Hadis Sourinejad , Mahbobeh Brojerdi , Sahar Arab , Navisa Seyedghasemi, Elham Adibmoghadam ,
Volume 13, Issue 1 (9-2025)
Background: Mental health is significantly influenced by parenting styles, and undesirable parental authority styles can have detrimental effects on children’s mental health. Addressing mental health and its contributing factors is essential for improving individuals' personal and social lives. On the other hand, research findings on the relationship between parental authority styles and mental health have yielded conflicting results. Therefore, the present study was conducted to determine the relationship between parental authority styles and the mental health of nursing and midwifery students.
Methods: This cross-sectional, descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 435 nursing and midwifery students using a census method. The research instruments included a demographic information form, Buri’s Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ), and Goldberg and Hillier’s General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). Questionnaires were completed virtually via Google Docs. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson's correlation coefficient with SPSS software, and a significance level of P < 0.05 was considered.
Results: The mean age of the participating students was 24.71 ± 5.90 years. Most of the students surveyed were female (75.9%) and undergraduate (75.9%). The mean scores for the permissive, authoritarian, and authoritative parenting styles, and for general health, were 21.80 ± 4.64, 21.33 ± 5.64, 24.93 ± 4.92, and 19.22 ± 7.07, respectively. There was a significant and direct correlation between overall public health and the permissive parenting style (r = 0.14, p = 0.003). The correlation between the authoritative parenting style and students' mental health was inverse; however, this finding was not statistically significant (r = −0.05, p = 0.26).
Conclusion: The research results underscore the influence of parental authority styles on students' mental health. It is suggested that university counselors who provide counseling services to young adults consider the influence of parental authority styles on the diagnosis, etiology, and treatment of their mental and behavioral disorders, and take measures to assess the type of parental authority style.
