Predicting loneliness based on perceived parenting style and self-esteem in adolescents: the moderating role of gender

Loneliness is a sad and even painful emotional experience that is thought to be caused by a lack in the quantity or quality of one's social relationships. The present study aimed to predict loneliness based on perceived parenting style and self-esteem in adolescents by moderating the role of gender. The research population included all male and female students of 12-17 years of age studying in the academic year of 1400-1401 in Tehran, and 250 of these students responded to the online questionnaire related to the research. The method of the current research was step-by-step multivariate regression correlation, and to collect data, Asher and Wheeler's loneliness questionnaire (1985), Rosenberg's self-esteem questionnaire (1965), and Bury's parenting questionnaire (1992) were used. The obtained results showed that there is an inverse relationship between permissive and authoritative parenting styles with feelings of loneliness and a direct relationship between authoritarian parenting styles and feelings of loneliness, and no significant relationship was seen between self-esteem and feelings of loneliness. The authoritative parenting style was able to predict the feeling of loneliness in the whole sample and by gender, and the amount of predicting the feeling of loneliness based on the authoritative parenting style was seen more in the group of girls than in boys. According to the findings, It can be concluded that an authoritative parenting style can reduce the feeling of loneliness of teenagers and it is necessary to consider these results in training for parents and clinical counselors.