Psychological factors contributing to parenting styles: A systematic review.

Abstract

Background: The set of strategies used by parents to put their children’s behaviors under control are called parenting styles, which can be influenced by numerous factors including socio-economic variables, cultural differences, personal characteristics, and psychological factors. These factors can differently contribute to parenting style. Thus, the purpose of this systematic review was to examine psychological factors affecting parenting style. Methods: This study was a comprehensive literature review using the keywords of parenting styles, psychological factors, and parenting to search the databases of Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Scientific Information Database. In this respect, 416 articles were extracted. 368 articles were removed after reviewing their abstracts and full text and eventually 48 articles were selected to elicit the required data. Results: Our findings were classified under two categories: Factors related to parents (mental health status, self-efficacy, parenting stress, perfectionism, personality traits, childhood trauma, marital satisfaction, parents’ attachment style, perceived parenting style, and substance abuse); and those related to children (child developmental and mental disability, child temperament, and anxiety). Conclusions: Considering the multiple psychological factors that affect parenting style, it is recommended to include an assessment of parent-child psychological status in family health programs in order to identify the needs for health-oriented care and take steps towards the development of parenting skills.