Research paper

O R I G I N A L P A P E R

The Impact of Authoritative, Authoritarian, and Permissive Parenting Styles on Children’s Later Mental Health in Japan: Focusing on Parent and Child Gender

Masayo Uji • Ayuko Sakamoto • Keiichiro Adachi •

Toshinori Kitamura

Published online: 9 March 2013

� Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013

Abstract Few studies in Japan have examined whether

children’s later mental health is influenced by the way

parental authority is exercised, specifically with a focus on

gender. Our main purposes of this study were to confirm

the three-factor structure of the Japanese version of the

Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ) and to verify its

reliability and validity. We then used structural equation

modeling to examine whether children’s later mental health

was influenced by parents’ authoritative, permissive, and

authoritarian parenting. The subcategories included in the

Japanese version of the Clinical Outcomes in Routine

Evaluation-Outcome Measure were chosen as mental

health indices. A total of 1,320 people in Japan, including

company employees, university students, and hospital staff

members, were asked to recall and evaluate the parenting

they received and to report on their current mental health.

Confirmatory factor analyses verified the three-factor

structure of the Japanese version of the PAQ, with a

reduction in the number of items from the original version.

The respondents, regardless of gender, evaluated their

mothers as having been more authoritative than their

fathers. Concerning the impact of parenting styles on

respondents’ later mental health, both maternal and pater-

nal authoritarian parenting styles worsened respondents’

later mental health, including symptomatic problems, risk

to self and others, life functioning, and psychological well-

being. Both maternal and paternal authoritative parenting

had a beneficial impact on respondents’ later mental health.

Simultaneous analyses of multi-groups demonstrated that

the nature of these influences did not vary with respondent

gender. We present the above results in detail, and discuss

them from psycho-socio-cultural viewpoints.

Keywords Japanese version of Parental Authority

Questionnaire � Authoritative � Permissive � Authoritarian � Later mental health

Introduction

Modern times have seen parents, school teachers, health

professionals, and welfare workers introduced to the idea

that children require adult guidance and protection and that

they should be provided with optimal parenting based on

their developmental stage. This reflects the widely accep-

ted importance of the link between children’s current and

future welfare. As a result, a large number of empirical

studies have been published in the realm of social psy-

chology examining the influence of early parenting on later

mental health (Gotlib et al. 1988; McKinney et al. 2011;

Parker et al. 1979; Rodgers 1996).

In the very early phase of life, babies’ relationships with

their mothers are passive. The mother decides whether the

baby receives care and has his or her frustrations alleviated.

In this phase, the mother’s care is the crucial factor, more

important than any authority she may exercise. However,

M. Uji (&) Department of Bioethics, Kumamoto University Graduate

School of Life Sciences, 1-1-1 Honjo, Kumamoto 860-0811,

Japan

e-mail: [email protected]

A. Sakamoto

Aso Yamanami Hospital, Aso, Japan

K. Adachi

Department of Psychology, Kobe Shoin Women’s University,

Kobe, Japan

T. Kitamura

Kitamura Institute of Mental Health Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

123

J Child Fam Stud (2014) 23:293–302

DOI 10.1007/s10826-013-9740-3

parenting authority becomes relevant once infants begin

walking and actively exploring the world. From that point

on, parental application of authority remains critical until

late adolescence, when young adults become able to pro-

tect themselves from socially undesirable behaviors and

dangerous situations.

The Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ) was first

developed by Buri (1991) based on the definition of the

three parenting styles (authoritarian, permissive, and

authoritative) proposed by Baumrind (1971). Authoritarian

parents ‘‘attempt to shape, control, and evaluate the

behavior and attitudes of the child in accordance with a set

of standard of conduct, usually an absolute standard, theo-

logically motivated and formulated by a higher authority.

They value obedience as a virtue and favor punitive,

forceful measures to curb self-will at points where the

child’s actions and beliefs conflict with what they think is

right conduct’’ (Baumrind 1971). Permissive parents

‘‘attempt to behave in a non-punitive, acceptant, and affir-

mative manner towards the child’s impulses, desires, and

actions. They make few demands for household responsi-

bility and orderly behavior. They allow the child to regulate

his own activities as much as possible, avoid the exercise of

control, and do not encourage him to obey externally-

defined standards’’ (Baumrind 1971). Authoritative parents

‘‘attempt to direct the child’s activities but in a rational,

issue-oriented manner. They encourage verbal give and

take, and share with the child the reasoning behind their

policy’’ (Baumrind 1971). The parenting styles assessed by

the PAQ should be regarded as reflecting the respondents’

internalized views of their parents. Long-term parent–child

interaction results in the construction of these views by an

individual’s psyche. The psychometric properties of the

original version of the PAQ were confirmed by Buri (1991).

In Japan, there have been few studies which evaluated

respondent’s perception of maternal and paternal parenting,

specifically with regard to the way in which parental

authority was put into practice, and how this evaluation

differed by respondent gender. Parent gender seems to

influence children’s evaluations of parenting styles. It can

be presumed that mothers’ and fathers’ roles are socially

dictated to some degree. It seems that in most societies,

mothers spend more time with children than fathers (Ang

2006; McKinney and Renk 2008a; Phares et al. 2009). In

addition, mothers are expected to spend more time caring

for children and showing affection, while fathers are

expected to be providers and disciplinarians (McKinney

and Renk 2008a). Ang (2006) described the prototypical

Asian father as ‘‘the detached disciplinarian.’’ This seems

applicable to the traditional Japanese father, in terms of

being less involved in child rearing, superior to any other

family member, and the symbol of authority. Japanese

fathers have thus been more authoritarian than Japanese

mothers.

Previous research has suggested that in addition to the

parents’ gender, the child’s gender plays an important role

in the evaluation of parenting. Some researchers have

recently considered the gender aspects of parent–child

dyads: father–son, father–daughter, mother–son, and

mother–daughter. McKinney and Renk (2008a), in their

literature review, noted that in general, sons are apt to

evaluate their mothers as being overprotective, intrusive,

and warm, and their fathers as distant and lacking in

warmth. Daughters evaluate their mothers as being pro-

viders of a mutually supportive relationship and their

fathers as figures of authority with whom they spend little

time. Shek (2005), in reviewing the existing literature, also

emphasized the importance of analyzing perceived par-

enting separately for male and female respondents. He

calculated the effects of both parent and child gender as

well as their interaction on perceived parenting styles. In

the same way, in this study we took into account not only

the influence of parent and child gender on perceived

parenting, but also the interaction between the two.

In addition to parent and child gender, respondent age

might also influence the evaluation of perceived parenting,

specifically, it is questionable whether or not the traditional

maternal and paternal roles mentioned above were still

evident among contemporary Japanese families. Shek

(2005) noted that from a cross-cultural viewpoint, it is

important to take into consideration changes in parenting

styles in non-Western countries, and touched on empirical

studies showing that Japanese and Mexican parents were

no longer taking on traditional maternal and paternal roles.

It is probable that this change is partially due to the

influence of modern Western ideas. As the ages of the

subjects in this study ranged from 17 to 69, we anticipated

that it would be interesting to gauge how parenting styles

have changed in Japan over the past half century. It can be

assumed that in the past, fathers were more likely to be

strict disciplinarians. Thus older subjects might be more

likely than younger subjects to view their fathers as more

authoritarian and less permissive. Furthermore, the bene-

ficial impact of communication between parent and child

has come to be recognized only recently in Japan, and

therefore younger subjects might be more likely to view

their parents as authoritative.

Since the PAQ was developed, many studies have

applied the three parenting styles defined in this inventory

as predictive variables for a variety of concepts, including

self-esteem (Buri et al. 1988; McKinney and Renk 2008a),

depression (McKinney and Renk 2008a), anxiety (McKin-

ney and Renk 2008a), academic achievement (Heaven

2008; Steinberg et al. 1992), and narcissism (Ramsey et al.

294 J Child Fam Stud (2014) 23:293–302

123

1996). In reviewing previous studies, we find that the

‘‘optimal parenting’’ that contributes to a child’s sound

development seems to vary depending on culture. In gen-

eral, Western cultures view authoritative parenting as ben-

eficial to self-esteem (Buri et al. 1988) and academic

achievement (Cohen and Rice 1997; Heaven 2008; Stein-

berg et al. 1992), and it is related to lower utilization of

maladaptive achievement strategies such as ‘‘failure

expectations,’’ ‘‘task-irrelevant behavior,’’ and ‘‘passivity’’

(Kaisa et al. 2000). Researchers have suggested that factors

associated with authoritative parenting, for instance con-

scientiousness on the part of the child (Heaven 2008) and

parental involvement in schooling (Steinberg et al. 1992),

tend to result in good academic performance. McKinney

and Renk (2008b) studied late adolescents in the United

States of America and demonstrated that their emotional

adjustment levels, represented by low depression and anx-

iety and by high self-esteem, were influenced by warm

parenting. This style of care giving guarantees autonomy

both directly as well as indirectly, through mediation by

family environment, conflict, and parents’ expectations of

their children.

On the other hand, authoritarian parenting is harmful to

self-esteem (Buri et al. 1988) and academic achievement

(Cohen and Rice 1997; Leung et al. 1998), and is related to

an increase in the maladaptive strategies mentioned above

(Kaisa et al. 2000). Results concerning the influence of

permissive parenting styles on the above outcome mea-

sures are inconsistent: Cohen and Rice (1997) found that

lower parental permissiveness was related to higher school

grades, and higher parental permissiveness was related to

increased tobacco and alcohol use in children. Ramsey

et al. (1996) reported that parental permissiveness inten-

sified children’s narcissistic tendencies, whereas Buri et al.

(1988) demonstrated the lack of impact of parental per-

missiveness on children’s self-esteem.

In contrast, non-Western societies consider authoritarian

parents to have a positive influence both on children’s aca-

demic performance and on the socialization process. Baum-

rind (1972) wrote that ‘‘the major conclusion from this

exploratory analysis was that if the black families were viewed

by white norms, they appeared authoritarian, but that, unlike

their white counterparts, the most authoritarian of these fam-

ilies produced the most self-assertive and independent girls.’’

Several studies have specifically used Asian subject

populations. Leung et al. (1998) reported that authoritarian

parenting had a positive effect on children’s academic

achievement, whereas authoritative parenting did not. Elias

and Yee (2009) demonstrated that authoritative, authoritarian,

and permissive parenting styles, be they paternal or

maternal, were neither beneficial nor harmful to Malaysian

children’s academic performance. Furthermore, surprisingly,

McBride-Chang and Chang (1998) reported that authori-

tative parenting hindered the development of adolescents’

autonomy. Ang (2006) demonstrated that for Malay ado-

lescents, both authoritative and authoritarian maternal

parenting styles were beneficial to social adjustment. The

results of these studies are incompatible with those using

Western subjects.

In contrast to the research referenced above, some studies

using Asian subject populations produced similar results to

those using Western subjects. Concerning school perfor-

mance, Chen et al. (1997) showed a positive effect for

authoritative parenting and a negative effect for authoritar-

ian parenting. Shek (1999) showed that harsh and demanding

parenting styles led to hopelessness, low self-esteem, and

psychiatric morbidity in children. Both of these studies were

conducted using Chinese subjects. In Japan, there have been

no empirical studies which examined the way in which

parental authority influences children. Most of the studies

mentioned above used child or adolescent subjects, who

presumably still resided with their parents. This study, on the

other hand, was a retrospective study using adult respondents

who for the most part did not live with their parents. The

issue of whether or not different forms of parental authority

have a long-term effect on children’s mental health is crucial

for the optimal treatment of maladjusted adult patients.

In exploring the effects of perceived parenting on chil-

dren’s mental health, the impact of children’s gender has

also been taken into account. For instance, McKinney et al.

(2011) reported that females’ emotional adjustment was

significantly influenced by perceived parenting, whereas

that of males was not. This could be interpreted as indi-

cating that well-being is more influenced by interpersonal

relationships for females than for males. As noted earlier,

Baumrind (1972) showed that in African American fami-

lies, authoritarian parenting is beneficial in raising more

assertive girls, but this was not the case with boys. These

results suggest the importance of assessing the impact of

subjects’ gender on the influence of perceived parental

authority on later mental health. Furthermore, it is also

interesting to explore whether or not parents are inclined to

use similar parenting styles, because there have been few

studies which examined this topic.

To summarize, the adult respondents recruited for this

study were asked to recall and retrospectively assess their

mothers’ and fathers’ parenting styles, specifically the

ways they exercised parental authority for the purposes of

guidance and supervision, using the Japanese version of the

PAQ (J-PAQ). They were also evaluated not only in terms

of mental symptoms that included depression, anxiety,

physical symptoms, and trauma, but also risk to self and

others, life functioning, and psychological well-being. The

aims of this study were as follows:

J Child Fam Stud (2014) 23:293–302 295

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1. To confirm the three-factor structure of the J-PAQ by

confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and to examine its

reliability and validity;

2. To examine the influence of respondents’ and parents’

gender, as well as the interaction between these in

terms of the evaluation of parenting;

3. To identify which paternal and maternal parenting styles

(as assessed by J-PAQ) had beneficial or negative

effects on individuals’ later mental health, and how

these effects differed according to respondents’ gender;

4. To examine whether or not mothers and fathers were

likely to adopt similar parenting styles.

Method

Procedures and Respondents

In this study we administered a self-report questionnaire

survey on two occasions, 4 weeks apart. Participation was

voluntary and anonymity was assured. The respondents were

medical staff from seven private hospitals in Kumamoto,

Fukuoka; students from three universities in Kumamoto; and

employees from eight companies in Kumamoto and Kago-

shima. Questionnaires were distributed to 1,959 people and

completed and returned by 1,320. Respondents’ mean (SD)

age was 35.0 (13.9), ranging from 17 to 69, and the numbers

of female and male respondents were 881 and 433, respec-

tively (the remainder did not indicate their gender). The

research protocol was approved by the Ethical Committee of

Kumamoto University (Institutional Review Board).

Measurements

PAQ

The original version of the PAQ consisted of 30 items

using a 5-point scale, ranging from ‘‘strongly disagree’’ (1)

to ‘‘strongly agree’’ (5). The original English version of the

PAQ was translated into Japanese by one of the authors

(TK). This was translated back into English by an indi-

vidual unfamiliar with the original document, and its

accuracy was verified. As with the original version,

respondents were instructed to ‘‘try to read and think about

each statement as it applies to you and your mother (father)

during your years of growing up at home.’’ The PAQ was

included in the survey at both the first and second occa-

sions in order to assess test–retest reliability.

CORE-OM

The CORE-OM was developed as a standardized brief

outcome measure for use in both routine clinical practice

and psychotherapy research (Evans et al. 2002). The reli-

ability and validity of the Japanese version of the CORE-

OM have been previously demonstrated (Uji et al. 2012).

The instrument is composed of four subcategories: symp-

tomatic problems (four items each for depression and

anxiety, and two items each for trauma and physical

symptoms), risk to self and others (four items for risk to

self, and two items for risk to others), life functioning (four

items each for close, general, and social functioning), and

psychological well-being (four items). In constructing the

structural equation model, the items regarding life func-

tioning and psychological well-being were included in the

same category, because these two concepts are closely

related. As with the original English version, the Japanese

version of the CORE-OM includes 34 items using a 5-point

scale, ranging from ‘‘disagree’’ (1) to ‘‘agree’’ (5). Higher

scores indicate more severe problems. The CORE-OM was

administered at the first occasion.

Statistics

Based on the theory used in developing the original English

version of the PAQ, we conducted a CFA to verify its

three-factor structure. We also measured the invariance

between respondents’ gender and that of their parents, and

verified the reliability and validity of the J-PAQ. To

examine respondents’ and parents’ gender, as well as the

interaction between these factors in the evaluation of par-

enting, three 2 (gender of parent) 9 2 (gender of respon-

dent) ANOVAs were conducted, one each for authoritative,

authoritarian, and permissive parenting styles. Parent gen-

der was treated as the within-subject factor, and respondent

gender was treated as the between-subject factor.

We then used structural equation modeling (SEM) to

evaluate the hypothesis depicted in Fig. 1, with regard to

the relationships between parenting styles and later mental

health. The mental health indices, which were derived from

the CORE-OM item scores, were treated as latent variables

and are depicted as ellipses. The J-PAQ subscale scores

(authoritative, permissive, and authoritarian for both

mother and father) were treated as observed variables and

are depicted as rectangles. To determine whether the

identified influences of perceived parenting on respon-

dents’ later mental health varied between males and

females, we conducted a simultaneous analysis of multi-

groups. Absolute values of the critical ratio of more than

1.96 were defined as indicating a significant difference

between the genders. In order to examine whether or not

mothers and fathers were likely to adopt similar parenting

styles, we premised covariances between each of the cor-

responding parenting styles of the mother and father (C1,

C2, and C3 in Fig. 1). Significantly positive values of these

covariances would indicate that parents tended to use

296 J Child Fam Stud (2014) 23:293–302

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similar parenting styles, whereas significantly negative

values would indicate the opposite.

The 1,248 respondents who completed every item on the

maternal J-PAQ and the 1,225 respondents who completed

every item on the paternal J-PAQ were used for the CFAs.

Among these, the 1,154–1,169 respondents who completed

every item in each of the CORE-OM subcategories were

used for the SEM illustrated in Fig. 1. All statistical anal-

yses were conducted using the Statistical Package for Social

Science (SPSS) version 18.0 and Amos 18.0.

Results

We initially conducted the CFAs for the Japanese version of

the 30-item PAQ separately for mothers and fathers. Similar

results were obtained for the maternal and paternal PAQ,

with unsatisfactory fitness (GFI: 0.827, AGFI: 0.800, and

RMSEA: 0.075 for the maternal PAQ, and GFI: 0.822,

AGFI: 0.794, and RMSEA: 0.075 for the paternal PAQ). For

inclusion in the J-PAQ, we then chose items that had a factor

loading of more than 0.45. This yielded 22 items: nine items

for the authoritative parenting style, five items for the per-

missive style, and eight items for the authoritarian style.

Using these 22 items, we performed the CFA again (Fig. 2),

and the fitness of the data to the model was acceptable (GFI:

0.919, AGFI: 0.901, and RMSEA: 0.060 for both maternal

and paternal J-PAQ). The measurement invariance of

respondent gender was tested, resulting in satisfactory fit-

ness (GFI: 0.896, AGFI: 0.879, and RMSEA: 0.045 for

maternal J-PAQ, and GFI: 0.900, AGFI: 0.884, and

RMSEA: 0.044 for paternal J-PAQ). In the same way, the

measurement invariance of parent gender was also proven

(GFI: 0.917, AGFI: 0.903, and RMSEA: 0.042).

We then verified the reliability and validity of the

22-item version of the J-PAQ (Tables 1 and 2). The item-

total correlations are demonstrated in Table 1. The Cron-

bach’s alpha for each subscale was favorable, ranging from

0.73 to 0.86 (Table 2). The test–retest reliability ranged

from 0.67 to 0.78 (Table 2). The permissive parenting

subscale demonstrated relatively lower reliability as shown

by Cronbach’s alpha and the test–retest reliability.

The influence of parents’ and respondents’ gender on the

evaluation of parenting was examined using ANOVAs

(Table 2). The significant main effects of the within-sub-

ject factor ‘‘parent gender’’ on all three parenting styles

were identified. The between-subject factor ‘‘respondent

gender’’ had a significant main effect on the evaluation

only for authoritarian parenting. We did not identify any

significant interaction effects between respondents’ and

parents’ gender for any of the three parenting styles.

Concerning the within-subject factor, mothers were more

likely to be evaluated as having been more authoritative,

authoritarian, and permissive. This was most prominent for

authoritative parenting (F = 228.46, p \ .001). As for the between-subject factor, male respondents were more likely

than female respondents to evaluate their parents as having

been authoritarian (F = 5.63, p \ .05). As to the impact of respondent age on the evaluation of parenting styles

(Table 2), the older the respondents, the more likely they

were to perceive their maternal and paternal parenting as

more authoritarian and less permissive. Only mothers were

perceived as less authoritative by older respondents.

SEM was performed to examine the hypothesis dia-

grammed in Fig. 1. In addition to the covariances C1, C2,

and C3 in Fig. 1, we drew covariances between each

possible pairing of the three parenting styles for both

mothers and fathers, as identified by a CFA of the J-PAQ

Authoritative (mother)

Mental health indices

Permissive (mother)

Authoritarian (mother)

Authoritative (father)

Permissive (father)

Authoritarian (father)

C1

C3

C2

W1

W2

W3

W4

W5

W6

Fig. 1 The hypothesis diagram

J Child Fam Stud (2014) 23:293–302 297

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(Fig. 2). The relationships between J-PAQ subcategories

and CORE-OM symptomatic problems are shown in

Fig. 3. The same analyses were conducted using the other

CORE-OM subcategories listed in Table 3. This table

shows the standardized causal coefficients from each par-

enting style to the various mental health indices.

Maternal authoritative parenting decreased risk to self

and others. Paternal authoritative parenting, on the other

hand, decreased symptomatic problems and improved life

functioning. Both maternal and paternal authoritarian par-

enting increased symptomatic problems and risk to self and

others, along with damaging life functioning and psycho-

logical well-being. Paternal permissiveness increased

symptomatic problems. However, maternal permissiveness

did not have an impact on any of the mental health indices.

To examine the possible effect of respondent gender on

W1-6 in Fig. 1, simultaneous analyses of multi-groups

were conducted for each subcategory of the CORE-OM.

No significant differences between any of the six parame-

ters were identified. Regarding the relationship between

maternal and paternal parenting styles, as shown in

Table 3, we found significantly positive correlations (C1-3

in Fig. 1) between maternal and paternal parenting styles

when both were authoritative, permissive, or authoritarian.

Discussion

A CFA of the J-PAQ confirmed its three-factor structure

despite its reduced number of items. The measurement

invariance was also verified. Cronbach’s alpha and the

test–retest reliability were lower for the second factor,

permissiveness, due to its smaller number of items as

compared to the other two factors.

Concerning the differences in parenting styles adopted

by mothers and fathers, regardless of respondents’ gender,

mothers were perceived as more authoritative than fathers.

This could be attributed to the fact that in Japan, as in many

countries, mothers spend more time in child rearing than

fathers, and have more time to dedicate to their children.

Although mothers were evaluated as having been more

permissive and authoritarian than fathers, this difference

was less significant than that observed with authoritative

parenting. In accordance with our hypothesis, our results

suggest that the traditional authoritarian Japanese father is

no longer evident in contemporary Japanese families.

With regard to the impact of age on the evaluation of

parenting styles, the older a respondent’s age, the more he

or she perceived their maternal and paternal parenting as

authoritarian and less permissive. Only mothers were per-

ceived as less authoritative by older respondents. The dif-

ferences in our findings between younger and older

respondents might be the result of recently increased

parental efforts to raise children to be more assertive. In the

past, being less assertive and more passive was possibly

considered to be a virtue in Japan, and children were

expected to submit to their parents’ authority. Our results

are in accordance with the notion proposed by Shek (2005)

that the traditional roles of parents are changing in non-

Western countries. This might be due to the influence of

Western culture in recent times.

An alternative interpretation for these changes is pos-

sible. In the past, many Japanese families lived in poverty

due to rapid economic growth, with fathers working all day

and frequently into the night. Shek (2008) suggested that

economic pressures and psychological stress prevented

parents from spending adequate time on their parenting

responsibilities. It is not plausible that poverty under the

rapid economic growth caused parents’ psychological

Fig. 2 CFA of the J-PAQ

298 J Child Fam Stud (2014) 23:293–302

123

stress and damaged their psychological well-being, how-

ever, fathers in particular, did not have enough time or did

not recognize the necessity in spending quality time lis-

tening to their children. Rather, they may have expected

their children to submit to their authority and placed an

emphasis on becoming financially secure.

In examining the impact of authoritative parenting on

children’s later mental health, we found that regardless of

respondents’ gender, authoritative maternal and paternal

parenting was beneficial to children’s later mental health.

There are two aspects of authoritative parenting: first,

respecting the child’s autonomy through mutual commu-

nication, and second, exercising parental authority over the

child when necessary. Japanese mothers were more likely

to be evaluated as authoritative compared to Japanese

fathers, regardless of respondents’ gender. These results

Table 1 The list of the J-PAQ Mother PAQ subscale Item

number

Item-total

correlation

Father PAQ

subcategory

Item

number

Item-total

correlation

Authoritative (eight items) 4 0.68 Authoritative (eight items) 4 0.66

5 0.74 5 0.74

11 0.77 11 0.74

15 0.58 15 0.64

22 0.66 22 0.67

23 0.79 23 0.79

27 0.64 27 0.65

30 0.70 30 0.68

Permissive (five items) 6 0.78 Permissive (five items) 6 0.70

10 0.62 10 0.60

14 0.70 14 0.69

19 0.73 19 0.66

24 0.40 24 0.32

Authoritarian (nine items) 2 0.73 Authoritarian (nine items) 2 0.71

3 0.67 3 0.73

7 0.76 7 0.76

9 0.62 9 0.57

12 0.60 12 0.69

16 0.74 16 0.70

18 0.76 18 0.71

25 0.64 25 0.59

29 0.69 29 0.69

Table 2 The reliability of the J-PAQ and t test for comparison between mothers’ and fathers’ parenting styles

Cronbach’s

alpha

Test–retest

reliability

Correlation

with age

Mean score

(SD) (male)

Mean score

(SD) (female)

Parent’s gender

effect (F value)

Child’s gender

effect (F value)

Interaction

effect

(F value)

Authoritative

(mother)

0.85 0.74 -0.17** 25.9 (4.75) 26.2 (5.40) 228.46*** 0.004 3.46

Authoritative

(father)

0.85 0.76 -0.03 23.7 (5.08) 23.4 (5.56)

Permissive

(mother)

0.79 0.68 -0.09** 16.8 (3.13) 16.6 (3.57) 6.64* 0.54 0.10

Permissive

(father)

0.73 0.67 -0.10** 16.5 (3.21) 16.4 (3.46)

Authoritarian

(mother)

0.86 0.76 0.07* 22.2 (5.67) 21.6 (6.31) 5.05* 5.63* 1.00

Authoritarian

(father)

0.86 0.78 0.12** 22.0 (5.85) 21.0 (6.33)

*p \ .05; ** p \ .01; *** p \ .001

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123

suggest that it is necessary for Japanese fathers to be more

authoritative to maximize their children’s future well-

being.

In contrast to authoritative parenting, we found that

authoritarian parenting had a variety of negative effects on

children’s later mental health. These results were at odds

with those of the previous studies, all conducted in non-

Western countries, that we referred to in the ‘‘Introduction’’

section, a fact that might be attributed to recent social

changes in Japan. In the past, the Japanese workforce con-

tained fewer women than men. Workers were ensured

lifetime employment under a rigid seniority system. It was

customary for workers to devote themselves to their com-

panies and for women to assist their husbands. The tradi-

tional Japanese virtues of passivity and modesty, which

effectively maintain group harmony, proved advantageous

in both the workplace and home environments. Influenced

by modern Western ideas, however, Japanese companies

have stopped assuring lifetime employment, and in turn

workers no longer demonstrate such intense loyalty to their

companies and are open to new possibilities and other

career paths. Passivity and modesty no longer benefit

individuals in this social environment. Instead, assertive-

ness and self-confidence are necessary in order to maintain

positive mental health attributes such as life functioning,

psychological well-being, and self-esteem. Authoritative

parenting, which requires healthy communication, is nec-

essary for children to acquire these positive personality

characteristics. We should note that none of the respondents

recruited for this study were full-time homemakers, and all

were employed. Different results may have been obtained if

full-time homemakers had been included in the study pop-

ulation. Of the three maternal and paternal parenting styles,

only paternal permissive parenting led to an increase in

respondents’ symptomatic problems. Maternal permissive-

ness did not have any influence on respondents’ mental

Fig. 3 SEM for the relationships between parenting

styles and symptomatic

problems

Table 3 A list of the standardized causal coefficient and correlations in Fig. 1

Mental health index (CORE-OM

subcategory)

Standardized causal coefficients in Fig. 1 Correlations in

Fig. 1

The fitness indices

W1 W2 W3 W4 W5 W6 C1 C2 C3 GFI AGFI RMSEA

Symptomatic problems 0.00 0.00 0.18*** -0.09** 0.07* 0.12*** 0.34 0.27 0.41 0.961 0.947 0.044

Risk to self and others -0.09* 0.00 0.18*** 0.00 0.00 0.14*** 0.34 0.26 0.41 0.969 0.949 0.055

Life functioning and psychological

well being

0.00 0.00 0.18*** -0.11*** 0.00 0.11** 0.35 0.26 0.42 0.892 0.860 0.074

* p \ .05; ** p \ .01; *** p \ .001

300 J Child Fam Stud (2014) 23:293–302

123

health. Thus Japanese fathers must make a commitment to

parenting and avoid leaving the mother in order for their

children to live mentally healthy lives later in adulthood.

Without exception, we identified high positive correla-

tions between the same subtypes of parenting styles for

mothers and fathers. This can be interpreted in two ways.

First, the assessments one makes of others tend to be

similar. This can be due to psychological projection, the

mechanism whereby one’s perception of others is defined

by attributing to others various elements of one’s internal

psychic world, such as unconscious desires, suppressed

feelings, and undesirable impulses. Another interpretation

is that a child’s mother and father adopt similar parenting

styles as a result of originally sharing similar ideas

regarding child rearing or gradually coming to a consensus

over time.

Limitations

The limitations of this study were as follows. First, the

PAQ was originally used with adolescent respondents.

There have been no studies that have retrospectively

administered this scale to adult respondents. Although a

three-factor structure was identified for the J-PAQ as with

the original version, it has not yet been determined whether

the J-PAQ is applicable to Japanese adolescent respon-

dents. Furthermore, this study did not examine discrimi-

nant, content, and convergent validities.

Second, the PAQ is a self-report questionnaire, and

therefore may not accurately reflect respondents’ actual

parenting. In the majority of cases, questionnaire results are

influenced by each respondent’s personality and mental

state. If we had evaluated the perspectives of individuals

other than the respondents, such as their siblings, it may

have been possible to assess the accuracy of respondents’

evaluations of their parents. However, the subjects of this

study were drawn from the general population and not a

clinical one, suggesting the probability of only minimal

cognitive distortion. In fact, although there may be a gap

between perceived parenting and objectively observed

parenting, from a clinical viewpoint the former is likely to

be more important than the latter for understanding how the

client’s perceived parenting led to his or her current state of

mental health, through conflictive interpersonal relation-

ships caused by the projection of maternal and paternal

images onto significant others.

The third limitation is that since this study used only a

self-report questionnaire study, it might be affected by

common methods variance that can confound the results.

Fourth, because the J-PAQ and CORE-OM were evaluated

at the same occasion, their causal relationships as identified

in this study remain undetermined. Finally, the subjects of

this study included only university students and company

staff members, and it has not yet been determined whether

the results can be generalized to other populations.

Application to Clinical Settings

In this study, we were able to identify both the beneficial

impact of authoritative parenting and the negative impact of

authoritarian parenting on children’s later mental health. As

suggested by the findings of McKinney and Renk (2008b), it

is probable that there are several variables that mediate

perceived parenting and later mental health. Although we

did not examine these variables, which may include

respondents’ past conflicts with their parents as well as their

parents’ past expectations of them, this study should con-

tribute positively to the clinical literature because it dem-

onstrates how various forms of parenting authority leave

their marks on many areas of children’s mental health over a

long span of time. When we see adult patients with dysphoric

mood, low levels of functioning and psychological well-

being, and high risk to self and others, an examination of

their past relationships with their parents is essential. If they

evaluate their parents as having been authoritarian, it is of the

utmost importance that the clinician not exercise his or her

authority in the same way as the client’s parents did. We

must keep in mind the importance of eliciting patients’

feelings through the use of authoritative communication

while guaranteeing their autonomy, which together can lead

the patient to form a new object relationship.

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