satisfaction in German and Indian adolescents

Parental acceptance-rejection and parental control are widely accepted as important dimensions of parenting. However, cross-cultural studies suggest that their function for child-development varies across cultures. Specifically, controlling parenting seems to have different functions in Western as compared to Asian contexts. Fewer studies exist with regard to adolescents’ relationship quality with their parents and its role for psychological well-being across cultures. The current study compares Indian and German adolescents’ perceptions of their mother’s parenting behaviour as well as their relationship quality with mothers and fathers, and explores the relation of the two constructs to adolescents’ life satisfaction. Results showed that Indian as compared to German adolescents experienced more controlling parenting and that parental control was substantially positively related to adolescents’ life satisfaction in India while no such relation existed in Germany. In Germany, parental rejection was the strongest (negative) predictor of life satisfaction. Regarding the relationship quality with parents, results showed that Indian adolescents experienced more intimacy in the relationship with their mother and less conflicts in the relationship with their father than German adolescents. Regarding the relation to life satisfaction similar relations occurred in both cultures: feeling emotionally close with and admired by parents were the strongest predictors for Indian and German adolescents’ life satisfaction.