Parenting in Israel: Together Hand in Hand, You Are Mine and I Am Yours

Abstract

Israeli society has a strong familial culture in conjunction with high levels of stress and massive immigration. In this chapter, I discuss relatedness and autonomy in parent-adolescent relationships. Israeli parents favor proximal parenting that might be more adequate in collectivistic cultural contexts and is especially crucial in dangerous and unpredictable environments. Closeness to parents, and heightened centrality of parents, is associated with favorable outcomes. Reduced parental authority and heightened permissiveness are also salient features. It is probably more difficult to exert parental authority when parents are highly involved and close to their children. I discuss possible sociological and psychological explanations for these characteristics.