Today's Adolescent Girls, Next Generation Mothers: The Relationship between Parental Autonomy and Parenting Style with Adolescent Girls’ Autonomy and Well-Being

The goal of this study was to determine whether or not there is a relationship between parental autonomy and parenting style with their adolescent daughters' autonomy. In addition, an endeavor was made to determine the effect of children’s perception of parenting styles and their own autonomy. Quantitative approach and survey method were used to achieve the objectives of this study. The research population was comprised of 10- to 24-year-old adolescent girls and their families living in Districts 1 and 14 of Tehran. 66 families were asked to participate in this research. Parents and their adolescent daughters were given Ryff’s Psychological Well-being Scale (1989), Baumrind’s Parenting Style Questionnaire (1971), and Perceived Parenting Style Questionnaire (Naghashian, 1969). The collected data were analyzed via SPSS. Results indicated that there was a significant relationship between mothers' autonomy and fathers’ autonomy and that of their adolescent daughters (p = 0.01, r = 0.342 and p = 0.05, r = 0.295, respectively). The parenting style had no significant relationship with parents’ autonomy and that of the children. In addition, mother's level of education had a significant relationship with children's autonomy (p = 0.003, X2 = 1.80). Parental autonomy is an important factor in normal development of adolescents. Therefore, training parents to have and maintain autonomy and also grant it to their adolescent daughters will lead to the normal development of their children and the improvement of their relationship with parents; it will also result in better upbringing of the next generation.