The Impact of Parenting Styles on Adolescent’s Moral Development

Luofei Qi

Shanghai Pinghe Bilingual School, Shanghai, China

Keywords: Adolescent, Parenting, Moral Development.

Abstract: This review paper mainly focuses on the effect of parenting styles on adolescent moral development. By

summarizing previous studies in a convergent view, this paper analyzes the social trend of globalization and

flow of information and elaborates on different types of parenting and various aspects of moral development

of adolescents. The paper concludes that authoritative parenting style is the most ideal one to nurture

adolescents on the right track. Adolescents nowadays are facing more pressure, more incentives and risks to

explore and survive in society. Therefore, parents should change their way of educating children in order to

better lead them in the correct way morally. Different aspects are discussed in the study, namely, authoritative,

authoritarian, permissive parenting styles, violent behaviors, globalization, and online virtues. These aspects

together provide a wholesome guide for parents and adolescents to communicate and work towards a positive

mode of growth.

1 INTRODUCTION

Different ways parents nurture their young are called

parenting styles. Researchers classified parenting

styles into three stages, i.e., authoritarian, permissive,

and authoritative (Smetana 2017). Relying on

standards, authoritarian parents attempt to shape,

control, and evaluate their children’s behavior;

permissive parents view warmth and autonomy

granting more than controlling. Authoritative

parenting style falls in the middle. While Maccoby

and Martin in the 1980s defines four types of

parenting styles using two dimensions--namely,

responsiveness and demandingness. The former

speculates the affection, interaction, sensitivity, and

acceptance parents show to their child’s behaviour

and feelings; the latter refers to the extent to which

parents’ control and regulate their children’s

behavior. Adolescence is the period of life that

typically spans from the onset of puberty to the

attainment of social and economic independence. It

generally includes the teenage years, from around age

10 to 19. Moral development is the formation of one’s

concept of conscience, right and wrong, social

attitudes, ethical and religious values and behavior.

The stage of adolescence is initiated by puberty--a

distinctive developmental period of physiological

alterations (Saracho 2023). It also symbolizes

learning development and maturation, adolescents

have to adapt themselves towards their self-identity,

expose more to the society and navigate more towards

complex social situations. This stage is important

because adolescents are riskier and more vulnerable.

Specifically, a marked increase in risk of death and

disability caused by adolescence rebellion is

exclusive in this age range. Therefore, it is crucial to

keep adolescents on the right track and protect them

in order to better prepare for adulthood. Moral

development is important because morality ensures

the peace and justice of society. It is believed that

moral development is crucial in adolescent stages

because teenagers are rebellious in the period, trying

to go against the social norms and moral rules.

Meanwhile, if they were misled into an antisocial

pathway, then the generation may threaten society or

pose immoral actions on others. Being morally misled

for teenagers also kill the rest of their life to life

normally, since they risk being sanctioned by law.

Therefore, the moral development in adolescent

greatly shapes the overall personality of the person.

In addition, parenting styles are hypothesized to be

indicators or motivators of moral development of

adolescents. Therefore, studying this topic can help

adjust parenting styles in order to provide a better

influence on adolescent’s moral development.

In the broad domain of psychology, it is observed

that neuroscience and cognitivism constantly emerge

as major trends. Seven major theories in

Qi, L.

The Impact of Parenting Styles on Adolescent’s Moral Development.

DOI: 10.5220/0014394200004859

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Politics, Law, and Social Science (ICPLSS 2025), pages 625-629

ISBN: 978-989-758-785-6

625

developmental psychology are: sociocultural theory,

behavioral child development, cognitive

development, attachment theory, social learning

theory, psychosocial development, and psychosexual

development. Main theories in developmental

psychology are mainly focused on childhood

development, while adolescent development is

generally neglected or slightly depicted. Previous

studies about how parenting styles influence moral

development of adolescents lack an overview of

various aspects of moral development or parenting

styles. This study puts moral development of

adolescents in a broader picture of globalization era,

where information spurt. In this context, this review

also incorporates various aspects of moral

development, namely, online empathy and

authenticity, violent video games, academic self-

efficacy, and antisocial behaviors. In addition, this

literature review discusses different parenting styles,

genders, and influences. To sum up, this review

discusses parenting styles and moral development in

a more wholesome view.

2 THE LINK BETWEEN

PARENTING STYLE AND

MORAL AREAS

2.1 The Overall Effect of Parenting

It is hypothesized that parents have multiple roles in

forming adolescent’s morality in the globalization era.

The information exchange in globalization era is so fast

that internet access often makes adolescents, defined

previously, trapped in negative behavior. Parents, as

legal supervisors of their children, may serve multiple

roles to guide the morality of adolescents. In this era of

blasting information and access to internet, the roles

parents play is crucial for modifying their children’s

growth (Tan & Yasin 2020). To investigate what

specific role parents play and how their roles shape

adolescent morals in globalization era, qualitative

method is used. Data is obtained through interviews,

observation, and documentation studies, research data

is interactively analyzed. 206 Junior high-school

students from the Barung-Barung Balantai village

were asked about what they receive from their parents

and how parents provide these roles. The results show

that parents have multiple roles like educators,

coaches, motivators and supervisors in shaping

adolescent’s moral development. Globalization has

mainly impacts in negatively shaping adolescent

growth because of the rapid flow of

uncontrolled/unfiltered information brings great harm

to adolescents who experience growth and perplexed

mind. Therefore, parents must spend time paying

attention to the adolescents moral development. This

means that parents do serve multiple roles in shaping

adolescent morality: educators, coaches, motivators,

and supervisors.

Authoritative parenting, discussed before as a

mediated version between permissive and

authoritarian parenting, can best improve children’s

moral development. A study is sampled from 350

children from 6-10 years out of 3904 population, and

experiment is using a quantitative approach of a step

wise regression technique with a survey and

questionnaire method distributed through a google

form, applying Baumrind’s Theory and Tuana’s

theory in the statements asked (Masitah & Sitepu

2021). 48.1% boys and 51.9% girls are reported for

their moral development. Both authoritarian and

authoritative parenting have significant value of

0.000<0.05, suggesting that they both influence the

moral development of children. Meanwhile,

authoritative model, with 16.1% in the equation of

stepwise regression, is the most influential to moral

development among all. Results indicate that

authoritative parenting is most correlated with moral

development of children. Authoritative parenting

symbolizes emotional support and recognition of

children’s autonomy and clear and high expectations.

Authoritative parents try to direct the child but in a

rational way. To elaborate, being both demanding and

responding, authoritative parenting mediates the

interaction between parents and children--giving

them enough love and support--while also regulating

the adolescent’s behavior in the correct track.

Therefore, authoritative parenting do serve as the best

model for parents to improve children’s moral

development in adolescence. This part of the essay

gives an overview of parenting, introduces the

background and trend of the society, and in that

context the relationship between parenting styles and

adolescent morality. Besides, this portion of the essay

also confirms the most suitable parenting style in

benefiting adolescent morality, which paves the way

for further break down of the concept “moral

development”; especially, how and why authoritative

parenting improves moral development in different

aspects is incorporated in further argumentation.

2.2 The Impact on Different Aspects of

Moral Development

The feeling of pride, shame and guilt--factors that

help regulate appropriate social behavior--is

ICPLSS 2025 - International Conference on Politics, Law, and Social Science

626

hypothesized to associate most positively with

authoritative parenting. Moral emotions are emotions

from a position-taking standpoint, enabling one to

understand how others feel. (psychologytoday.com).

In one’s moral development, pride, shame and guilt

are vital emotions to help control the legal discipline

of an individual. The study collected data via closed-

response self-administered questionnaire containing

sociodemographic questions. 462 participants are

involved in the research, with 219 adolescents in the

study group completing socio-educational measures,

and 243 non-offending adolescents in the

Comparison group (Azhar et al. 2020). Shame and

Guilt Scales (in which shame refers to the sense of

embarrassment felt when facing moral judgments,

and guilt refers to error and regret realization, and

Two-Dimensional (Authenticity and Arrogance)

Scale of Pride are used for measurements. Results

revealed that all three groups of moral emotions are

positively correlated to the factor of high

demandingness in parenting styles, with little

correlation to responsiveness. It can be concluded that

parenting styles with relatively higher

demandingness can help regulate the moral behavior

of adolescents, thus reducing transgressive acts

against the law.

Authoritative parenting is believed to boost online

empathy and authenticity through expelling moral

disengagement and positively correlating with moral

identity. Moral disengagement is the reason why

people engage in dishonest or unkind behaviors when

online through reconstructing the truth. Moral

identity is the extent traits like empathy and

authenticity are vital to one's self-concept. In a

previous study, 788 UK adolescents aged 11–18 years

(66% male) completed measures of these key

constructs mentioned above (Morgan & Fowers

2022). Their social media use and demographic

information were assessed prior to the surveys. This

research uses several self-measure scales for the

participants to self-rate themselves. To clarify, gender

and age are all considered potential factors that

contribute to the results. The final results are as

follows: adolescent’s moral disengagement is

associated with online empathy and authenticity;

adolescent moral identity will positively correlate

with those behavior online; moral identity of

adolescents will be partially linked to online empathy

and authenticity indirectly by reducing the influence

of moral disengagement; authoritative parenting will

not be associated with online virtues mentioned above

through moral disengagement and identity. Granted,

the measures are self-report and social-desirably

constructs, so the results may be in some degree

biased and restricted.

Authoritative parenting is believed to positively

correlate with adolescents’ learning experience.

Moral intelligence is the ability for goals and actions

to apply ethical principles, motivating students to

properly learn and reduce dishonesty in academics.

According to a study, 296 7th to 11th graders were

surveyed online (Alhadabi et al. 2019). The survey

contains demographic scales with variables: moral

intelligence, three maternal paternal parenting styles,

moral intelligence, academic self-efficacy in three

models. Specifically, the three paternal styles directly

associate with moral intelligence and indirect

associations with learning motivation. Authoritative

and authoritarian parenting styles correlated directly

with learning motivation but didn’t correlate with

moral intelligence. Moral intelligence had directly

and positively correlated with students’ academic

efficacy in self and motivation for learning, mediating

the negative associations between three paternal

parenting styles and motivation of students.

Academic self-efficacy positively associates with

students’ motivation. External and internal factors

like parenting styles and moral intelligence and

students’ motivation among adolescents in schools

are useful insights provided by the study’s findings.

To summarize, authoritative parenting is shown to

positively moderate adolescent’s self-efficacy and

motivation for learning by affecting the mediator-

moral intelligence. As age grows, the natural interest

for learning gradually declines, so parents are crucial

to boost their children’s academic interest in the

correct way. This part of the essay incorporates the

impact of authoritative parenting pose on appropriate

social behavior, online virtues, and learning

experiences for adolescents. Most data show that

authoritative parenting styles do positively affect all

of these aspects of moral development in adolescents.

Therefore, parents should alter their way of educating

children towards an authoritative style.

3 RELEVANT FACTORS

CONTRIBUTING TO THE

ASSOCIATION

It was hypothesized that paternal influence may be

bigger for volition to function because of his authority

and prestige. Volitional, according to Merriam

Webster Dictionary, means the act of determining or

choosing something. It was believed that fathers serve

as the authority of one’s family and would be more

The Impact of Parenting Styles on Adolescent’s Moral Development

627

likely to be a role model in encouraging adolescents’

volition to function. According to a study, 789 Italian

adolescents took the Moral Values Internalization

Questionnaire and the Autonomy-Support Scale for

measurement (Barni et al. 2022). The subscale of

PVF is used to measure the degree parents enhance

volitional functions. In fact, results indicate that

maternal promotion significantly and positively

associate with motivations for internalizing moral

values, regardless of adolescents’ sex and age. This

implies that maternal influence nowadays has

gradually grown and the maternal bonding and

connection with adolescents may be stronger. On the

other hand, paternal volition may be too strict to be

internalized or followed.

Violent video games are thought to be correlated

with aggressive adolescent behaviour, but not the

only factor. It is believed that parental rearing patterns

are also associated with teenage aggression. In a

previous study focusing on Chinese adolescents, data

is obtained by the video game questionnaire

(subject’s favourite games, the frequency of playing

games, and extent of violence), buss-perry aggression

questionnaire (physical and verbal aggression, anger,

and hostility), moral disengagement scale (eight

mechanisms: distorting consequences, moral

justification, dehumanization, diffusion of

responsibility, euphemistic language, comparison of

advantage, responsibility displacement, and blame

attribution), and EMBU measuring parental rearing

patterns (Li et al. 2020). The sources are 630 Chinese

adolescents with a valid response rate of 85.48%

consisting of 12 to 20 years old. Results indicated that

violent video games were positively associated with

moral disengagement and adolescent aggression. The

findings suggest that the factors that add to the risk of

severe adolescent aggression may be moral

disengagement, anger, hostility and parental rearing

patterns. Specifically, parental rearing patterns serve

as a moderator on moral disengagement and

aggression. Paternal preference creates a spoiled

environment, leading children to be unaware of the

bottom line. Mother’s denial disproves the

adolescent’s growing self-consciousness. Therefore,

parents should provide a moderating family with both

love and support while clearly stating the bottom lines

that should never be touched upon. Adolescents are

longing for independence and freedom, so their

exploration process of the outer world would be

abrupt or cranky. Parents need to encourage them to

discover and observe society while leading them to

the correct pathway.

It is hypothesized that harsh parenting may lead to

child aggression. Harsh parenting, negative parental

behaviors that incorporate rejection, overcontrol, and

verbal and physical aggression. According to a study,

397 12 to 16 years old adolescents and their parents

from China were the participants (Qi 2019). Statistics

come from the self-reports for parents on their

parental negative attribution and parenting harsh,

moral disengagement on adolescents, and peer

nomination of aggressiveness. Therefore, harsh

parenting correlates with moral disengagement and

adolescent aggression. As a moderator, negative

parental attribution alters the association of harsh

parenting to moral disengagement and adolescent

aggression. In detail, harsh parenting is only

significantly associated with moral disengagement

for adolescents. Moral disengagement with a higher

level can more likely evoke aggression along with

high levels of negative parental attribution.

Therefore, it is vital for parents to reduce their

harshness on children. This part of the essay

elaborates on different types of parenting styles, like

harsh parenting, maternal and paternal differences,

and parental volition.

4 CONCLUSION

In this review paper, authoritative parenting are

sought to be the most ideal form of parenting styles,

leading children in their puberty to an optimistic, self-

motivating and ethical lifestyle. It is high

demandingness and responsiveness both contribute to

the adolescent’s moral development. In detail, in the

era of globalization where information accumulates

uncontrollably, where people compete fiercely and

cruel in reality, authoritative parenting styles regulate

adolescent’s wrong behaviors and guide them to

explore their own interests by enhancing the

children’s moral identity, moral intelligence, further

boosting their online authenticity and empathy, and

self-efficacy. Moreover, due to the rebellion instinct

of the stage puberty, and the growth of self-esteem for

juveniles, authoritative parenting greatly solves cases

of being aggressive, self-doubting and behaving

illegally.

Many studies in this review focus on specific

regions (e.g., China, Italy, UK), which may limit the

generalizability of findings. Parenting styles and

moral development are influenced by cultural norms,

socioeconomic status, and societal expectations

(Bornstein, 2012). For example, authoritarian

parenting may be more accepted in collectivist

cultures, whereas permissive parenting might be more

prevalent in individualistic societies. Future research

should include cross-cultural comparisons to

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determine whether authoritative parenting remains

universally optimal or if cultural adaptations are

necessary. Besides, the reviewed studies primarily

use cross-sectional designs, which capture only a

snapshot of adolescent moral development. Moral

growth is a dynamic process influenced by ongoing

parent-child interactions, peer relationships, and

societal changes. Longitudinal studies tracking

adolescents from early puberty to young adulthood

would provide deeper insight into how parenting

styles shape moral trajectories over time.

While this review briefly addresses online

empathy and violent video games, the digital

landscape is rapidly evolving. Future research should

explore how parenting styles influence adolescents’

moral decision-making in emerging platforms like

AI-driven social networks, virtual reality, and

deepfake media. Additionally, studies could examine

whether digital monitoring (e.g., parental control

apps) enhances or hinders moral autonomy. Most

studies focus on traditional two-parent households,

neglecting single-parent, same-sex, or

multigenerational families. Research should

investigate how parenting styles function in diverse

family systems and whether alternative caregiving

models (e.g., co-parenting, grandparent-led

households) yield comparable moral outcomes. By

addressing these gaps, future studies can offer a more

comprehensive understanding of how parenting

styles interact with cultural, temporal, and

technological factors to shape adolescent moral

development.

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