Structural model of shame and guilt feelings based on parenting styles: The mediating role of attachment styles

Aim: The research purpose was to develop a structural model of shame and guilt feelings based on parenting styles with mediating role of attachment styles.
Research method was correlational and statistical population was 124083 high school students in Tehran in the academic year 2016-17. Through a randomized multi-stage cluster sampling, of the regions 1, 2, 4, 6 & 16 and from every district two high schools and from each high school two classes were selected randomly. A sample of 420 participants, along with their parents, were selected among 10 schools on the basis of Gudagnoli and Waalsar criterion, 1998. The data was collected through Feelings of Shame and Guilt Questionnaire by Cohen, Wolf, Panter & Insko (2011), Collins and Rid’s Attachment Styles 1990, and Baumrind’s Parenting Styles Questionnaire 1991. After deleting 26 incomplete questionnaires, data for 394 participants was analyzed.
The research findings revealed that the data provide a suitable fit for the proposed model. Indirect path coefficients of permissive parenting dimensions on guilt feeling through secure attachment (β= -0.013, P= 0.006), authoritative parenting on guilt feeling through secure attachment (β= 0.016, P= 0.006), permissive parenting on shame feeling through anxiety and avoidance attachment (β= 0.656, P= 0.017), and authoritative parenting on shame feeling through anxiety and avoidance attachment (β = 0.122, P= 0.003) were significant.
The education of the authoritative parenting style, which leads to the formation of a secure attachment style and consequently increases the adaptive emotion of guilt and reduces the feeling of shame, is recommended.