Perceptions of parents and adolescent outcomes in Pakistan

The purpose of this study was to examine associations among perceived paren ting variables (warmth, parental knowledge of their child's daily activitie s, shame induction and autonomy-granting), and psychosocial outcomes in Pak istan, a culture about which little information is available in the psychol ogical literature. Participants were early and late adolescent Pakistani bo ys (N = 156) and girls (N = 148). Girls perceived their parents as being wa rmer, more knowledgeable about their child's activities and whereabouts, an d more autonomy-granting than did boys. Warmth and parental knowledge assoc iated with positive outcomes for girls, but not boys. Autonomy-granting ass ociated with positive outcomes in bivariate and multivariate correlations f or both genders. In causal models, perceptions of parents influenced well-b eing partly through the mediators of self-denigration, positive self-image and relationship harmony, explaining up to 21% of the variance in outcomes. The results are discussed in the light of Western findings and the social context of middle-class urban Pakistan. The findings provide some support f or self-determination theory, which states that autonomy-granting by patent s facilitates offspring adjustment through internalization of parental valu es, even in non-Western cultures.