Australian Adolescents' Perceptions of their Parents

Abstract

We examined the characteristics of a self-report measure for assessing perceptions of parents, the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI), in an adolescent community sample (N = 2,147; mean age = 15.4 years). Using factor analysis, three PBI dimensions were identified — the original Care factor and two Protection factors: perceived social control and personal intrusiveness. Important sex differences were found which were not evident in the two factor structure recommended by Parker [1, 2]. Relative to sons, daughters saw their fathers as more personally intrusive and their mothers as less socially controlling and much more caring. Overall, adolescents perceived mothers as more caring but more personally intrusive than fathers. Adolescents who saw their father as uncaring and their mother as controlling tended to have the least positive psychosocial profiles.