Abstract
The present research was designed to investigate the relationship between perceived parenting styles and autonomy in psychiatric patients. Diagnosed patients having Psychiatric disorders (N=70) were selected using purposive sampling technique with an age range of 18-55 years, from two hospitals in Bahawalpur, Bahawal Victoria Hospital Bahawalpur (BVH) and Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Bahawalpur Cantt. Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ), developed by Buri (1991) to assess the control dimension of parenting styles was used, along with the Health Care Climate Questionnaire (HCCQ) by Williams, Grow, Freedman, Ryan, and Deci (1996), to measure autonomy in psychiatric patients, were used in the research. Data was analyzed statistically by using Pearson Product Moment correlation coefficient to measure the relationship between the variables. Linear Regression Analysis was used to find out the perceived parenting styles as predictors of autonomy. The findings revealed that perceived parenting style has great effect on autonomy. Results also showed that perceived parenting styles has significant correlation with psychiatric patients. However, authoritative parenting style has no significant relationship with perceived autonomy. Conclusively, it is predicted that permissive parenting style has good correlation with autonomy. The findings of the present research provide a deep insight to parents, psychologists and researchers in understanding and promoting adolescents’ psychosocial development and well-being.