The influence of perceived parenting styles on Korean children's delinquent behaviors when accounting for gender differences

Abstract

Parenting styles studies which used US data have shown positive effects of authoritative parenting styles and negative effects of permissive and authoritarian parenting styles on the adolescents' behavioral development. The effects of parenting styles were predictive within the juvenile population of the United States. The current study introduces questions about the influence of culture and gender on the association between parenting styles and children's delinquent behaviors. It focuses on South Korean culture, which is influenced by Confucian philosophy emphasizing obeying parents and importance of the role of the son in the family. This study uses ordinary least squares regression to examine data from the Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey 2010 collected by the National Youth Policy Institute from 2010 to 2016. Results indicated that male South Korean children respond positively to the authoritarian parenting style, but parenting style does not influence female South Korean children, at least when it comes to delinquency. These results indicate that culture and gender influence the association between parenting style and delinquency among children and broaden the applicability of parenting style research.