Mental health among Vietnamese urban late adolescents: The association of parenting styles

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore the correlation between parental styles and mental problems among Vietnamese high school students. In total, 16.4 percent of 757 eligible participants reported mental difficulties. Findings showed that being female and in grade 12 were risk factors to mental problems while living in Hue city was likely as a protective factor. The father’s warmth reduced the risk of having mental problems among adolescents, while an overprotective mother increased the risk. There was no correlation between authoritarianism of both mother and father and mental difficulties. These results suggest that a parenting program for parents might reduce the risk of mental problems among Vietnamese youth.

Comparing attachment across cultures, child gender, age, and parental gender: Vietnamese versus Belgian adolescents’ self-reported attachment anxiety and avoidance.

“…Past research in Western cultures found that children are more likely to develop avoidant attachment if they perceive their parents as less warm and more authoritarian (Karavasilis et al, 2003). In Vietnam, fathers are generally less warm and more authoritarian than mothers (La et al, 2020) and use more physical punishment than mothers (Rydstrøm, 2006). It is possible that Vietnamese fathers might be experienced as more consistently unavailable and more a potential source of physical punishment than Vietnamese mothers, in turn resulting in higher levels of avoidant attachment in children.…”