SENSE OF CLOSENESS TO PARENTS AND FAMILY RULES - A STUDY OF ARAB AND JEWISH YOUTH IN ISRAEL

The present study investigated adolescents' perception of closeness to their parents and family rules restricting their conduct, in Arab and Jewish Israeli samples. A total of 854 11th-grade high school student s reported their perceptions by a self-report questionnaire. Overall, the results indicate that the Arab youths perceived more closeness tow ard their parents and more rules restricting their conduct. compared w ith their Jewish counterparts. In both cultures, girls reported more r estrictions on dating and leaving home than boys. Among Israeli Arab a dolescents a positive association was uncovered between closeness to p arents and number of rules. No such pattern was evident among Israeli Jewish youth. These and additional findings are discussed within the c ontext of Triandis' cross-cultural dimension of collectivism-individua lism.