Author(s)

Ziyi Bo

Corresponding Author

Ziyi Bo

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to understand the effects of parenting styles on adolescents' depression level and optimism level. The study used the Parenting Style Scale (PSS) of the Iowa Youth and Families Project, the short version of the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI) self-rating scale, and the self-administered character questionnaire to survey 476 junior high school students to measure parenting style, depression level, and optimism level, respectively. The results showed that there were significant gender differences in the negative parenting styles, with boys scoring significantly higher than girls; there were significant urban-rural and only or non-only child differences in the positive parenting styles, with rural students scoring significantly lower than urban students, and only children scoring significantly higher than non-only children; there were significant correlations between each dimension of parenting style, adolescents’ depression level and optimism level; positive parenting style negatively predicted adolescents’ depression level, and positively predicted adolescents’ optimism level; negative parenting style positively predicted adolescents’ depression level, and negatively predicted adolescents’ optimism level.

Keywords

parenting style, Adolescent, Depression, optimism