Child rearing and socialization in Turkey and Pakistan: A cross-cultural study

The present study aimed at investigating the similarities and differences between perceived parenting styles (as measured through Child PARQ/Control) of adolescent boys and girls in the two cultural groups: namely Turkish and Pakistani. The Turkish and Urdu back-translated versions of the Parental Acceptance-Rejection/Control Questionnaire (Child PARQ/Control) developed by Rohner (1990), was administered on a sample of 170 adolescents in Turkey and 192 adolescents in Pakistan. The respondents belonged to middle class families in both the countries. The mean differences (t-tests) between countries were computed. On the basis of cross-cultural comparison of results, the Turkish adolescents were found to have an overall perceptions of greater warmth from their parents as compared to their Pakistani counterparts. On the control scale the Turkish adolescents were found to have perceptions of lesser parental control as compared to Pakistani respondends. The Warmth-Control pattern in both the countries is consistent with Kagitçibasi's (1996) model of emotional interdependence family pattern.