Fathering styles in a traditional culture and its association with marital relationship: A latent profile analysis with a nationally representative sample

Abstract

This study had two main objectives. The first goal was to examine fathers' parenting styles in a society with traditional patriarchal values. The second goal was to understand the extent to which marital relationship variables (i.e., marital satisfaction and spousal support) are related with the identified fathering profiles. The theoretical and empirical underpinnings of the "parenting styles" literature that form the foundation of the research on parent-child dynamics are still mainly based on data collected only from mothers. This weakness of the literature on fathering typologies is further accompanied by the scarcity of data on fathers' parenting practices from non-Western contexts. To achieve the study aims, a latent profile analysis based on warmth and control dimensions of parenting was performed using a nationally representative sample of 1070 urban fathers in Turkey. Using scores on six parenting behavior variables (i.e., warmth, punishment, inductive reasoning, positive parenting, discipline and teaching responsibilities, time and talking together), results revealed four fathering profiles: "authoritative" (30%), "average" (45%), "uninvolved" (16%), and "disciplining-distant" (8%). Furthermore, the results showed that the fathering profiles significantly differed from each other on the marital satisfaction and spousal support scores. Results highlight the importance of investigating fathering behaviors and their predictors in different cultures.