How Do Parents Make Adolescents Feel Loved? Perspectives on Supportive Parenting From Adolescents in 12 Cultures

Abstract

The conceptualization and measurement of parental support is predominately the work of adult researchers from the West. This mixed-method study reports the parental behaviors that adolescents themselves perceive as supportive. Data come from the Cross-National Adolescent Project, a survey of adolescents in 12 nations or ethnic groups in Africa, Asia, Australia, the Americas, the Balkans, Europe, and the Middle East. The authors find that adolescents in all 12 settings validated the substantive content of existing survey measures of parental supportive behaviors. Adolescents in all settings also expanded the list of supportive behaviors. When parents provide a rare and valued commodity, it is perceived as love. The specific commodities, which include quality time, basic necessities, and support for education, vary across culture. In the discussion the authors describe how parenting strategies that have been interpreted previously as reinforcing distinct cultural purposes may, in fact, serve the same purpose.