A study on family communication pattern and parenting styles with quality of life in adolescent

Objective: To investigate the relationship between parenting styles and family communication patterns with adolescent s quality of life. Methods: The cross-sectional study was carried out on 439 randomly selected adolescents in the city of Zahedan, Iran, from January to July 2011. The subjects were asked to complete the KIDSCREEN-52 health-related quality of life questionnaire, while their parents were asked to complete the Diana Brinder s Test to show their parenting styles. SPSS 15 was used to analyse data. Results: Most parents had authoritative parenting style (n=380; 86.6%). Pluralistic (n=170; 38.7%) and consensual (n=152; 34.6%) patterns were the most frequent styles of communication in families. Data suggested a significant relationship between parenting style and some dimensions of quality of life, including physical well-being, psychological well-being, social support and peers, and autonomy (p 0.05). There was also a significant relationship between family communication patterns and parent relation and home life (p 0.001) as well as autonomy (p 0.006). Conclusion: Families play a critical role in increasing adolescents health-related quality-of-life. Effort should be made to address problems facing parents while raising their children.