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The relationship between parents and their children is an important issue that has attracted the attention of educational researchers. Family is the initial point of contact that links the child to his or her surroundings. Within the family environment, a child acquires the initial attitudes toward the world, develops mentally and physically, learns how to communicate, acquires basic norms, and eventually forms his own attitudes and ethics (Heibati 2002). Parents use specific methods of upbringing for their children. Referred to as parenting methods, these methods do not abide by cultural patterns and instead are considered as universal (Alizadeh & Andries 2002). Baumrind examined two factors, acceptance-responsiveness and demandingness-permissiveness (controlling), that determined interaction type and child-parent relationship. The acceptance-responsiveness dimension refers to the parents’ intimacy rate and support of their child which can lead to an increase in capacity of assertiveness, self-esteem, and self-confidence in the child. The demandingness-permissiveness dimension refers to the parents’ expectation from their child to regulate his or her behavior and supervise his or her activities (Pellerin 2005). Baumrind (1967) derived four parenting styles from the aforementioned dimensions: authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and neglecting. Authoritative parents are characterized as having a high level of acceptance and demandingness, authoritarian parents have a high level of demandingness and a low level of acceptance, and permissive parents have a high level of acceptance but a low level of demandingness (Silk et al. 2003). A fourth parenting style, neglectful parenting, was added by the researchers based on the two dimensions of demandingness and acceptance. Neglectful parents are considered to have a low level of demandingness and acceptance.
According to attachment theory, infant-mother relationships are a major predictor of an individual’s behavior from childhood to adulthood (Amani 2016). Bowlby (1969) advocated for the presence of sensitive periods for emotional and affective development of humans and believed that affective experiences in some stages of life may have a prolonged vital effect. Attachment refers to the deep emotional connection that is established with certain people during one’s lifespan. Feelings of happiness and joy arise when a person interacts with an individual with whom they developed an attachment. In times of stress, one feels peaceful when he has such people as social or emotional support (Berg 2010). Individuals with a secure...