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Parenting Practices and Attachment as Predictors of Life Satisfaction of Mainstream Dutch and Moroccan-Dutch Adolescents

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Global Perspectives on Well-Being in Immigrant Families

Part of the book series: Advances in Immigrant Family Research ((ADIMFAMRES,volume 1))

Abstract

The aim of this study was twofold: to analyze the differences in perceived parenting practices between Dutch mainstreamers and Dutch-Moroccan immigrant adolescents in the Netherlands, and to explore the influence of perceived parenting on life satisfaction and the mediating effect of attachment in a model tested across the two ethnic groups. Data were collected among 89 Moroccan-Dutch adolescents and 178 Dutch secondary school students. Moroccan-Dutch adolescents reported higher levels of life satisfaction.

When controlling for age and parental education, Dutch mainstreamers reported significantly higher scores on permissive parenting than Moroccan-Dutch, but no differences were observed in authoritarian and authoritative parenting between the groups. A partially mediated model using the three parenting styles as predictors of life satisfaction was tested across native Dutch and Moroccan-Dutch immigrants, where the path from permissive parenting to life satisfaction was direct for the Dutch mainstreamers, but only mediated by attachment for the Moroccan-Dutch immigrants. In conclusion, a similar model of parenting practices and parental attachment to explain life satisfaction holds across the two ethnic groups, yet the strength of the relationships differs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Psychology, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Avda. de Tolosa 70, 20018, San Sebastián, Spain

    Itziar Alonso-Arbiol

  2. Department of Cross-Cultural Psychology, Tilburg University, P.О. Box 90153, 5000, Tilburg, LE, The Netherlands

    Amina Abubakar

  3. Tilburg University, P.O. Box 90153, 5000, Tilburg, LE, The Netherlands

    Fons J. R. Van de Vijver

  4. North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa

    Fons J. R. Van de Vijver

  5. University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

    Fons J. R. Van de Vijver

Authors
  1. Itziar Alonso-Arbiol
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  2. Amina Abubakar
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  3. Fons J. R. Van de Vijver
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Correspondence to Itziar Alonso-Arbiol .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Tilburg University, LE Tilburg, The Netherlands

    Radosveta Dimitrova

  2. Tilburg University, LE Tilburg, The Netherlands

    Michael Bender

  3. Tilburg University, LE Tilburg, The Netherlands

    Fons van de Vijver

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Alonso-Arbiol, I., Abubakar, A., Van de Vijver, F. (2014). Parenting Practices and Attachment as Predictors of Life Satisfaction of Mainstream Dutch and Moroccan-Dutch Adolescents. In: Dimitrova, R., Bender, M., van de Vijver, F. (eds) Global Perspectives on Well-Being in Immigrant Families. Advances in Immigrant Family Research, vol 1. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9129-3_16

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