The Comparative Analysis of the Perceptions of Parental Styles and Attitudes and Parental Attachment of University Students

Adolescence is an important stage for parental attitudes and parental attachment style may affect each other. In this study, university students were comparatively analyzed in terms of their perceptions about their parents' attitudes and their parental attachment styles. The sample of the study consists of 214 female and 187 male students from a university in Turkey. In order to measure children’s perceptions of their parents' attitudes as well as children’s demographic information, the researchers were prepared the ‘Personal Information Form’ and was implemented into the classroom settings. In addition, in order to measure attachment styles, the ‘Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment Short Version (IPPA-S) was used. Participants were asked to complete The Parental Attitude Scale (PSC) in order to determine the adolescents’ perceptions of their mothers and fathers attitudes. Data were analyzed using SPSS 20. Descriptive statistics, t-test and one-way ANOVA were used. Findings indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the adolescent perceptions of maternal and paternal style and parental attachment styles. Authoritative parenting style had more secure attachment than other three parenting styles (authoritarian, permissive/indulgent and negligent). Also, it had better results than the other three parenting styles for both maternal and paternal attachment sub-scales.